Am I being simulated by their love affair.

Chapter 348 Times Have Changed, and the Girl Contemplates the Reasons

"This summer vacation is rather unpleasant."

The girl sitting on the lawn said this, stretching out her finger to draw circles around the edge of the picnic mat.

"Why?" Jun Matsue looked at the children on the grass. Although the adults from the orphanage were right next to him, he still felt more at ease watching them.

He glanced at his phone, wondering where the senior student and the dean had gone to chat, but there were no messages displayed.

"Because this summer vacation is so lonely," Tomatsu Yuka sighed. "The brass band has to train, have training camps, and participate in competitions, so most of our time is gone."

"And this time, without Matsueda-kun watching over me, and with my senior not around either, I'm fighting this battle all by myself. It feels so lonely."

“If you think like that, Tayo will be disappointed.” Jun Matsueda looked at the girl in the distance who was blowing her tuba loudly.

"You're leaving school next year too, so how about we treat this as a way to get used to it in advance?" He started subtly laying the groundwork.

However, Tomatsu Yuka sighed again, "If only my senior wasn't a senior, and was in the same year as us, then we could all stay in sync."

Jun Matsue thought for a moment, "Then your relationship with her might not be that good, right?"

“That’s true.” Tomatsu Yuka smiled, picked up the saxophone in front of her, and casually played a melody.

The notes drifted gently past the girl walking towards the lawn. Yamami Maki slowed her pace, waiting for the two to finish their conversation.

"I hope Matsueda-san can come and watch our performance at this year's Tokyo Metropolitan Concert."

The boy nodded. "Can I still win the national gold medal this year?"

"I'm not so sure," the girl said, putting down her saxophone. "Inviting Matsueda was just to cover up bad memories."

"At last year's Tokyo Metropolitan Convention, I confessed to Matsueda-san, didn't I? I cried so hard back then," Tomatsu Tomohana said with a smile.

"I was thinking that if we invite Matsueda again this year, at least when we think back to the Tokyo Metropolitan Conference, we'll all have pleasant memories, right?"

As Jun Matsue watched the sparrows hopping around on the lawn, even he sometimes wondered if Yuka Tomatsu's spirit was just too strong.
This is how a young girl always is: to throw away all the bad things and cherish and carefully polish the good memories—so that she can always stand in front of her beloved in the most beautiful and fulfilling way.

"Then it's settled~" Tomatsu Yuka winked at the boy, then turned to the girl behind her, "Senpai's back?"

Yamami Maki nodded. "It's almost time to leave."

Jun Matsueda glanced down at his phone; he hadn't even exchanged a few words with his senior yet.

"I'll go call everyone to get ready to assemble." The girl got up from the picnic mat, put her saxophone into her instrument bag, and said, "Please keep this safe, senior."

With a shoulder bag in her left hand and a handbag in her right, Yamami Maki watched Tomatsu Yuka walk gracefully into the distance. "A woman like that, it would be hard for anyone not to be moved by her, wouldn't it?"

Jun Matsue stood up, not echoing the girl's words. "What did Grandma say to you? I saw you left for quite a while."

"It's nothing." Yami Maki felt a little guilty; she seemed to have spent more time talking to Mochizuki Haruka than to the dean.

"Grandma Dean told me a lot about Matsueda—how she used to ride her dog everywhere when she was little, how she got into fights in middle school, and so on." The girl tilted her head cutely. "Matsueda, you delinquent, I want to see that too~"

Jun Matsueda blinked. "I've never been a delinquent. I just made a small contribution to maintaining order in the area."

However, he said it with a trilled "r" sound, and the girl covered her mouth and giggled.

When the sun shifted to a position where the crows on the roof could reach it, the girls from the brass band, carrying their bags, boarded the school bus again.

"Did everyone leave anything behind?" Director Junkazu Matsue stood at the entrance of the orphanage, facing the group of girls.

Mochizuki Haruka did not appear. After talking with Yamami Maki, the girl disappeared and no one knew where she went. She only sent a message to Matsueda Jun that he didn't need to worry about her.

"Probably not." Tomatsu Yuka shook her head. Actually, she hoped that the club members had left something here, so that she would have an excuse to come back again.

"Then be careful on the road," Jun Matsue said to the two of them. "Remember to let me know when you get home safely."

"Okay~" Tomatsu Yuka boarded the bus first, and Yamami Maki walked at the back. The senior turned around and waited for the girl in front of her to get on the bus before gesturing with her right hand that was placed behind her back.

Jun Matsue smiled and waved in the direction of the bus—though neither of them could see the other's expression, it didn't matter.

The old woman standing to the side watched the school bus disappear at the intersection. She turned around and walked into the welfare home, where she happened to see Mochizuki Haruka standing on the upstairs corridor. The girl was silently watching the back of the boy at the door.

"You must work hard," the silver-haired old man sighed to someone.

The girls weren't tired on the way back. Their whispers filled the carriage, and Tomatsu Yuka, sitting by the window, looked at the scenery outside.

The bus had a tall body, and the view from inside was different from usual, as if it were traveling over people's heads, giving the girl a strange sense of alienation.

Yamami Maki looked at the girl sitting next to her, and seemingly sensing the junior's somewhat dejected mood, she spoke in a comforting tone.

"If Yuka encounters any problems during training or the training camp, feel free to come to me! You can send a message or call me, and I'll reply whenever I'm free."

"The minister's job is indeed quite demanding. When he's in a bad mood, he doesn't have to bear it alone. Everyone is happy to help."

"Thank you, senior." Tomatsu Yuka turned around, smiled at the girl, and said, "I'll do my best."

She actually preferred calling Matsueda Jun to her senior. Besides the Tokyo Metropolitan Tournament, were there any other opportunities to invite Matsueda Jun out during summer vacation? The girl silently began to ponder.

She thought of Mochizuki Haruka again—the girl in the black dress had been standing on the building behind Matsueda Jun when they left, watching them like a ghost.

In the past, Tomatsu Yuka might have asked her senior to keep an eye on Matsueda Jun and not give Mochizuki Haruka a chance to get close, but now she lets such thoughts flash through her mind.

The girl recalled seeing the two of them on the lawn earlier—although the boy and girl maintained a distance that conformed to social etiquette, for some reason, they looked very close together.

Why is Tomomika's gaze turning to the car window again?

The swaying school bus was filled with whispers throughout the journey, but the two people sitting together remained silent.

(End of this chapter)