Am I being simulated by their love affair?

Page 214

Yamami Maki laughed and held out her hands for him to see, and their hands naturally stuck together.

They turned around and looked at the fire array on Mandala Mountain in the distance and the scattered lights in Guangze Pond in front of them.

"What a wonderful feeling..." the girl murmured, "Watching this scene with Matsueda-kun makes me feel happier than ever before."

"That proves my trip to Beijing was totally worthwhile." The boy smiled as well.

"Actually, before you mentioned that you were coming to Kyoto, I was pretty okay with it."

The senior student tightened her grip on his hand, and Matsueda Jun felt the warm touch of the girl spreading along his wrist.

“But when Matsueda-san said she was coming to Kyoto, everything seemed to change.” Yami Maki looked up, her eyes sparkling with colorful lights.

"The life I used to have was just right: temples, forests, adults talking, the bittersweet aroma of freshly brewed tea..."

"Everything has become mundane, and whenever I have free time, a voice in my heart will pop up and say."

"Matsueda-kun is coming to see me."

"Why didn't you tell me beforehand, senior? I could have come to find you sooner." Jun Matsueda turned his head to look at her kimono.

The elegant and beautiful pinkish-green color, adorned with cherry blossom patterns, evokes the sentiments of a young girl in bud.

"Because I thought that perhaps the longer the wait, the more profound the happiness I would feel when we finally met."

Yamami Maki smiled shyly again, as if she was ashamed of her greed.

“I think so too.” Jun Matsueda gently embraced the girl’s body.

For the two of them, their time in Kyoto was like a Polynesian-style lovemaking experience.

Their spirits, in this city, went from initially gazing at each other, to chasing the traces they left behind, to intimate contact, and now to drawing closer and finally meeting, as if naked bodies were pressed together, bringing heartfelt satisfaction.

Matsueda Jun looked into Yamami Maki's eyes as the flickering firelight drew closer and closer, finally reaching him. Their noses were almost touching, their breaths washing over the surrounding noise.

He watched as the girl closed her eyes, took the final step, and her soft touch pressed against his lips. All he could see were her fluttering eyelashes.

They kissed.

Jun Matsue felt himself enveloped in the faint fragrance of Maki Yami, and the girl's body trembled gently in his arms—a trembling of joy.

They silently closed their lips, like dragonflies lightly touching the surface of a lake with their tails, feeling the subtle ripples in each other's souls.

The flames on the horizon flickered in Jun Matsuoka's eyes. Many images flashed through his mind, but the snow-covered field stained with scarlet blood was the most vivid.

Just as seeing black reminds one of white, silence reminds one of song, and the sight of a tranquil, eternal pool reminds one of fireworks bursting across the sky.

The tenderness and affection he felt now inevitably reminded him of that brutal, violent, and heart-wrenching kiss.

The transcendent yet forceful rewind only stopped in Jun Matsueda's mind when their lips parted.

The blush on Yamami Maki's face was like rouge. The girl pressed her head against his chest, too shy to lift her head.

"Senior sister—" The boy was about to speak when the girl raised her head again and gently pecked his lips.

"Thank you, Matsue-san. I've never been so happy."

Leaving those words behind, Yamami Maki grabbed the wide sleeves of her kimono and hurriedly fled.

"..." Matsueda Jun didn't chase after her. The senior who had taken the initiative to kiss him was obviously extremely shy and wanted to calm down.

He turned around and walked towards the crowd he had come from; the clamorous sounds enveloped the people on the shore like smoke.

He should be focused on his senior's first kiss, so why are so many things flashing through his mind like a revolving lantern? The boy criticized himself inwardly.

Jun Matsueda once told Yosei Kurusu that the price of his excellent memory was that no matter how much time had passed, memories of places he had been to would always surface quickly.

Now it seems that it may be more than that; the more vivid the feeling, the more likely it is to resurface in similar moments.

This isn't good news... He sighed inwardly and sent a message to his senior to be careful.

The Five Mountains Fire Offering ceremony thus came to an end.

The following afternoon, Jun Matsueda stood in front of the gate of Kyoto Station, carrying large bags of souvenirs.

