Am I being simulated by their love affair.

Chapter 292 Occasionally, the girl would also find the tea bitter.

After careful selection, Maki Yamami led Jun Matsueda into an Italian restaurant.

"It feels like no matter where I eat, all I see are ramen shops, izakayas, and family-run restaurants." The girl's smile was a little awkward.

The two had eaten ramen and izakaya together before. There were family restaurants near the school, and most of the students at Haneoka High School had been there. She chose this Italian restaurant to bring something new to Matsueda Jun's experience.

“Italian food is good too.” Jun Matsueda took a sip of ice water. “It’s easy to get tired of eating ramen and rice bowls all the time.”

"Mmm!" Yamami Maki flipped through the menu with great interest. "And I also want to try what it's like to eat pizza together~"

"Senior, you've never had pizza before?" Matsueda Jun was a little surprised. He remembered Kiyoshi, who would order a pizza whenever he was home alone and didn't feel like cooking.

"Because my family says that eating pizza will make your mouth covered in sauce, which looks very unsightly, I have never eaten pizza in front of other people."

"I've ordered pizza by myself before, but a pizza is so big that it's a waste if I can't finish it, and eating pizza alone just doesn't feel as fun."

Is it another image issue? Jun Matsueda crunched on the ice cube in his mouth. His senior's parents really had a lot of expectations of her.

“But Matsueda-kun has already seen me crying my eyes out from the spiciness of the torpedo ramen.” Yami Maki winked at him playfully.

So in front of you, you can eat whatever you want without worry~

The girl imitated him and took a sip of ice water, the ice cubes in her mouth making a soft sound.

"I distinctly remember someone telling me that if she embarrassed herself in front of me, I had to erase those memories." Jun Matsue recalled the memories on the school's altar.

"Your senior has already fallen into depravity."

“There’s nothing I can do about it,” Yami Maki shook her head, looking as if it wasn’t her fault. “Because Matsueda-san is so wicked, she definitely won’t listen to me, so I can only go along with it.”

Jun Matsueda had no choice but to chew on ice cubes as a form of protest, while the girl ate and laughed as she looked at the menu.

They ended up ordering a mushroom and ham pizza and a small portion of pasta, intending to share it. This was suggested by the senior student, and since the girl didn't mind, Matsueda Jun naturally didn't object.

The pizza was huge, big enough for Yami Maki's face to roll around on, and the pasta was also a portion that a young girl could easily eat her fill.

Both of them ate a little slower than usual. Jun Matsue admired the girl's methodical and composed manner as she cut the pizza and rolled up the pasta, while Maki Yami watched with a smile as the boy picked up a piece of pizza with his hand and put it in his mouth.

"Watching Matsueda eat always makes me feel so hungry~" The girl felt like she was watching some kind of mukbang (eating broadcast).

"Really?" Jun Matsueda wiped his hands. "Perhaps it's my way of eating that makes it more appetizing?"

He watched the girl cutting the pizza into small pieces with a knife and fork. "Eating it with your hands in big bites is so satisfying, senior. Do you want to try it too?"

“Hmm,” Yamami Maki hesitated. She put down her knife and fork, stared at the pizza on the plate for a while, carefully reached out her hand, and then withdrew it before touching the pizza.

"I think I'll pass," the girl said with an awkward smile. "Although I am indeed a little curious, I seem to have gotten used to eating with a knife and fork."

After all, her initial reluctance, maladjustment, and lack of understanding had been gradually worn away by family life.

Matsueda Jun shook his head, swallowed the cheesy bread in his mouth, and picked up another slice of pizza. To Yamami Maki's surprise, the pizza she picked up wasn't brought to the boy's mouth, but instead came to her.

"Bite it!" Jun Matsue's voice was tense, as if the two of them were being chased by a grizzly bear on Mount Moiwa. If they didn't eat this pizza, they would be eaten by the bear on an empty stomach, how unfortunate.

"If you don't eat it now, the cheese will fall onto the table."

Urged on by him, the girl hurriedly leaned forward, supporting the pizza with one hand, opened her small mouth, and took a big bite of the front of the pizza.

“Very good.” Jun Matsue looked at the girl who was chewing unconsciously with satisfaction. “Now take the pizza and continue eating. Savor the crust that wasn’t cut into pieces and the cheese that’s stretchy.”

He let go of the pizza, and Yamami Maki caught it with both hands. The pizza she took a bite of was much bigger than the cut pizza. The girl silently quickened her chewing speed, with a rough pleasure of abandoning propriety and returning to the primitive.

"It's all Matsueda's fault! I haven't eaten this much in ages!" The girl walked out of the restaurant and accused the boy in a tone that was far from blaming him.

Jun Matsue recalled how cute she looked after she had eaten and drunk her fill, and how she would secretly touch her stomach in her seat with a guilty conscience. "It just shows that my senior can eat this much."

"Eating so much, it's not ladylike if I burp or something." The girl's words carried a hint of resentment.

"Compared to burping or anything, I think not being able to eat whatever you want is more painful," the boy said casually, glancing at the female student's reaction out of the corner of his eye.

Yamami Maki smiled but didn't say anything, so Matsueda Jun, who was originally going to stop the conversation, couldn't help but say something again.

"It would be very tiring to have to care about your image and other people's feelings all the time."

As someone who has been through similar experiences, he has some understanding of his senior's way of life. If Matsueda Jun's initial choice to wear a mask was a move against his true self, then Yami Maki's years of habit had become an instinct.

If a person drinks tea like water, then over time, they will not find the tea bitter. Yamami Maki is such a girl who drinks tea like water.

Jun Matsue didn't originally intend to say these things, because he had no intention of denying a person's chosen way of life.

However, his brain and heart are two separate organs. He can convince his brain with various reasons, but he cannot convince his heart with intuition not to care.

“I’m sorry.” Looking at the smiling girl beside him, Jun Matsueda chose to apologize, but Maki Yami shook her head.

“Matsueda is right.” The girl looked at the cat napping at the street corner. “Caring about this and that all the time can be exhausting sometimes. It’s good to be a little willful once in a while.”

"So I was planning to take Matsueda-kun shopping, but now I have to cancel."

"I'm so full, all I want to do now is go back to the practice room and rest~" The girl gently patted her stomach.

"Let's go back then. The sun is indeed quite strong today." Jun Matsue breathed a sigh of relief, not wanting the atmosphere to become too serious.

The journey back was no longer than the journey there, but Yamami Maki walked very slowly.

Once she gets back to the practice room, everyone could show up at any time, so she should cherish this time alone.

Only by his side can a girl possess a willful and sincere heart.

(End of this chapter)