Am I being simulated by their love affair?

Page 181

"Barbecue~" the girl groaned again as she lay on the sofa, "I should have asked Songzhi to bring me some..."

"It's still not too late to order takeout now." Jun Matsue looked at the message his senior had sent him on his phone.

"Got home!"

The girl also sent a photo of a pale yellow parrot with rosy cheeks perched on a delicate, fair hand, tilting its head towards the camera.

Jun Matsuoka had already replied. He put down his phone and looked at the stars in the dark night sky. The airplane's indicator lights flashed as it glided over the city.

The senior student still has more than a semester left before graduation, and her main task at present is to pursue further studies. Jun Matsue does not want to let himself affect her studies.

He had already looked at the textbooks for the third-year students, and he would take some time to look at the supplementary books and workbooks as well... He didn't plan to hand over the task of tutoring the senior students to someone else.

Also, you should keep a proper distance from other girls.

When the thought flashed through his mind, Jun Matsue recalled the short, jet-black hair on the smooth tiles of the barbershop, and the scarlet marks left by their lips meeting on the snow.

"Songzhi, what are you daydreaming about?" The girl asked, her face full of confusion.

"...Especially in front of my senior, I need to keep a proper distance," Jun Matsue added to himself.

“I’m thinking about the future of these stars.” He pointed to the starry sky in front of him.

"Then I'll leave it to Matsueda-kun to think about it while hanging the clothes out to dry~" Kurusu Yosei put the wrung-out clothes into the basin. "I'm going to take a bath~"

So Jun Matsuoka carried a basin full of clothes into the balcony, hung the clothes on a hanger, and continued to contemplate life.

He had enough patience to wait for more than a semester, but wouldn't Tomatsu be affected if his senior started dating after graduation?

The T-shirts on the clothesline swayed in the evening breeze, as if shaking their heads and saying it was impossible.

So we still need to find a way to make everyone mentally prepared. Jun Matsueda is having a bit of a headache. The girls around him won't change their minds just because of a few words.

There's still time, take your time to think it over... He picked up the empty washbasin, closed the balcony door, leaving a row of swaying T-shirts facing the night sky.

On the first day of July, the high temperature was 33 degrees Celsius. The white curtains in the classroom were drawn tightly, but they still couldn't block the all-pervasive sunlight.

"Turn the air conditioning down a bit!" a boy shouted.

“It’s already very cold!” the girl in a vest sitting next to him immediately retorted.

That was the girl he liked. The boy blushed and stopped talking.

"Summer has truly arrived," Tomatsu Yuka sighed as she sat down. She's not very heat-tolerant and usually carries an umbrella when going out in the summer.

"Matsue, do you want to go to the beach together?" Mochizuki Haruka casually invited the boy. She had grown a little taller recently and had bought a new swimsuit.

“If it’s summer vacation, I can definitely go to the beach.” Jun Matsue looked at the sports meet registration form in his hand, which still had a few blanks.

"Have the girls been confirmed for our class's relay race?" he asked the vice class monitor next to him.

"Oh, please write my name down, Matsueda-san." Tomatsu Yuka blinked. "Mochizuki-san and Rion-san will also be participating."

The girl wasn't particularly good at sports, and her reason for signing up was simple—Matsueda Jun also participated in relay races, and she guessed that's why the guy on the other side signed up.

Jun Matsue wrote down the names of three people on the registration form and walked out of the classroom. He was going to hand the registration form to the homeroom teacher for a look.

Tomatsu Yuka followed him out, and Matsueda Jun turned to look at her, "It's just submitting an application form, you don't need to come together, right?"

"Matsueda-kun is thinking too simply~" the girl said with a smile, "Kominato-sensei still needs to give instructions on the logistics preparations."

"Drinking water, sports drinks, first-aid kit—all of these need to be prepared. We also need to make a class flag. Can Songzhi manage all of this by herself?"

Jun Matsue blinked, zipped up his lip, and walked side by side with the girl down the corridor. The sunlight was intense, and there was no shadow between them.

After spending fifteen minutes in the office, Junko Matsueda, who had missed the sports meet, listened carefully to Shoko Kominato's instructions before leaving the classroom with Yuka Tomatsu.

Tomatsu Yuka looked at the boy next to her, "Let's discuss the sports meet arrangements again after we get back to the classroom?"

Jun Matsue looked at the new vending machines in the corridor, where several girls were queuing up to buy ice cream cones.

"It really needs to be arranged as soon as possible, but the election management committee has to hold a meeting at noon."

"I see..." The girl's tone was a little regretful, but then she smiled. "It's okay~ We can discuss it during PE class or after school."