"Did you forget anything?" he asked the girls behind him.

"No~" Miyamura Aya pulled her suitcase and circled around the boy. "The things I bought are all with Jun-nii."

"I accidentally left my soul in Kyoto," sighed Yoshinari Kurusu. "Vacation is so relaxing, I don't want to go back to work..."

Once this guy gets back to Tokyo, he'll definitely turn into a workaholic again. Matsueda Jun ignored her and looked at the girl walking at the back.

"Where is Wangyue?"

Nozomi nods absentmindedly, pulls her suitcase past him, and walks into the station.

Jun Matsueda frowned slightly and followed the girl's steps. "Are you feeling unwell?"

"It's just my period." Mochizuki Haruka glanced at him. "I suggest you take good care of me."

Despite saying this, the girl quickened her pace, passed through the turnstile at the entrance, and headed towards the platform.

After distancing herself from the boy, the gloom between Nozomi Mochizuki's brows became unmistakable, drawing the attention of passersby.

She took out her phone and looked at the photos in her album, which showed a young boy and girl kissing by Guangze Pond.

A simple snapshot, the image is dreamy and beautiful, but to the girl, it is so annoying.

She is not reconciled.

Chapter 380 The End of Summer Vacation

The day after returning to Tokyo, Jun Matsueda went to the set of "Now It's Over".

"Matsue is back!" Natsumi Imokawa seemed very excited.

"I arrived in Tokyo yesterday evening." The boy yawned and handed the bag in his hand to the girl. "Here, a souvenir for you."

He took a cloth-covered folding chair from the film crew and sat down next to the girl.

"Although Kyoto is indeed a lot of fun, it's just too hot in the summer. It would be better to go at another time next time."

Natsumi Imokawa took the bag and looked inside. It contained several small boxes of different kinds of matcha sweets and a box of film.

The girl took out the film roll packaging box and looked at it. It had three color blocks arranged on it, and a simple starry sky pattern on the back, with a unique old-fashioned aesthetic.

"I bought this at a secondhand store in Kyoto. It looks like it's a black and white film." Jun Matsueda looked at the film crew not far away; there were far fewer staff members today.

"I originally wanted to bring you other souvenirs, but your grandfather's house is near Kyoto, and you've probably been to all those temples and shrines, so giving you amulets or something would be rather pointless."

"So I picked these out for you. You can eat the snacks, and you might like the film."

Similarly, he also prepared a gift for Tomatsu Tomohana, which included more sweets, as well as amulets and small ornaments bought at the shrine.

Natsumi Imokawa's smile widened as she carefully placed the bag on the other chair. "I'll take some really nice photos with this roll of film!"

"How much filming has the crew done?" Jun Matsueda asked, looking at the crew members wiping sweat in the sunlight.

"About one-third, it will start airing around September, which is roughly the time when school starts."

For a while afterward, Jun Matsueda remained silent, listening to the girl recount the latest happenings on the film set. The two sat under a large parasol, surrounded by the long-lost sound of cicadas chirping in Tokyo.

While the girl was drinking water, Jun Matsueda glanced at his phone. There were no new messages in the chat box belonging to Maki Yami.

His senior is still in Kyoto and won't be back until tomorrow; otherwise, he wouldn't have rushed to the film set as soon as he got back to Tokyo.

As Natsumi Imokawa spoke, she began to slow down her speech, and finally shut her mouth, observing the expression of the boy next to her.

Songzhi didn't seem very happy. Did he and the girl in that story not end well?

A secret joy welled up in the girl's heart. She didn't know what she was happy about, but she felt that the crew with Songzhi was much more interesting than the crew when she was alone.

"Xia Shi, come and take a look!"

The director, who was sitting on the monitor, called his daughter away, and at the same time, a new message popped up on Jun Matsueda's phone screen.

It wasn't from the senior student, but from Tomomika Tomatsu. The girl sent a video of the brass band performing in the auditorium.

"Today's performance and rehearsal at the auditorium in Ome City went very well!"

Jun Matsueda dragged the video's progress bar and watched the girl's solo part again. Even though he wasn't there in person, the captivating magic remained undiminished.

"It feels so powerful."

