Am I being simulated by their love affair.

Chapter 606 The Opening of the Fireworks

When the Kinme-Tai arrived at Atami Station at 2 PM, the students from Haneoka High School went to the hotel to drop off their luggage.

Just as Jun Matsue took off his backpack and placed it on the table, there was a knock on the door. Ken Sakamuro, who was tidying up his things nearby, looked up and gave him an inquiring look.

"I'll open the door." He walked to the door, grasped the handle, and pushed the door open a crack.

Outside the door was Mochizuki Haruka's indifferent face, so the boy went out and closed the door, blocking his roommate's curious gaze.

"Your yukata." The girl pressed the clothes in her hand against the boy's chest.

"I almost forgot about it." Jun Matsue took the black and white yukata and examined it. There weren't any extra wrinkles on it.

He only brought a backpack for this school trip. Packing some light clothes like swim trunks and short-sleeved shirts was no problem, but yukatas were a bit of a hassle, so he simply stuffed the yukata into Mochizuki's suitcase.

"What are the plans for Songzhi this afternoon?" Mochizuki Haruka took a step closer to the boy, completely ignoring the stares of the other people in the corridor.

"No plans, I can just wander around or rest at the hotel."

Atami, as the gateway to the Izu Peninsula, doesn't actually have many places worth visiting. Apart from the fireworks festival in the evening, the school didn't have any other plans, so the students had an extra afternoon of free time.

The girl nodded. "Then remember to call me when you go out."

After watching Mochizuki Haruka turn and go upstairs, Matsueda Jun glanced around at the gossipy eyes in the corridor before returning to his room.

Sakamuro Takeru immediately leaned closer, "That yukata Matsueda is holding is quite nice, did Mochizuki give it to you?"

Jun Matsueda hung the yukata in the closet. "No, I just left it with her."

This yukata was given to him by Tomatsu Yuka on the banks of the Tama River when they were filming the brass band's summer festival performance.

"So the rumors that you live together are true?" Ken Sakamuro's eyes turned strange. "They also said you two are cousins."

Matsueda Jun's parents have never attended parent-teacher meetings. There were many rumors circulating in Class 3-6 before, but since Mochizuki Haruka appeared, the rumor that Matsueda Jun is actually a distant relative of the Mochizuki family has taken the lead.

"We don't live together. She rented an apartment right next to mine for commuting convenience."

"So, are you actually related?" the boy asked again.

"...It's just that our elders know each other. I've already explained that to Rion and the others."

Ken Sakamuro's eyes widened. "I'm not even familiar with them! How would I know!"

"Then why did you and Tomatsu still go out with her? Isn't Tomatsu involved?"

The boy waited for a minute but didn't get an answer. Matsueda Jun seemed not to have heard his question and silently tidied up the room.

Ken Sakamuro could only sigh, "Matsueda, we're about to graduate, don't let me hear any bad news about you guys."

Jun Matsue changed his clothes and opened the door to the room again.

"Will not."

That's the only thing he can guarantee.

Upon arriving at the hotel lobby, the young man bought a bottle of barley tea from the vending machine and sat down on a chair to take two large gulps.

A familiar, subtle bitterness fills the mouth, followed by a slightly sweet wheat aroma.

At first, he didn't like barley tea, always thinking it had a burnt taste, but over time he gradually got used to it.

“It’s been a long time…” Jun Matsue sighed.

"What do you mean, 'long time no see'?" The girl's voice appeared before him as her white flat sandals came into view.

The boy looked up and saw Tomatsu Yuka's smiling face in front of him. Groups of girls walked past her behind her, carrying parasols, probably on their way to go shopping.

"It's nothing, I just haven't had barley tea in a while."

Jun Matsue shook the bottled barley tea in his hand—he'd been drinking lemon tea brewed by Haruka Mochizuki at home lately.

The girl sat down beside him. "Tsun-kun, are you planning to stay at the inn and rest? Or would you like to go out for a walk?"

"We still need to go out and explore." The boy looked at the dazzling sunlight blurring the streets outside the door. "Everyone says there's nothing fun in Atami, but it would be a waste to stay cooped up in the hotel."

"Hmm...that's true." Tomatsu Tomohana nodded. "Shall we invite Mochizuki-san?"

Jun Matsue looked at her, and the girl smiled. "You must want Mochizuki to invite her, right?"

For some reason, Jun Matsue felt a pang of sorrowful sympathy for the girl's empathetic and meticulous thinking. He remained silent for a moment, then took out his phone to send a message.

Five minutes later, he walked onto the street, still surrounded by women in black and white dresses swaying together.

"Where are we going?" Mochizuki Haruka yawned.

Jun Matsue looked at the girl in the white dress beside him, while Yuka Tomatsu took out her phone and looked at the strategy guide she had prepared in advance.

