Am I being simulated by their love affair.

Chapter 296 The Long-Awaited Cicada Song

So how exactly do you get into Tokyo University of the Arts?

The fleshy skin swaying beneath the girl's neck was so dazzling that Jun Matsueda had no choice but to focus on the file booklet in Natsumi Imokawa's hand.

“There are many ways to get admitted to university.” The girl leaned on the table, her right index finger tracing a paragraph. “Comprehensive selection, regular exams, professional tests, and admission by recommendation.”

"Comprehensive selection, professional test and recommendation admission are actually similar. The test content is all short essays, relevant professional test and interview. When applying, you need to attach your portfolio or award experience."

"The regular exam is similar in format to the common exam, and admission is based on pure academic ability."

"Then can't I also get into Tokyo University of the Arts?" Jun asked with some surprise. The girl covered her thighs with her sports jacket under her short skirt and nodded.

"Although the acceptance rate through the regular entrance exam is the lowest, Matsueda, getting into Tokyo University of the Arts should be easier for you than for me~"

“I never thought I’d have the chance to become an artist,” Jun Matsue murmured to herself. The girl’s laughter was soft, like a breeze passing by in the sunlight.

"Songzhi can apply to the Faculty of Literature! Who knows, he might become a great writer or a famous screenwriter in the future!"

"That's really hard to imagine."

Compared to writers who write prolifically, Jun Matsuoka considers himself more of an action-oriented person. Apart from assignments and exams, he rarely records his thoughts.

After chatting about Tokyo University of the Arts for a while, Natsumi Imokawa seemed to be getting tired. She lay down on the long table, using her tracksuit jacket as a cushion.

"It's getting warmer," the girl said, looking at the sunlight streaming through the curtains. "It feels like I can hear the cicadas chirping all the time."

"So, we haven't heard any cicadas chirping this year, even though summer has already started," Jun Matsue suddenly realized.

“It seems to be related to whether summer comes early or late.” Natsumi Imokawa turned to look at him. “Last year, the first cicada chirped in Tokyo on May 11th, and the year before that it was on July 14th. I have records of both.”

Neither of them spoke, but simply lay on the table, gazing out the window at the dazzling summer heat that was about to unleash its astonishing intensity, seemingly waiting for the cicadas to begin their song.

When summer arrives, even the speed of time seems to speed up. I only stared blankly at the swaying bushes during PE class for a while before the school bell started ringing continuously throughout the campus.

"Matsue, don't forget to come to the hospital with me." Mochizuki Haruka's voice rang in his ears.

"I remember." The two walked into the noisy classroom one after the other. The seat to Matsueda Jun's right was empty. Tomatsu Yuka walked quickly, as if she was going to go play with Yamami-senpai.

He picked up his schoolbag and left the classroom, then looked at the girl beside him, "Shall we go with your aunt?"

Mochizuki Haruka nodded. "She's already waiting for us at the school gate."

"It seems Auntie is eager to get rid of her patient status." Jun Matsue dodged a boy who ran past him.

The girl glanced at him, and the distance between them shortened. She quietly took two steps closer to Matsueda Jun, and their schoolbags brushed against each other.

After Matsueda Jun switched the handbag, she also switched her schoolbag from her left hand to her right. Although the distance didn't get any closer, the absence of the schoolbag made the two seem more intimate—these were little tricks she had learned from the woman she was about to meet.

As Jun Matsue stepped out of the school gate, he immediately spotted Mochizuki Kaname across the street, her hand resting on the car window. The woman noticed them too and excitedly waved. She didn't look like a patient preparing for a medical check-up in a low-key, luxurious black sedan, but rather a sunglasses-wearing older sister sitting in a convertible sports car, ready for a ride.

"Let's go!" Auntie said, looking at the two people who sat down beside her. "Let's try to make today the last time we go to the hospital!"

Matsueda Jun watched the roadside trees outside the car window gradually recede, shimmering with a hazy golden hue in the early summer sunlight. "Won't we still have to go to the hospital for colds and fevers in the future?" "We have a family doctor, you know. We don't need to go to the hospital for minor ailments," Mochizuki said with a smile. "Actually, before this illness, I hadn't been to the hospital for a long time."

Matsueda Jun sighed at the ugly face of the rich and pulled out the skirt of the girl next to him that was pressed under his legs.

"Even if the results of this follow-up examination are fine, you can't relax, okay?" Sitting in the middle, Mochizuki Haruka reached out and pressed down on the boy's skirt, which he was trying to move, and warned her aunt sitting on the other side of her.

“We’ve only found an effective treatment. We don’t know the cause of the illness at all. Even if you recover, it might relapse. So Auntie needs to maintain a healthy lifestyle, especially regarding sleep.”

"Okay, okay~" Auntie nodded obediently, then walked past the girl to talk to Matsueda Jun, "Matsueda! Look what you've done to my Haruka!"

"She's still at the age where she's a cute high school girl, but now she's worrying about this and that all the time. She's more like an aunt than me, her aunt."

“How could this be my fault?” Jun Matsue, who was admiring the scenery, turned his head.

"It's all your fault~" Mochizuki Haruka said softly, poking his hand with the hem of her skirt.

The boy's sigh and his aunt's energetic laughter rang out together in the carriage. The girl looked ahead at the gleaming highway, the clear blue sky, and the wispy white clouds. Her smile transformed back into that of a cute high school girl.

Once again on the top floor of the inpatient building, the boy and girl sat on a bench in the corridor, watching the curtains of the wards sway in the breeze, and heard Wang Yuehua and the nurses chatting and laughing.

Mochizuki Haruka turned to look at Matsueda Jun beside her. The boy's profile was even more defined in the sunlight, making one want to touch him.

"For the first time, I felt that the waiting time in the hospital was no longer so painful and long," the girl said softly.

"Are you so confident today? Aren't you usually very cautious?"

"Having come this far, there's no point in God playing another trick on me."

Mochizuki Haruka's smile was much brighter than before, and Matsueda Jun felt a pang of emotion.

The girl used to talk to him about the future, what would happen, and "what ifs," but when he looked at her expression, he could only feel a deep curse, unlike now, when there was a real future in her eyes.

If Mochizuki Haruka was always bound by the shackles of the system, then today might be the day she truly escapes the mire, Matsueda Jun had such a premonition.

Wang Yuehua was still in the ward and hadn't come out yet. The nurses had already rushed away, and the medical team quickly came out from another room and stood in front of the two of them.

There was no data, no thick sheets of paper, no white coats or glasses. Mochizuki Haruka stood up, and Matsueda Jun watched as her hands trembled slightly behind her back.

"Congratulations," the leading doctor said with a smile.

Mochizuki Haruka turned around, her eyes already red, her thin lips trembling slightly, and the girl threw herself into the boy's arms.

Matsueda Jun gently supported her, and the girl's body trembled with indescribable joy. He soon felt a warm, moist sensation on his chest.

“You are free,” he said softly.

First, a clear, melodious cry rang out outside the window, followed by a moment of silence. The newly awakened creatures of summer were still confused, but they quickly came to their senses. A vast and orderly wave of sound, like a sea, surged and surrounded the boys and girls in the corridor.

After lying dormant underground for seventeen years, the young cicadas finally emerge from the soil in summer.

(End of this chapter)