Am I being simulated by their love affair.

Chapter 563 Hidden worries
There were no classes this afternoon, and Jun Matsue stood on the terrace at the end of the corridor, looking down at the huge crowd of parents attending the parent-teacher meeting on the main street below.

The adults' black hair reflected the sunlight, and together with their black and white outfits, they looked like a bunch of striped sunflower seeds huddled together from above, which was somewhat comical.

The boy finished the last bite of his ice cream, shielded his eyes with his hand, and looked up at the bright, clear sky that enveloped the city.

"It's getting hot again..."

“Summer is almost here,” said Aya Miyamura, licking her ice cream as she stood next to him. “Soon we’ll be hearing cicadas chirping all over the city again.”

She ran up to the fourth floor to play with Chun-ge. As children who grew up in an orphanage, parent-teacher conferences were always the most boring and awkward times for the two of them.

"Aya-chan really likes summer, doesn't she?" Jun Matsue looked at the school gate, and he thought he saw Tomatsu Yuka and her parents.

"That's right!" The cool, sweet taste in her mouth made the girl squint her eyes happily.

"Although it's very hot and you'll sweat a lot, summer is the most lively time of the year."

"Various festivals, fireworks displays, and bonfire parties; you can even wear swimsuits and yukatas. Whether you're just spacing out in your room in front of a whirring fan or going out to listen to the cicadas and strolling around with friends, isn't that fun?"

The boy smiled and said, "It makes my heart flutter."

"What's it about you that's tempting?" Miyamura Aya rolled her eyes at him. "Last time when Haruka-neechan asked you to go swimming, didn't you dawdle?"

Jun Matsue recalled the image of Haruka Mochizuki wearing a white one-piece swimsuit, both innocent and alluring.

He shook his head; the fun of summer shouldn't be something so superficial.

"Ah, I see Tomatsu-neechan!" Aya exclaimed, waving downstairs.

Jun Matsue lowered his head and his gaze met that of Yuka Tomatsu, who was looking up. The girl smiled sweetly at him, without attracting the attention of her parents beside her.

“This is the first time I’ve seen Tomatsu-nee’s father,” Miyamura Aya blinked. “He’s a handsome older man.”

"When Chun-ge becomes an uncle, he'll definitely be even more handsome than him, right?"

"Didn't I send you photos from the film set last weekend? My middle-aged appearance should be similar to that, right?"

"Not at all!" the girl stuck out her tongue. "She's definitely more attractive!"

She licked her ice cream again and continued looking at the crowd below.

"Where did Sister Yao go? She's not with you, and I can't see her downstairs either."

Jun Matsue glanced back down the corridor. "My aunt arrived early today and has already taken her to see the chairman."

"That's it~"

Caijiang nodded, popsicle stick in her mouth, then took out her phone from her pocket and glanced at the messages.

"Quan-jie called me to the practice room." The girl's tone became more lively. "Now I can kill some time~"

She turned around. "Brother Chun, do you want to come along?"

"I'll pass," the boy waved his hand. "What if Ms. Kominato needs something and has to come to me, the class monitor?"

"I'll be going now~" Aya Miyamura shoved the popsicle stick into his hand. "Could you please throw away my trash for me, Jun-nii?"

Watching the girl's skirt sway and disappear at the stairwell, Jun Matsueda walked into the classroom through the front door and tossed his popsicle stick in a basketball-shooting motion—

The flat wooden stick spun gracefully in the air before landing perfectly in the trash can.

After giving a high-five to Ken Sakamuro who was sitting there, the boy returned to his seat. The desks on both sides were empty, and there was not a trace of the girls.

Jun Matsue randomly picked up a math workbook and opened it, figuring he could just do some problems to pass the time when he was bored.

However, just as he calculated the coordinates of the intersection point for the first sub-question, his phone, which was in the drawer, vibrated twice, as if silently reminding him that he should do something more meaningless during such a peaceful time.

He took out his phone, and Lai Qiyangshi's profile picture was flashing.

"The date is set, I'm going home this weekend!"

"Finally free?" After replying to the girl's message, Jun Matsue continued to look at the second question.

Let the x-coordinate of the intersection point obtained in the first question be a, calculate the definite integral...

