Am I being simulated by their love affair.

Chapter 281 The Drumbeats Inside the Light Music Club
After school the next day, as Tomatsu Yuka left with her saxophone, Mochizuki Haruka looked at Matsueda Jun, who was still in the classroom.

"I'm going back to the hospital with my aunt for a check-up later. Songzhi, do you want to come with me?"

Jun Matsue, who was sweeping the floor, stopped. It was his turn to clean today. "I made an appointment to go and check on Aya-chan today."

The girl thought for a moment, "Her band?"

"Hmm." Jun Matsue nodded and put the broom into the cabinet standing in the corner.

"Then I'm going to the hospital." The girl picked up her schoolbag and glanced back at him before leaving the classroom.

"My aunt really likes that tombstone."

Leaving behind those words, Mochizuki Haruka's black hair fluttered as her footsteps gradually faded into the corridor.

"You like it?" Jun Matsue shook his head. The women of the Mochizuki family were indeed strange in a lineage.

After cleaning the blackboard and emptying the classroom trash, Jun Matsuoka finally finished his cleaning duties. He went to the restroom to wash his hands and returned to the corridor to find a girl standing at the door of Class 4, Grade 3.

"Is it Matsueda-kun's turn to be on duty today?" Yami Maki asked, looking at the rag in the boy's hand. "Do you need my help?"

"Thank you, senior, but I'm already finished." Jun Matsueda glanced at the time. "I can go to the light music club after I put the rag back."

The girl nodded. "Then I'll wait for you on the balcony~"

Waiting for Matsueda outside his classroom might lead to him being seen by others, and it wouldn't be good if it got back to Yuka. So it's safer to wait on the balcony.

Before entering his own classroom, Jun Matsue glanced at Class 2-5 next door. Natsumi Imokawa wasn't in the classroom; it seemed she had already gone home.

He had originally planned to invite Natsumi Imokawa to join him today, but after hearing that Aya's band was still not stable, the socially awkward girl decided to send her good friend Jun Matsueda to scout things out first.

A few minutes later, the two girls, carrying their schoolbags, walked towards the club building. The girl's steps were light, and her mood was as bright as the sunshine outside the window.

"Has Matsueda-san ever been to the light music club before?"

Jun Matsueda recalled that he had met the head of the light music club at the last club meeting. She was a girl who looked rather aloof and wore a necklace made of guitar picks.

"No, all I know is that the instructors for both the light music club and the brass band club are Mr. Hirouchi."

The Light Music Club and the Brass Band Club are both on the third floor of the club building, but the two of them had already gone up to the fourth floor because the Light Music Club doesn't just have one band; Aya and the others practice in other rooms on the fourth floor.

As soon as he reached the fourth floor, he heard a faint, chaotic drumbeat, and Jun Matsueda had a bad feeling—it sounded like a beginner, and the person hadn't been practicing for much longer than Aya Miyamura had been playing the guitar.

In contrast, Yamami Maki's mood brightened considerably. "Something seems a little off here~"

The music stopped, and a boy walked out of the room, his face slightly flushed. He left from the other end of the corridor without glancing at the two of them once.

Maki Yamami and Jun Matsueda walked to the door of the room, where a large white paper was pasted on it, which read "Light Music Club Unit 2!" and had a guitar and bass drawing next to it, which looked very cute.

Jun Matsueda knocked on the door and entered the room. The girl standing not far from the door put down her guitar and sighed, "Another guy trying to put on a brave face."

"Uh, are you talking about me?" Matsueda Jun asked, somewhat bewildered. The senior student following behind him laughed.

"No, no! We were talking about the person who just left!" A familiar voice rang out, and Miyamura Aya, who had been sitting in the corner, walked up to him. "Good afternoon, you two. We're conducting an audition for a drummer. Are you interested?"

“My friend should be interested~” Yamami Maki said with a smile, “Right, Matsueda-kun?”

Looking at his expectant younger sister and then at his innocent-looking senior, Jun Matsue felt as if he had stepped into a trap.

The girls in the practice room decided to take a break. A few of them went to the corridor to cool off, and the sound of wind instruments came from downstairs. The melody of spring was gentle and cheerful.

"So you still haven't found a drummer?"

Jun Matsue asked Aya Miyamura, who was standing next to him. The girls from the Light Music Club stood not far away, leaning against the railing, enjoying the breeze, and looking over curiously.

"We did find a pretty good drummer before." Aya-chan, lost in memories, showed a painful expression. "But that guy, he really loved conducting. He wouldn't let go of the guitar and bass, and he even wanted to give me pointers on how to sing!"

“I think he’s more suited to be a conductor than a drummer.” The girl leaning on the railing spoke softly. She was the light music club president whom Jun Matsueda had met once before. The person who had just played the guitar in the room was tall and slender, and the guitar was a perfect fit for her.

"So we got rid of him very quickly," Miyamura Aya continued. "Later we found a few more drummers, but they either didn't have time or weren't good enough."

"The guy who just left said he was really good, but he couldn't even keep a basic beat," another girl said discontentedly. Compared to the guitarist next to her, her petite figure made her practically invisible, so she was naturally the bassist.

"So it still depends on Jun-nii." Aya-chan took a sip of her soda. "You're free lately, right? Yamami-neechan told me!"

"How about we play the drums again, something we haven't done in a long time?"

Yamami Maki looked at the boy sitting behind the drum set, adjusting the height of his chair, surrounded by the girls from the light music club.

When was the last time Songzhi played the drums?

Jun Matsue recalled, "It was more than a year ago."

That was the day he left the orphanage. The drum set that everyone chipped in to buy is still in the orphanage, serving as the children's musical instrument introduction.

He picked up the drumsticks that were placed to the side and gently tapped the brass cymbals. The flat metal pieces wobbled and made a loud sound that evoked a sense of nostalgia.

"Don't you have any sound damping pads or sound-dampening rings?" he asked the light music minister, who was standing furthest away. "The sound might be too loud."

The girl shook her head. "It's okay. There's soundproofing on the walls, and there's a band downstairs."

"Want some accompaniment?" The girl's tense expression softened a bit; the fact that she could ask that question meant she was at least someone who had played drums before.

Jun Matsue shook his head. "It's been a while since I've played. Let's have a solo match first."

The room fell silent, and the girls' gazes were fixed on his hands holding white drumsticks. But the next second, his slender fingers holding the drumsticks disappeared before their eyes, leaving only a waving afterimage.

Unlike the chaotic noise left by the previous person sitting there, the sound in the room was stable, harmonious, and full of power. The sounds of bass drum, snare drum, treble cymbals, and bass cymbals intertwined in an orderly manner. The tight drumbeats hit the girls' hearts like a downpour, but without causing pain—even if you were soaked to the bone, you could still run wildly in the rain, and that was the kind of exhilarating feeling.

As Yamami Maki watched the boy engrossed in his performance, a sense of satisfaction gradually welled up inside her.

Neither Yuka nor Mochizuki Haruka had ever seen him like this before, right?

She was the first person.
(End of this chapter)