Am I being simulated by their love affair.

Chapter 369 The Second Bad News
While eating matcha red bean shaved ice, Jun Matsue admired the lavender field on his phone screen.

"I don't think I've messaged Matsueda-kun yet. Does that mean the contact information I asked for before is useless?"

As she said this, her older sister sent him several pictures of Furano's scenery.

“It looks much more comfortable than Tokyo,” Jun Matsueda replied, putting a spoonful of shaved ice into his mouth.

"This shaved ice tastes really good, it's so creamy." He looked up at the girls sitting on the other sofa.

"I'm glad you like it." Mochizuki Haruka nodded slightly, a spoon in her mouth. "I picked it out on purpose. The shopkeeper said they used premium matcha from Uji."

The girl wore her hair in pigtails today, giving her a sweet, girl-next-door vibe. Her simple black short-sleeved shirt had a graffiti of a blue plaid hair tie on it—Jun Matsue had seen her wear this hair tie before.

"Isn't Songzhi going out today?" She glanced at the boy who was eating shaved ice and playing on his phone.

"Today's plan is to stay home." Jun Matsue didn't look up; he was still checking to see if his older sister had any new messages.

It seems the Yami family has indeed set off. Mochizuki Haruka picked up the handle on the table and casually rubbed it on her lap.

She went out with Aya Miyamura specifically because she knew this news today—even if Yosei hadn't called, she would have found a way to come to the apartment with Aya.

"I guess shaved ice is the only thing to eat in summer~" Yosei Kurusu licked the mango sauce off his lips and let out a satisfied sigh.

Aya Miyamura nodded in agreement, "When you talk about spring, you think of sakura mochi; when you talk about summer, you think of shaved ice; when you talk about autumn, you think of sweet potatoes; and when you talk about winter, you think of steaming hot taiyaki."

"Isn't autumn for chestnuts?" Yosei Kurusu raised an eyebrow.

“I think apple pie is more suitable for winter,” Mochizuki Haruka also expressed her doubts.

As Jun Matsueda watched the arguing girls, he became pessimistic about the impending chaotic kitchen adventure.

Sure enough, half an hour later, Jun Matsue, who hadn't made a single mistake, was kicked out of the game.

"What's the reason this time?" He slowly put down the handle.

"It's so boring to play with Chun-ge!"

"Exactly, exactly, it's like he's carrying a human robot!" Kurusu Yosei rolled his eyes at him.

“I think Matsueda is pretty good.” Mochizuki Haruka moved a little closer to Matsueda Jun without making a sound.

"How dare you say that!" Kurusu Yosei was even more dissatisfied. "All you do is serve food to Matsue. Don't you see that Aya-chan and I are too busy to keep up?"

The girl with twin ponytails blinked innocently and secretly rubbed her foot against Jun Matsue's calf.

"This guy..." Jun Matsueda glanced at the girl moving closer to him and decisively chose to leave the sofa.

"You're staying here for lunch, right? I'll go buy groceries." He went back to his bedroom to change his clothes. "Is there anything you'd like to eat?"

The living room was filled with chatter again until the head chef, Yosuke Kurusu, made the final decision.

"Let's have chirashi sushi for lunch! Everyone can add whatever they want."

"I'll send the ingredient list to Songzhi later." The girl held her phone in one hand, her fingers tapping rapidly on the screen.

“OK.” Jun Matsue opened the door and picked up the black umbrella that was placed on the shoe cabinet—this was the umbrella that Yosei Kurusu had asked him to take with him when he went out, to prevent him from getting a tan.

The sunlight on the street was exceptionally bright. Jun Matsue opened his parasol, and hurried pedestrians passed by him.

The boy walked slowly, not in a hurry. After stopping at the traffic light, he glanced at his phone. The message he sent to Yamami Ikuka showed as read, but there was no follow-up.

Is it really true that my older sister is just posting two travel photos as a formality?
After thinking for a moment, Jun Matsue took the initiative to send another message.

"Does Miss Yuxiang know my address in Kyoto?"

"Make a phone call?" His older sister replied quickly. After crossing the zebra crossing, Jun Matsueda put on his headphones and made a call to Ikuka Yamami, who was far away in Hokkaido.

"Why are you asking this, Matsueda-kun?" The woman spoke directly, her tone languid, suggesting she was enjoying her vacation.

"Because I wanted to know if I could give my senior a surprise."

The boy looked up at the street. The supermarket sign in the distance was distorted in the hot air, like a mirage, out of reach and unattainable.

"Surprise?" the woman repeated his words.

A man's voice came from the other end of the phone; it must have been my sister's husband. The sound from the receiver was muffled for a moment before becoming clear again.

"Do you want to go to Kyoto to find Maki?"

"If it's feasible." Jun Matsueda walked into the supermarket and placed the parasol on the shelf by the entrance.

"Hmm," the woman thought for a moment, "It's possible, but you can't stay near her. That area isn't a hotel open to the public. You need to have identification and make a reservation."

"And my father and grandfather might notice, so it's obviously unlikely that you'd like to travel to Kyoto with Maki."

"At most, we'll bump into each other in public."

"That's fine too." Jun Matsueda had already entered the fresh produce section and was purchasing items according to the list sent by Yosei Kurusu.

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone. He took the opportunity to check the ingredients in the basket: eggs, cucumbers, shrimp, beef, and shiitake mushrooms.
"You really like Maki, don't you?" Ikuka Yamami suddenly asked a question that wasn't really a question.

Jun Matsueda was paying at the cashier when he said, "I feel like it's presumptuous to talk about my preferences in front of married people."

"My senior and I watched a romantic movie with a tragic ending yesterday, so she's definitely not in a good mood before we leave today."

"I just wanted to make her happy, that's all."

After paying, he left the supermarket with his parasol, the woman's voice in his earphones no longer languid.

"Matsueda-kun, I didn't mean to discourage you."

Ikuka Yamami stood in the middle of a sea of ​​purple flowers, looking at the man taking pictures of her not far away.

“My husband must have been much happier before he married into the Shan Jian family.”

She smiled and waved to the man, then continued talking to the boy on the other end of the phone.

“He lost his surname, his hobbies and career, and spent a lot of time learning how to become a proper cog in the Yami family before finally integrating into this old and huge family.”

"To be honest, I'm starting to regret bringing him into the Yamami family now."

"If I say this, will you have any doubts? Is it really worth going through all that trouble to go to Kyoto just to make that girl from the Yami family smile a little more?"

Matsueda Jun continued walking towards the apartment without stopping. "May I hear Ikuka's love story?"

"I'm busy right now," the woman said curtly. "I'm going horseback riding with my husband later."

"However, I can tell you a brief story about my husband."

"He used to be a movie actor, and his dream was to win an Oscar and a Kinema Junpo Award."

"However, after we officially started dating, he never appeared on screen again."

Jun Matsue stopped at the entrance of the apartment building. He put down his parasol and looked up at the blazing sun high in the sky.

The sun is a bit too hot today.

(End of this chapter)