Before I could even finish reading the question, my phone, which was lying to the side, started vibrating again.

"I've finished all the album promotions, so I'm giving myself a couple of days off first~"

He picked up his phone again. "The room has been cleaned up for you. The blankets were aired out last weekend."

"That's great!" This time, Qiyang replied even faster. "Songzhi, could you buy me some ice cream to keep at home? It's getting hot, and I'm craving ice cream..."

How can this guy type so fast?
Jun Matsueda closed his workbook, deciding to chat with the girl before continuing with his exercises.

"I want it in a bucket, either Meiji or the Hokkaido brand from last time is fine!"

"Then I'll go to the sales supermarket later to see if there are any discounts."

"Pine branches are the best!"

Although Yosei Kurusu didn't send a voice message, the boy could imagine the carefree and playful tone in her voice, as well as the bright and sweet smile on the girl's face.

"What has Songzhi been up to lately? Has anything interesting happened to him?"

The girl didn't seem to intend to end the conversation so easily; it seemed she was quite free today. Matsueda Jun picked up his phone from under the table and placed it on his workbook.

Since I have some free time now, I might as well chat with her.

When Tomatsu Yuka returned to the classroom, she saw the boy texting on his phone, and she blinked in surprise.

"Isn't Tsunku with Aya-chan?"

"She went to the light music club." Jun Matsueda put down his phone.

Yosuke Kurusu was called away by her manager; she had been secretly sending him messages backstage at the show.

"I see." The girl sat down, took a tissue to wipe the fine sweat from her forehead, tidied her hair, and let out a soft breath.

"It's really hot today."

"The highest temperature is twenty-seven." Jun Matsueda put his phone back in the drawer. "It's time to change into the summer school uniform."

Tomatsu Yuka smiled and said, "I hope this summer won't be too hot."

"Tomatsu is a little late coming back."

The boy looked around and saw that the classroom was almost full again—in this final year of intense study, no one had much of a desire to go out and have fun.

"Well, since it was Dad's first time at the school, Mom and I showed him around."

"He also saw Tsunku's commendation on the bulletin board, and he's very satisfied with you~"

So even though their feelings had faded, they were still getting along fairly well... Matsueda Jun looked into the girl's eyes; this situation must be the best for Tomatsu.

Seemingly sensing his questioning gaze, Tomatsu Yuka took a water glass from the drawer and cutely shook it. "Tsunku, can you come with me to get some water?"

The two quietly opened the back door of the classroom without disturbing anyone.

The fourth-floor corridor was still sparsely populated, but faint noises could be heard from downstairs in the empty, narrow space, probably from parents of first-year students visiting the school building.

Amidst the repetitive footsteps, Jun Matsue heard the girl beside him sigh almost imperceptibly.

He turned his head. "What's wrong? You seem unhappy?"

Tomatsu Yuka shook her head. "I've actually had a lot of fun these past few days."

"However, the happiness I deliberately create only makes me more afraid of what it will be like when it leaves."

The boy paused in his steps.

"There will always be an end to this, won't there?" The girl looked at him with calm eyes.

The strip of sky outside the window behind her moved slowly with their footsteps, a thick layer of clouds blocking out part of the sunlight.

“Dad does care about me more than Mom, but once he starts a new relationship, his focus will definitely shift to someone else.”

“These past few days, when I've been with my dad, he often exclaims, 'Youhua has become so sensible! Youhua can even cook now! Youhua's grades are really good!'”

The girl lowered her eyes, "as if to say, 'Then I can let go with peace of mind.'"

Matsueda Jun looked at the slightly darker sky outside the corridor. The sense of security that Tomatsu wanted was not easily obtained, and he was not surprised.

The boy even had a feeling that she wasn't just talking about her family situation, but also about their relationship.

“Actually, Mom is too.” Tomatsu Yuka hugged her thermos and looked at the water dispenser at the end of the corridor.

From a distance, it looked more like a cold, iron-gray box than a machine that brought sweetness and coolness; one wondered what might be stored inside.

"Although my mother apologized to me and said she would try to correct her mistakes, I know that the 'corrected' version of herself is not the person she ideally wants to be."

