Am I being simulated by their love affair.

Chapter 423 Flowers, Colors, and You

Although the theme of this accommodation training was camping, Jun Matsue did not immediately see the campsite.

The express bus arrives at a station in Fujiyoshida City, a small town with a city hall, schools, and a hospital, but not a very commercial area.

"It's a bit like Ome City, where the brass band went before," Tomatsu Yuka said with a smile.

"But here you can see Mount Fuji just by looking up."

Looking out over the street, Mount Fuji, with its snow-capped peak, dominated a large part of the sky, a truly breathtaking sight.

"Stop looking at the scenery, get ready to get on the bus." Jun Matsueda turned around and looked at Aya Hirouchi, who was waving to them.

The students of Haneoka High School had just finished lunch, and their luggage had been transferred to the local bus booked by the school. After a short rest, it was time for their afternoon activities.

The bus first went to Oshino Village, next to Fujiyoshida. Oshino Hakkai, a World Heritage Site, is quite famous in Japan—although the eldest daughter of the Mochizuki family doesn't seem to approve of it.

"That's it?" The girl walked out of the tourist attraction. "It doesn't even look as good as Mount Fuji in the distance."

“It’s just a classic courtyard.” Jun Matsueda followed her out the door. “Of course, Miss Mochizuki, who has traveled the world, wouldn’t be interested.”

The so-called "Oshino Hakkai" is actually a garden with eight ponds. It attracts many tourists, but the scenery is only so-so.

Jun Matsueda stopped in front of a vending machine by the roadside. He glanced at the blue soda with "Mount Fuji" written on it and asked, "Would you like a bottle, Mochizuki?"

The girl shook her head, watched him toss in a coin, then looked up as if she sensed something and looked at Tomatsu Yuka who was walking towards her.

"You're bored too?"

Tomatsu Yuka took off her white sun hat, saying, "With more tourists, the scenery becomes boring."

She looked at the boy who had taken out the soda and asked, "What do you think, Matsue-san?"

Jun Matsue pried open the soda bottle cap, nodded, and the girl smiled and continued speaking.

"Actually, I think it's also due to the times—the scenery has become a tourist attraction, surrounded by walls and turnstiles. The thousand-year-old water source called 'the sea' has been fitted with railings and a bunch of signs with instructions and precautions. How can it look good?"

The tourists resting near the vending machine nodded silently.

Tomatsu Yuka walked up to the boy, and Matsueda Jun took a step back, watching her choose in front of the vending machine window.

"Therefore, I believe that some overprotective behaviors are unnecessary; the more you protect, the less beautiful it becomes."

Before inserting the coin, the girl turned around and looked at him.

Whether it's people or things, the principle is the same, she said with her eyes.

"." Jun Matsueda glanced at the message on his phone. It was a photo of the approaching Mount Fuji at noon. His senior hadn't replied yet, probably because she was still in class.

He tilted his head back and took a sip of soda; it tasted a bit too sweet, like it was mixed with cotton candy.

"Let's go to the next place."

Continuing eastward from Oshino Village, we arrived at Yamanakako Village, where our campsite for the night was located. The bus first went to the "Hana no Miya" Park on the edge of the village.

Although it's called a park, it's more like a flower field. The dullness and monotony that people feel at Oshino Hakkai are swept away by the vast sea of ​​flowers. Young girls, holding their phones and cameras, stroll along the edge of the flower field, looking for the best spots where the flowers and Mount Fuji can be seen in the distance.

Tomatsu Tomoka was called away by her friends to take photos together, Mochizuki Haruka was nowhere to be found, and Matsueda Jun walked alone along the path in the middle of the flowerbed, gazing at Mount Fuji in the clouds, with a sweet fragrance in the breeze.

The phone in his pocket vibrated, and Matsueda Jun finally received a message from Yamami Maki—a simple exclamation emoji.

After thinking for a while, the boy took a picture of the sea of ​​flowers and the snow-capped peak in front of him and sent it to the camera.

The picture quickly showed as read, but it took several minutes for the senior student to reply. "The scenery is really nice~"

Jun Matsuoka pursed his lips. The girl didn't ask him where this was, nor did she ask him to take more photos. Her usual curious attitude seemed to have temporarily disappeared.

He glanced at the time on the screen; it was 2:22 PM, shortly after school had ended.

"Are you still in class, senior? Or are you busy right now?"

"No!" The girl seemed a little more lively. "I just woke up early today, so I'm not very energetic."

Yamami Maki didn't want to admit that she hadn't gone to class today and had just been aimlessly spacing out at home.

The boy thought for a moment, "Then let's stop talking for now and talk after school. If you're really sleepy, you can go buy a can of coffee."

"Good~"

No new messages appeared on the screen. Jun Matsueda swiped his finger up to look at the previous chat history. His gaze stopped on the photo of the flower field—there was a blurry shadow in the distance of the path.

I clicked on it and saw a boy in a school uniform from behind. He put down his phone and continued walking along the path.

The golden sunflowers on both sides gradually disappeared, turning into the vibrant colors of cosmos flowers. Then, the color of the flower sea gradually unified, transforming into a pinkish-red hue.

The figure at the end of the path gradually grew larger. The girl's black hair, with its slightly wavy curls, swayed in the wind. The approaching footsteps made her turn around warily. After recognizing the person, her cold gaze softened.

"What are you doing standing here?" Jun Matsue mimicked the girl's question from earlier at the train station.

"I'm waiting for the gardener or other staff to appear." Mochizuki Haruka smoothed her long hair and looked at the sea of ​​red flowers surrounding the two of them.

"I want to know what kind of flower this is."

The boy stood in front of the flowerbed for a while, then the girl walked up to him.

“Five-petaled flower, small in size, with dense inflorescence.” Jun Matsue stood up. “It should be the flower of red buckwheat, which is called ‘Takane Ruby’ in Japan.”

"You like this flower?" he asked, looking at the girl beside him.

The girl shook her head. "It looks a bit like a flower I've seen before."

"Yu Meiren?" the boy said without hesitation.

"How did you know?" Mochizuki Haruka looked up in surprise.

"Because when you went back to Tokyo, didn't you bring me one? You even said you saw it in a simulation."

The girl nodded. "In the simulation, you took me to see it, but in reality, I went to see it alone."

She reached out and picked a flower from in front of her, examining it in her palm—the petals were small and looked quite different from those of the red spider lily. However, if you looked at the sea of ​​flowers from a distance, their colors seemed somewhat similar.

“This place is pretty good.” She turned to the boy and said, “The flower field we didn’t get to see together back then is finally here.”

Just as Jun Matsueda was about to speak, the girl suddenly reached out and covered his mouth.

"Don't say you like Yamami Maki." Mochizuki Haruka's tone was domineering and authoritarian.

"Now that it's just the two of us here, you're mine."

The wind blowing through the sea of ​​flowers grew a little louder, as if it were also watching him make a fool of himself.

(End of this chapter)