Am I being simulated by their love affair?

After getting closer to Songzhi and inviting him to be her model, the girl quickly thought of making him her actor, for as long as possible.

Later, she began to look for things beyond the camera lens—

Songzhi's personality, Songzhi's hobbies, Songzhi's past, Songzhi's love story...

Little by little, and not very clearly, Natsumi Imokawa inevitably fell into the vortex called "Jun Matsueda".

Even when out of the camera's view, she can maintain a close, even "special," connection with the pine branches—this is the starting point of a young girl's romantic feelings.

"Is Imokawa listening attentively?"

"Ah." She finally came to her senses and honestly shook her head.

"Opportunities to see pine branches this close up are rare—it's easy to get distracted without realizing it."

"..." Jun Matsue sighed helplessly.

The smile in his eyes showed neither annoyance nor distance. The boy turned the draft paper to the page he had just finished writing.

"Then I'll explain the thought process to Imokawa again, listen carefully, okay?"

"Uh-huh!"

A few minutes later, Jun Matsuoka put down his pen. "How does it feel?"

"I think I understand!" Natsumi Imokawa looked at him with admiration.

"Is this what 'explaining complex things simply' means? Songzhi will definitely be a great teacher in the future!"

The boy smiled and gently nudged her arm.

"Then let's try to solve the problem by following this line of thought and see if we can find the answer."

"Okay~" The girl picked up the pen with great enthusiasm and lowered her head to press down the draft paper.

Seeing her writing furiously, Jun Matsuoka's smile became even brighter.

Imokawa is right; teaching others is indeed more fun than studying alone.

He didn't immediately distance himself from the girl, but instead leaned on the edge of the table, watching her solve the problem step by step.

The boy's gaze quickly fell on Imokawa Natsumi's open collar—not because there was anything exposed, but because he also felt a little hot.

The warmth seemed to be emanating from the girl's body, and Jun Matsue withdrew his gaze. Logically, human body temperatures are all roughly the same; he shouldn't be experiencing this.

Perhaps it was some kind of scent that evoked warmth? He took a gentle sniff.

Imokawa smelled clean and fresh, probably from laundry detergent or fabric softener.

However, if you get a little closer, you can indeed smell a warm fragrance emanating from the skin—the boy had experienced this before at Imogawa's studio.

It could also be the interaction between human body electromagnetic waves or magnetic fields...

Lost in thought, Jun Matsue didn't sit up straight. Instead, he pulled over the photo album on his desk and continued flipping through it, glancing at Natsumi Imokawa out of the corner of his eye.

He was certain of one thing—that he didn't dislike the warm feeling.

Chapter 871 Natsumi Imokawa's Extracurricular Reflections

As the bell rang to signal the end of the first period in the afternoon, Natsumi Imokawa put down her pen and stretched her arms vigorously.

"Mmm—" the girl groaned lazily as she observed the classroom in front of her.

The classroom she was becoming more familiar with was much quieter than before—not only because there were fewer students in the class, but also because these were now self-study periods with little pressure, so the students naturally had less urge to "vent".

"I never expected to spend an entire class period doing math problems..." Natsumi Imokawa stretched her body, maintaining her yawning posture, and puffed out her proud chest.

"Before, I would feel tired after working for a maximum of half an hour."

Why does that sound a little strange? Jun Matsue, who was picking up a water glass, blinked.

Clearing his mind of the strange thoughts that arose from his extensive experience, he took a fruit hard candy from the drawer and handed it to the girl.

"Have a sweet treat to boost your brainpower, and I'll continue teaching you in the next class?"

"Okay~" The girl happily took the candy, unwrapped it, and said, "Then I won't move it back to its original position yet."

She put the translucent hard candy into her mouth—watching Imokawa's moist tongue flash by, the boy's gaze fell on her lips.

He had just noticed in class that the girl's lips were not wide and were slightly full—not the exaggerated full lips of a hot girl, but rather gave people a gentle and harmless feeling, just like her thick, blunt eyebrows and eyes.

But I didn't expect that Imokawa's tongue was also fleshy... Matsueda Jun drank a few more sips of water.

From her figure and personality to the details of her facial features such as earlobes, lips, tongue, eyebrows, and eyes, the girl possesses a wonderful contrast that lies between innocence and sentimentality...

He stopped thinking about it, snapped the photo album shut, and looked at Imokawa, who was sucking on a candy, beside him.

"Want to go out for some fresh air?"

The boy asked this question because of the gaze falling on his desk at that moment—it was break time, and the students who remained in the classroom would naturally notice the two sitting together in the back row.

Although everyone knew that he and Natsumi Imokawa had a good relationship after the release of "White Line Flow"—it was still a bit strange for them to sit together in public like this.

What's more, he just "changed" his girlfriend...

“Okay!” Natsumi Imokawa stood up without hesitation. “Are we going for a walk? Should I take my camera?”

"Just go to the balcony for some fresh air, there's not much time between classes." Jun Matsue got up as well.

"If you want to bring a camera, I'll help you carry it."

The boy and girl left the classroom, turned their backs to the bustling stairwell, and walked away. They reached the end of the corridor and opened the sliding door to the terrace.

A chilly wind immediately rushed into the corridor, ruffling the stray hairs hanging over her shoulders, causing Natsumi Imokawa to squint her eyes—

She instinctively looked down and raised her hand, but Jun Matsueda had already stepped in front of her, breaking through the surging wind.

The girl blinked; now all that remained in front of her was the clear sunlight.

The boy poked his head out into the sunlight outside the door. "What are you standing there for, Imokawa?"

