Am I being simulated by their love affair.

Chapter 497 Be happy
When Maki Yamami saw Tomatsu's latest update, she was walking along the cherry blossom grove in the Izu Kogen region.

The girls in her class were planning a graduation trip around the Izu Peninsula, which Maki Yami hadn't originally planned to do. However, her mother seemed to have been in a bad mood ever since watching the girls' graduation ceremony, so she persuaded her to go out and have some fun with her classmates.

The girl once looked forward to leaving her parents and traveling far away on her own, but after that expectation disappeared, she had this trip that symbolized freedom—when she set off, Yamami Maki felt that this situation was somewhat ridiculous.

The Izu Peninsula boasts picturesque scenery. High school graduates who have successfully moved on to higher education enjoyed themselves to the fullest, accompanied by hot springs, cherry blossoms, seagulls, and azure waves.

However, Yamami Maki is not among the girls who let loose.

The beautiful natural scenery did indeed soothe her mind and body, but the girl only felt a wonderful emptiness in her heart. No matter how kind the people she met were to her, she simply accepted it all naturally. All the scenery she saw blended together and flowed by without leaving any trace in her heart.

After leaving Tokyo, she checked her phone much less often because it couldn't bring her happiness—whenever she opened a social media app, the girl would involuntarily look at Jun Matsueda's profile picture.

Even though the two never contacted each other again, his profile picture remained at the top of the list.

The boy's homepage is always empty. He is not someone who is keen on showing his life, but he always inevitably appears in other people's photos. So Yamami Maki will click on Matsumura Yuka's profile picture again.

The girl's homepage is much more detailed, featuring the sky above her head, a pretty dress, a lunch she cooked herself, and cats on the street.
There used to be photos with her seniors, but now they've all been deleted, replaced by photos of male colleagues.

Front view, side view, back view; school uniform, sweatshirt, casual clothes. That's Tomatsu Yuka's rightful lover, and every picture carries her undisguised affection.

Maki Yami felt like a prisoner isolated from the world, with the glamorous world she once lived in just outside the narrow skylight.

Every time someone checks the girl's social media, her only window becomes shrouded in continuous rain.

However, it was she who chose to push Matsueda Jun away and voluntarily walked into this cage.

Later, Yamami Maki forced herself not to go anymore, or rather, to only go once and then forget about it. So when the girls she was with were talking about Matsueda-kun and Tomoka's enviable date, she found herself to be the last one to find out.

The girl sat down on a bench by the roadside, gazing at the continuous pink and white cherry blossoms overhead. She took a few deep breaths to prepare herself before taking her phone out of her pocket.

Without needing to think, muscle memory opened the app with the camera icon, and the latest update of the cute bunny avatar appeared before her eyes.

They're enjoying the cherry blossoms too.
Maki Yami looked at things very slowly, like a herbivore slowly chewing its food, only reaching out to slide her finger across a picture after she had seen all the details in it.

A group photo at the entrance of Ueno Park.

The boys and girls sitting outside the crowd, cuddling together, can be heard cheering from the girls filming in the shot.

Two hands, one large and one small, intertwined, against a backdrop of slowly flowing crowds.
She couldn't help but imagine the scene of the two people in the photo walking among cherry blossoms and crowds—because the girl had also experienced it, this imagery was particularly vivid.

How to hold hands, how to walk in step with him, how to turn your head to steal a glance at his thick eyelashes, how to cling to his arm and act coquettishly.
When she saw the last picture, a scene of the two kissing in front of a cherry blossom waterfall, Yamami Maki held her breath.

When she was dating Jun Matsueda, the two never took any photos of themselves kissing—they always kissed in secluded places, and those kisses were always secretive.

A wave of suffocating bitterness washed over her chest. Yamami Maki zoomed in on the image, looking at the boy and girl in the center.

Did I have such a happy expression when I kissed someone back then?
The boy's back was turned to the side of the camera, his eyebrows and eyes blurred in the halo of light, and Yamami Maki could only search for his face in her own memories.

What terrified the girl was that, as time went by, the boy's face, which had been so clear when they kissed, along with the sweet feelings captured in that moment, seemed to gradually become blurred.

Maki Yami couldn't accept it. She went over and over in her mind until those memories became vividly clear again.

"Moji, shall we take a few more photos and then get ready to leave?"

Girls nearby called her name. The girl turned around and waved, then looked down at the exceptionally beautiful scene on her phone. Was it because she hadn't seen him for so long that the memories were starting to fade?
But with Matsueda's excellent memory, at least in his heart, he won't forget her, right?
Yamami Maki looked at the photos one last time.

Matsueda takes relationships so seriously. Now that this kiss happened, he must truly feel happy being with Yuka.

To express her blessings, or perhaps to punish her own forgetfulness, the girl clicked on the heart-shaped icon below the image.

As her empty heart was filled with red, the pain that flashed through her mind also tightly enveloped those memories.

Yamami Maki stood up and walked towards the girls who were waving from the slope.

Please, Matsueda, be happier now than when you were with me.

When Jun Matsue entered the apartment, he was greeted by two girls who got up from the sofa and stood on either side of the entrance, eyeing him menacingly.

"Auntie has already left?" The boy bent down to change his shoes without changing his expression.

“She went to a banquet.” Mochizuki Haruka stared at him. “Where did you and Tomatsu go?”

“She posted an update, you’ll see.” Jun Matsueda, wearing slippers, walked toward the kitchen, but Yosuke Kurusu blocked his way.

"You're back too late!" the girl complained.

"Is this considered late?" The boy glanced at the time. "It's not even 4:30 yet."

Yosuke Kurusu's bright eyes widened. "You disappeared with a girl for at least six hours! Who knows what you two did!"

"Just a spring outing to enjoy the cherry blossoms."

"Is kissing part of a spring outing to enjoy cherry blossoms?" Mochizuki Haruka raised her head, her eyes filled with both coldness and grievance.

"They kissed?!" Yosuke Kurusu grabbed the girl's phone next to him. "Even couples can't just kiss like that!"

"That was just a camera trick; we had Imokawa film it."

"Imokawa Natsumi is here too?" Mochizuki Haruka frowned and pressed on, "Why wasn't I called?"

"I met Imokawa by chance; she was having a picnic with her parents—"

“What a coincidence! I don’t believe it!” Lai Xiyang said persistently.

"Or should I send a message or make a phone call to her parents?" Jun Matsue was a little troubled. Knowing Imokawa's personality, she might not necessarily tell her parents about this.

"Then forget it, but you need to give a proper account of where you went and what you did today."

Is this what happiness is like now? Jun Matsueda thought to himself as he sat on the sofa explaining to the girls.

It didn't seem so, he dismissed his own idea; happiness must be sustainable.

And it's clear that such days won't last.

(End of this chapter)