Am I being simulated by their love affair.

Chapter 579 Don’t break up

"Why wasn't it me..."

Jun Matsue watched as tears streamed down the girl's cheeks to her chin, the droplets disappearing into the mud on the road.

"I was the one who... met Tsun-kun first. We've been deskmates since we entered school..."

Tomatsu Yuka choked up as she spoke, her shoulders shaking as she swayed the umbrella in her hand, water droplets flying up from the edge and landing on the girl's shoes.

"Tomatsu," Jun Matsueda called to her.
But the girl, overwhelmed with grief, didn't hear it at all. A car drove by on the main road, splashing water at their feet.

"..." The boy grabbed her wrist and pulled the girl towards the building by the roadside.

“Even though Tsunku always looks at me and cares about me…” Tomatsu Yuka continued as she staggered along.

"The distance between us is clearly closing little by little..."

"Everyone is so supportive of us being together..."

"They didn't abandon me when I was at my most hateful, and they still tried to change me when I was at my most willful—"

"Why would someone like Jun-kun hug another girl...?"

"If it were me, I definitely would..."

The two walked to the eaves. Jun Matsue stopped, while the girl beside him was still holding her umbrella blankly, staring at the misty road, seemingly looking at something.

He sighed, took out a tissue from the inner lining of his school uniform jacket, and casually wiped the girl's face.

"Huh?" Tomatsu Yuka blinked as her vision, blurred by tears, regained focus, and she finally noticed the boy standing next to her.

"When did Chun-jun arrive?" Her eyes were somewhat flustered.

The girl seemed to want to smile, but overwhelmed by grief, she had lost her usual ability to control her expressions—the corners of her lips curled up in a smile, combined with her disheveled face, looked both comical and bitter, causing Jun Matsuoka a pang of pain in his heart.

“You stopped walking very far, so I had to come and check on you.” Before his shirt got completely soaked, he took off his jacket.

"...I thought I was almost at the station." Tomatsu Yuka looked around blankly before realizing that she had just passed the first traffic light intersection outside the school.

"Don't go yet, take a rest." Jun Matsue took the umbrella from her hand, put it away, and placed it aside.

"Will Jun-kun come with me?" the girl asked instinctively.

The boy glanced at the rain lines outside the eaves. "I don't even have an umbrella anymore. Am I supposed to just run home?"

Of course he could have done that, but after seeing Tomatsu's distraught state, he couldn't bring himself to do it.

Jun Matsue pulled all the tissues out of his pocket. "Wipe your face, it's all wet."

Tomatsu Yuka smiled sheepishly and reached out to take the tissue.

Under the eaves, the girl's choked breaths and the sound of her carefully blowing her nose could be heard. The boy turned his head and looked at the road in front of him, which was soaked by the rain.

The roadside drains were gushing water, and cars were passing by from time to time, their cold, metallic bodies breaking through the rain and splashing up large amounts of water. Fortunately, the wind wasn't too strong today, and pedestrians could still hold up their umbrellas and find safe places to stand on the sidewalk.

The noise around him subsided a bit, and Jun Matsue turned his gaze away. Tomatsu Yuka was wiping away tears from the corners of her eyes with a tissue while sobbing softly and glancing at him furtively.

Noticing the boy's gaze, she raised the corners of her lips again. The girl, who had wiped away her tears, regained her clear and beautiful smile, and her haggard eyes gained a touch of pitiful beauty.

"You're already so heartbroken, what are you laughing about?" Jun Matsue said irritably.

"I just acted like this unconsciously in front of Tsunkun." The girl covered her mouth with a tissue, not knowing why.

"..." Matsueda Jun stopped talking. He looked away and continued to look at the drain across the street.

"Am I not good enough, not considerate enough?" Tomatsu Yuka couldn't help but ask, looking at the boy's wet profile.

From the moment she took the girlfriend's seat, she constantly reminded herself to be content—if you're not greedy, you won't make mistakes. To this end, Tomatsu Yuka even placed the fortune slip she drew at Atsuta Shrine, which read "Be careful in your words and actions, and let others have their way," on her bedside table, so she could see it every morning when she woke up.

However, she still spoke up.

No matter how patient and cautious she was, how could she be willing to leave on her own after hearing the boy say, "I slept with Mochizuki"?
Even though Tsunku said that Mochizuki Haruka didn't intend to date him...

Jun Matsue turned to look at her. "Tomoka Tomatsu is certainly wonderful, undeniably wonderful."

Panicked eyes in the snowy night of Hokkaido.

Short hair swaying outside a barbershop in Setagaya.

Bathrobes on the riverbank as the fireworks fade.

Her fingers danced in the sunlight as she played the saxophone.

The stickers she put on his water bottle, the menus she meticulously planned for him before going out, her bento boxes, her ever-changing smiles in front of him...

All of this made it impossible for him to say anything bad about Tomatsu Yuka against his conscience.

Tears welled up in the girl's eyes again. "Then why can't I?"

The boy fell silent.

"It's because of the rumors we spread before..." Tomatsu Yuka's eyes dimmed.

As expected... Even knowing you were wrong is useless; how can you undo the damage done in the past?

She once again hated the version of herself who had been blinded by desire.

"Didn't I tell you a while ago that I didn't mind?" Jun Matsuoka had a bit of a headache.

"Where did I fall short?" The girl's eyes were bitter. "Is there something Jun-kun is dissatisfied with about me?"

"...It's not your fault." That was all Jun Matsueda could say in the end.

Silence fell under the eaves as a middle-aged man in a raincoat rode by on his bicycle, splashing through the water.

Tomatsu Yuka looked at the jacket in the boy's hand. The soaked school uniform suit had lost its original crisp outline and become a heavy, limp lump, silently dripping water droplets.

If it's not her problem, then whose problem could it be?

The entire city was soaked and drenched by the rain, so wet that water could be squeezed out of the air and accumulated on the streets, turning the ground into a giant mirror.

Looking into his no longer resolute eyes, the girl suddenly mustered her courage.

Why does it have to be a scoring opportunity?

Jun Matsue blinked in surprise as he looked at the girl beside him who was clutching a tissue tightly.

"what are you saying?"

"Didn't Jun-kun say before that Mochizuki Haruka didn't plan to date you?" Tomatsu Yuka choked up again as she spoke.

While she was still trying to stay by Jun-kun's side, her rival stubbornly refused to date him.

"If she doesn't want to be your girlfriend..."

The girl walked up to Jun Matsueda, took the boy's left hand in both of her hands, and held it to her chest.

A strand of damp black hair clung to her lips, and Tomatsu Yuka's eyes were filled with longing.

"Then why do we need to break up?"

(End of this chapter)