Am I being simulated by their love affair.

Chapter 43: Trapped in a cocoon
Not waiting for the person she was waiting for, Tomatsu Tomoka stood at the school gate for another ten minutes before calling her mother.

"Mom, I'm done with my training, you can go now."

The girl stood at the door, looking at the sky dyed red by the setting sun, feeling empty inside.

The more enthusiastic Tomatsu Tomoka is, the colder Matsueda Jun's attitude will be. If you slow down, he will naturally treat you politely but not rudely.

Is it really possible to break through the iron wall of Matsueda Jun? The girl sighed.

Tomatsu Tomoka opened the system panel, and there was nothing else except the words "temporary user 1" and a favorability level that had not been updated for a long time.

When she woke up from the simulation, Tomatsu Yuka was immersed in sweetness, and was complacent about her uniqueness. She believed that this was the guidance of fate, hinting that she and the boy would have a special future.

But now, she didn't want to see this damn panel at all. Tomatsu Tomoka felt that she was overspending and overdrawing her and Matsueda Jun's future in order to experience the deliciousness of love early.

The deep chasm between the boy and the girl was the price she paid for cheating in life. Matsueda Jun stood on the other side and said to her, you can only go this far, you can't go beyond that.

Before the sky turned from red to black, the car the girl was waiting for stopped in front of the school gate. The woman in a suit opened the car door, walked over to her daughter, took her bag, and rubbed her face with her hands.

"What are you daydreaming about, my Youhua? Hurry up and get in the car."

"Yes~" the girl smiled at her mother.

Tomatsu Tomoka sat in the back seat and the passenger seat was empty, but the mother and daughter didn't feel strange at all.

Even though the man has not appeared in their lives for a long time, his place still remains.

"How have you been lately, Youhua? Are you worried about anything?" Stopping at the traffic light, the woman tapped the steering wheel with her slender fingers.

She once sat in the passenger seat and watched the man in the driving seat do this. So when she started driving herself, she gradually imitated the man's habits.

"It's pretty good. I still got first place in my final exam results. I'll be participating in the Tokyo Wind Band Competition in just over half a month. When I measured my height yesterday, I found I've grown a little bit taller. Isn't that perfect?"

Tomatsu Tomoka's tone was very cheerful. She said there was no need to tell her mother about things like some seniors in the wind band were unhappy with her or that her love life had been repeatedly frustrated.

After all, mother is tired enough just from working and taking care of the whole family, there is no need to make her worry too much.

"Have you finished your summer homework? What did you eat for lunch today? Was it nutritious enough? Is your club still practicing today? When you get home, play the piece you practiced today for me."

"Yes," Tomatsu Yuka said with a hint of helplessness. Ever since her parents divorced, her mother had become like this. Perhaps it was because she hadn't cared much about her daughter's life before, so she wanted to make up for it.

The Tomatsu family was once a very wealthy family. Although it was a bit difficult to build a villa in Denenchofu, it was relatively easy to buy an apartment in Setagaya or Minato Ward.

Back then, her mother was absorbed in her career, and it was her father who spent more time with her. Yet, her mother's career didn't take off, while her father's company thrived. Tomatsu Tomoka now finds it quite ironic.

On the day when everything suddenly changed, Tomatsu Tomoka didn't feel any difference at first.

It was an afternoon in the first grade of junior high school. She walked out of the school gate and got into her family car. She was surprised to find that her father was sitting in the driver's seat.

The girl asked her father how he had time to pick her up, but the man didn't say anything, just smiled tiredly.

On the way home, her father didn't say a word, and Tomatsu Tomoka felt uneasy. It wasn't until the car entered the garage and the roller shutter slowly closed that her father spoke: "Tomoka, Dad's business has been having some problems lately. Can you take a few days off from school and stay home?"

"Why?" Tomatsu Tomoka asked subconsciously, but her father did not answer her.

She glanced at the rearview mirror in the car. The light was blocked by the garage door, and her father's face gradually disappeared into the shadows. Only his bloodless lips could be seen.

"Youhua, listen to daddy, okay?"

The girl was startled. She had never heard her father's voice so weak. It reminded her of the dead cicadas under the sycamore tree at school.

Tomatsu Tomoka agreed, and her father asked her to get out of the car and go upstairs first, while he wanted to rest in the car for a while.

During dinner, none of the three people at the table spoke. The girl went back to her room after dinner. She couldn't stand the weird atmosphere when her parents were around.

