Am I being simulated by their love affair?

"I'll go with Jun-kun!"

Seeing the girl rushing towards him, Jun Matsue blinked in surprise.

"what?"

"...I'm not going home today!" Yami Maki ran up to him, panting.

The boy looked closely and saw that the senior's face was flushed with anger. She was in good physical condition, and her panting was not from running those few steps, but rather from the sudden surge of emotions causing her chest to heave.

"What happened?" he asked gently.

“…I was angered by my father!” the girl replied stubbornly, biting her lip.

"When I came upstairs, he was reading the newspaper in the living room. The first thing he said to me was, 'So you know how to come back?'"

Jun Matsueda blinked, his gaze passing over her shoulder—

The girl's father, Kazuaki Yamami, was standing by the floor-to-ceiling window at the corner of the stairs, watching them. The man remained motionless, revealing no emotion whatsoever.

The boy imagined it—

When the upset senior returned home, she saw her father, who was calmly holding a newspaper, and said indifferently, "So you know how to come back?"

My persistence and resistance seemed to have no effect on him whatsoever; this arrogant attitude...

“It’s really infuriating.” Jun Matsueda’s gaze returned to the girl in front of him.

"But didn't you expect him to be like this, senior?"

Yamami Maki nodded, gripping the backpack strap tightly.

"So I didn't argue with him, I just greeted him..."

"Did he say anything else?" the boy asked astutely.

"Hmm." The girl gritted her teeth, somewhat angrily.

“He broke up with me and that was it. Don’t try to get him back. As a woman of the Yami family, you have to have some backbone.”

"..." Jun Matsue blinked.

That sounded milder, but for Yamami Maki, it might have been more damaging than "You still know how to come back."

After all, the father who made such sarcastic remarks was clearly a major reason that pushed them to break up in the first place.

“I thought I would be very patient—” the girl pursed her lips.

"But it's infuriating to find that Dad hasn't even tried to understand me..."

Her father still thought she had run away from home only for love.

“So I’m not planning to go back now!” She looked up and took a step closer to the boy.

"As long as Father doesn't change his attitude, there's no point in going back to this house!"

Jun Matsue didn't speak immediately, but instead looked behind the girl.

An elegantly dressed woman was standing in front of the mansion gate. Her expression was indistinct due to the distance, but judging from her frequent glances around, she was probably worried about her daughter.

Looking further up...

The man remained standing by the stairwell window, like an unmoving rock—just three floors above him, Yamami Ikuka rested her hands on the open window, leisurely watching the young men and women on the street.

Now he was completely noticed... The boy sighed inwardly.

But now that things have come to this, it doesn't matter anymore. He looked at the senior in front of him.

Yamami Maki's emotions had not yet calmed down. The girl's brows furrowed, her cheeks flushed slightly, and she exhaled puffs of white mist with each breath. Her gentle eyes were filled with her unusual emotions, making her even more captivating than her usual gentle and tender self.

He supported his senior going home to talk, but under the current circumstances, pushing her home was absolutely impossible for Matsueda Jun.

"Say goodbye to your family before you leave." The boy put his hand on her shoulder and helped the girl turn around.

"Explain your current feelings clearly."

"Hmm!" Yamami Maki waved vigorously toward the mansion, then took out her cell phone from her pocket.

She watched her father answer the phone by the stairwell window.

“I’m not going home,” the girl said bluntly.

“It’s not that I don’t want to go home, but I feel that with my father’s current attitude, even if we go home, we won’t be able to communicate properly.”

“I didn’t leave home just because of Tsunkun—the older I get, the less I like this home, it’s that simple!”

Watching her straight back and the way her hair swayed as she spoke, Jun Matsue silently applauded in his heart.

Finally, I feel great.

So I'm leaving now—

Yamami Maki turned around, holding her phone to her ear, and grabbed the boy's arm with her other hand, which was draped with a backpack.

"If Father has something to say to me, please tell me directly. Don't pass the message on to me through Mother or Sister. Otherwise, I will only feel that you don't care about me at all."

“That’s it—” the girl said, holding her phone up to her face and looking at the screen.

"Wishing you a Happy New Year in advance. Remember to drink less alcohol and take care of your health."

She hung up the phone, turned around, and waved goodbye to the three people at the mansion one last time.

See you in the New Year!

Yamami Maki pulled the boy beside her along, turned her back to home, and walked quickly forward, disappearing into the rustling shadows of the trees lining the roadside.

"..."

The girl slowed her pace a few minutes later. Jun Matsueda looked back and saw that the Yami family had completely disappeared from sight, leaving only the faint bird calls coming from the distant temple.

She let go of his little hand, and the boy watched as Yamami Maki stopped in her tracks, reaching out to cover her cheeks, which were turning red again.

"I got a little carried away with my emotions..."

Jun Matsueda smiled. "But those were all your true feelings, weren't they?"

"Um……"

The girl's voice was very soft, and the wisps of white mist from her breath looked like steam from a feverish head, which was rather cute.

"This is the first time I've ever lost my temper like this at home..."

