Am I being simulated by their love affair?

Chapter 870 Natsumi Imokawa's Final Exam Tutoring

On the last Friday of January, when Natsumi Imokawa returned to the classroom after lunch, she made a pleasant surprise—

The boy sitting in the back row was looking at his phone alone, while the seats on both sides of him were unusually empty.

The girl immediately picked up the mini camera hanging on her wrist and walked quickly toward him.

"Matsushi~" Natsumi Imokawa returned to her seat and sat down in front of the boy.

"Did Mochizuki go to tutoring?"

"Hmm." Jun Matsueda put away his phone and smiled at her sitting at the desk.

"I just saw her off at the school gate."

"Where's Tomatsu-san?" the girl asked, looking to her left. "Her schoolbag is gone too."

"Because Tomatsu also went to tutoring today."

"Huh?" Natsumi Imokawa blinked in surprise. "Does she need tutoring too?"

"Uh." The boy's expression was a little strange. "She's the daughter of an acquaintance of hers, a student at Tokyo University."

"Oh~~" the girl understood, "You're getting special treatment, right?"

Jun Matsue nodded and moved the pencil case in front of him so that Imagawa could comfortably rest his hands on the table.

"Tomatsu said she didn't really want to go, but because it was her mother's good intention, she decided to go and hear about the interview experience."

“I understand, I understand!” Natsumi Imokawa picked up her mini camera and took a picture of the boy’s hand on the table.

“We art students have a lot of these kinds of private tutoring sessions—not just exam preparation tips for test takers, but also opportunities to hire professors from schools to tutor students as long as you have the money and connections. You can even have your portfolio completed by someone else, and as long as you put your name on it, it’s yours.”

"..." Matsueda Jun looked at her. "This doesn't seem like something the Imokawa Association would know."

"Pine Branch understands me best!" the girl laughed. "These are what my dad told me~"

“But that’s not important—” Natsumi Imokawa braced her arms against the table and leaned her body toward the boy.

"So the pine branch is mine this afternoon, right?"

"Hey, hey." Jun Matsueda looked up at the figures in the front row of the classroom. "There's no such saying."

If Tomatsu or Mochizuki had said that, he would have happily admitted it—but Imokawa wasn't his girlfriend.

"..." The girl puffed out her cheeks slightly, looking unwilling.

“But in the afternoon, it was just us left.” The boy’s tone was gentle. “Luckily, Imokawa was there with me.”

"After all, I need to find more opportunities to win over Matsue~" Imokawa Natsumi said in a matter-of-fact tone.

She glanced back and saw that although it was lunch break time, there were fewer students in the classroom than during lunch break last week.

"Fewer and fewer people are coming to the school."

"After all, next week is the second round of exams for various universities, and everyone will definitely have their own things to do."

Jun Matsue picked up the pen on the table and twirled it around. The girl watched his fluid movements with the look in her eyes that of a country boy who had discovered a rare rhinoceros beetle.

"Take leave to stay home and cram for exams, go out for a walk to relax and adjust your mindset, or get extra help like Tomatsu did..."

The boy stretched and yawned, holding his pen. "To be honest, I'm feeling a bit tired too."

"Huh?" Natsumi Imokawa lay on the table, carefully observing his expression.

"Even pine branches feel stressed? Is there any way to help you relax?"

"..." Jun Matsue leaned back in his chair, consciously moving away from the badly deformed knitted vest that was pressed against the table.

"It's not pressure, it's laziness." He lowered his hands and looked up at the light tubes on the ceiling.

“Reviewing these knowledge points over and over again, and doing the same type of questions over and over again—even someone as diligent as me feels a bit bored.”

"So that's how it is!" The girl stared at his eyelashes, which were raised in the light.

"The pine branch is no longer novel! When I was preparing for the entrance exam for the Shanghai Oriental Art Center, I memorized theoretical knowledge every day, and I felt the same way."

"Hmm." The boy looked up at the seat behind Imokawa.

"Everyone does this, right? Before, quite a few people would do their homework during lunch break, but now they just listen to music, play on their phones, and take a nap."

Natsumi Imokawa followed his gaze and turned to look—

"That's true..."

She turned around, placed her hands on the boy's desk, and looked confident.

"Then I'll try to bring something new to the pine branches!"

"What do you mean?" Jun Matsuoka sat up straight.

The girl coughed lightly twice to hide the faint blush rising on her face.

"Um, how about Songzhi tutors me this afternoon?"

"..." The boy blinked but didn't say anything.

"Aren't you bored? Teaching others should be a bit of a novelty, right?" Natsumi Imokawa blinked, speaking a little faster.

"And I'm thinking of cramming at the last minute—final exams are the day after tomorrow, and I haven't really studied yet..."

Matsueda Jun looked her over with a smile, "So what were you doing the other day?"

"..." The girl's awkward expression with her eyes half-closed reminded one of a dog pretending to be pitiful after making a mistake.

"Passing notes with Songzhi." She counted on her fingers.

"Reading extracurricular books, flipping through printed photos, staring blankly at the parts with pine branches..."

"It sounds like I have a lot of responsibility to bear?" Jun Matsueda deliberately raised an eyebrow.

"I didn't say that!"

Imokawa Natsumi waved her hand forcefully, causing her gray-blue vest, which was bulging at the chest, to sway.

"Just like Songzhi said—it's almost all self-study time all day, so boring, we have to find something to do..."

