Am I being simulated by their love affair.

Chapter 258 A clear conscience
Jun Matsue returned to school on Wednesday. When he entered the classroom, he noticed that the seating arrangement seemed to have changed.

However, the seats in the back row seemed to remain the same. He hung his backpack on the table, and the girl sitting to his right put down her book and looked at him.

"Welcome back, Matsueda-kun~"

Tomatsu Tomoka's tone didn't sound like she was welcoming back classmates; it sounded more like she was welcoming her husband home from a business trip.

“Yeah, back to school again.” Jun Matsueda sighed. Compared to the three days in Kumamoto, going back to school felt like being in prison.

"Have the seats changed in the class?" He pulled out a chair, sat down, and observed the positions of his fellow inmates.

The girl nodded gently. "Ms. Kominato has adjusted the seating according to everyone's height and eyesight. Now, Sakamuro is sitting in front of you."

“Sakamuro.” Jun Matsueda was fairly satisfied with the result; he didn’t really remember the person who had been sitting in front of him.

"Now all the original members of Class Two are sitting together."

Tomatsu Yuka stretched, revealing her slender waist and beautifully shaped navel beneath her sailor uniform. As the weather grew warmer, the girls' clothes became increasingly thin, and the coats draped over the chairs had become mere decorations.

"Oh, right." Jun Matsue rummaged in his bag and pulled out a small square bag. "This is a souvenir for you."

"Mine?!" The girl took it with delight, carefully opened the bag, and found a light pink pearl with a small metal clasp attached to it.

"This is the first time I've ever received pearls."

"This is a pearl pendant I bought in the Amakusa Islands. You can hang it wherever you want."

Jun Matsue hung his schoolbag back on his desk and took out the various materials and assignments he had accumulated over the past two days from his drawer. Someone had already organized them for him, and there were sticky notes with annotations on them. Judging from the handwriting, it was the girl sitting to his right.

"Can I wear it on my ear?" The pearl in the girl's hand shimmered with a warm glow in the sunlight.

"It will hurt your ears." Jun Matsuoka didn't buy pearl earrings; that would be too suggestive.

"Okay." Tomatsu Yuka was a little disappointed. She looked at her desk and thought for a while before finally attaching the pearl pendant to her pencil case.

"Now I can see it all the time~" The girl smiled contentedly.

"I think it's better to look at the podium during class." Only at times like this does Jun Matsueda remember his role as class monitor.

Jun Matsuoka was very busy in the morning. During several breaks between classes, he reported on the competition to his homeroom teacher, competition coach, and principal, and of course, he also showed them his gold medal and certificate.

After saying goodbye to the principal, who couldn't suppress his smile, he returned to the teaching building. There were quite a few people in the corridor, and everyone looked like they had no interest in studying.

With April drawing to a close and the Golden Week holiday in May just around the corner, and April 29th being Showa Day, followed by Constitution Memorial Day, Greenery Day, and Children's Day after May 2nd, office workers typically use their annual leave to combine these two holidays into one, thus gaining at least an eight-day Golden Week break.

However, this is a method exclusive to adults. The students of Haneoka High School still have to return to school after Showa Day and look forward to the holiday in early May.

As soon as he entered the corridor on the third floor, a girl came out of the classroom closest to Matsueda Jun, holding a water cup and walking towards him with her head down.

"Imokawa." Jun Matsue called out to her. Natsumi Imokawa looked up, her blank expression quickly replaced by surprise.

"Matsue's back!" The girl looked him up and down. "Was Kumamoto a good place to take pictures?"

Whether it's easy to photograph or not, this might be Natsumi Imokawa's unique way of greeting people.

"It's quite beautiful; I took a lot of photos." Jun Matsueda nodded. "Do you want to go get some water?"

"Okay!" The girl then remembered that she was holding a water bottle. "Wait here for me a bit after you get your water, I'll give the camera back to you." He walked towards the classroom.

When Matsueda Jun returned to the corridor of Class 5, the water cup in Imokawa Natsumi's hand was gone. The girl's hands were swaying slightly as she gripped the hem of her skirt, reminding him of a dog waiting for its owner to come home.

"Here you go." Jun Matsue handed her the camera and a small bag. "Your camera, and this is a souvenir I brought for you."

The bag also contained pearl pendants. Jun Matsue had also prepared some for Haruka Mochizuki and Yosei Kurusu. Yosei Kurusu's was given to her last night, and Haruka Mochizuki's was still in his schoolbag since she wasn't at school.

"Thank you, Matsueda!" Natsumi Imokawa took the bag, opened it, looked inside, and then put it in her pocket. For her, the photos were still more tempting.

The girl opened her camera and browsed through the photos one by one: Mount Fuji in the sea of ​​clouds, Kumamoto Castle under the afterglow, Mount Aso and Kusachisato. She kept exclaiming in amazement and leaned close to Jun Matsueda to ask about the origin of the photos.

"Pine Branch, tell me again about the view from above the crater." The girl tugged at the boy's arm and shook it, instinctively using her charm.

"There's no time." Jun Matsue let go of her hand. "The bell has already rung. Let's go back to the classroom first, and I'll talk to you later."

Natsumi Imokawa, holding her camera, watched Jun Matsueda disappear at the other end of the corridor before entering her classroom.

Sure enough, to take good photos, you have to go out more often. The girl sitting in her seat thought to herself, and opened her camera again to look at the photos. As she flipped through them, she saw the back view of a girl in a white dress in the forest.

"..." Natsumi Imokawa stared at the girl in the white dress for a while longer. It was a good photo, she had to admit.

But why did she feel something was off?
Perhaps because the lighting wasn't dim enough or the composition wasn't perfect, the girl thought to herself, and temporarily turned off the camera.

After school, at the Musashino Mori Cafe, Maki Yamami and Yuka Tomatsu sat by the window, each with a large cup of matcha parfait in front of them. Today, Yuka Tomatsu was treating them.

"Congratulations on winning the gold medal in the biology competition, senior!" Tomatsu Yuka said with a smile. "I heard that your score was even higher than Matsueda's this time."

"Thank you for tutoring, Matsue-kun." Yami Maki sighed, paused, and then added.

"It's also hard on me to study so hard!"

The girls clinked their parfait spoons together, making a crisp sound in the air—their way of celebrating. As they ate their parfaits, the two chatted about how competition gold medals helped in choosing universities, and then about the situation after the brass band recruitment.

"..." Putting down the spoon, Yamami Maki hesitated for a moment, "How are things going between Yuka and Matsueda-san lately?"

This was the first time she had taken the initiative to ask a junior about their love life.

Tomatsu Tomoka looked somewhat surprised, then smiled, "I feel like Matsue-kun has become a little closer to me; I received a gift from him today~"

"Really?" Yami Maki looked pleased. "Then how about we try asking Matsueda out to see the cherry blossoms together?"

"To see cherry blossoms?" The girl's face fell again. "Of course I'd love to, but Matsueda-san might not think so."

"Then let's try inviting other people too, just like when we went to Hatsumode together before." As a reliable upperclassman, Yamami Maki tried to offer advice.

"Let's go find Aya-chan and invite Matsu-chan along, then he shouldn't refuse, right?"

Maki Yamami watched as the ice cream ball on top of the parfait gradually melted.

That way I can have a clear conscience, right?

(End of this chapter)