"This is the first time I've seen a senior like this," the boy said with a smile, trying to comfort her. "Actually, compared to those who really get angry, you're quite gentle and rational."

"Really?" Yami Maki breathed a sigh of relief and looked back at the path she had just walked.

"Do you want to go back?"

"No." The girl shook her head decisively. "I want to do it this way."

"I just remembered that my favorite boots are still at home..."

Jun Matsue looked down and saw that his senior was wearing a pair of fluffy white cotton slippers. Although they were cute, it was obviously a bit strange to wear them on the street while wearing a coat.

"There's no other way." Yamami Maki stamped her foot helplessly. "I'll just wear it home for now."

"Back to Higashi-Nakano?"

"Hmm." She looked at the bus stop next to the next intersection.

"I feel a little bad for Jun-kun. You made a wasted trip with me today and wasted so much of your time."

"Ah, I need to send a message to Kokoro first." The girl took out her phone. "Aoi doesn't need her to take care of her anymore."

"Wait a minute." The boy stopped her. "Did you just say goodbye to Miss Yuxiang and the others for the New Year?"

"Okay!" Yami Maki slung her bag over her shoulder.

"I've made up my mind, I won't be going home before the New Year."

"Maybe my father thinks I'm still just playing around, and maybe this is the only way to show him my determination."

Once she misses the New Year's family activities, her running away from home will be impossible to hide.

"...Then there'll be no room for regret, okay?" the boy said, looking into her eyes.

"There's nothing to regret anyway," the girl said without hesitation.

Jun Matsue blinked. He remembered the night his senior ran away from home, and how she resolutely said, "I don't regret it."

And then there was the moment when he said, "I have no regrets," declaring the end of their relationship.

What was he feeling at that time?

—Perhaps because so much happened afterward, it's all a bit blurry now when I think about it.

It's better to remember the captivating, carefree yet resolute look in Yamami Maki's eyes now, rather than recalling the anger and sorrow of the past.

"So... are you planning to spend the New Year alone, senior?"

The girl's eyebrows twitched helplessly. "Kokoro-chan should be able to find some time to come and play with me, right?"

Her expression was somewhat forced, "Besides, after more than ten years of lively New Year celebrations, perhaps spending it alone would be quite interesting?"

"Is my senior coming to the orphanage?" Jun Matsue suddenly asked.

"Huh?" Yamami Maki was taken aback.

"What I mean is, would you like to spend the Lunar New Year at the orphanage, senior?"

The boy repeated it again, and the girl opened her eyes wide in disbelief, her mouth slightly agape.

"...Will you spend the New Year with Jun-kun?" Her voice trembled slightly in the winter wind.

"To be precise, it was spending the New Year with me, Cai Jiang, and the other people in the orphanage."

Jun Matsueda wanted to explain further, but his senior's face was already right in front of him—

"I want to go!" Yamami Maki said excitedly.

"Tsun-kun isn't joking with me, is he? Like the joke Aya-chan made during the last shopping trip?"

The boy took a step back; he could even smell the fragrance of the skin cream on the senior's face.

"It's not a joke, I just don't want to see you spending the New Year alone."

Matsueda Jun took a soft breath. "Although I know that my senior will say that you are like this now, it's not just because of me."

“But we all know very well that it was because of me that you had the motivation to leave the Yami family.”

"Of course, I have always supported what you did—since that's the case, I think I also have a responsibility to ensure your experience on this part of your life journey."

"Sitting alone in a rented room during the New Year, experiencing the emptiness and loneliness, is not a very pleasant experience..."

"If you have a choice, it's better to avoid experiencing this kind of thing as much as possible."

His tone gradually softened—soft enough to remind the girl of their innocent, youthful romance.

"So, come to the orphanage." The boy smiled.

“The welfare home may not be as comfortable as your apartment, but it will certainly not make you feel lonely.”

"...May I?" Yami Maki blinked and asked him cautiously.

"Why not?" Jun Matsue retorted. "Since you're not going back to the Yamagami family for the New Year anyway, what difference does it make where you go?"

The girl hesitated for a moment, unsure whether she should voice her thoughts.

"This might cause my father and the others to misunderstand..."

Just like how her boyfriend Matsueda shouldn't have gone to the orphanage at Mochizuki's house—if Yami Maki were to go to the orphanage with a boy now, her family would definitely think that she and Matsueda Jun had gotten back together.

"—Then let them misunderstand."

The street in front of Jiyugaoka Station was quiet for a moment.

Looking at the boy's calm and unchanging face, Yamami Maki nodded vigorously.

"it is good!"

It was as if a transparent membrane had been punctured, and the air between the boy and girl began to flow, carrying a fresh and distinct scent.

Yamami Maki gripped the backpack strap on her shoulder, tilted her head back, and blinked expectantly.

"Then I'll go with Chunjun? Where are you going next?"

"Let's not go anywhere, just go straight back to the orphanage." Jun Matsue looked at the sky above, where the heat was gradually dissipating. "It's already past three o'clock."

"So, we're going to Mitaka, right?" The girl took out her phone.