"Let's find time later." The boy nodded. "I still have to go to the conference room. Do you want to go back to the classroom?"

"Then I'll head back first." Tomatsu Yuka hesitated for a moment as she turned to leave. "Is Maki-senpai also attending the meeting?"

Matsueda Jun looked at her with a puzzled expression. "Why are there student council members at an election management committee meeting?"

"That's true." The girl's smile softened a little. "I'll buy an ice cream cone before I go back too."

Upon entering the meeting room, not all the committee members had arrived yet. Jun Matsue took out his phone and sent a message to the parrot avatar in his contact list.

"We've already seen the new ice cream vending machines, and they're very popular."

Sitting in the classroom, Yamami Maki sent a smiley face emoji, "I'll bring you one to try after Matsueda-san's meeting is over~"

Jun Matsue put down his phone and recalled Tomatsu's question. He realized that what he said was true, so it shouldn't be considered lying, right?

If he had a choice, he would still prefer to be an honest person.

Chapter 317 The Sorrow of Seventeen-Year-Old Ice Cream

"Isn't the sports meet considered a major event for the news department?"

In the empty clubroom, Natsumi Imokawa looked up from the documents in front of her and looked at the boy next to her.

"That's why I'm here." Jun Matsueda looked at the list of news department members in his hand.

The press department has two main tasks during the sports meet: first, to assist the understaffed photography department in taking photos on-site; and second, to record the events afterwards, as reports are definitely required for such large-scale events.

The list of members he had was given to him by Natsumi Imokawa, and it included her notes—each person's strengths, personality traits, and so on. The handwriting was round and cute, making it seem even more girlish than the person herself.

"Isn't this done quite well?" Jun Matsue said in an appreciative tone. "It's arranged according to your understanding. Then we can ask the second-year students to help look after it."

"Is that so?" The girl was pleased with his praise, and the invisible tail behind her began to wag. "I feel more at ease knowing that Songzhi has seen it."

“No problem.” Jun Matsueda, who was leaning back in his chair, sat up and looked at Natsumi Imokawa’s face. He wanted to see if the girl had dark circles under her eyes.

"Are you managing all this? You're juggling club activities, studies, filming, and learning new skills."

After being stared at for a few seconds, the girl's face quickly turned red. She leaned back slightly, trying to get closer to the air vent to cool herself down.

"Is it alright?" Natsumi Imokawa thought seriously. "There wasn't much homework to begin with, and club activities can also help me accumulate material for the future. My main task is still to learn about film."

"However, with my dad's guidance and occasional chats with the former director, things went relatively smoothly."

The boy nodded. "Don't overwork yourself, okay? You still need to relax a bit."

“I am relaxing.” The girl looked at him, puzzled. “Watching movies is relaxing, and filming a band is relaxing too, right?”

For Natsumi Imokawa, carrying a camera has never been a burden.

After leaving the newsroom, Jun Matsueda walked to the other side of the corridor, which led to the student council office.

The student union office and the news department office are always on the same floor, but they are at opposite ends of the corridor, so people on both sides rarely see each other – people usually go straight downstairs after leaving their rooms.

Of course, if the person going out waits intentionally, the result is different—he walks to the stairwell and meets the girl standing behind the corner of the wall.

"Hello, Matsueda-kun~ It's hot today too~" Yamami Maki said, holding two ice cream cones and mimicking a boy holding drumsticks.

"Didn't I say that you could just stay in the office, senior?" Jun Matsueda looked at the girl in front of him helplessly. "You can wait for my message before you come out."

"It's okay~" the senior shook her head, "We can use this time to buy ice cream!"

The two ice cream cones in her hand were a matcha cone and a chocolate cone.

"Which one would you like, Matsueda-kun?" The girl waved the ice cream in her hand.

“Matcha,” Jun Matsueda said without hesitation. “She looks more like an upperclassman.”

"Huh?" Yami Maki blinked, her cheeks flushing red. "...How could Matsueda-san say something like that?"

"I'm just telling the truth." Jun Matsueda unwrapped the matcha-colored packaging paper.

"My senior always seems to have something green in her clothes—a forest green dress, light green sandals, or a matcha-colored hair clip."

The girl had a simple green bow hair clip pinned to her jet-black hair.

"Then I'm at a disadvantage, aren't I?" The girl pouted slightly, looking at the dark blue wrapper with a chocolate pattern in her hand.

"This doesn't seem like Songzhi at all."

"So, does the senior also want to eat me up?"

The girl's face flushed again, and the fine beads of sweat on her neck created a unique allure that only appears in summer.

Jun Matsue stopped talking and just ate his ice cream cone, looking out at the sky with his senior in the corridor. The layers of white clouds were high and far away, like milk ice cream floating in the air.