"That's true."

"What does the pine branch think?" The girl looked up expectantly.

"The tutoring I received this afternoon—"

Meeting her bright, soft gaze, Jun Matsue pondered for a moment.

—At one o'clock in the afternoon, when the bell rang for the first class, Natsumi Imokawa successfully placed her desk next to the boy's.

She moved a chair and sat down next to the pine branches, unable to hide the smile on her face.

"Wow...it feels so good to sit next to Matsueda in the classroom~"

"Keep your voice down," Jun Matsue reminded her as he opened his own draft notebook.

"The teacher only allowed everyone to discuss and ask questions on their own, but did not allow disturbing others."

"Oh~" the girl let out a light breath and quietly moved her position closer to him.

"Shall we begin our studies now?"

"Otherwise what?" The boy glanced at her. "Do you want to review your textbook or do some practice problems?"

"Let's do some practice problems!" Natsumi Imokawa took out her workbook.

“I’ve reviewed a little bit of everything else, but I’ve never really had the motivation for math.”

“I understand.” Jun Matsue watched her pick up her pen. “I’m actually not that interested in math.”

"I'll watch Imokawa do the questions first. If you get them wrong or get stuck, we can talk about it."

"Good~"

The girl looked at the first page, which hadn't been touched much, and as she read the questions with a slight frown, her left hand naturally unbuttoned the collar of her shirt.

"Wait!" the boy immediately called out to her, "What are you doing?"

"To cool down." Natsumi Imokawa pulled open her collar, her eyes exceptionally pure.

"When I use my brain a lot while doing problems, I feel my cheeks getting hot, like a projector that has been working for too long."

“…That can happen.” Jun Matsueda glanced at her neckline.

Imokawa unbuttoned two buttons—actually, with the knitted vest binding her, she wasn't showing much skin at all.

However, the delicate white skin beneath the girl's neck and the slight indentation at her collarbone still possessed an irresistible charm...

But Jun Matsue was no ordinary teenage boy. He controlled himself and turned his head to look at the girl's pen tip moving across the pages of the book.

The two desks pushed together fell silent, enveloped in the tranquil atmosphere of the classroom. The air was filled with the teacher's explanations from the podium, the occasional whispers from the students, and the birdsong that drifted through the sunlight outside the window.

"...Why is Imokawa taking so long?" the boy asked after watching for a while.

"You won't be able to finish the exam like this, will you? Your accuracy rate is obviously very high, you can be a little bolder."

The pen paused on the page, and Natsumi Imokawa pursed her slightly fleshy lips, looking somewhat resentful.

"Because Songzhi is watching me." She poked the boy's face with her eyes.

"Wouldn't it be embarrassing if you saw me get a simple question wrong? That's why I thought I'd check it a few more times."

"..." Matsueda Jun raised the corners of his lips, "Then what should we do?"

"Didn't Imagawa ask me to tutor you? I can't just not even look at the questions, can I?"

The girl naturally pushed his arm away, "Then don't keep staring."

"You can use pine branches to do practice problems or review your books. Just check on me every now and then. I'll ask you questions if I encounter anything I don't understand."

"That's fine too." The boy opened his drawer. "Imokawa, you do your homework first. I'll take care of my own things."

Seeing him take out his textbook, Natsumi Imokawa finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The girl focused intently on her problem, occasionally glancing at the profile of the person beside her—despite not being interested in math to begin with, she unconsciously stopped looking up and entered a state of concentration.

How amazing... Natsumi Imokawa wrote down the solution process while savoring her feelings.

She wasn't particularly interested in math before, but suddenly she became motivated.

Is it because having someone you love by your side makes everything more interesting? The girl thought of the exceptionally sweet expression on her face when she talked to her mother about love.

After successfully completing the easy questions, Natsumi Imokawa finally got stuck on the last option—but instead of getting discouraged, she blinked excitedly.

Now we can find pine branches!

The girl turned her head, her gaze passing over the boy's arm resting on the table—her clear eyes quickly widened in surprise.

"Why is Songzhi looking at a photo album?!"

The photo album that Natsumi Imokawa mentioned was a gift she gave to a boy back then. Jun Matsueda turned his face and looked at her.

"What's wrong? Can't I look at it?" he said, turning a page in the photo album.

"I don't need to review the textbook content anymore, and doing exercises would be too much of a hassle because I'd have to keep looking at you, which would easily interrupt my train of thought..."

"So I thought I might as well relax for a while." The boy looked at the fireworks that filled the entire page of the night sky.

"This is the fireworks festival in Atami back then. Even the details of the flames and the night sky are captured so clearly. Imokawa is amazing."

"It's just adjusting the parameters," the girl smiled.

"No, I want Matsueda to teach me how to do the problems!"

"Which question?" Jun Matsue loosened his grip on the paper and leaned over to look.

"You mean this sequence selection? It's actually quite simple..."

Listening to the gentle explanation in her ear, Imokawa Natsumi naturally drifted off into a daze.

Because he needed to work on the problem, the boy leaned half of his upper body against the table in front of her—the distance between them was closer than ever before, so close that the girl seemed to be able to count his eyelashes.

The pine branches are so beautiful... Natsumi Imokawa couldn't help but think.

She noticed Jun Matsueda as soon as she entered school, precisely because of the boy's outstanding appearance and temperament.

It would be such a shame if we couldn't capture such moments in our lenses...

Of course, people are always greedy.