She fell asleep very late that night, and faint sounds of arguing and things being smashed could be heard downstairs. The Tomatsu family home, like a tree that had been felled, lay in the steel jungle of Tokyo without making a loud noise.

The Tomatsu family fell into decline.

For an entire week, Tomatsu Tomoka didn't leave her room. She could hear cars driving back and forth outside her window, arguments and insults downstairs, and the occasional sound of moving things. She kept refreshing her phone, hoping to see some news that would bring the Tomatsu family back to life.

A week later, there was a knock on Tomatsu Tomoka's door. She walked out to find her parents standing before her. Her mother's face was expressionless, her eyes red and swollen from crying, and her father's smile was forced.

"Youhua, you will live with your mother from now on."

Tomatsu Tomoka was confused. She didn't understand why the world had become like this just because she hadn't left her room for a week.

Before leaving home, the father hugged Tomatsu Tomoka for the last time.

When Tomatsu's parents were together, they did not have deep feelings for each other. However, they were well-matched, successful in their careers, and liked each other, so they naturally got together.

Now that they have a daughter, they are no longer just a couple in name only. Divorce was a joint decision. The father had made the investment privately, and he couldn't burden the entire family with huge debt, not to mention considering his daughter's future. Divorce was the best option.

Almost three years have passed, and thanks to his mother's hard work, the Tomatsu family has finally climbed out of the trough and swept away the haze of the past.

As for her father, they couldn't contact him often, as it would be troublesome if the debt collectors found out. Tomatsu Tomoka knew her mother called her father regularly, so she wasn't too worried.

Tomatsu Tomoka sat at the dining table, waiting for her mother to bring the meal. The girl once wanted to take on these housework, but her mother disagreed.

After dinner, the mother and daughter continued to sit at the dining table, and Tomatsu Tomoka absentmindedly reported on her recent situation.

After listening to her daughter's report, the woman nodded with satisfaction and prepared to go back to her room to work overtime and review the various reports submitted by her subordinates.

"Mom, wait a minute. Didn't you say you wanted to listen to my playing?" The girl called her and took out her saxophone.

The woman returned to the table and sat down. Although she tried to listen attentively, she couldn't help but take out her phone and glance at it when it rang. She had always excelled in science, and she wasn't very sensitive to music. She couldn't hear the emotion gradually disappearing from the melody, becoming rigid and melodious but without any personality.

"It sounds great, Youhua is amazing!" After the song was over, the woman praised.

"Thank you, Mom~" When Tomatsu Tomoka smiled, she thought of the boy who listened to her playing the flute in the empty club room after school.

The girl remembered it all clearly, from the surprised expression on his face when the first note sounded, to his concentration as he immersed himself in the music, and finally the complex look on his face as he felt he hadn't finished. If only she could draw, she could paint every detail that was so vivid in her mind.

When her mother got up to leave, Tomatsu Tomoka wanted to call her, but the woman noticed her open mouth.

"Does Tomoka have anything else to say? Mom has work to do today. If it's not important, can we talk about it another day?"

"It's nothing. I just wanted to say that we've run out of milk at home."

Watching her mother close the door, Tomatsu Tomoka also returned to her bedroom. For them, the living room was just a process, and their respective bedrooms were the end point. The girl was used to such a life.

Sometimes Tomatsu Tomoka wondered if she, to her mother, was just another report card. The steadily rising data was, in her mother's eyes, the best sign that everything was normal.

She sat at the desk, flipped through the textbooks that she had memorized, checked the exercise books from the private school, got up from her seat, threw herself on the bed, and buried her face in the quilt.

Tomatsu Tomoka wonders if there is some curse on her family. No one can get what they care about. They are like a spider trapped in its own cocoon, spinning in a ball of thread that it doesn't love.

My father, who valued family, ended up with his wife and children leaving him to struggle with debt. My mother, who was obsessed with her career, was forced to spend a great deal of her energy worrying about the family, with no room for advancement in her career.

Tomatsu Tomoka doesn't know when she will be able to reunite with the family she misses, and she wants to be with her loved one, but her relationship is full of twists and turns, and it seems like a distant dream.

But the next time Tomatsu Tomoka stood in front of Matsueda Jun, the girl would not show anything. She would just stroke her hair and speak softly in her most gentle tone and with the most sincere smile.

"Jun-kun, it's nice to see you today."

　Mochizuki won't be offline, but the home team will definitely need a change of players.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)