Am I being simulated by their love affair.

Chapter 619 Secret
As soon as the melodious school bell rang, Natsumi Imokawa, carrying her uniform bag, stepped onto the main road outside the school building.

The afternoon sun, a bright yellow, bathed the road at 3:30. The girl nervously tightened her grip on the strap of her handbag and looked at the boy walking beside her.

"Pine branch, it feels so strange..."

"What's wrong?" Jun Matsue turned his head. "Is the sun too strong? Do you want to use an umbrella?"

“No…” Natsumi Imokawa didn’t move her head, but her eyes looked around cautiously.

"It feels so strange to be stared at like this..."

This was the first time she and Jun Matsueda had walked home from school together, among the first group of people who had escaped from the classroom. All eyes were on this unusual pair.

"Then let's walk faster."

"Oh……"

The boys and girls trudged through the crowd, walking briskly toward the school gate. Imokawa Natsumi lowered her gaze and subconsciously looked at the boy's right hand, which was swaying back and forth, as he cleared a path for her.

Jun Matsuoka had long, strong fingers with distinct knuckles. The fine hairs on the back of his hands were gilded in the light, like the hands of a priest in a church about to baptize ignorant believers.

The girl stared blankly at Matsueda Jun's hand for a few seconds before snapping out of her daze.

It's a pity I forgot to take the camera out of my bag when I went downstairs, otherwise it would have been nice to take a close-up photo of the pine branch's hand...

Her belated realization seemed like an attempt to justify herself.

After leaving the school gate, he took the tram, transferred at Kichijoji Station, and half an hour later, Jun Matsue walked into his apartment in Nishi-Ogikubo.

Watching the girl turn on the lights and air conditioning, and skillfully take out slippers for herself, the boy felt a strange sensation.

Both Imokawa and I seem to have gotten quite used to it by now...

"Pine branches?" The girl looked up, puzzled, at the boy standing in the entryway.

"It's nothing." Jun Matsue closed the door, placed his bag on the side of the shoe rack, and stepped into the corridor with practiced ease.

"I need to use the restroom first."

A few minutes later, when he walked into the living room, Imokawa Natsumi was already sitting on the sofa, enjoying the cool breeze and drinking large gulps of iced milk.

"Let me get some fresh air first. Pine Branch, go turn on the equipment yourself."

The girl tugged at the collar of her sailor uniform; she was still a little hot.

Then Jun Matsue turned around and disappeared down the corridor.

When I returned to the living room, Imokawa Natsumi had finished her milk. She was half-lying on the soft sofa, her sailor uniform now replaced with a loose light blue short-sleeved shirt, and she was intently looking at the script in her hands.

Hearing approaching footsteps, she looked up and pushed the full glass of milk next to the empty glass on the table.

"This is for pine branches; a glass of iced milk would be so refreshing in the summer!"

The boy bent down to pick up the cup, while the girl slumped back onto the sofa, sighing contentedly in silence.

Jun Matsue, holding the milk, sensed that something was wrong.

Imokawa's shoulder-length black hair swayed under the air vents of the central air conditioning. Looking down along the ends of her hair, her chest seemed to sway exceptionally softly, with an unusually pronounced amplitude.

"..."

As Jun Matsue drank his milk, he sized up the girl. He quickly found Natsumi Imokawa's bra on the back of a nearby sofa—a pure white half-cup bra with plenty of breathable lace mesh, but still stained with several dark marks from sweat.

“Um, Imokawa,” Jun Matsue called out to her, pointing to the underwear draped on the sofa.

"Wouldn't it be better to put this away?"

"Hmm?" Natsumi Imokawa put down her script, turned her head and looked in the direction the boy was pointing. The underwear she had carelessly tossed aside appeared in front of her.

"..."

The faint blush on the girl's face turned into a deep maple red. She quickly threw down the script in her hand, grabbed her underwear, and ran to the bedroom.

Jun Matsue stood still and quietly finished his glass of iced milk—the refreshing feeling was indeed quite nice.

A few dozen seconds later, Natsumi Imokawa returned to the living room, her footsteps sounding somewhat awkward.

"Well, it's summer now..." the girl said slowly, "wearing a bra or something is really hot, so I usually take it off as soon as I get home."

“I understand.” Jun Matsueda nodded seriously.

Having experienced Tomatsu's video calls and spent time with Mochizuki Kurusu, he had long understood that girls didn't really like wearing bras.

"Shall we go record a video?" Natsumi Imokawa immediately changed the subject.