"Let's head towards the Ginza shopping street first. We can look for some interesting shops there. There's also a promenade lined with cherry trees. Even though we won't see any cherry blossoms, it'll still be nice to walk in the shade."

"Moreover, it's very close to Atami Port, where the fireworks festival is held, so we can go and check it out first."

Walking along the main road outside the hotel towards the direction where the sea breeze blows, the sounds of the tide, cars, and wind blend together in my ears, and patches of mottled, broken dark tree shadows slide across the fair faces of the young men and women.

The three stopped in front of a small park by the roadside and looked at the bronze statues in front of them—a woman sitting on the ground, dressed in a kimono and with a classical hairstyle, and a man wearing a cloak and a sailor hat.

"What is this?" Mochizuki Haruka asked, looking at the two's posture.

The man's arms were wrapped under his cloak, and one of his feet was on the woman's leg, as if he had kicked her to the ground.

Jun Matsue walked up to the bronze statue and looked at the name engraved below it.

“The image of Guanyi Palace”.

“It’s ‘The Golden Demon’.” Tomatsu Yuka looked enlightened. “Kanichi and Omiya parted ways at Atami Onsen, didn’t they?”

"...The one mentioned in the Chinese language class? Ozaki Koyo's book?" The girl frowned.

“It should be right.” Jun Matsueda took out his phone, snapped a photo, and sent it to Aya-chan.

I won't show it to Kurusu this time; she probably doesn't even remember ever studying this text in high school.

Tomatsu Yuka stood beside him, carefully examining the bronze statue of the woman. "Speaking of which, 'The Golden Demon' was on the reading comprehension section of a test before."

Jun Matsue nodded. "The plutocracy of the Meiji era."

"The Golden Demon" is considered a literary work reflecting the national character of Japan. The protagonist, Kanichi Ma, is abandoned by his fiancée, Omiya, who succumbs to the temptation of money and marries a wealthy man. After being devastated, Kanichi Ma goes into hiding and becomes a ruthless and untrustworthy loan shark, vowing to become a money-grubbing devil to take revenge on society that stole his love with money.

Mochizuki Haruka walked up behind the two of them. "So this is the last time Omiya saw Kanichi Ma, and he wanted to ask for his forgiveness?"

“I was kicked away so hard…” Tomatsu Yuka blinked, her tone somewhat complicated. The scene was a bit shocking for the girl—she had almost ended up like Omiya, never to receive forgiveness from her beloved.

"Serves you right~" Mochizuki Haruka leaned closer to her and said in a sweet yet malicious tone.

“Let’s go.” Jun Matsue turned around and strode towards the end of the road where the sunlight was brighter. “It’s just a bronze statue, there’s not much to see.”

Although he said that, another thought popped into the boy's mind.

Did you stop in Atami during your graduation trip?
When she saw this bronze statue back then, did she feel a pang of regret?
At 5 p.m., Jun Matsueda walked into a ramen shop in the Atami Ginza shopping street alone and ordered a bowl of golden sea bream dashi ramen.

He had just parted ways with the girls, and Mochizuki Haruka and Tomatsu Yuka didn't eat dinner, but went straight back to the hotel to change. The two had eaten strawberry condensed milk daifuku and matcha crepes while shopping in the afternoon, so they weren't very hungry.

Besides, girls always need to dress up before attending a fireworks festival in yukata, so once it was past five o'clock, the two of them said goodbye to Matsueda Jun at the same time. They separated by a street and turned to walk back to the hotel.

"Your Golden Eye Sea Bream Dashi Ramen~"

The aroma that wafted towards him interrupted the boy's reverie. He picked up a piece of thin, slightly curved noodles with his chopsticks and put it in his mouth. The fresh and fragrant flavor of the golden snapper soup base instantly filled his mouth.

“…Delicious.” Jun Matsueda couldn’t help but nod. He put down his chopsticks, picked up his phone, took a picture, and sent it to Yosuke Kurusu.

Miss Idol didn't reply, apparently she was busy, while the boy continued to eat his noodles and drink his soup with his head down.

It's a pity I can't bring a golden-eyed sea bream back with me, otherwise it would have been a perfect gift for Kurusu...

After finishing the soup, Jun Matsue walked out of the shop and followed the girls' departing figures back to the inn. There were many more people in the corridor and lobby. Most of them had changed into yukatas, and the girls waved the round fans they had bought to greet each other with smiles.

Unable to find Tomatsu and Mochizuki, Matsueda Jun went upstairs to the second floor, changed into a yukata in his room, and came downstairs again, immediately drawing gasps of amazement.

"Matsueda-kun's yukata is so cool~"

"Where did you buy it? I want to buy one when I get back!"

"How about we take a group photo together, Songzhi?"

