Am I being simulated by their love affair?

Page 418

"What's the deal with Jun-kun suddenly saying he's changing the schedule?" Tomatsu Yuka's voice sounded anxious.

"It's a bit hard to explain, but in short, I've recently decided to see fewer people so that I can have more time to think things through."

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone. The boy reached out and pressed his hand against the glass, feeling the coolness of the outside world.

"Is it the same thing that Tsun-kun said at the station before?" The girl's mind worked quickly; she was always clever.

"That's it."

"Isn't Jun-kun home right now?" she suddenly changed the subject. "I can hear a buzzing and clanging sound coming from your end."

"Yes, I'm in the laundry room."

Jun Matsue looked back and saw that he was the only one left in the room.

"So you're not living in your old apartment anymore?"

“…temporary.” He admired the girl’s keen sense of smell.

In the simulation, when I followed Kurusu to Tokyo, it seemed that she and Mochizuki were the ones who first found my trail.

"So you're not just like this to me, right?" Tomatsu Yuka breathed a sigh of relief.

"Mm." Even though he knew she couldn't see, the boy still nodded at his reflection in the glass.

"Well, there's nothing I can do about that..." The girl's tone was somewhat enigmatic. "After all, I said I would support all of Jun-kun's decisions."

Would you support her even if she broke up with him? Jun Matsueda didn't voice this question.

"I switched shifts with Ms. Chiyoko, and you'll have to work with her for the next few days."

"It's alright~" Tomatsu Yuka said cheerfully, "Chiyoko is a very nice person, and she has a lot of experience in cooking. We get along very well."

"You two don't usually talk much, how did you start chatting?" the boy couldn't help but ask.

"It's a secret~"

"...Anyway, thank you for your help."

After chatting briefly with the curious girl about the laundry room, Jun Matsueda hung up the phone. Twenty minutes later, the washing machine, which had stopped, finally emitted a pleasant notification sound.

The boy opened the drying drum and picked up the warm pants he had worn during the day when he went house hunting with the girl.

He took a careful sniff and found no strange smells other than a pleasant fragrance before putting the clothes into his bag and leaving the room filled with monotonous noises.

Back in his 20-square-meter room, he closed the doors and windows to keep out mosquitoes, and sat at his desk studying straight through until bedtime. Then he turned off the lights and went to bed.

"..." Cai Jiang's bed was a little small, but it was still quite comfortable to sleep on with the air conditioning on. The boy adjusted to the unfamiliar ceiling for a while, then closed his eyes and fell asleep.

He slept soundly without any dreams. The next morning, Jun Matsue woke up at the standard time. After washing up, he rode the bicycle that had been delivered the day before to the Setagaya Literature Museum to work.

At 2 p.m., when he walked into the Shibuya café with his umbrella, Yamami Maki was already sitting by the window waiting for him, the girl with a faint smile on her face.

"What would you like to drink, Pine Branch?"

"I just want to be like Yamami-senpai."

"...Then two mochas it is."

After the coffees were served, neither of them spoke immediately. The air conditioning in the coffee shop was a bit cold, and thin wisps of white steam rose from the two hot mochas.

Just as Jun Matsue was about to speak, the girl also opened her lips, and the two of them were stunned.

"Senior, you go first," the boy said, looking out the window at the sky.

It started to drizzle again in Tokyo. This kind of light, drizzling sky is perfect for those complicated and unspeakable emotions.

Yamami Maki put down her coffee, took a deep breath, as if to encourage herself.

"Matsueda-san, we can't go on like this." She gazed into the eyes of her beloved.

"To avoid the future in the simulation, you now only have two choices."

"Either choose to be with one person, keep the news a secret for now, and leave Tokyo with her after graduation in March, never to come back or contact anyone else."

As Jun Matsue looked at the girl's face, he recalled the escape room where he used to work—never expecting that he would become a potential customer himself.

