Am I being simulated by their love affair.

Chapter 544 With limited energy, even the girls' schedules had to be carefully chosen.

On May 5th, the third day of the holiday, Jun Matsueda sat in a café in Minami-Asagaya, watching the busy girls behind the bar.

Wearing a white shirt and black vest typical of baristas, Aya Miyamura moved with fluid grace throughout the entire process, from grinding coffee beans to brewing and extracting the coffee, even giving the men a sense of elegant beauty.

"Wow, Aya-chan has become so amazing now," Jun Matsue exclaimed. "When you first started working here, you were just a waitress carrying dishes."

"Because I'm smart~" The girl looked up and smiled smugly, revealing her small canine teeth.

"The manager saw that I was learning quickly, so he started teaching me how to brew coffee, and my salary increased quite a bit as a result!"

"Also, because Chun-ge doesn't come to my place very often!" She glared at her brother.

Matsueda Jun silently lowered his head, expressing his inner shame—if it weren't for Aya-chan pulling him to help today, his younger sister might have already become the acting store manager by the time the boy took the initiative to visit.

The girl stuck her tongue out at him, her hands moving non-stop as she finished making the last cup of coffee. She placed the coffee on the saucer in front of the bar, and Matsueda Jun then stood up, picked up the coffee, and walked over to the customer sitting in the corner.

"Your No. 5 beans, Kilimanjaro, please enjoy." He flashed a perfectly professional smile.

“…Thank you.” The woman sitting by the window paused for a moment, then lowered her head to sip her coffee. Her eyes secretly glanced up at the boy’s departing figure.

When Jun Matsueda returned to his seat, there was a large scoop of vanilla ice cream on the table. He looked up at the counter, but the barista girl was nowhere to be seen.

A few minutes later, Miyamura Aya, having changed out of her uniform, walked out of the kitchen and sat opposite the boy. She had eaten a little more than half of her vanilla ice cream, and then picked up another spoon and scooped out a big mouthful.

"Brother Chun, you can take off your apron now!"

"Is it time to close?" Jun Matsueda looked around; there were indeed hardly any customers left in the shop.

"It's almost time." The girl glanced at her watch; it was already past 4:30. "We close at 5:00 these days during Golden Week."

"That's pretty good." The boy picked up his spoon again and started fighting with Caijiang for the ice cream.

He's a temporary waiter at this cafe today. Because of Golden Week, the cafe is short-staffed, so Aya Miyamura asked her older brother to help out.

"But I didn't expect Chun-ge to actually have time." The girl licked the frost off her lips. "I was just asking casually."

"Aren't you helping Imokawa-neechan with her filming? Why are you doing other jobs too?"

“My part-time job mainly involves afternoon and evening shifts. The Literature Museum closes early during Golden Week, so they didn’t schedule any shifts for me.”

"As for Imogawa, they should be filming Mochizuki's scenes right now," Jun Matsueda said, glancing at the message on his phone.

Mochizuki Haruka sent him a lot of photos, each one was very beautiful, and they must have been carefully selected from Imokawa Natsumi's camera.

Unfortunately, the girls in the photos all have somewhat indifferent expressions, probably because he wasn't there. But they still look pretty good.

After replying to Mochizuki Haruka with "It looks amazing," the boy looked up.

"So what about dinner?"

“Jun-ge will handle it himself~” Miyamura Aya winked playfully, “I’m going to Shibuya Sky with my friends to take pictures of the sunset, and we’re also planning to watch a movie together tonight.”

"So you're just going to leave after you've used me?" Jun Matsueda stuck the spoon into the ice cream scoop, his tone somewhat pitiful.

"Isn't this the super high salary I gave you for your vacation?" the girl said with a grin.

"Besides, every time I see Jun-ge now, he's either with Haruka-neechan, Tomatsu-neechan, or chatting with Imokawa-neechan. Why would I need to keep you company?"

Matsueda Jun lowered his head again and focused on eating his ice cream. Aya smiled even more happily. She stood up and patted the boy's shoulder in a pretentious manner.

"I'm going to the kitchen to wash the cups. Chun-ge, can you watch the shop for me? Call me if you need anything!"

The girl's footsteps faded into the distance. Matsueda Jun put the last bit of melted ice cream into his mouth and took out his phone again. Mochizuki Haruka hadn't sent any new photos yet, but a new message had popped up in the chat box with the rabbit avatar.

"The detective that Jun-kun introduced is very efficient. He just sent me his preliminary report for the past two days."

"How's it going?"

Just as the boy pressed the send button, Miyamura Aya, with foam on her hands, walked up to him and took away the empty plate and spoon.

“My dad’s social circle is relatively simple these days. The women he’s been in contact with these past few days are mostly colleagues from the company. The one with the most potential for a romantic relationship is the woman we saw the other day.”

"Mr. Tomatsu doesn't seem interested in her," Jun Matsueda thought for a moment as he stared at the chat window. "Besides that, does he have any debt-related problems right now?"

"We haven't found out yet." The girl sent a melancholy rabbit emoji. "But from the detective's observation, Dad doesn't seem to be under any pressure right now."

"That's good news. Let's see how it goes after the holiday."

"Ok!"

The girl then sent a picture of tomatoes cut on a cutting board, and soft tofu cut into small pieces on a plate next to them.

"Mom's home for dinner today, and I'm planning to let her try the Chinese food that Tsunku cooked for me before. I hope she'll like it~"

Jun Matsue smiled. "She'll definitely like it."

Just as the boy put down his phone, Aya Miyamura came out of the kitchen. The girl untied her ponytail and twirled a strand of hair between her fingers.

"Time to get off work~"

Jun Matsue got up from his seat, untied his apron and hung it on the wall behind the bar. The two walked out of the cafe together. Aya locked the door and put the key in her pocket.

"I'm going to Shibuya, where are you planning to go, Jun-nii?"

The boy looked at the slightly slanted sun at the intersection and said, "Let's go browse around the nearby music and video stores first, and then find a place to have dinner."

I wonder when filming at Wangyue will finish?
After dropping the girl off at the station, Jun Matsue opened his phone's map app. The nearest music store was only a little over a kilometer away, so he turned and set off.

The reason he wanted to go to the music store was simply because he remembered Yosei Kurusu's new album. The boy recalled the flawless smiling face he saw on the subway—he wondered how Kurusu's career was going.

The evening breeze grew cool, and girls on bicycles passed by, leaving behind a trail of carefree laughter. Before Jun Matsueda's mind could completely drift off, his cell phone rang in his pocket.

It was Yosuke Kurusu calling. As if by some unspoken understanding, he put the phone to his ear.

"Hey? Where is Songzhi now? Are you free?" The girl's energetic voice came through.

"I'm just wandering around Asagaya." The boy could already see the sign for the music store.

"How about coming to my roadshow?" The voice in my ear was full of anticipation. "It's in Shinjuku, near the Tokyu Tower!"

"When does it begin?"

"It'll take a little over an hour. If you're in a rush, I can come a little later, okay?"

Jun Matsue looked up; the sign of the record store looked somewhat weathered in the gradually yellowing sunlight.

He waved at the sign.

Plans have changed, so we'll have to meet again another day.

(End of this chapter)