"Really? But I feel that everyone still has many shortcomings." The other side replied quickly.

"Unfortunately, there's not enough time. I can only try my best to get in shape for the Tokyo Metropolitan Tournament~"

Today is August 18th, and there is less than a week left before the start of the second semester. Jun Matsue blinked and looked up at the distant sky.

"Summer vacation is almost over..."

Compared to the hustle and bustle of Tokyo, the area around the Mochizuki family's manor was much quieter, with Mochizuki gazing out at the pine forest.

The girl may have disliked the sound of cicadas because there was no trace of cicadas in her family's pine and cypress plantation.

For her, who had grown up in the manor, the noisy, loud, and dense chirping of cicadas was a foreign thing to her world, just like the woman named Yamami Maki, who was impossible to like.

"So you mean, Matsue and the youngest daughter of the Yamami family are already engaged?"

Sitting in the study, Wang Yuehua shifted her position and leisurely stirred the ice cubes in her cup.

"I saw them kissing," Mochizuki Haruka said sullenly.

"It's just a kiss. Didn't you kiss Songzhi too?" the woman said nonchalantly.

“That’s different.” The girl frowned, not wanting to recall the details, which disgusted her. “They were clearly in the throes of new love.”

“In the throes of passionate love…” Wang Yuehua took a sip of the cool aloe vera juice through the straw and brought her face close to her niece’s.

"Did they stick their tongue out? Who did?"

"You're being disgusting." Mochizuki Haruka pushed the woman's face away in disgust. "No."

"That means they're not really in love yet~" Auntie said with a grin. "Have they announced their relationship?"

No, not at all.

"There's still plenty of time, why are you in such a hurry, Xiaoyao?" The woman changed her posture again, opened the book in front of her, which was "The Little Prince" that Mochizuki Haruka had brought back from Kyoto.

"When should I start to get anxious?!" The girl's voice trembled slightly, barely able to contain itself. "When they're French kissing? When they're in bed? Or when they're getting married?"

Wang Yuehua looked up, took her niece's hand, sat down from the opposite side of the desk to the girl's side, and hugged her.

"Alright, alright, Auntie will think of a way for Haruka. She definitely won't let the Yamami family take the pine branch away."

"Let me tell you, the Yami family has incredibly strict rules. Look at Maki, she can't even choose her own university. Someone like Matsue, with her personality, could never get along with them..."

She talked at length to the girl in her arms, from the current head of the Yamami family to Yamami Maki's father, and finally to Yamami Ikuka's husband.

"So don't worry, Xiaoyao, Songzhi and Xiaomoji definitely won't end up together!"

"That won't do either." Mochizuki Haruka left the woman's embrace and sat by the window, looking at the pine forest again.

"Once Yamami Maki returns to Tokyo, she'll continue her lovey-dovey relationship with Matsueda. Why should she enjoy that for so long?"

Even though she doesn't want to recall it, the bitterness, anger, and shock she felt when she saw the two kissing still lingers in her mind, sometimes haunting her dreams.

So the girl couldn't wait to get rid of Yami Maki from Matsueda Jun's side.

Even if we can't get rid of him, we can't let this coward stay comfortably by Matsue's side... Mochizuki Haruka looked at the photos on her phone.

Would Tomatsu Tomohana imagine such a scene? The girl imagined the expression on her rival's face.

She needs to think carefully about how to catch Yami Maki, this fish hiding beneath the surface of the water.

In the most spectacular way.

Chapter 381 Rainy Days Aren't Good Weather

It rained in Tokyo on August 22nd.

Jun Matsue picked up the umbrella from the entrance hall, locked the apartment door, and stood in the hallway for a few seconds, looking at the gloomy sky that seemed to drip water.

"The weather isn't very good."

Actually, that's not entirely true. At least compared to the past few days, the scorching city has cooled down considerably. Thinking this, the boy started walking downstairs.

Jun Matsue walked along the road, holding an umbrella and avoiding the puddles.

There were few pedestrians in sight, and even the cicadas' chirping had disappeared. It was unclear whether the tired insects had chosen to rest, or whether their calls had been drowned out by the rain.

He took out his phone and sent a message to Maki Yami.