Am I being simulated by their love affair.

Chapter 328 A Race Using Borrowed Objects, The Person I Like

"Hu-hu-"

A heavy breathing sound echoed on the track.

The 1500-meter race was the last event of the morning and the final individual race. Everyone gathered around the track to cheer on the runners.

The boy in the dark blue tracksuit maintained his steady pace. Now on his third lap, he stood tall and overtook the last person in front of him who was exhausted.

"Finally, I got to the ring toss." Ken Sakamuro said, dangling an ice cream stick from his mouth. It was the one Jun Matsueda had bought for him out of a sudden act of kindness.

"Songzhi's stamina is truly terrifying."

"You're only realizing this now?" Sugisaki, standing next to him, held the hand of his classmate girlfriend. "You should have noticed it when he steadily overtook me in first place in the 400 meters."

"I thought you were bad at it," Ken Sakamuro whispered, making sure Keiko on the other side didn't hear him. He wasn't as clueless as Sugisaki.

"It's like you didn't get beaten by him during the Winter Cup training." The boy's dissatisfied words were drowned out by the shouts around him.

"Last lap! Good luck, Pine Branch!"

"Songzhichong!"

Tomatsu Tomoka and Mochizuki Haruka stood at the front of the crowd. Tomatsu Tomoka was very enthusiastic in shouting, while Mochizuki Haruka only waved when Matsueda Jun passed in front of her and casually pushed aside Tomatsu Tomoka's arm that was blocking her way.

Maki Yamami and Natsumi Imokawa stood behind the two girls. The girl with the camera had just jogged in from the other side of the track. She wanted to photograph Jun Matsueda crossing the finish line, and thankfully, her senior made room for her, otherwise the girl's camera would have been crushed.

The leading boy passed by the girls, and the whistle blew for the final lap. Matsueda Jun took his first stride and began his sprint.

"Can he still charge?" The crowd exclaimed in surprise again, and Tomatsu Yuka's face showed a proud smile.

When the 1,500-meter race started, she was a little worried about the boys' stamina—Matsueda Jun's starting speed was not fast, and he was only in the middle of the pack, but he maintained his starting speed and ran from the first bend all the way to the last lap, and now he can even accelerate to sprint.

His pace quickened, and the wind he generated swept past Matsueda Jun as he walked along with the various faces of the onlookers. He quickly completed another lap, and the finish line was now in sight.

The boy was sweating profusely, and the muscle contours of his arms and shoulders became particularly distinct under the sunlight and the reflection of the sweat. It was the most rugged and primal beauty of masculinity that attracted everyone's attention.

"Songzhi! Songzhi!" People standing on the playground crowded behind the track, calling his name. Girls were also in the excited crowd, looking at him with excitement and joy.

The feeling of running for others seemed a little better than he had imagined. He and the girl behind Tomatsu Yuka made eye contact.

Maki Yamami stood in the second row of the crowd, next to Natsumi Imokawa, who was holding a camera. The senior's eyes were filled with innocent and lovely joy, just like when she stood in the audience and watched the boys on stage perform with great enthusiasm.

Tomatsu Yuka watched Matsueda Jun sprint forward. When the boy's gaze fell on her, the girl's first reaction was that Matsueda-kun was looking at her. However, she soon realized that this was an illusion.

Turning her head in the direction of the boy's gaze, the girl saw the raised camera positioned between Maki Yamami and Natsumi Imokawa.

But does Matsueda look at the camera with such expressive eyes?
As she turned back with these questions in mind, Jun Matsueda had already raised his arms and crossed the finish line. Tomatsu Yuka didn't have time to think before she was surrounded by the crowd and brought to the boy's side.

Amidst cheers that echoed across the playground, the morning's individual competitions finally came to a close.

"I'm really a bit tired now," Jun Matsue said as he sat in the cafeteria, putting a large spoonful of beef bowl into his mouth.

Rice mixed with the rich yolk of a soft-boiled egg and vegetable sauce, chewed together with beef, brings the most simple and satisfying feeling after exercise.

"Matsueda-kun, you've worked hard~" Tomatsu Yuka, sitting across from me, said with a smile, "Would you like some extra food? I still have some tamagoyaki here."

The girl ate the bento she brought herself. She had thought about making a bento for Matsueda Jun during the sports meet, but doing such a thing before becoming lovers might have the opposite effect, so Tomatsu Yuka gave up after careful consideration.

Jun Matsueda shook his head. "Eating too much at once will put a strain on your stomach."

And the senior student was sitting at the next table, so he had to be aware of that.

"Jun-ge looks a bit too handsome today," Miyamura Aya, sitting next to the boy, said with a grin. "A lot of girls in our class have said they want your contact information."