“No problem.” Jun Matsue walked to her side.

The boy quickly noticed that the girl was still not wearing a bra.

Noticing his gaze, Natsumi Imokawa gently placed her left hand on her chest.

"Well, I won't give up this comfort just because Pine Branch is at home!"

The girl's tone was very firm; she had had enough of the uncomfortable feeling of her chest being soaked with sweat at school and didn't intend to repeat it at home.

"Then what were you shy about before?"

Natsumi Imokawa blinked. "I was just embarrassed!"

"Wouldn't you feel embarrassed if your friends saw you leaving your dirty underwear or wet socks on the sofa?"

"...Is that the case?"

Jun Matsue felt as if he had been persuaded. He looked away, trying to put the girl's bare chest out of his mind, and walked into the recording studio with her.

Pulling out his office chair and sitting down in front of the computer, the boy picked up the script, which was covered in revisions, from the table and watched the girl open the engineering software and video.

Natsumi Imokawa turned around and handed over the earphones.

"Songzhi, go through the recording clips for today first and familiarize yourself with them."

"it is good."

Jun Matsue put on his headphones and looked at Haruka Mochizuki and himself on the computer screen—they had taken off their high school uniforms and put on more mature clothes, walking on the Keio University campus.

"Has Imokawa already finished editing Tomatsu's scenes?"

"Okay!" The girl nodded, dragged the mouse to open the folder, and the cursor on the screen moved over the edited video.

She went through the materials in the folder one by one, "Tomatsu-san's filming is pretty much finished, and Mochizuki-san's scenes are almost done too..."

"I want to shoot the final part during the summer vacation—the hottest weather, the most dazzling sunlight, the noisiest cicada chirping..."

"On such a day, Hikaru Kashiwabara realized that the innocent feelings of his youth had vanished without a trace with the passage of time. Finally, in front of the white ribbons at his alma mater's graduation ceremony, he found that he had finally become a numb adult."

"A perfect ending!" Natsumi Imokawa's eyes sparkled, her tone exceptionally excited.

"...The filming is progressing quite quickly."

Jun Matsueda didn't intend to comment on the girl's perverse tastes in her creative work; after all, he was just an actor following the director's instructions.

"After all, the Tokyo University of the Arts will be starting its comprehensive selection process in September~"

The girl looked at the wall behind the computer—where her schedule was posted.

"All filming will be completed in July, and the final editing and refinement will begin in August. I will apply to the Tokyo University of the Arts and submit my portfolio in September. The timing is just right."

The video ended there. Jun Matsue turned on the microphone and moved it in front of him. He looked up at the schedule on the wall.

"If all goes well, we should see your acceptance letter in November." The boy's words suddenly rang in the girl's earphones. His clean, magnetic voice penetrated her ears, and the tingling sensation made Natsumi Imokawa tremble involuntarily.

"Imokawa?" Jun Matsueda looked at the girl covering her ears.

“It’s okay…” Natsumi Imokawa gripped the mouse. “The sound effect has turned into that lullaby sound again. I’ll change it back.”

With preparations complete, the recording officially begins.

The ramblings of Kashiwabara Hikaru when he dreamt of Konno An.

"How long are we going to continue like this, and where are we headed?"

The scene of Hikaru Kashiwabara typing on his phone while waiting for Kaede Fujii outside a convenience store.

"When did you develop the habit of writing text messages without a recipient?"

The scene of sitting on the lawn with Fujii Kaede on a summer day, watching contrails and discussing their plans after graduation.

"I'm still completely lost about my future..."

"How could that be? Everyone is confused, and of course I am too."

Jun Matsue looked at his own reflection on the screen, his eyes vacant as he gazed at the transparent sky.

"After all, just dealing with what I can do... is already exhausting."

"..."

The progress bar reached the end, the first recording ended, the boy turned off the microphone, and the girl's voice sounded in the earphones.

"Matsueda got into the zone very quickly this time," said Natsumi Imokawa, quite satisfied.

"But why wasn't the last sentence done as required?"

She looked at the script spread out on the table. "This sentence was supposed to be a continuous one, but Songzhi paused for a moment."

"It was just a subconscious decision," Jun Matsueda said, staring at the computer screen. "Should we record this line again?"

"No need for that, the effect is better than I expected."

The girl opened the second video, saying, "Let's continue like this."

The second segment depicts Hikaru Kashiwabara rejecting Kaede Fujii's confession, and Jun Matsueda's voice acting remains excellent.