"I'm enjoying looking at the sky above the school more and more." Yami Maki stuck out her tongue, licking her chocolate ice cream little by little, and looked into the distance with satisfaction.

"Whether it's a magnificent sunset, gloomy dark clouds, or the clear blue sky and white clouds right now, sitting in the classroom and looking at them always makes me feel a bit better."

"While they may be beautiful in other places, they always lack this special sense of joy."

Jun Matsue pondered his senior's confession seriously, "Perhaps in a well-ordered place like school, the vast, free sky above one's head can become a source of comfort?"

"That makes sense." The girl nodded with a smile.

"I can't analyze things as rationally as Matsueda-san; I just have a vague feeling about it."

"This seems to be my youth."

She waved the now rounded ice cream in her hand. "The ice cream vending machine at school, it says 'seventeen ice' on it, did you see it, Matsueda-san?"

Jun Matsue rummaged through his memory, "It seems to be a brand under Glico?"

This ice cream vending machine is commonly seen in Tokyo; it has a red "I7" logo that looks a bit like the number 17.

"Hmm." The girl nodded. "If this were at school, wouldn't it be a lot like 'seventeen-year-old ice cream'? That's what everyone says."

"Hearing such words suddenly reminds me that I am already an eighteen-year-old adult."

Seventeen-year-old ice cream, a fleeting sweetness and coolness, seems to melt away in the memories of summer, a symbol of youth.

Jun Matsue blinked. No matter how mature her senior was, she was still just a teenage girl who would feel sentimental about graduation.

"Eighteen years old doesn't make you an adult." He looked at the girl next to him and said, "Eighteen-year-olds can't even go to convenience stores to buy cigarettes or alcohol."

"The senior's youth has just begun - university is much freer than high school, so free that many people become decadent and indulgent."

"You can plan your own trip, fly from Hokkaido to Kagoshima, then take a train from Osaka to Nagoya, eat whatever you want, and it's okay to eat five meals a day."

"You can stay out all night, and after the show, everyone can have a cocktail that's just the right amount of intoxication. Even if you walk on the street late at night, you won't be questioned by the police."

"In short, please relax and look forward to it."

"The sky I looked up at when I was twenty will definitely be more memorable than the sky I see now."

Looking at the boy beside her, Yamami Maki thought that if the future was truly more beautiful and memorable than the present, it would be because Matsueda-kun was by her side.

The time it takes to eat an ice cream, the sorrow of eighteen years old—sentimental, fleeting, and sudden without reason, perhaps difficult for one person to resolve.

Fortunately, she wasn't alone.

Chapter 318 The Day of Inspection

The black sedan representing the Mochizuki family arrived at school even earlier than the sports meet.

"He really does look impressive..." Jun Matsue stood inside the school gate, watching the always stern-faced dean of academic affairs eagerly open the car door for the woman getting out.

As one of the largest investors in Haneoka High School, the Mochizuki family has the right to inspect the school's daily affairs, not to mention that Mochizuki Hana has also donated a lot of money to the school in her personal capacity.

“Our family has a legitimate seat on the school council,” Mochizuki Haruka, standing next to the boy, glanced at him.

“I understand, I understand.” Jun Matsuoka nodded. “Otherwise, how could I have let you take ten days or half a month off without any reason?”

Mochizuki Haruka's mouth froze for a moment. Even she, who always liked to mock Matsueda Jun, had moments when she was speechless. The girl chose to ignore what this guy said.

"Don't be fooled by how formal she's making it. My aunt didn't come to the school once last year. She's probably just here for fun this time."

"You heard people talking bad about me as soon as you got off the bus?" The woman who took off her sunglasses walked towards the two of them. The academic affairs director who had tried to get close to them had already been sent away by her.

Today, Wang Yuehua wore a simple black sleeveless dress. The not-so-complicated design of the dress was made of gauze fabric that covered her body, blocking prying eyes and only allowing others to admire the color of her skin exposed outside the dress.

"Welcome to our school, Ms. Mochizuki—" Mochizuki Haruka said expressionlessly, her mouth opening and closing, but before she could finish speaking, her aunt reached out and grabbed her hand.

As Jun Matsuoka watched the girl beside him's mouth transform into the shape of a goldfish, struggling in the woman's hand, the corners of his mouth turned up, revealing his undisguised inner pleasure.

"Don't just stand there, Songzhi, hold an umbrella for me." Wang Yuehua took the black umbrella handed to her by the maid and put it in the boy's hand.

"It's so sunny in the summer," the woman sighed as she stood under the umbrella, while the girl on the other side glared at her with dissatisfaction.