As soon as Caijiang finished speaking, the senior students' eyes were drawn to her, and the girl had no choice but to lower her head guiltily and deal with the udon noodles in her bowl.

The girls were sitting at a long table made up of two tables pushed together. Matsueda Jun was opposite Mochizuki Haruka, Tomatsu Yuka and Yamami Maki, and next to him were Miyamura Aya and Imokawa Natsumi.

This seating arrangement is satisfactory to everyone. Aya will definitely sit next to Jun, and neither Mochizuki Haruka nor Tomatsu Yuka will sit in the other seat next to Matsueda Jun. Senpai would certainly not do something that would make her the target of everyone's criticism.

Therefore, having Natsumi Imokawa sit next to Jun Matsueda was actually the best choice. The girl, who was holding a camera and following the group, unknowingly managed to snag a bargain.

"If Songzhi is too tired, should we change the person for the relay this afternoon?"

Mochizuki Haruka put down her phone. She had just sent her aunt a video of herself doing a high jump, which Matsueda Jun had casually filmed.

"It's alright, I can rest after lunch." Jun Matsue drank his miso soup. "Besides, the afternoon's activities are all group activities, so it's relatively easy."

"It was quite busy this morning," Tomatsu Yuka sighed. Matsueda Jun had two matches, and she was basically in charge of arranging the class's work. If she wanted to chat with Matsueda Jun, she had to sneak away from her busy schedule to find an opportunity.

"Your class must be quite busy, right?" She looked at the girl beside her, and Yami Maki's chopsticks paused.

"It's alright." The senior looked at the plum on the rice with tea in her bowl. "It's the third year of the sports meet. Everyone is very experienced. There's nothing that I need to pay special attention to."

"Want to hang out this afternoon?" Tomatsu Yuka extended an invitation. She felt that instead of spending so much effort searching for Matsueda, it would be better to go with her senior, so at least one of them would be within her sight.

"Hmm," Yamami Maki's expression showed a hint of excitement.

"We'll see when the time comes. It's the last year, and everyone wants to leave as many traces as possible. Someone will probably ask me to take pictures together or something."

Actually, a disobedient junior had come to see her that morning. The girl's eyes were downcast, and the boy's hand holding chopsticks kept darting around in her line of sight.

"That's true, I'll definitely ask my senior to take pictures with me too~" Tomatsu Yuka said with a smile. That's fine, the girl thought. If her senior went with her, she might start overthinking things when she went to see Matsueda-san.

"It's all this girl's fault," Tomatsu Yuka glared at the girl sitting on her other side. If the girl hadn't said some strange things to her, she wouldn't be so suspicious.

Mochizuki Haruka didn't care about the stares of those around her. She put down her phone and focused on eating lunch. There were five girls at the table, and apart from Miyamura Aya, the others were all taller than her. The girl thought it might be due to insufficient nutrition.

Perhaps she should take more calcium supplements. She looked at Imokawa Natsumi, who was sitting next to Matsueda Jun, eating silently. The girl's full breasts were pressed against the edge of the table, and the deformed curves were very tempting.

I can't be without both breasts and height, can I?
Once the lunch break was over, the playground became crowded again. The first game was horseback riding, with students sitting in the camp watching their classmates' players walk onto the green field.

The horseback riding battle has four participants from each class, all of whom are girls. The team from Class 2-6 is the "Girls' Team," led by Rion, who was previously in the same class as Mochizuki Haruka.

Eighteen teams stood on the playground. After the referee blew his whistle, the melee between the three grades officially began. The cheers and shouts from the sidelines were more intense than any individual match that morning, startling a flock of pigeons perched on the roof of the teaching building.

"As expected, the atmosphere really depends on team battles," Jun Matsue remarked.

"Maybe everyone just enjoys watching girls fight," Tomatsu Yuka said with a laugh, sitting to the side. "The boys are shouting really loudly."

Mochizuki Haruka licked her ice cream with small sips, her pink tongue peeking out from behind her. "If someone were to take the stage, they should be able to survive for quite a while. After all, they're the kind of character who hides in a corner, barely clinging to life, plotting and scheming."

Tomatsu Yuka's smile froze for a moment, then she said without changing her expression, "If Mochizuki were to become the general, the situation might be worrying. With your personality, everyone might unite to drive you away first."

Sitting next to the two, Yamami Maki could only smile helplessly, pretending not to hear—the girl's class was relatively empty right now, so she chose to come and chat with her junior.

“It seems like our class got eliminated.” Matsueda Jun, sitting behind the girls, craned his neck. “Your senior’s class is still in the competition.”

