Am I being simulated by their love affair.

Chapter 495 The Psychological Activities of a Kiss

"Tsun-kun has lost interest in Ueno Park, hasn't he?"

"Instead of letting your expectations be shattered in an unfamiliar place, why not go to a place you've already been?"

"Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden holds shared memories for us and my senior. If she sees photos of us dating there, she'll definitely be very upset, if not heartbroken, right?"

In the restaurant, amidst the clinking of cutlery and glasses, Jun Matsueda listened to Tomoka Tomatsu say these words.

“Sometimes I think you seem to dislike your senior much more than I do.” He looked at the smiling girl sitting opposite him.

"Of course," Tomatsu Yuka said, taking the ice cream from the waiter. "I truly hated her."

"Jun-kun isn't that bad, is he?"

Matsueda Jun didn't hate Yami Maki; he only pitied her misfortune and was angry at her lack of ambition. His choice to take revenge was simply to make the girl understand that there is no good outcome if she doesn't pursue a more fulfilling happiness.

Do you still hate her?

The smile on the girl's face slowly disappeared. She lowered her head and used a delicate silver spoon to scoop off a small piece of ice cream, leaving a gap in the perfect shape.

"When I first found out she was with Tsun-kun, I was absolutely furious."

"Now, things feel a bit complicated."

The cool solid melts on the tip of the tongue, releasing a sweet taste.

"He promised to be my wingman in love, but he betrayed me in the end."

"But if you weren't dating Tsunku, I don't think it would be easy for me to sit in front of you like this."

This was just a girl's intuition: if it weren't for her senior, Tsunkun probably wouldn't have chosen her as his lover.

"So, is this a blessing in disguise?" she asked, looking up.

“This is hardly a blessing.” Jun Matsueda picked up a spoon and began to divide the girl’s ice cream.

"Since we're going to Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, let's hurry up and leave after we finish eating."

At 1 p.m., the boy and girl arrived at the Sendagaya Gate of Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden on the Chuo Main Line.

"Although I didn't come back here with any particularly good purpose, I do feel a bit nostalgic." Tomatsu Yuka looked at the gate in front of her.

Compared to the main gate, there are far fewer people here. Even before entering, the branches covered with pink and white petals have already reached over the wall and into people's eyes.

“The cherry blossoms here are much more impressive.” Jun Matsue recalled the scene when he and the girls first walked into this place.

Back then, he and his senior weren't a couple yet.

The boy was unaware that Yamamoto Maki had also regretted not having the courage to invite him to enjoy the cherry blossoms together.

Compared to the standard-sized, orderly rows of cherry trees in Ueno Park, the cherry trees in Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden are much more unrestrained. In addition to large groves of cherry trees, they are also scattered haphazardly on the lawns and by the pond, with each tree's branches extending wildly, crossing over the heads of visitors, or rising and falling like fireworks.

Matsueda Jun looked at the black, gnarled branches and the pink and white cherry blossoms, "It feels like a traditional Chinese ink painting."

“It’s much more spectacular than Ueno.” The girl smiled and held up her phone. “So it’s because I saw the cherry blossoms at Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden last year that I found Ueno so boring.”

"Let's take more photos!" She turned to the boy beside her, "Otherwise, we'll be wasting such a beautiful view!"

The two walked and stopped, their phone shutters flashing constantly. They walked through the cherry blossom forest, which seemed to stretch like a sea of ​​pink blossoms in the wind, and saw a single pink branch lying across the pond. They walked all the way to the lawn in the central garden and sat under a huge cherry blossom tree that blocked out a small patch of the sky.

"Tsun-kun, what photos do you think would be good to show on our date today?" Tomatsu Yuka asked, placing her phone on the boy's lap.

"A group photo at the entrance of Ueno Park? The shadows of us holding hands by the pond? And these close-up photos of us taking pictures of each other? Is this ambiguous enough?"

“You can choose.” Jun Matsue looked at the girl’s black hair hanging on his arm. “After all, you always see through my acting. When it comes to manipulating other people’s hearts, you know better than me.” “Why do you make me sound like some kind of bad woman?” Tomatsu Yuka looked innocent. “No matter how bad I am to others, I’m always the most obedient and well-behaved one in front of you.”

“That’s the feeling.” The boy nodded, and the girl laughed.

"Hmm," Tomatsu Yuka looked through all the photos taken today, and finally frowned slightly.

"We're still missing one final, definitive photograph."

"Shall we look around some more?" Jun Matsuoka stood up.

As the two walked along the large cherry trees surrounding the garden, a figure holding a camera came into their view.

"Imokawa?" The boy walked up to the girl. "Did you come alone?"

Natsumi Imokawa, who had been focused on the camera, was startled. She put down her camera, looked at the two people beside her, and only came to her senses two seconds later.

"Are Matsue and Tomatsu here to see the cherry blossoms too?"

The boy nodded, and Tomatsu Yuka glanced at the girl's clothes—Imokawa Natsumi was wearing a vest dress today, with a shirt underneath that supported her full chest, making her figure particularly eye-catching from the side.

"Um, I came with my parents. They're resting on the lawn over there." Seemingly noticing her gaze, Imokawa Natsumi decided to make an excuse to leave.

"Wait a moment."

But Tomatsu Yuka called the girl back. She looked at the cherry blossom tree in front of the three of them—a huge cherry tree that grew in one direction, with the pink of the petals gradually changing with height, like a magnificent cascading waterfall.

"I'd like to take a picture with Matsueda-san, could you please do that, Imokawa-san?"

Natsumi Imokawa nodded woodenly.

So the two of them stood in front of the camera, and the girl raised the camera, having calmed down a bit.

What poses should we take?

Tomatsu Yuka looked at the boy next to her and asked softly, "Does Imokawa-kun know about us?"

Jun Matsue knew she wasn't asking about "couples," but rather "playing a role," and he nodded.

The girl narrowed her eyes slightly; it seemed that Tsunku and Imokawa's relationship was better than she had imagined.

"Can I take a picture of us kissing?" she asked the girl behind the camera with a smile. "Not a real kiss, just a forced kiss."

“Eh?” Natsumi Imokawa, who was staring at the camera screen, looked up. “You can take pictures, but you shouldn’t face the camera directly; you need to tilt it at an angle.”

The two adjusted their positions according to the girl's instructions. Jun Matsueda turned his back slightly to the camera, and Yuka Tomatsu's face was also shaded by the light cast by the cherry blossoms. Between their cheeks were dappled sunlight filtering through the branches.

"Just get your face as close as possible now," Natsumi Imokawa instructed, focused on filming.

As Jun Matsue watched the girl in front of him lift her cheeks and move closer to him, her cherry-colored lips magnified before his eyes, trembling with an alluring sheen. The soft, sweet scent in the auditorium became vibrant and fragrant once more, blooming in the boy's heart.

But he couldn't kiss her, otherwise this fake relationship would definitely crumble.

Before Jun Matsue could turn his face away, the girl stopped what she was doing. The two faces, slightly offset from each other, were so close that they were even sharing the same breath.

Before the cascading pink cherry blossom waterfall, they were just one heartbeat away from a real kiss, and Matsueda Jun clearly saw the sly smile in Tomatsu Yuka's eyes.

She wouldn't do anything that Jun-kun disliked.

"But perhaps this fleeting memory can overwrite the senior's memories?"

The girl asked softly.

(End of this chapter)