Am I being simulated by their love affair?

Page 234

"When are you leaving, Pine Branch?"

"Meet at Shinjuku Station on Monday morning, and we'll go straight to the foot of Mount Fuji. Then there will be a school-arranged bus to pick us up."

The two walked towards the station. The senior student had to go back to her family home for a family banquet that evening, and the sun was already setting, so they didn't have much time left.

"That means we'll depart on the 13th..."

Yamami Maki held Matsueda Jun's hand with one hand and took out her phone to browse messages with the other. Passersby on the street would always glance at the two of them, but the girl did not care.

"We might not be able to see the autumn leaves..." she said with some regret.

“That’s okay.” Jun Matsueda patted the girl’s hand. “You’ll take pictures of me, right? And there are maple leaves and ginkgo trees to see in Tokyo too.”

The Meteorological Association just released its "Autumn Foliage Viewing" forecast map last week. Mid to late October, when third-year students go on school trips, is the best time to view the autumn leaves in Nagano. As for the area around Mount Fuji, the autumn foliage will not be in full bloom until November.

"Then I'll take lots of pictures of the autumn leaves in Kamikochi for Matsue-san!" Yamami Maki shook the boy's hand, her tone full of fighting spirit.

At 4:53 p.m., the girl boarded the train home. Two and a half hours later, she stood on the veranda of an old house in Bunkyo Ward, looking at the clear, boundless night sky, while behind her, men chatted methodically in the tea room.

"Boring, isn't it?" Yamami Ikuka said with a smile, leaning against a pillar in the corridor.

Yamami Maki nodded slowly and sighed, "I used to think I could find ways to pass the time, it wasn't a big deal."

"But now, the thought of Matsueda-kun is becoming increasingly unbearable."

"Is that guy really that attractive to our little Moji?" The woman sat down on the edge of the corridor, looking at the trees in the courtyard that were starting to turn yellow.

The girl nodded vigorously, "I feel happiest when I'm with him."

The phone in her pocket vibrated, and Yamami Maki took it out and opened her chat list.

"It's not news from Matsueda-kun..." was the girl's first reaction.

But when she discovered that the message came from an avatar that hadn't flashed in her list for a long time, Yami Maki's eyes widened in surprise.

"Do you have time to meet, Senior Yamami? I need to talk to you about something."

The news from Tomatsu Yuka quickly stirred up some not-so-old memories for the girl.

Maki Yami couldn't tell if she was nervous, scared, or happy. Her fingers trembled slightly as she typed and sent a reply on the screen.

"Good evening, Yuhua. I'm staying with my grandfather. It's a bit far from your house, so it's not convenient for us to meet."

"When will you be able to come back?" Tomatsu Yuka's tone seemed a little gentler.

The girl turned around, and the sounds in the room had decreased; the conversation must be almost over.

"In about forty minutes."

"How about we meet at 8:30 in Nakameguro, at that coffee shop we usually go to?"

Unexpectedly, she brought up their past. Yamami Maki blinked.

"No problem." The girl replied quickly. After hesitating for a moment, she sent another message.

"What does Yuka want with me?"

"It's something very, very important. I'll tell you when we meet."

A smiling rabbit emoji appeared on the other end, which reassured Yamami Maki a little.

"What, is this a message from Matsueda-kun?" asked Yamami Ikuka, who was sitting next to her.

The girl shook her head and didn't speak. It was not a glorious thing for her to have betrayed her junior, and she didn't want her older sister to know.

Half an hour later, Yamami Maki, carrying a small handbag, entered the "onibus" café in Nakameguro. There was no familiar figure on the first floor, so the girl walked up the wooden steps to the second floor.

As the shop was nearing its closing time, the café was nearly empty, so as soon as she arrived on the second floor, she saw the girl sitting by the floor-to-ceiling window.

Tomatsu Yuka sat with her back to her in the middle of the window. She was the only one at the long bar table, with a few empty cups left by departing customers. Outside the window, a few drooping leaves cast yellow shadows, whether from the streetlights or the deepening autumn atmosphere, it was hard to tell.

Yamami Maki took a deep breath, walked over to the girl and sat down, placing her small handbag aside.

"Yuhua, it's been a long time." Her tone was exceptionally gentle.

The girl turned to look at her, her smile casual. "Good evening, senior. How have you been lately?"

It's a very simple question. In the past, Yami Maki could hold the girl's arm and chat for several minutes, but now she has no words to say.

Because she didn't want to mention Jun Matsueda's existence in front of the girl.

"It seems inconvenient to talk about this." Tomatsu Yuka smiled, picked up her phone and glanced at it. "You'll be home before ten o'clock, right? Then I'll keep it short."

"Could you please let me have Songzhi?"

Chapter 416 Winning Hearts and Minds

"what?"

Yamami Maki turned to look at the girl, thinking she had misheard.

So Tomatsu Yuka repeated, "Could you please let me have Matsueda-kun?"

After a brief pause of a few seconds, Yamami Maki picked up the handbag that was on the table.

"If Yuka came to tell me this today, then forget it."

She stood up and walked towards the stairs, the girl's voice sounding behind her.

"If you just leave like this, I will never speak to you again."

Yamami Maki stopped in her tracks and stood still until the waiter brought upstairs with two cups of coffee.

"Excuse me, sir," the waiter said with a slightly puzzled look, "did you order coffee? A latte and a caramel macchiato?"

"Yes." The girl sitting by the window smiled and waved. "Thank you for your help."

After the waiter brought the two cups of coffee to the window, the girl with the handbag returned to her seat.

Yamami Maki stared at the dark brown liquid in front of her. "Tomoka, I'm sorry. I can give you anything you want."

"But Matsueda-kun really can't do it."

