Am I being simulated by their love affair.

Chapter 283 Sake Intoxicates
After watching Yamami Maki's figure disappear into the distance, Matsueda Jun rode his bicycle away from the school.

In late May, the temperature in Mitaka stays around 25 degrees Celsius, making it the most comfortable time to wear just a shirt. Once June arrives, you'll have to rely on ice cream, air conditioning, and cold barley tea to combat the sweaty summer heat.

Jun Matsugae rode rather fast, trying to calm his feverish mind with the wind rushing past his ears.

On his way to the school gate, as he listened to Maki Yami recount how she began playing the clarinet, and seeing the girl's restrained smile, he suddenly felt a surge of emotion—

I want to see my senior's genuine smile, I want to make her happier, not this serene expression of sadness without pain.

That's why he brought up teaching her the drums.

"What a dangerous thought," Jun Matsue thought as he stopped at the traffic light, examining his own mind.

The senior was a more mature person than him, gentle and hardworking. While everyone else was still enjoying their high school life, she had already taken on some of her own responsibilities.

Such a person doesn't need to be changed, Jun Matsue thought, looking at the flashing red light in front of him.

The red light turned green, and the bicycle sped up again. The smile that Matsueda Jun saw for the first time today, a smile unlike any other, was buried deep in his heart.

When he got home, Yosuke Kurusu didn't lie on the sofa, but walked around the living room with two bottles of sake in his arms.

"What's going on?" Jun Matsue asked, looking at the girl circling the sofa.

"I'm sobering up~" Kurusu Yosei said earnestly, wearing a short-sleeved sweatshirt. "This is a bottle of wine that a sister from the sales department gave me. I'm going to enjoy it tonight."

"I've only ever heard of wine needing to be decanted." Jun Matsue looked at the two large bottles of sake in her arms, closed the door, and changed his shoes.

"I didn't use any wine decanting methods either~" The girl was still pacing around the room. "Matsue, I'm not cooking tonight. I ordered yakitori. Drinking really does go well with yakitori!"

“Okay.” He nodded and went into the bedroom. “But I’d like to have rice with it. I won’t be full just eating yakitori.”

"The rice is already cooking," the girl's voice drifted into the room. "Now we're just waiting for the yakitori to be delivered~"

When Jun Matsue returned to the living room with the long, narrow box, Yosei Kurusu had already placed several boxes of various sizes on the dining table. The chicken wings and drumsticks strung together glistened with oil, making one's mouth water.

"Let me pour you some wine." Jun Matsueda placed the box he was holding on the coffee table and took out wine glasses and saucers from the kitchen.

The girl watched as he held the bottle neck with one hand and supported the bottom with the other, the clear wine flowing out at a steady pace, overflowing the glass and completely covering the saucer underneath.

"It has a real izakaya vibe~" she exclaimed in admiration.

“I used to work part-time at an izakaya, but I quit quickly.” Jun Matsueda put the bottle of sake aside and sat down in front of the girl.

"Eh, why?" As he spoke, Kurusu Yosei had already picked up a skewer of chicken meatballs and put it in his mouth.

"Because the customers at izakayas are troublesome. They come to eat after work, and who knows what they'll do if they get drunk." Jun Matsueda served himself a bowl of rice.

"Male customers are one thing, if they get drunk and act crazy, we can just subdue them. Female customers are more troublesome." He thought of those women in suits and skirts, he didn't know how good they were at their jobs, but they were very good at pretending to be drunk.

"Well said!" Kurusu Yosei took a sip of sake. "It tastes pretty good. Would you like to try some pine branches?"

Perhaps it was because the yakitori with rice was a bit dry, perhaps it was because the weather was a bit hot, perhaps it was because I felt it was safer to drink at home, or perhaps it was because I remembered my senior's smile, which was different from usual.

In short, Jun Matsue hesitated for a moment, staring at the orange bird pattern on the bottle, before finally nodding. Yosuke Kurusu had only asked casually, and the girl, surprised that he would actually agree, stood up with delight, "Let me pour you some wine~"

"Don't pour too much, just a little is enough," Jun Matsue called out to her as she walked into the kitchen.

The sake that Kurusu Yosei received was "Kishou sake." While regular sake is brewed with water, Kishou sake is brewed with sake. Of course, it is also clear and transparent in the glass, giving people the illusion that it might not make them drunk.

Under the girl's expectant gaze, Jun Matsue picked up the wine glass, took a small sip, and blinked in surprise.

"It does taste good."

The stimulating flavor is very mild, clean and refreshing, with a distinct fruity aroma, seemingly like honeydew melon. Although sake belongs to the category of spirits, this one tastes more like a fruit wine.

"Right, right?" Yosuke Kurusu nodded smugly. "The sales department lady said this one is hard to buy, it ranks very high on wine review websites!"

Matsueda Jun took a bite of the chicken wing. "She gave me something so expensive, don't you need to give her something in return?"

"I gave you a return gift, a very delicate little cake that you have to reserve in advance." The girl took another sip of her drink, clearly enjoying it. "But it probably isn't as expensive as her wine, is it?"

"She gave me the gift because the album's sales exceeded the department's expectations. It's really just to curry favor with me. If I didn't accept it, she'd have even more ideas. My manager advised me to do all this."

It seems that the interpersonal relationships in the entertainment industry are more complicated than he thought, so Jun Matsueda chose to eat quietly.

After finishing their meal and cleaning up the mess on the table, Jun Matsuoka sat on the sofa, while the girl next to him secretly glanced at him a few times.

Although his face looked flushed, he didn't seem drunk at all, Yosei thought regretfully.

She originally planned to get Songzhi drunk and take the opportunity to extract information, such as whether he currently has someone he likes, and what he thinks of his cute roommate.

The sound on the TV screen suddenly got louder. The commercial break was over, and the variety show had started. Jun Matsueda stared at the flickering screen, looking somewhat bewildered. Sake was quite weak, and the effects of it would creep up on him without him even realizing it. Fortunately, he had resisted the temptation of Kurusu and only had two or three cups.

"Speaking of which, I might be going to participate in a variety show later." Yosei Kurusu suddenly remembered, "The invitation has come, but I haven't decided whether to accept it or not."

"Didn't you go on a variety show before? Why don't you go again?" Jun Matsue lay on the sofa, his warm body reacting a little slowly.

"Because it's a different type." The girl looked at the comedians on TV. "This time it's not a music performance variety show, but the kind that's more comedic."

“It doesn’t seem to concern you much.” Jun Matsueda picked up the box on the coffee table, and Yosei Kurusu’s gaze followed it.

"It doesn't really matter, but these kinds of shows are actually more likely to make someone stand out. The company is considering what kind of persona to use if I participate."

"Speaking of which, Matsushige, what's in that box you're holding? A magic wand?" Kurusu Yosei leaned closer to him. The girl thought that satisfying her curiosity was more important than whether or not she would be on the show.

“They’re drumsticks.” Jun Matsue opened the box, and a pair of black drumsticks lay quietly inside, with green patterns wrapped around them, like vines or thorns.

The girl's smile as she gave him the gift, the smile as she clapped at him, the smile as she talked about herself—these images began to flash erratically in Jun Matsueda's mind, overshadowing the images on the television screen.

It seems he drank a bit too much tonight.

(End of this chapter)