But Natsumi Imokawa couldn't be happy. She looked at the boy's profile—his eyes held complex emotions that were clearly not acting.

After the second recording ended, Jun Matsueda turned off the microphone and slowly exhaled.

The girl next to him didn't speak. He turned his head and took off his headphones. "Is it all recorded?"

"Uh... let's call it a day." Natsumi Imokawa reached out and closed the project file. "Matsue, would you like some yogurt?"

The boy shook his head. "I've had enough milk, I'm not thirsty."

"Would you like some ice cream?" she suggested. "Mom bought a ton last week, and I can't possibly eat it all by myself."

"No need." The girl's concerned gaze made Jun Matsueda feel a little uncomfortable. "Why is Imagawa suddenly being so enthusiastic?"

“…Because you seem to have something on your mind.” Natsumi Imokawa blinked. “Has Matsue been unhappy lately?”

"No, not at all." Jun Matsueda immediately laughed as if nothing had happened. "I was just too into the role."

"Your smile looks so fake," the girl whispered.

The boy's smile froze, and the room, now isolated from the noise, fell into a deathly silence.

"Did your attempt to have two relationships at the same time fail?" Natsumi Imokawa couldn't help but ask.

"No, it's just that I've broken off all ties with a friend... I guess you could say we've fallen out."

"So it wasn't about romance after all?"

The girl's soft, large breasts moved closer, but Jun Matsue had already lost interest in paying attention to them.

"No."

But Natsumi Imokawa didn't believe it. "This is the first time I've ever seen Matsueda so upset about something other than a girl."

"...Don't ask anymore." The boy smiled helplessly. "I really can't tell you this time."

“Oh…” Natsumi Imokawa hesitated, then nodded slightly, unsure of what to say.

The silent room seemed frozen in time as Jun Matsueda looked at himself on the screen, rejecting the girl's confession.

It wasn't because he needed to keep his refusal of Irusu a secret, but because he had already made up his mind not to reveal his lingering emotions to anyone.

Regret, sadness, or anything else—it's all just superfluous garbage.

"I'm already exhausted just dealing with what I can do," she said. Exposing these things would not help her relationship with Mochizuki Tomatsu; it would only make the balance between the three of them even more precarious.

Happiness cannot be obtained by not giving up anything—while his feelings for Kurusu have not deepened, while Kurusu is still pursuing her dreams, cutting ties is the most rational decision.

Otherwise, his love life would only descend into uncontrollable chaos, and neither love nor career would bring him fulfillment; in the end, all that would remain for them would be a mess.

"Are you sure you don't need to record anymore?" Jun Matsueda looked up. "I'm fine."

"That's all," Imokawa Natsumi replied absentmindedly. "I didn't expect today's progress to be so fast."

The boy glanced at the time; it was just past 5:20. If he went back, he could still make it for dinner.

"Then I'm going back?"

"Huh?" The girl snapped out of her daze. "Aren't you going to play games anymore?"

“It’s not the weekend today,” Jun Matsueda chuckled. “I have several tests tomorrow.”

“Oh right…” Imokawa Natsumi scratched her arm.

"Thank you for your hard work, Pine Branch."

The soft lights in the recording studio went out, and the girl who was the last to leave the room closed the door. Watching the boy change his shoes in the entryway and open the security door, she subconsciously followed him out.

"You don't need to see me off anymore," Jun Matsue said, stopping as the girl behind him bumped into him. "It's so hot outside, and you're not dressed very safely."

"Oh, oh." Natsumi Imokawa glanced down at the deep cleavage at her neckline and waved to the boy who stepped into the corridor.

Be careful on that pine-covered path.

Jun Matsue turned to leave, saying, "See you at school tomorrow."

After watching the boy enter the elevator, Natsumi Imokawa closed the apartment door. She sat down on the sofa in the living room, tilted her head back, and let the air conditioner blow her hair into a mess.

Recalling Jun Matsueda's expression in the recording studio, the girl felt a sense of déjà vu, and she quickly found the source of that familiarity.

"Just like Yamami-senpai back then."

The senior who broke up with Songzhi.

Looking down at the two milk-stained glasses on the coffee table, Natsumi Imokawa felt a little down, with a vague sense of loss.

It wasn't that her curiosity wasn't satisfied, but rather that Matsueda Jun, who was willing to tell her everything, seemed to have suddenly drifted away from her.

"There's another thing that Songzhi won't tell us..."

(End of this chapter)