Am I being simulated by their love affair.

Chapter 278 Emerging Desire

"Matsueda, aren't you and Tomatsu together yet?"

During Friday's physical education class, Jun Matsueda suddenly received this question.

The question was raised by Sugisaki from Class 2-2, the guy whose basketball dream was shattered by Jun Matsue. After the Winter Cup last year, he chose to return to the basketball team, seemingly rekindled by the team's crushing defeat.

The physical education classes of Class 2-2 and Class 5-2 are sometimes scheduled together. Today, Jun Matsue accompanied Ken Sakamuro, who had a foot injury, to practice shooting.

"Sugisaki, I advise you to stop thinking about Tomatsu." Ken Sakamuro watched the basketball bounce twice on the rim before finally falling into the net.

"Tomatsu is already completely devoted to Matsueda. Even if you were a Kamen Rider, she wouldn't be interested in you."

"If Sugisaki were a Kamen Rider, I would probably be interested."

Jun Matsue stood under the basket and tossed the ball to Sugisaki. He didn't want to exercise today; his job was just to retrieve the ball.

"I don't have feelings for Tomatsu-san!" Sugisaki blushed. "I just think it would be a shame if her devoted love didn't end well."

"..." Sakamuro Ken was speechless. This guy really was just a hot-blooded idiot who only knew how to play basketball. Was this the kind of thing to say in this situation? Was it something he should say given his relationship with Matsueda?

“Being infatuated is not a good thing.” Jun Matsueda dribbled the ball left and right under the basket. “Much of the bloodshed, violence and hatred in this world comes from a heart full of infatuation.”

He made a hook shot, and the basketball flew through the air in a high arc before jumping into the basket.

"A person who is infatuated with one person can destroy himself; a person who is infatuated with one country can destroy the world."

The two boys standing outside the free throw line seemed a little dazed. One second they were discussing love, and the next second the world was facing the risk of destruction.
The bell rang, and Jun Matsueda tossed the basketball in his hand to Ken Sakamuro, saying, "I picked up the ball for the whole class, so I'm leaving the task of returning it to you guys."

What he didn't finish saying was that it was precisely because passionate love is dazzling, dangerous, intense, and reckless that the spark it emits is so captivating.

Back in the classroom, it seemed that the girls' physical education class today was volleyball. Everyone was rubbing their arms, Tomatsu Yuka and Mizushima Miya were fanning each other, and Mochizuki Haruka was drinking iced soda with two small blushes on her face.

Jun Matsue sat down. The atmosphere around him had become a little more harmonious recently, and he believed it wasn't just his imagination.

Yesterday was the last time he tutored Mochizuki Haruka. Since the beginning of this week, the library after school has been missing two girls from the brass band, and the Setagaya Literature Museum has not attracted a second investment from the eldest daughter of the Mochizuki family.

At Jun Matsue's time seemed to transform into a grassland, where the girls, with an unspoken understanding, began to divide up their territories, recuperate, and await the next battle.

After taking the last sip of his iced soda, Mochizuki Haruka looked at the girl waving and fanning herself, "The last ball before get out of class ended didn't go out of bounds, so we should win."

“But everyone saw that the ball went out of bounds~” Tomatsu Tomohana smiled gently. “Isn’t Miya here on leave? You can ask her if you don’t believe me.”

Mochizuki Haruka stubbornly shook her head, "She's close to you, so she'll definitely be on your side. She's not credible."

As Jun listened to the two girls arguing about who won that point, it seemed they had temporarily put the matter of winning or losing in other areas, which was a good thing.

If they didn't expend their excess energy on each other, he would be the one suffering—Matsueda Jun simply couldn't handle the boundless enthusiasm of girls in love, let alone double it. During lunch break, the classroom loudspeaker announced a meeting again. Matsueda Jun finished his yogurt in one gulp before leaving the classroom. There weren't many people in the hallway; it seemed the class monitors from the other classes had already left.

However, as he turned the corner, he heard the voice of another squad leader behind him.

"Did you just set off, Matsueda-san?"

Jun Matsue turned around, and Maki Yamami, who had changed into summer clothes, walked quickly to his side. The two walked side by side toward the conference room.

Listening to the harmonious footsteps echoing in the hallway, he remarked that their pace seemed to be becoming increasingly synchronized lately.

"I was delayed for a while because a classmate asked me a question. I didn't expect to run into Songzhi. What a coincidence!" The senior's voice was pleasant, and she seemed to be in a good mood.

This was certainly no coincidence. Yamami Maki's classroom could see everyone on the third floor heading to the conference room. The girl deliberately waited until Matsueda Jun appeared before slowly leaving the classroom.

"I just didn't want to leave my half-finished yogurt on my seat."

The meeting room was quite crowded. The two of them randomly found an empty seat next to each other and sat down. The meeting was being held by the Dean of Academic Affairs, and the busy middle-aged man didn't have time to arrange seating.

"Okay, everyone, I called you all here today to discuss the midterm exam arrangements at the end of the month. I'll send you the exam room assignments and seating chart later."

The academic affairs director had been at Haneoka High School for over twenty years, and his attitude during meetings was far more casual than that of the student council president, whose term was about to end. Every now and then, a first-year student would ask a question in the meeting room, and the middle-aged man would answer very slowly; perhaps his energy for speaking, along with his enthusiasm for teaching, had faded along with his hair.

While waiting, the seniors in their seats started chatting quietly, and Yamami Maki looked around and gently nudged the shoulder of the boy next to her.

The senior student's rosy lips opened and closed in front of Matsueda Jun. He could smell the faint fragrance of the girl's hair, with a hint of sweetness from the flowers. It seemed that she had just washed her hair that morning.

"Has Matsue finished her tutoring?"

"I just finished yesterday, and I feel like I can try tutoring part-time in the future."

The girl's lips curved slightly upward. "Then you can take a break for a while. Tutoring isn't an easy task."

Of course, if she were the one receiving the tutoring, Yamami Maki would most likely not have said that; a little resentment had been building up in the girl's heart recently.

Last weekend, Tomatsu Yuka suddenly messaged her, saying that the after-school four-person study group was canceled and that she didn't need to get involved in the tutoring group for the time being.

Originally, looking at Songzhi's face, she could relax and slowly solve even the most complicated problems. However, this luck came and went quickly, and the girl only enjoyed it for two days before it vanished.

Back home, after studying alone in her quiet bedroom for a week, Yami Maki suddenly realized that she had been studying with Matsueda for more than two months. Counting the time spent practicing for the Winter Cup, they had spent even more time together after school.

Although they weren't together every day after school, it wasn't like now where they could only meet and chat in the corridor between classes—the girl inevitably felt a sense of loss.

How can I spend more time with Matsueda-san? Yami Maki pondered this question seriously.

(End of this chapter)