With his signature smile, Jun Matsueda walked through the crowd and stepped out of the hotel, standing under the shade of a tree at the crossroads to wait.

He took out his phone, tapped on the cat and rabbit profile pictures, and sent messages to them respectively.

"There are too many people in the hotel. I'll wait at the intersection. I can see it as soon as I go out."

Mochizuki's reply was a cool "okay," while Tomatsu Tomoka's was "Coming right away~."

The boy put down his phone. The green light had just turned on, and as the first car drove through the intersection, he heard the girl's footsteps behind him.

"Tsun-kun is wearing this yukata~"

He turned his head, and Tomatsu Yuka walked towards him with a smile. The girl's yukata was white with light purple patterns, decorated with purple February orchids and green branches and leaves.

Matsue Jun had seen this yukata before; it was the same as the one he was wearing, both belonging to the memories of that fireworks display in the Tamagawa River.

The boy nodded, his gaze sweeping over the girl's bright, light makeup and settling on the February orchids around her waist.

"I thought you would buy a new yukata, since it's two years old."

“How could that be!” Tomatsu Yuka shook her head and walked to his side.

"I'm a very sentimental person~"

The girl beside him had her long hair blown by the damp sea breeze. As he watched her raise her hand to press down her black hair, leaving a strand hanging by her pink lips, Jun Matsue smiled unconsciously.

"I think so too."

"Shall we leave now?" Tomatsu Yuka checked the time. "They seem to have been scrambling for spots on the beach for quite some time now."

"..." The boy turned his head to look at the hotel, "Wait a little longer for Mochizuki."

The girl, unsurprised, nodded slightly and looked at the red light at the intersection.

Two minutes later, accompanied by the crisp and elegant sound of wooden clogs, Mochizuki Haruka appeared in front of the two people at the intersection.

Her yukata was almost blackish-blue, with a deep blue river flowing from the neckline to her waist, and the banks were covered with white snow, with geometrically shaped ice shards floating in the river.

The girl wore light yet vibrant eyeshadow today, revealing the nobility and aloofness she usually concealed. However, when she walked up to Jun Matsueda, her pouting lips softened this aura.

"A yukata is much warmer than a skirt~"

Her tone was almost coquettish, and Jun Matsue smiled. "The sun is about to set, it'll get a bit cooler afterward."

"Can we set off now?" Tomatsu Yuka poked her head out from the other side.

"Set off."

The three followed the crowd toward the seaside. The clear sunlight was tinged with yellow, and the jacaranda trees hanging by the roadside swayed in the cool sea breeze, casting varying shades of purple light and shadow above the pedestrians' heads.

It took less than ten minutes to walk from the hotel to the beach, and the students of Haneoka High School joined an even larger crowd, with the boys and girls stopping in front of the sand.

"It's only a little past six o'clock, and there are already so many people..." Tomatsu Yuka exclaimed.

Looking at the picnic blankets laid out in front of him and the people waiting with the sea breeze blowing, Jun Matsueda shook his head helplessly.

"Let's go to the waterfront park." He looked at the plaza with small boats moored not far away. "Although you can't sit there, isn't the view of the fireworks better than on the beach?"

So the three of them broke away from the main group and walked towards the stepped seaside platform. There were far fewer people in the square, so they found a quiet corner, leaned on the railing, and gazed at the distant sea.

"The fireworks are set off over there, right?" Mochizuki Haruka tugged at the boy's sleeve and pointed to the long embankment extending from the dock.

"Hmm." Jun Matsue looked at the cordon tape that had been put up on the embankment. "It's a pity we can't go over and take a look. I'm a little curious about what shape the fireworks would look like from below."

Tomatsu Yuka laughed, "That's a bit too dangerous."

Time slipped away as they chatted idly while leaning on the railing. As the sun gradually sank behind them and the sky turned into its most brilliant crimson gold, the boys and girls tacitly looked up at the flocks of seagulls skimming over the sea.

The pure white seabirds were tinged with gold and red in the afterglow. Their flapping wings were not synchronized; their shadows lit up in one moment and faded in the next. The flocks of shadows rose into the air like shimmering waves on the sea, flickering in people's hearts.

After the sun had completely set, the light on the sea began to disappear rapidly. Jun Matsue turned to look at the girls beside him. They didn't speak, as if they were overcome by a brief fatigue, silently waiting for the fireworks to begin.

The darkness before the light is the heaviest.

As the last glimmer of light sank into the sea and the buildings on the shore tacitly turned off their lights, a bright red ball of light leaped from the center of the sea, rising into the air like a breath, its brightness flickering.

The girls blinked instinctively, and then golden-red flames exploded before their eyes, illuminating the sparse clouds above Atami Harbor for a moment.

The fireworks festival has begun.

(End of this chapter)