Am I being simulated by their love affair.

Chapter 333 Senior Student Disqualified
As the last note faded, the restless crowd surged like waves, showing no signs of abating. The lights gradually dimmed, and the shadows on the stage disappeared behind the curtain.

Jun Matsue stepped off the stage and carried the drum kit onto a trolley. His black short-sleeved shirt was already damp with sweat. The excited voices of the audience below had not yet subsided and could be heard through the curtain into the backstage area.

“This is what a real performance feels like,” Aya Miyamura said in a dreamlike tone. “It feels so light, like I’m flying into the sky.”

The band No. 2 performed a total of five songs, two of which were covers, and three were songs left by Izumi Mizuki's previous band. The performance lasted half an hour, and the girl sang to her heart's content.

Jun Matsue was obviously having a great time. Usually, after a performance, the boys would just wipe their drumsticks and put them back in their bags, but this time they were still holding the drumsticks, looking like they wanted to play something more.

Natsumi Imokawa walked backstage with her camera in hand. Jun Matsueda shook his head regretfully. Neither the camera nor the girl's head was something to be hit.

"How did you feel about your first performance?" The camerawoman's tone was equally excited.

The five band members stepped off the stage, making room for the next band to take the stage. The old lights in the aisle flickered, like their heartbeats.

Xiaoxing leans close to the girl's camera, still holding her bass, "I feel so tired. At first, I would think about how to play the next chord, but as I acted, I just relied on instinct."

"My mind is completely blank~" she said, gently strumming her bass guitar.

Aya Miyamura hugged the exhausted girl. "You've worked so hard, Yuki~ I've been trying my best to remember the lyrics, otherwise I would have been doomed if my brain had gone blank!"

The camera then pans to Jun Matsueda, whose smile looks content—not because of the audience's enthusiastic shouts, but because of the gazes directed at him from the front row.

"Songzhi, say something?" the girl holding the camera whispered, reminding him as if their roles had been reversed.

“I feel that music is indeed a very meaningful thing.” Jun Matsueda looked down at the small cart, where the drumsticks on the drumhead trembled gently with the undulating ground.

Being cared for by the people he cares about is enough for him. If it were just about getting on stage, he could have accepted a talent scout's invitation back in junior high school.

He looked up, smiled at the camera again, and tugged at his sweat-soaked t-shirt. "But right now, all I want to do is take a shower."

Natsumi Imokawa adjusted the camera, silently giving the boy's arm muscles a few close-ups, intending to keep them for her own enjoyment.

The girls finally looked at Izumi Mizuki, who was walking in the corner, and the battle-hardened president of the Light Music Club tilted her head in confusion.

"This isn't my first performance, why are you all looking at me?"

Amidst the laughter of the girls, Jun Matsueda pushed his drum set out through the back door and was the first to emerge, where he was surrounded by another group of girls.

"Congratulations on the successful premiere!" Small fireworks exploded on the street, colorful sequins raining down on the white drum surface.

Four girls stood in front of him, each holding a miniature firework tube. The one who wasn't a girl hid mischievously by the door, aiming the firework tube at the boy's head.

"Thanks for your support~" Jun Matsueda brushed the sequins off his hair, pushed the drum kit forward, and made room for the band members behind him.

"Matsueda-kun's performance today was perfect!" Tomatsu Yuka said beside him, with Mochizuki Haruka and Kurusu Yosei on the other side. The upperclassman and aunt stood further away, chatting with the girls who were coming out of the back door.

"Matsueda-senpai looks a bit like a scumbag." Koyuki stared at Matsueda Jun, who was surrounded by girls. Before he could even make a move, the chattering girls had already moved the drum set into the trunk.

Aya Miyamura didn't refute, but instead wore a sly smile, like a mischievous little fox plotting a prank, "If Jun-nii really is a scumbag, maybe it'll be a little better~"

Mochizuki was still playing with the firework tube in her hand. She looked at the quiet girl beside her, while Yami Maki's gaze drifted back and forth in the distance, following the girls' voices.

What does Xiao Moji think?

"Huh?" Yami Maki turned around, somewhat surprised by the topic. "Matsueda-kun isn't that kind of person, is she?"

“Indeed, there’s no point in discussing this kind of topic.” The woman glanced at her again and walked towards the van.

"Matsueda, tonight is a celebration party!" After putting away his instruments and equipment in the studio, Matsueda Jun walked out of the bathroom. He had already wiped the sweat off his body and changed back into his school uniform.

He glanced at the address his aunt had sent him on his phone; it was a nearby izakaya. He pushed open the door to the practice room, where only Izumi Mizuki was playing the guitar.

"Everyone else has left?" Jun Matsue was a little surprised.

The girl put down her guitar and took a sip of water. "Xiaoxing went to find her boyfriend, and Caijiang was taken away by that pink-haired girl. It seems that the izakaya they found can't be booked, so everyone is scrambling for a table."

"Then why are you still here?"

“I’m not interested in the celebration party; I want to continue practicing,” Izumi Mizuki said, a statement very much in line with her personality.

"I bought some rice balls from the convenience store. I'll practice a little longer and then go home." The girl seemed to have anticipated the boy's words, and picked up the plastic bag on the table and shook it.

"Don't worry about me. Seeing so many girls around you, I always feel that being cared for by you is a dangerous thing."

"Uh." Jun Matsue wanted to make an excuse, but after thinking about it, he realized there was no need to.

"Then don't practice too late."

The boy closed the door to the practice room, but the girl didn't immediately pick up her guitar. Instead, she picked up a plastic bag and decided to eat her dinner first.

The girl stood by the window in the corridor, placed the rice balls and boxed milk on the windowsill, and opened the window to feel the cool night breeze outside.

Before unwrapping the rice ball, she glanced towards the door, where Jun Matsueda was just walking out. The boy took a few steps before pulling out his phone, presumably to answer a call. Two minutes later, Maki Yami appeared downstairs.

"As expected." Izumi Mizuki mumbled to herself, chewing on a tuna rice ball.

"I knew this guy was too dangerous."

"Isn't my senior still here?" Jun Matsue turned around and saw Maki Yami walking towards him in the night breeze. He took two steps back and walked alongside the girl.

Jun Matsue is not the kind of person who will stay in the same place even if he has a goal.

“Because I just received a call from my sister.” Yamami Maki smiled. “She heard that the Mochizuki family went to the studio, so she called me to ask about it and also to explain some family matters.”

“I see.” Jun Matsue nodded. “Thank you, big sister, for giving me and my senior a chance to be alone.”

The girl's smile was somewhat shy as the two headed towards the izakaya. The traffic flowed quietly to their right—the clamor had been automatically blocked out.

Yamami Maki looked at the boy beside her, and the distance between them closed silently. The girl's eyelashes trembled.

"It seems like there wasn't a part where Matsueda sang in today's 'Re:Re'?"

Her tone was somewhat curious, yet it also sounded like she knew the answer already.

“Because I wanted to make that day’s song a memory exclusively for my senior.” Jun Matsueda answered without hesitation.

"Don't you like it, senior?"

Yamami Maki looked down at her toes, trying to hide the blush rising on her cheeks.

"like."

Why do I always crumble so easily when Matsueda attacks? The girl asked herself, embarrassed and annoyed.

Perhaps she had already failed as a senior student back during that training camp in Hakone.
(End of this chapter)