The boy didn't show any obvious reaction, so Yamami Maki suppressed her disappointment and continued talking.

"If Matsueda-san doesn't want to 'run away'..."

"The only option left is to conquer them."

Chapter 680 The Girl's Rebellion

The rain was falling softly in Shibuya, and the coffee on the table was just beginning to warm up when the boy and girl sitting by the window fell silent again.

Yamami Maki looked at the boy who had his head down, and even after the waiter walked past the two of them, he still showed no sign of saying anything.

"Um, I'm sorry..." she said cautiously, "I was overthinking it."

"No." Matsueda Jun then made a move, his gaze shifting from the coffee in front of him to the girl across the table, his expression somewhat stiff—or rather, somewhat strange.

"I just didn't expect you to say that."

Now it was Yamami Maki's turn to be silent. She lowered her eyes and clenched her hands on her lap.

"...I thought about it for a long time before I finally decided to tell Matsueda-san these things."

She had thought about it for a long time, of course. A whole week had passed since her last meeting with the boy. In these past few days, the matter of the system simulation and Matsueda Jun had been like the chirping of cicadas in summer—even if she didn't try to think about it, it would always linger in the girl's mind.

How can we avoid the future depicted in the simulation and ensure that Matsueda can find happiness? This is a question that troubles her even in her dreams.

Yamami Maki's first thought was, of course, to get Matsueda Jun back together with her.

The girl was very clear about this, and she was confident—unlike those out-of-control girls in the simulation who only demanded love, she was now qualified to be Matsueda's destiny.

Even if choosing to submit wouldn't bring her a happy family, she was willing to leave. Although this might not give Jun the obsessive and overwhelming love that other girls had, this gentle love was exactly what Matsueda Jun needed in the midst of chaos, and it was what could give him true happiness.

As long as she could have a chance to make amends... Yamami Maki looked up at the boy in front of her.

To hide the disappointment in her eyes, she picked up her coffee.

However, the system gave her the foresight to predict tragedy, but did not give her time to make amends.

"Either choose to be with one person, keep the news a secret for now, and leave Tokyo with her after graduation in March, never to come back or contact anyone else."

This was the choice given by Yamami Maki, and of course she hoped that she would be the lucky one chosen.

The girl wants to find happiness with Jun Matsueda and wants her ex-boyfriend to fall in love with her again.

But in the boy's heart, there are people who are more important than her now, and more than one.

Not having the time to create a perfect ending that belongs only to her and Tsun-kun will perhaps become the biggest regret in her future life.

Moreover, even if she and Tsunku get back together, she might not be able to completely escape the entanglements of other people...

"Therefore, we have no choice but to conquer it."

Jun Matsue looked at the girl who spoke again, waiting for her to continue.

“Run away at all costs—if Matsueda-kun had such thoughts, he would have done it already, instead of getting himself into this mess.” Yami Maki’s eyes held pity for him.

"But conquering everyone is no easy task."

"..." The boy placed his hands on the table. "What exactly is this 'conquering' that the senior was talking about?"

The girl took a deep breath, puffed out her chest, and said, "Matsueda-kun, do you still remember what Grandpa told you back then?"

She was referring to what the old man had said when they visited the Yamami Maki family and he suddenly appeared and pulled them to the temple. Matsueda Jun blinked.

"Didn't the senior go to return the fan back then?"

Yamami Maki nodded awkwardly, "I didn't go far, I went there after hearing what Grandpa said..."

The boy picked up a spoon and stirred his coffee, making a soft "ding-ding" sound. He remembered what the old man had said.

"Either you change yourself for others, or you change others for yourself. That's the price you pay for having love."

"Either you are conquered by Maki and willingly become a member of our Yami family, or you conquer Maki and make her willing to leave the family for you."

Memories were drowned out by the sound of rain outside the window and the noisy conversation inside, but the girl's tone was more determined than before.

"I now think Grandpa was right—love is about conquering or being conquered."

