Am I being simulated by their love affair.

Chapter 44: A Summer Festival with Many Appearing Characters
When Jun Matsueda left the house, the streets were already thicker with people. He didn't ride his bike today, so he just followed the crowds.

In order to stimulate regional economic vitality, Mitaka City's summer festival this year is jointly organized by four cities and merged with the fireworks festival to be held on the same day to attract more tourists.

The venue was located on the Tama River. The four participating cities—Komae, Kawasaki, and Chofu—were all located on the river, with Mitaka being the only exception. Consequently, when the decision was first announced, Mitaka residents expressed dissatisfaction. Fortunately, the other three cities later offered to provide temporary shuttle buses to transport residents, shifting the dissatisfaction from Mitaka residents to the residents of the other three cities.

After all, it's taxpayers' money being spent.

Jun Matsueda was standing at the intersection waiting for someone. Even though he was standing on the sidewalk, groups of girls in yukata still crossed the road and came to him, asking if they could take a photo with them.

After rejecting the request of the third group of girls, Jun Matsueda borrowed a fox mask from the last girl and put it on his face when she left.

"He wanted my mask!!" The girl ran towards her companions excitedly.

Finally it was quiet, and he waited for the two people from the News Department to show up.

The road leading to Matsueda Station has been blocked and turned into a pedestrian street. In the evening, the roadside will be filled with vendors. If you continue along this road, you will reach Chofu City, where there will be another road like this, leading people all the way to the Tama River.

The traffic light had clearly lost its function, but it was still flashing. Jun Matsueda sighed at its meaningless work.

He counted the time it took for a traffic light to change, 93 seconds, and silently directed traffic in his mind, trying to show that his work was not meaningless.

After Jun Matsueda counted three traffic lights and issued a ticket to the seventy-second pedestrian, he finally saw the Imokawa duo.

Natsumi Imokawa was wearing a light yellow yukata with sunflower-like flowers painted on it, a pink belt around her waist with a bright yellow line in the middle.

As for Yumi Seshita next to her, she is just a funny person, so let’s not talk about her.

The two of them stood in the middle of the road and didn't see Jun Matsueda in the corner, so he could only take off his mask and walk over.

There were a lot of people on the street, but when they saw Jun Matsueda walking towards them with a mask, they subconsciously dispersed. At the end of the separated crowd, Natsumi Imokawa huddled behind Yumi Seshita, and Yumi raised her fan and waved at him.

"Is this a TV series?" someone asked in a low voice.

Matsueda Jun walked over to the two of them and greeted the blushing Imokawa Natsumi first, "Imokawa-san's yukata looks great today."

"Thank you." The girl said softly.

"Hey, Matsueda, what about me? It seems like you didn't even look at me?" Yumi, the shortest student, is the one who is best at picking trouble.

"Ah, Yumi-san too. Okay, let's go." Matsueda Jun walked in front, breaking through the waves in the crowd, and Imokawa Natsumi subconsciously followed behind him.

"What do you mean 'Yumi-san too'?!" The petite Yumi-chan walked at the back, looking very angry.

The three of them walked along the pedestrian street for a while and then went out from an intersection.

"Is this the place?" Jun Matsueda asked Yumi Seshita. She didn't answer and seemed still angry.

Imokawa Natsumi had no choice but to speak, "Senpai Yamami said to just wait here."

The three members of the News Club were preparing to go to the Summer Festival venue with the Wind Band. Yuqiu High School used a school bus to pick them up, but because the road in front of the school gate had also become a temporary pedestrian street, they had to find another place to meet up.

After a few minutes, a school bus with the words "Mitaka City Hanaoka High School" on it stopped by the roadside. For safety reasons, Matsueda Jun let the two girls get on the bus first.

The girls in the wind band had not changed into yukata yet because they were about to perform and were still in their school uniforms. When they saw two people in yukata getting on the bus, they immediately started shouting.

"So pretty! Yumi-chan is so cute!" It seems like all the girls call her Yumi-chan, and Matsueda Jun is a little curious about how that's possible. He, on the other hand, is very direct in his praise of Imokawa Natsumi.

"It's so big! How come it's still so big even with a yukata on!" This was the look of envy and jealousy from the girl who often stood next to Imokawa during practice.

When Jun Matsueda got on the bus, the girls' unruly voices finally quieted down a bit. He looked at the space in the bus and saw that most of the girls were sitting in the front row. He walked to the back row and sat down alone.

After the school bus left, he received a message on his Line account. It was a photo sent by Tomatsu Tomoka. The girl was wearing a brightly colored yukata, standing by the Tama River, with the sky high and the clouds behind her, and the green fields stretching out.

"Today I took a walk along the Tama River with my mother, looking forward to the fireworks display tonight!"

By the time the school bus stopped, the city's tall buildings were already far away. The low buildings along the river made the horizon seem particularly vast. The girls were already looking forward to the fireworks display that evening.

Jun Matsueda got off the car, and the girls from the wind band went to the waiting room for the performance to prepare. Yumi took Natsumi Imokawa to buy things, leaving him alone walking along the river.

In the distance, there was a young girl standing by the river, looking down at the flowing water. A strong wind blew, and her figure swayed.

Jun Matsueda walked over quickly, and after seeing the girl's face clearly, he slowed down and finally stopped.

The girl turned around.

"Jun-kun, it's nice to see you today."

Tomatsu Tomoka smoothed her black hair, and the wind blew away the surface of the water, shattering the reflections of the two people.

The yukata painted with brocade flowers made the girl's black hair look as black as ink and her skin as white as snow, but Jun Matsueda did not look at it. Instead, he looked at the Odakyu Electric Railway passing by on the river.

"Yamami-san and the others are already getting ready in the waiting room. Doesn't Tomatsu-san need to change clothes?"

"I'll be right there." The girl smiled.

As the two passed each other, the same scent of lily of the valley entered his mind.

Jun Matsueda sat down by the river. It was three o'clock in the afternoon and there were not many people on the slopes and lawns on both sides of the river. Most people were probably still watching the performance in the city.

The clouds were gathering, not raining. Perhaps with the arrival of summer, the clouds were taking their summer break. Only in this season could you see these dreamy white creatures darting across the sky.

In a rare moment of peace, Matsueda Jun watched the crows on the opposite bank flying up and down, jumping around on the grass, as if they had not eaten enough lunch.

It finally landed on a rock by the riverbank, looked at its reflection in the water, then raised its head to look at Matsueda Jun on the opposite bank.

"I advise you not to open your mouth and say anything. You're ruining my good mood right now."

"Oh."

Mochizuki Haruka, who secretly sat down next to Matsueda Jun, shut her mouth and lowered her head to watch the weeds at her feet swaying in the wind.

The hungry crow stopped on the stone and looked at the girl on the other side who was pulling up the grass to vent her anger.

　Neon lights, lots of arrogant crows.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)