The girl's words carried a hint of pleading. Tomatsu Yuka picked up her black coffee cup and took a sip of the milk foam sprinkled with caramel sauce.

"Let's not talk about him for now."

"I'm here to tell you a story, do you want to hear it?"

Yamami Maki nodded with a sigh of relief—as long as Matsueda Jun wasn't mentioned, everything would be fine.

However, the girl's next words made her hand, which was holding the coffee, tremble.

"My parents divorced at the end of the summer when I was in the first year of junior high school, which is now more than four years ago."

"Even today, I still occasionally dream about that scene. I didn't leave my room for a whole week, and the noise from downstairs never stopped."

"At night, there are sounds of my parents arguing, crying, and throwing things. During the day, there are sounds of them apologizing in a low voice, strangers speaking arrogantly, footsteps moving things, and cars coming and going."

“After their divorce, I never saw my father again. My mother said he went to take on debts.”

"My mom and I moved. She works from morning till night, so to make things easier for her and to reduce household expenses, I learned to cook for myself."

Maki Yami lowered her head and sipped her coffee. She cautiously raised her eyes and sized up Tomoka Tomatsu.

The girl spoke calmly, her gaze fixed on the branches swaying in the wind outside the window, carrying an unspoken sorrow.

“My mother is a very career-oriented and competitive person. In just over a year, we moved from Adachi Ward, where the housing prices were the lowest, to Suginami.”

"At the time, I thought my strong mother was amazing. But when I was crying alone in my bedroom at night, she was working overtime in her study with her headphones on, and I suddenly realized that being so strong wasn't so bad after all..."

"So by the time I graduated from junior high school, I had adapted to a new family with only the two of us, and I had learned to handle my own affairs on my own, just like my mother, so as not to cause trouble for each other."

“Since then, I’ve stopped liking bitter things.” The girl picked up the coffee cup on the table. “Every time I order coffee with you, senior, I always order the sweetest caramel macchiato.”

"But even so, it's hard for me to be as happy as before. At first, I would ask myself why I became like this."

"I stopped asking after that."

She finished the last sip of her coffee mixed with vanilla syrup, stood up and looked at the shop assistant standing far behind the two of them—it was already closing time.

At nine o'clock in the evening, the girls walked out of the coffee shop. The streetlights pierced the thick fog of the night, and the sound of a train arriving at the station echoed from the railway tracks on the opposite rooftop.

"Aren't you in a hurry to go home, senior?" Tomatsu Yuka asked with a smile. "There's still an hour left. It's been so long since we last met, and I actually have a lot to say to you."

"..." Yamami Maki hesitated. Actually, she didn't really want to listen anymore, because the more the girl talked, the heavier her guilt became.

But the girl continued talking.

"When I entered high school, I thought this kind of life would continue forever, until I met Matsueda."

"Shortly after the start of the semester, I started to get in touch with him because of class affairs, and I soon discovered something."

“Matsue and I are the same kind of people – we are both people whose inner happiness is far less than the smile on our faces.”

"So it was inevitable that I would fall in love with him."

When Tomatsu Yuka mentioned Matsueda Jun again, Yamami Maki's pace gradually slowed down, and when the girl said "I like you," she stopped completely.

But the girl reached out and grasped her wrist. Yamami Maki looked up and met the gaze of her junior.

"Is my senior so happy that she doesn't even want to hear about my pain?"

"You were involved in all this suffering," Tomatsu Yuka accused her with her eyes.

As if she had suddenly lost all her strength, Yamami Maki lowered her head again, letting the girl lead her forward.

"Actually, I also really like my senior."

Tomatsu Yuka continued speaking as the two walked across a crowded intersection. The sky opened up, and their figures were reflected in the river beside them.

"When I look at my senior, I always feel like I'm looking at another version of myself from the future."

"My parents are not divorced, so we don't have to move or transfer schools. We have the energy to help the younger members of the club and can also participate in student council work, becoming an indispensable presence in everyone's eyes."

"This senior is at least happier than me, right?"

The two stepped onto the soft lawn. Tomatsu Yuka stopped and turned to look at the silent girl.

"But why did you take Matsueda away from me, senior?"

Yamami Maki's body trembled, perhaps from guilt, fear, or sadness after empathy, but none of that mattered.

In short, she is now speechless when faced with questions from her juniors.

Tomatsu Yuka's emotions collapsed even faster than the girl in front of her. Her tears glistened in the moonlight, making Yamami Maki feel dizzy.

"My happiness is entirely dependent on Songzhi-kun, that's all I have left."

"You're so outstanding, you have everything, why do you still want to compete with me for this little bit of happiness?"

"How about I have him?"

"Yuka, no, it's not like that..." Yamami Maki said in a tearful voice, "I didn't want to take it from you."

"But it was Matsueda who chose me."

She still remembered what the boy had said, and she was incredibly grateful to Jun Matsueda for giving her the courage to shirk some responsibility for a moment.

"He doesn't belong to me, and he doesn't belong to you."

Tomatsu Yuka didn't answer, but simply watched the trembling girl weep silently. This weeping carried a terrifying power that held Yamami Maki captive in place.

After a while, she wiped away her tears and said to the bewildered girl in front of her.

"Senior, you've heard of it..."

"About the system?"

Chapter 417 Fleeing in Disarray

"Have you watched the anime or read the novel, senior?"

"An ordinary protagonist suddenly gains access to a system, learns that he is a special being, and thus changes his life... This is the kind of story."

As the night deepened in Nakameguro, Yamami Maki listened to the girl's nonsensical words and could only feel genuinely confused.

"Yuka, what are you saying?"

“It’s the system.” Tomatsu Yuka looked at the shimmering surface of the Meguro River.

"If I told my senior that I also have something like that, would you believe me?"

"Huh?" Yami Maki observed the girl's expression, confirming that she was still rational.