"Just like when a project is performing poorly, so you make an assurance to your boss—my mother doesn't really want to give me more care; it's just that the poor performance of the 'family' project requires her, the supervisor in charge, to make an effort."

Did Tomatsu's parents ever imagine that their daughter had seen right through them...? Jun Matsue thought to himself.

The two walked to the water dispenser, and large swaths of dazzling sunlight shone through the floor-to-ceiling window behind the machine onto the faces of the boy and girl, causing them to involuntarily lower their heads.

"So Jun-kun can understand how I feel right now, right?" Tomatsu Yuka stared at the clear stream of water falling from the spout.

“I’m living in an artificial kind of happiness—like in The Truman Show,” she said softly.

"However, the difference is that even if I try not to notice, this happy state of being will collapse in the foreseeable future..."

Watching the girl release the water dispensing button and tighten the bottle cap, Jun Matsue sighed inwardly.

"Does Jun-kun know why I like garden eels?"

"why?"

"The museum's display board states that garden eels are social animals. Except for the breeding season when they temporarily move their burrows to be closer to their mates, they stay in the same burrow for almost their entire lives."

What Tomatsu Tomoka longs for and pursues is this kind of lasting and stable happiness, not the fragile, colorful bubble that surrounds her now.

Jun Matsuoka pursed his lips; he didn't want to become part of the mirage in the girl's eyes.

"Your idea is a bit idealistic," the boy said, facing the sunlight.

"As you become more independent, the presence of family will inevitably diminish over time."

"When you go to university, will you choose to rent a place outside or go home every day?"

"You will spend more time working, travel to more distant places to see more scenery, and meet more friends. In the process, you will continue to think about what your life should look like."

"Of course, family is indispensable in this process, but the part of your life it occupies will definitely shrink over time."

"Therefore, you will inevitably grow distant from your family, and this pain is unavoidable, whether sooner or later."

"Treating the current distance as a rehearsal for the future might be a good decision."

Tomatsu Yuka did not refute, her expression serene, and she nodded to the boy.

"So I think there should be something to replace family to give me happiness."

The answer she didn't say was love, and Jun Matsue felt a sweet yet heavy responsibility fall upon him.

"It's a bit ironic," the girl smiled weakly. "It's like I've become Mochizuki Haruka, whom I used to hate so much, now thirstily absorbing Jun-kun's warmth."

"I told myself before that I would not be selfish in front of Tsunkun in the future."

"That's enough." The boy took her hand and walked back to the stairwell they had come from.

“Happiness is something too far away; we can’t guarantee it right now,” he said gently.

Jun Matsueda once had long-term plans for love and happiness, but Maki Yami made him realize that sometimes thinking too much and too far ahead can make the ending more unfortunate.

All I can do right now is to make you feel a little less sad during this time.

"That's good." Tomatsu Yuka held the boy's hand tightly and followed closely behind him.

"If you get into Tokyo University, will Tsunku plan to live in the school dormitory?" she asked again before returning to the classroom.

"...Why are you suddenly asking this?" Jun Matsue turned around.

"I was just asking~" the girl said in a cheeky tone, "Can't I even ask?"

"I probably won't stay in the dormitory. The application process is too complicated, and the conditions aren't great—after living in Mitaka, I don't really want to sleep in a cramped environment."

“Then we can rent a place together outside!” Tomatsu Yuka said cheerfully, her previous melancholy, like the afterglow of a lakeside sunset, vanished without a trace.

"Actually, I've been seeing a lot of videos of people looking at apartments in Bunkyo Ward lately. If I decide to share an apartment, I can start looking now—not only are there plenty of apartments available, but the prices are also cheaper!"

"...Let's talk about it then."

The boy was a bit troubled; Mochizuki had previously planned to buy a house between Tokyo University and Keio University.

Back in the classroom, the first thing Jun Matsueda did upon entering was look at the seat by the window—Haruka Mochizuki was not there.

He breathed a sigh of relief, returned to his seat, and took out his phone. There were no more messages from Yosuke Kuraki; it seemed he was busy again.

Before locking the screen after exiting the chat app, Jun Matsue glanced at the time on the home screen.

2:03 PM, May 14th, Wednesday.

There are seventeen days left until the end of May.

(End of this chapter)