The two people continued to mock each other, but secretly pricked up their ears, waiting for Yamami Maki's answer.

"Is that so?" the girl said simply, ending the conversation.

That's it? Tomatsu Tomohana and Mochizuki Haruka were both somewhat dissatisfied. Even if they were pretending to be unrelated, wasn't this a bit too deliberate?

Matsueda Junya was a little surprised. He glanced at the senior's profile, but the girl avoided his gaze.

The reason is simple: Yamami Maki was still savoring the hug from that morning—as a young lady raised in a conservative manner, the girl was still a bit too innocent.

Immersed in sweet memories, the girl watched the various competitions unfolding on the green field, from long rope skipping and three-legged races to obstacle courses and finally, a four-person relay.

"Then I'll head back to my class first." Yamami Maki waved her hand. The borrowing race for the three grades was being held in batches, and she would be participating later.

"Go for it, senior!" Tomatsu Yuka took off her tracksuit jacket and turned to look at Matsueda Jun.

"Matsueda-kun, get ready to go on stage!"

The 400-meter track is divided into four legs. Jun Matsue is in the second position, with Haruka Mochizuki behind him. Yuka Tomatsu is standing at the starting line of the last straight and waving to him.

The arrangement for Class 2-6 was to have Ken Sakamuro as the first runner and Jun Matsueda as the second runner to try to gain a speed advantage, while Haruka Mochizuki as the third runner also had good physical fitness and was not slow among the girls.

Actually, it would have been better to give the fourth leg to Mochizuki Haruka, but in Haneoka High School's relay race, the fourth leg has a "running with an object" segment, so speed is not the decisive factor. Therefore, after considering all factors, everyone decided to let Tomatsu Yuka run the fourth leg.

The gunshot rang out, and the first batters from the six classes of the second year of high school began to run as fast as they could. Jun Matsue watched as Ken Sakamuro charged towards him with the momentum of a bull, which was quite frightening.

Taking the heavy baton, Jun Matsue unleashed his speed and sprinted forward. The 100-meter straightaway was short, and he was in front of the girl with the high ponytail in an instant.

To prevent dropping the baton, the boy slowed down and steadily handed it to Mochizuki Haruka, watching her black ponytail sway in the wind.

"We should be able to get first place now," Yamami Maki, sitting on the sidelines, breathed a sigh of relief. The ponytail girl, who had left everyone else in the dust, reached the final straight, and Tomatsu Yuka, who was running the last leg, reached into the box containing the slips of paper.

The girl's poised stance froze. Tomatsu Yuka paused for a second before turning around and waving to the other side of the track.

"Matsue-san—" Her delicate voice echoed across the playground.

Jun Matsue, who had been standing still, pointed to himself in confusion. Tomatsu Tomoka nodded firmly, and he had no choice but to run towards the girl.

"Wow—" The students sitting near Yamami Maki exclaimed excitedly, "Looks like we'll have to borrow someone!"

"Could the note be about a handsome guy?" someone speculated.

"Maybe it's someone you like~" one girl said with a laugh, "The most classic question!"

The contestants from other classes also arrived one after another to take the final leg, drawing their own questions, and the situation on the field became chaotic, like a pot of burnt porridge.

Yamami Maki watched as Matsueda Jun ran to his junior's side, and the boy and girl each grabbed one end of the baton and sprinted towards the finish line.

She began to feel uneasy—what if it really was someone she "liked"?
Although many people at school already knew that Yuka had been rejected when she confessed to Matsue, in this setting and under these circumstances, the two would definitely receive blessings from most people.

It's clear that Matsueda doesn't really like Tomohisa that much.
Yamami Maki found herself feeling a sour tide rising in her heart. This bitter feeling had occurred once before, when Matsueda was tutoring Mochizuki Haruka.

The emotion called jealousy, which was once a trickle, has now become a crashing wave when it reappears.

Despite some setbacks, Class 6 of Grade 2 still won first place in the relay race.

"So, Tomatsu-san, what was the question you received?" the host, standing at the finish line, asked the still-breathing girl.
Tomatsu Yuka looked at the boy next to her with a shy expression, and Matsueda Jun had a bad feeling.

"The person I like." The girl's voice carried across the entire playground through the microphone.

Amidst the jeers and cheers, a surge of bittersweet emotions welled up inside Yamami Maki, gradually soaking her feet.

　I struggled with this for a long time: should I give my senior a false alarm or a real scare?
　　I still haven't finished writing about the sports meet. I originally planned to skip my afternoon nap to add an extra chapter today, but it looks like that's going to be difficult right now, so please don't get your hopes up.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)