"Especially for Matsueda-kun, whether it's Mochizuki Haruka and Tomatsu Tomoka, or Kurusu Yosei, or even me, we all just want to mold you into the image we each like."

"If it's a normal romantic relationship, then of course there's no problem. If you haven't been changed, but the relationship can still go on, then the one who has been changed is someone else."

Of course, the girl was referring to two extreme scenarios. In reality, it is more common for two people to gradually change each other and eventually accept the changed shape of each other's souls.

"But once Matsueda falls for someone, you become soft-hearted."

Yamami Maki looked at the boy with his eyes downcast, her tone gradually becoming strained.

"You'd rather submit to yourself than change the other person..."

Jun Matsue stopped stirring his coffee and stared at the rippled surface of the dark brown liquid in the cup.

He knew exactly what his senior was referring to; he had almost given up many things for their relationship.

"I didn't mean to criticize Matsueda-san!" The girl stretched her hands out from the table, as if trying to grasp something.

"Back then, I was too greedy and too naive..."

After fully waking up from the long dream, Maki Yami realized that the most ridiculous thing she had ever done was that even after experiencing such a relationship and meeting someone like Jun Matsueda, she still thought she could willingly live alone in the Yami family for the rest of her life.

Seeing the boy's deep gaze, she suppressed the sadness in her words.

"I just want to ask, did Matsueda like the person she was back then?"

“…I’ve never liked anyone,” Jun Matsue said calmly.

“That’s the problem.” Yamami Maki leaned forward and rested her body on the table.

"Matsueda always forces himself to change in a way that you don't actually want to accept for the sake of the person he likes—that's how it was when he was with me, and that's how it is now with Mochizuki."

“But…you have more than one person in your heart now,” she said with some difficulty.

"You must change for Mochizuki Haruka, change for Tomatsu Yuka, change for Kurusu Yosei..."

"But what they want from you is different, even contradictory."

"It's like being torn apart by five horses..." The girl pulled out a tissue, pressed it on the table, and forcefully pulled at the four corners.

"In the end, it will only lead to your mental breakdown."

"..." Matsueda Jun looked at the torn paper, loosened his grip on the paper, and let out a long breath.

"I understand what you mean, senior."

Yamami Maki nodded. "So if Matsueda-san doesn't want to run away but also wants to protect herself, she has no choice but to conquer everyone."

"It's not about changing yourself, it's about getting them to change for you."

After she finished speaking, she looked at the boy, as if even the rain outside the window had lessened, and they could clearly hear each other blinking.

“Both of the options you mentioned make a lot of sense,” Jun Matsue said, picking up his coffee.

The hot mocha was no longer hot. He took a few sips, and the fragrant, sweet liquid slid down his throat.

"...What choice do you want to make, Matsueda-san?" the girl asked nervously.

"We can't just make a hasty decision like this," the boy smiled, pursing his lips. "We definitely need to think it over carefully."

"Hmm, hmm." Yami Maki nodded. "We need to think this through carefully."

"Anyway, thank you, senior."

Jun Matsueda placed the coffee on the table and looked at the girl in front of him with mixed feelings.

He never imagined that he would be listening to his ex-girlfriend analyze these emotional pros and cons.

“Um, Matsueda-san…” Yami Maki’s expression became reserved again, “I also want to take this opportunity to apologize to you.”

The boy didn't speak, but he didn't avoid her gaze either.

"No matter what, it was all my fault back then." The girl lowered her head deeply. "I was stubborn and didn't communicate with Songzhi. I thought I was just trying to make you happy."

As he watched her long, black hair obscure the contours of her face, Jun Matsue sighed.

"Weren't you provoked by Mochizuki and Tomatsu one after the other? You can't say it's all Yamami-senpai's fault."

When it comes to matters of the heart, saying sorry is of no use.

"And according to what my senior said today, even if we hadn't broken up, we probably wouldn't have been happy afterward."