Am I being simulated by their love affair.

Chapter 600 Chewing on Emotions, the Taste is Like Wasabi
After circling around the verdant mountaintop, the bustling cable car station appears at the end of the trail.

"It's time to get ready to go down the mountain..." the girl said with a hint of reluctance.

The boy glanced at his phone. "It's not time yet, we can stay a little longer."

As Tomatsu Yuka nodded happily, a young girl walked straight from the opposite side, stopped in front of the two of them, and took their clasped hands.

"You're walking too slowly!" Mochizuki Haruka said to the boy in front of her with dissatisfaction.

“…Isn’t it written inside the cable car station that it takes at least twenty minutes to go around?” Jun Matsue glanced at Yuka Tomatsu beside him.

The girl smiled and seemed not to intend to hold his hand anymore, but she also showed no sign of leaving his side.

"Didn't Mochizuki take a stroll around the mountaintop?" His gaze returned to Mochizuki Haruka in front of him.

The girl shook her head. "Wouldn't that mean I'd be chasing after you the whole time? I might as well just wait for you where I am."

It was indeed something that the eldest daughter of the Mochizuki family would do, and Matsueda Jun had nothing to say.

"When are we coming down the mountain?" Mochizuki Haruka asked, fanning herself with her hand. "It's so sunny up here."

"How about we take a picture to remember this moment, and then head down the mountain?" Tomatsu Yuka suggested—her earlier reluctance seemed to vanish in an instant.

So the three of them walked towards the viewing platform by the roadside, where a large wooden sign lay across the smooth, soft grass—

"Izu Peninsula Geopark National Designated Natural Monument"

"Mt. Omuro"

『Elevation 580m』

Standing in front of the memorial plaque, Jun Matsueda looked into the distance.

"Ito is closer, and then there's the coastline of Atami, right?"

He looked at the undulating blue land and the sea, which was located in a corner, and further away, the sky was obscured by clouds and mist.

"It's a pity it's the rainy season now, otherwise we should be able to see Mount Fuji if the weather is good."

Tomatsu Yuka walked up to him and said, "Perhaps it's because Tsunku is standing on Mount Omuro that the gods don't want you to see Mount Fuji?"

"...What are you talking about?" Mochizuki Haruka asked, frowning.

"It's nothing," the girl smiled. "Let's take the picture quickly."

Standing behind the memorial plaque, Tomatsu Yuka reached out and placed her hand on top of it. She looked at the boy in front of her and asked, "Tsunku, aren't you going to take a picture with me?"

Jun Matsue paused for a moment, then took two steps around to stand beside her.

The girl looked to the other side, "Aren't you going to take pictures, Mochizuki-san?"

Mochizuki Haruka turned her head, her chin seemingly about to touch the surface of the sea, "Taking a picture in front of this sign, looking completely dazed."

"Then let's find someone to take a picture for us..." Tomatsu Tomoka looked around and spotted Sakamuro Ken, who had just walked out of the mountaintop shop.

"Sakamuro-san—" she waved, and the boy walked over.

"Could you take a picture for us?"

Sakamuro Ken first glanced at Mochizuki Haruka standing to the side, then looked at the boy and girl behind the memorial plaque—Matsueda Jun winked at him, his face calm and indifferent.

“No problem!” The boy grinned, showing off his white teeth. He took the phone from Tomatsu Yuka and squatted down to point it at the two of them.

"Include the sky and sea in the background, right? I see that's how girls usually take pictures." The boy and girl in the video didn't answer his question, but simply smiled knowingly.

"Wait a minute." Mochizuki Haruka stopped Sakamuro Ken's hand from the shutter button, quickly stepped into the frame, and stood on the other side of Matsueda Jun.

The boy looked at her indifferent yet sweet face, "Uh... is everything alright?"

Jun Matsue stared at the camera lens. "Go ahead and take the pictures."

After a few clicks of the shutter, Ken Sakamuro nervously put down his phone and handed it back to Yuka Tomatsu.

"Let me make it clear first, my photography skills are just so-so."

"It's okay~ Thank you, Sakamuro-san," the girl smiled and looked at her phone screen.

As a trio who could make a living with their looks even without putting in any effort, their photos certainly wouldn't be too bad—the boy and her smiles blended harmoniously with the distant sea and sky, while Mochizuki Haruka, with her tense little face, looked like a daughter reluctantly dragged by her parents to take a picture.

However, coincidentally, the girls all took a step forward and pressed their arms against Jun Matsueda's arm while taking photos.

When posting updates later, just Photoshop out any trace of Mochizuki Haruka... Tomatsu Yuka put away her phone, looked up, and smiled.

"Let's go down the mountain~"

As Jun Matsue boarded the cable car down the mountain, he had just fastened the buckle on his seat when Haruka Mochizuki eagerly took his hand.

"...Please don't move around while riding the cable car." The boy repeated what he had said when they went up the mountain.

This time, he didn't ride the cable car with Ken Sakamuro. While waiting in line, Haruka Mochizuki stayed close to him, while Yuka Tomatsu went to find a girl from her class—the girl knew when to stop, and if she didn't give up her spot on the cable car, someone might get impatient and cause her trouble again.

"We're just holding hands, there's no movement at all," Mochizuki Haruka pouted her thin, moist lips and lowered her head to sniff their clasped hands.

"It all smells like Tomatsu..." The girl wrinkled her nose in disgust. She took out a scented wet wipe from her pocket, unfolded it, and kept wiping their hands.

Matsueda Jun looked at her bangs as she looked down and said, "Is Mochizuki not interested in the school trip? You seem too lazy to move all day."

“…No way.” Mochizuki Haruka’s gaze drifted to the undulating green waves of grass beneath her feet. “I’ve even seen the South African savanna, so I’m not really interested in these small plains and matcha pudding-like mountains.”

This is a lie. In fact, the girl was just conserving her energy for tonight's plan.

“That’s understandable.” Jun Matsueda looked at the matcha-colored earth that was gradually approaching.

Because the Aso volcano grass senri he had seen before looked just like that.

Returning to the foot of the mountain felt like falling from the clouds back to the ground; the carefree and exhilarating feeling vanished, and a sense of loss inexplicably arose in everyone's hearts.

Jun Matsueda waved the three-colored pudding-shaped Omuroyama amulet in his hand and looked at the simple-looking dessert shop under the large torii gate behind him—"Omuroyama Ice Cream Shop".

"How about some dessert? I heard that wasabi ice cream is a specialty of Izu."

"Hmm...that's right." Tomatsu Tomoka looked troubled. "But the taste might not be good, you know?"

Grind the wasabi root into a fine paste, and you get the wasabi used in Japanese restaurants to dip sashimi.

"I want to give it a try." The boy walked towards the kind-looking uncle at the shop entrance.

“Then I’ll go too!” Mochizuki Haruka followed behind him without hesitation.

"..." Tomatsu Yuka gave a slightly troubled smile and helplessly followed the two figures.

Finally, adhering to the principle of not wasting food, Jun Matsue was forced to eat three servings of wasabi ice cream.

　Six hundred chapters! Congratulations!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)