Am I being simulated by their love affair.

Chapter 239 Even in the new semester, the senior's tutoring can't be neglected.

"So, because the meeting at noon lasted too long, we ended up having red bean bread for lunch."

While grappling with the choice of parental inheritance, Jun Matsue complained to the girl in front of him without looking up.

"Honestly, our school's lunch break is too short. Can forty minutes really allow students to get a proper rest?"

"It seems like Matsueda is quite upset about not being able to go to the cafeteria." The girl sitting across from him gave him a very understanding smile. "At least the red bean bread tasted pretty good."

The sunlight after school was no longer as bright as at noon. Jun Matsue and Maki Yamami sat in the Mitaka Municipal Eastern Library, with less than two weeks until the biology competition.

Fortunately, Mochizuki Haruka still had to go to the hospital today, and Tomatsu Yuka had to go to the brass band to prepare for the recruitment performance. Otherwise, Matsueda Jun might not have been able to leave the school alone and successfully come to Yamami Maki.

"However, it seems the student council president also has some opinions about the current school schedule. He has been suggesting to the school leaders that the lunch break time be adjusted." Yami Maki is still serving in the student council and there will be a change of leadership in a while.

"The student council president is a good person." Jun Matsueda's liking for the bespectacled man increased.

"Back to the main topic." He turned a page of the test questions. "Regarding the school magazine that Tomatsu asked about earlier, during the 'Club Activity Experience Week,' the News Club decided to dedicate a section in the school magazine for each club to promote itself. The brass band should be the fifth one in order."

Today is Monday. Club recruitment officially begins on Wednesday. For the next week, first-year students can freely experience the activities of all club departments and decide which club to join after the trial week.

"Okay, I understand, thank you, Matsueda-san~" The girl nodded happily at first, then belatedly waved her hand, "You don't need to tell me these things, just tell Yuuka."

"I've already told her, but I thought my senior would also care, so I'm telling you again." Jun Matsue put down his pen and looked out the window; his hand, which had been writing, was getting tired.

"Ah, that's good." Yami Maki's cheeks flushed with embarrassment as she propped up the biology book in front of her to cover her face.

The Mitaka Municipal Eastern Library is not large, roughly the size of a two-story bookstore. It's on the same street as Matsueda Jun's apartment building, but unfortunately, he didn't see the familiar apartment building in the view outside the window. Only the roof of a nearby detached house reflected the afterglow of the setting sun.

The girl's phone vibrated on the table, breaking the silence. Yamami Maki picked up the phone and went outside to answer the call.

Matsueda Jun watched his senior walk down the stairs, and a dozen seconds later, her figure appeared at the library entrance outside the window. The girl's expression became lively and cheerful.

The girl frowned and shook her head at times, and Matsueda Jun enjoyed watching his senior's unusual expression. He had already guessed who was making the call.

After Yamami Maki hung up the phone, the girl's delicate eyebrows relaxed, and she closed her eyes and let out a long breath.

She opened her eyes and subconsciously looked up, meeting the gaze of the boy by the second-floor window.

It's like walking down a noisy corridor and suddenly being drawn to a quiet, smiling girl in a classroom. Or it's like standing in a crowd of spectators by the sports field and suddenly making eye contact with a handsome boy who's jogging to celebrate after scoring a goal.

It was just an ordinary eye contact, but after a few seconds, Yamami Maki's face turned a pale pink, like the cherry blossoms by the roadside, and she glared at him, not angrily.

Jun Matsue looked away. "This shouldn't count as peeping, right?" he asked himself guiltily.

Back at the second-floor window, Yamami Maki put down her phone. "It's Kokoro-chan on the phone."

She didn't know why she told the boy in front of her who had called; she just blurted it out for no apparent reason.

Didn't Matsueda tell her that when she answered the phone at the Setagaya Library? The girl convinced herself of this.

“I guessed it.” Jun Matsueda nodded. “What did she say?”

Neither of them mentioned the eye contact they had just exchanged, and they chatted as if nothing had happened.

"What else can I say?" The senior pouted slightly, revealing the innocent side of a young girl. "I just said something like she was in great shape and that Moji was bound to lose."

"Didn't she used to quiz you?" Jun Matsueda tapped the table lightly with his pen, and Maki Yami's eyes followed his movement, looking rather cute. "Not lately," the upperclassman shook her head. "Maybe she just didn't find it interesting since I answered them all correctly."

"That means she's already feeling guilty!" Jun Matsueda said with certainty. "Kokoro Kuroha realized she couldn't stump you anymore, so she changed her approach to try and disrupt your mindset!"

"Is...is that so?" The girl looked up, somewhat bewildered, at the spotted ceiling of the library.

“Absolutely!” Jun Matsueda moved a little closer to her, his face filling the girl’s vision. “Next week’s competition will be her stage to become a clown!”

A girl's soft laughter echoed in the dusty air of the second floor, "Perhaps it's as Matsue-san said~"

"It's not just maybe, it's definitely true!"

Yamami Maki stretched out her right hand, clenched it into a fist in mid-air, revealing her fair forearm skin.

"Definitely!" she repeated the boy's words with a smile.

As the sun was about to set, the two of them carried their bags and walked out of the library.

"How are you getting back, senior?" Jun Matsue asked the girl next to him.

"I'm waiting for my ride near the Musashino Forest Cafe." Yamami Maki pointed to the intersection not far away, her slender index finger attracting the attention of the sparrows by the roadside.

“My home is over there too, I’ll take you there.” He unlocked the bicycle and pushed it back to the girl.

The two walked towards the coffee shop. Bicycles in Japan are not allowed to carry passengers, except for the time when a girl forced her way onto the back of Matsueda Jun's bicycle.

With their backs to the setting sun, two long shadows appeared on the road ahead, rising and falling slightly with their footsteps as they slowly approached the intersection.

"You haven't been smiling as much lately," Jun Matsue suddenly said.

"Me?" Yami Maki looked at him in surprise. "I feel like I smiled a lot in front of Matsueda and Yuka."

"But when no one is around, my senior's smiles become less frequent." A car drove by on the road, temporarily drowning out the sound of his bicycle chain.

“Even when you didn’t have any expression, you always had a slight smile on your face.” Jun Matsue put his right hand to his mouth, making a small arc. “Now that I’m on the same floor as my senior, when I see you in the hallway, I feel that you have a much less smile.”

"Is that so?" Yami Maki looked thoughtful. "Maybe it's because she's just entered her senior year of high school and is under a bit a lot of pressure."

The girl laughed again, "But my smile right now is absolutely genuine!"

Because she genuinely felt that the boy next to her cared about her.

The elongated shadow fell over the signboard at the entrance of Musashino Mori Cafe. Yamami Maki waved to him, "See you later, Matsueda-kun~"

"Goodbye, senior." Jun Matsueda waved, pushed his bicycle past the girl, and walked towards the path.

After the boy disappeared into the apartment building next to the coffee shop, Yamami Maki took a few steps down the alley and watched Matsueda Jun push his bicycle into the bike shed behind the building.

"So, Matsueda-san lives here."

Having learned a little more about him, the girl walked back to the intersection, smiling as she looked at the sunset.

That was the road they had just crossed together.

(End of this chapter)