"Here we are~" Natsumi Imokawa followed him into the sunlight.

"Songzhi was just like an angel!"

"Angels? I heard they have a bunch of eyes and wings, they probably aren't as pretty as me, right?"

The girl's laughter melted into the sunlight seeping into the corridor.

Jun Matsue leaned against the railing, pulling his coat tighter around him, and surveyed the neighborhood before him.

The horizon carries the not-so-tall buildings into the distance, and sunlight seeps into the gaps in the block, adding a layer of warmth to the concrete-colored geometric mosaic.

Lowering his head and letting the breeze ruffle his bangs, the boy took out another fruit candy from his pocket, unwrapped it, and popped it into his mouth.

"The sky is so beautiful today!" The girl next to him raised her camera. "We should take more pictures!"

"agree."

Jun Matsue blinked and looked up to feel the not-too-intense heat of the sunlight.

February is just around the corner, and winter is still a long way off. The temperature in Mitaka City today is only in the single digits—even Imokawa, who is standing next to him, has to wear a coat when he stands on the terrace.

However, the weather was indeed nice today. The gloomy clouds that often appear in winter had drifted away, leaving only a few thin clouds in the sky. The sunlight fell cleanly and brightly, and even though it wasn't very hot, it still made people feel relaxed.

"Well……"

The girl next to him started muttering. Jun Matsue turned his head and watched as she released the camera with her right hand—the mini camera hanging on her wrist swayed and shimmered in the sunlight.

"It's getting in the way..."

"Shall I take it off for you?" The boy raised his hand.

"Good~"

Imokawa's mini camera was attached to a fabric bracelet, but for convenience, Matsueda Jun simply took the bracelet off.

Of course, he inevitably touched the girl's hand during the process—the warm and soft touch of her skin swept through the boy's mind, leaving ripples.

“That makes things easier~” Natsumi Imokawa nodded in relief.

She held the camera in her left hand and rotated the focus ring on the lens with the other, capturing the delicate colors between the sky and the street.

"Speaking of which, I recently discovered something!" the girl said, burying her face in the screen.

"what's up?"

“The sun has been setting later and later lately,” she said earnestly.

"Although it's only a little bit later each day—less than a minute—I only noticed it because I've recently started taking pictures of sunsets and shadows!"

"Isn't this normal?" the boy next to him said with a smile.

"Because the days are getting longer. Even though Imokawa didn't choose geography for the exam, he should have studied it in first grade, right?"

“That’s different!” Natsumi Imokawa kept her eyes glued to the camera as she pressed the shutter with her fair index finger.

"I'm not talking about knowledge from books, but about the details of life that I've witnessed firsthand."

The girl put down her camera and nodded in satisfaction at the screen.

"Don't you find it amazing, Matsueda?" She turned to look at Matsueda Jun.

"The sun shines right in front of us from morning till night, seemingly never changing, but in fact it changes every day."

"The world changes before our eyes every day—the sun sets late and the stars rise early. This is not something written in books, but something we see with our own eyes."

Natsumi Imokawa turned her camera around and showed the boy the scene she had just taken.

The wind rustled through the cracks in the street, and sunlight pierced through the thin clouds, forming lines that narrowed the distance between the ground and the horizon—from outside the frame, one could hear the laughter and chatter of students at the foot of the school building.

Such a quiet scene, devoid of anything of note, slows down the pace of thought in one's mind.

"It's this subtle feeling, I think the pine branch can definitely sense it too, right?"

The boy nodded.

"Right, right~" the girl excitedly leaned closer, "No wonder he's the one I like!"

"In fact, there are so many tiny changes in the world right under our noses—and think about it, as we discover and capture all of this, time is also silently flowing by everywhere..."

She held her camera preciously to her chest, "just like the geographical knowledge Songzhi mentioned—"

"The sunsets in Hokkaido and Tokyo are different, right? They must have their own unique charm, right?"

“The sunset is different every day, and if I take a picture of the sunset in Tokyo today, I won’t be able to capture the sunset in Hokkaido…”

"Thinking this way, even if I put down the camera, I will still be happy because of everything in front of me, and I will cherish it all very much."

Seeing her so sincere and moved, Jun Matsue raised his hand and used his mini camera to record everything before him—including the blush on the girl's face.

"Ah." Natsumi Imokawa blinked in a panic.

She sluggishly raised her camera, trying to cover her face—

Why did Songzhi suddenly tap me?

“I think Iokawa is absolutely right,” the boy replied with a smile.

“Imokawa like this also moves me, so I want to record this moment of you.”

"..." The girl's cheeks turned even redder.

"I told Songzhi all this not so you could try to win me over!"

Jun Matsue smiled and looked at the girl's small face on the small screen in his hand.

Even after Imokawa put down his camera, he could still feel the girl's growing and stronger charm.

"So I want to thank Pine Branch."

—When the school bell rang and Imokawa Natsumi returned to the classroom, she said this to the person next to her.

"Huh?" The boy who had just sat down turned his head. "What does this have to do with me?"

"Because I like it, I can think like this," the girl said earnestly.

“I used to be only obsessed with things on the camera and screen—but after I fell in love with pine branches, it seems that even my mood changes. I also have more interesting random thoughts like this.”

Before Jun Matsue could speak, the girl continued.

"Mom said she was the same way. Before she was with Dad, she was a workaholic who was focused on her job. But after she started dating Dad, she discovered that there are so many interesting things in the world."

“No wonder…” Jun Matsue did not refute.

No wonder her parents were so supportive of Imokawa's feelings for her...