Am I being simulated by their love affair.

Chapter 416 Attacking the Heart
"what?"

Yamami Maki turned to look at the girl, thinking she had misheard.

So Tomatsu Yuka repeated, "Could you please let me have Matsueda-kun?"

After a brief pause of a few seconds, Yamami Maki picked up the handbag that was on the table.

"If Yuka came to tell me this today, then forget it."

She stood up and walked towards the stairs, the girl's voice sounding behind her.

"If you just leave like this, I will never speak to you again."

Yamami Maki stopped in her tracks and stood still until the waiter brought upstairs with two cups of coffee.

"Excuse me, sir," the waiter said with a slightly puzzled look, "did you order coffee? A latte and a caramel macchiato?"

"Yes." The girl sitting by the window smiled and waved. "Thank you for your help."

After the waiter brought the two cups of coffee to the window, the girl with the handbag returned to her seat.

Yamami Maki stared at the dark brown liquid in front of her. "Tomoka, I'm sorry. I can give you anything you want."

"But Matsueda-kun really can't do it."

The girl's words carried a hint of pleading. Tomatsu Yuka picked up her black coffee cup and took a sip of the milk foam sprinkled with caramel sauce.

"Let's not talk about him for now."

"I'm here to tell you a story, do you want to hear it?"

Yamami Maki nodded with a sigh of relief—as long as Matsueda Jun wasn't mentioned, everything would be fine.

However, the girl's next words made her hand, which was holding the coffee, tremble.

"My parents divorced at the end of the summer when I was in the first year of junior high school, which is now more than four years ago."

"Even today, I still occasionally dream about that scene. I didn't leave my room for a whole week, and the noise from downstairs never stopped."

"At night, there are sounds of my parents arguing, crying, and throwing things. During the day, there are sounds of them apologizing in a low voice, strangers speaking arrogantly, footsteps moving things, and cars coming and going."

“After their divorce, I never saw my father again. My mother said he went to take on debts.”

"My mom and I moved. She works from morning till night, so to make things easier for her and to reduce household expenses, I learned to cook for myself."

Maki Yami lowered her head and sipped her coffee. She cautiously raised her eyes and sized up Tomoka Tomatsu.

The girl spoke calmly, her gaze fixed on the branches swaying in the wind outside the window, carrying an unspoken sorrow.

“My mother is a very career-oriented and competitive person. In just over a year, we moved from Adachi Ward, where the housing prices were the lowest, to Suginami.”

"At the time, I thought my strong mother was amazing. But when I was crying alone in my bedroom at night, while she was working overtime in her study with her headphones on, I suddenly realized that being so strong wasn't necessarily a good thing."

"So by the time I graduated from junior high school, I had adapted to a new family with only the two of us, and I had learned to handle my own affairs on my own, just like my mother, so as not to cause trouble for each other."

“Since then, I’ve stopped liking bitter things.” The girl picked up the coffee cup on the table. “Every time I order coffee with you, senior, I always order the sweetest caramel macchiato.”

"But even so, it's hard for me to be as happy as before. At first, I would ask myself why I became like this."

"I stopped asking after that."

She finished the last sip of her coffee mixed with vanilla syrup, stood up and looked at the shop assistant standing far behind the two of them—it was already closing time.

At nine o'clock in the evening, the girls walked out of the coffee shop. The streetlights pierced the thick fog of the night, and the sound of a train arriving at the station echoed from the railway tracks on the opposite rooftop.

"Aren't you in a hurry to go home, senior?" Tomatsu Yuka asked with a smile. "There's still an hour left. It's been so long since we last met, and I actually have a lot to say to you."

"..." Yami Maki hesitated for a moment. Actually, she didn't really want to listen anymore, because the more the girl talked, the heavier her guilt became. But the girl continued talking.

"When I entered high school, I thought this kind of life would continue forever, until I met Matsueda."

"Shortly after the start of the semester, I started to get in touch with him because of class affairs, and I soon discovered something."

“Matsue and I are the same kind of people – we are both people whose inner happiness is far less than the smile on our faces.”

"So it was inevitable that I would fall in love with him."

When Tomatsu Yuka mentioned Matsueda Jun again, Yamami Maki's pace gradually slowed down, and when the girl said "I like you," she stopped completely.

But the girl reached out and grasped her wrist. Yamami Maki looked up and met the gaze of her junior.

"Is my senior so happy that she doesn't even want to hear about my pain?"

"You were involved in all this suffering," Tomatsu Yuka accused her with her eyes.

As if she had suddenly lost all her strength, Yamami Maki lowered her head again, letting the girl lead her forward.

"Actually, I also really like my senior."

Tomatsu Yuka continued speaking as the two walked across a crowded intersection. The sky opened up, and their figures were reflected in the river beside them.

"When I look at my senior, I always feel like I'm looking at another version of myself from the future."

"My parents are not divorced, so we don't have to move or transfer schools. We have the energy to help the younger members of the club and can also participate in student council work, becoming an indispensable presence in everyone's eyes."

"This senior is at least happier than me, right?"

The two stepped onto the soft lawn. Tomatsu Yuka stopped and turned to look at the silent girl.

"But why did you take Matsueda away from me, senior?"

Yamami Maki's body trembled, perhaps from guilt, fear, or sadness after empathy, but none of that mattered.

In short, she is now speechless when faced with questions from her juniors.

Tomatsu Yuka's emotions collapsed even faster than the girl in front of her. Her tears glistened in the moonlight, making Yamami Maki feel dizzy.

"My happiness is entirely dependent on Songzhi-kun, that's all I have left."

"You're so outstanding, you have everything, why do you still want to compete with me for this little bit of happiness?"

"How about I have him?"

"Yuka, no, it's not like that," Yamami Maki said in a tearful voice, "I didn't want to take it from you."

"But it was Matsueda who chose me."

She still remembered what the boy had said, and she was incredibly grateful to Jun Matsueda for giving her the courage to shirk some responsibility for a moment.

"He doesn't belong to me, and he doesn't belong to you."

Tomatsu Yuka didn't answer, but simply watched the trembling girl weep silently. This weeping carried a terrifying power that held Yamami Maki captive in place.

After a while, she wiped away her tears and said to the bewildered girl in front of her.

"Senior, you've heard of it..."

"About the system?"

(End of this chapter)