Am I being simulated by their love affair.

Chapter 667 The Girl Falls into Confusion
……

In her dream, Yamami Maki learns that Matsueda Jun and Tomatsu Yuka have broken up when she is halfway through her summer vacation.

However, the girl was not surprised, because she hadn't seen the figure she longed for in her junior's social media posts for more than a month.

After agonizing for two nights, Yamami Maki finally opened the boy's chat window.

"Matsueda-kun, I heard you and Yuka broke up?"

The girl looked at the text in the input box and silently deleted it.

"How have you been lately, Pine Branch?"

She thought for a few seconds, then cleared the text.

It feels inappropriate to ask anything while facing a cold, impersonal screen.

After all, she was the ex-girlfriend who initiated the breakup...

Yamami Maki put down her phone and looked at the off-white curtains that covered the night in front of her.

Didn't Matsueda say she was doing well? The girl gripped the thin blanket tightly with her hands, which were propped up on the bed.

Why did he suddenly break up with Yuka after only a month?

The call of a night heron drifted in from outside the window, sounding monotonous and irritating, like an out-of-season frog disturbing one's peaceful sleep.

The next afternoon, the girl entered the Setagaya Literature Museum.

Jun Matsueda works here, and Maki Yami has always known this, though she had never been here before.

This is Tomatsu Tomoka's territory.

The literature building has many sections. The first door at the corner of the corridor is where the library is located. The girl quietly pushed open the door and soon saw Jun Matsue behind the counter.

The young man sat quietly, his head slightly bowed, his face devoid of its usual professional smile. Librarians are typically paired up, but the seat next to him was empty, with no trace of his colleague.

It was early September afternoon. The cicadas' chirping had subsided, and the girl's footsteps were particularly noticeable in the quiet library hall. When Jun Matsue looked up, a hint of surprise flickered in his usually calm eyes.

"Um, good afternoon, Matsue-san."

Yamami Maki stood in front of him, her smile somewhat hurried.

"..." Matsueda Jun looked at her and nodded calmly, "Hello, Yamami-senpai."

"Is there any book you'd like to borrow?" He forced a smile, stood up, and picked up the card reader next to him.

Looking into those downcast eyes, the girl's first reaction wasn't disappointment at being treated like a stranger, but rather a sense of tenderness and pity for him.

“I didn’t come to borrow books,” Yami Maki said softly.

"Matsueda-kun, I heard you and Yuka broke up?"

The boy's thin smile vanished. He put down the machine in his hand and bent down to tidy up the books on the table.

"Ah."

"Why?" The girl's tone became a little hurried. "I thought..."

She thought his relationship should last a long time and be happy until they grew old.

“Because it was a fake relationship to begin with.” Jun Matsueda looked up and smiled at her.

"...Fake relationship?" Yami Maki blinked; she didn't understand.

The boy took a deep breath, his gaze lingering on the bookshelf behind the girl.

"I only got together with Tomatsu Yuka to make you feel bad."

"From that kiss in the auditorium to our cherry blossom viewing and dates together—it was all done to make you sad."

"Once the goal is achieved, the relationship loses its meaning, so of course it has to end."

"...Are you saying this out of anger?" Yami Maki's eyes widened. "Is there some misunderstanding between you and Yuuka?"

She had been keeping an eye on Tomatsu Yuka's activities, and the two of them looked so sweet together that there was no sign of them breaking up.

“There’s no misunderstanding. We should have broken up a long time ago,” Jun Matsue said, his eyes lowered.

"There was never any real affection between Tomatsu and me."

The girl stared intently, her face filled with disbelief. She reached out, seemingly trying to lift the drooping head of the person in front of her to confirm that those words really came from his mouth.

"I didn't tell you to say that." A cool yet slightly sweet voice rang out behind her, accompanied by the victor's footsteps.

Mochizuki Haruka walked to the counter, her gaze fixed on the boy, as if she didn't even see Yami Maki beside her.

"I can't control Songzhi's heart anyway." The girl's tone was resentful. "You can like whoever you want."

"But when you're in front of me, please hide it well."

After saying that, she glanced sideways at the bewildered girl beside her.

"It's time to get off work."

"Wait a moment." Jun Matsue smiled at her, took off his staff apron, and opened the door to the passageway behind the counter.

After watching the boy's figure disappear into the corridor, Mochizuki Haruka picked up the water glass on the table, took a sip, then frowned and ruthlessly tore off the sticky note on the glass that read "Drink more water".

"...Songzhi must be feeling really bad right now, right?"

Yamami Maki was stunned for a moment before realizing that the girl beside her was talking to her.

"But there's nothing I can do. He just had to tell me he couldn't let go of Tomatsu Yuka," Mochizuki Haruka continued, talking to herself.

"It's okay to be sad," she said in a somewhat melancholic tone. "I will always be with Songzhi."

"I will make him not sad."

As the boy walked out from behind the counter, Mochizuki Haruka took his hand and turned to look at the girl standing there.

"Matsueda Jun will now be a member of the Mochizuki family."

"According to the rules of your Yami family, remember to keep your distance from him."

When Yamami Maki came to her senses, the boy behind the counter in front of her had become a woman with a gentle smile.

How can I help you?

The girl shook her head blankly and turned to walk out of the library.

Watching the boy at the door get into the Mochizuki family's black car, Yamami Maki swayed and raised her hand to hold onto the cold wall beside her.

The way Songzhi looks now has absolutely nothing to do with happiness.

If that's the case, what was the point of her painful decision to give up in the first place?
The girl sniffed; she really wanted to cry.

When Yamami Maki opened her eyes, she didn't see the bright floor tiles of the literature museum splattered with tears, but rather a pitch-black ceiling where you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.

"..." She reached out her icy fingers from the warm blankets and wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes.

"How could I have such a realistic dream?" The girl sat up in bed, turned on the room light, and the warm, soft light made her squint her eyes slightly, which calmed her down a lot.

I picked up my phone from the bedside table and glanced at it. It was August 2nd, 1:50 AM, a perfectly normal time.

"..." Yamami Maki unlocked her screen, opened the chat application with the bubble logo, and found the pinned profile picture that she had been following.

The chat window contained messages they exchanged before their meeting yesterday. She scrolled up for a few minutes and then clicked on the boy's status.

Matsueda Jun hasn't updated his status for a while, and the girl felt a little uneasy, so she clicked on Matsumura Yuka's updates again.

The most recent post featuring a male character was from a week ago. It showed two matching ceramic cups filled with refreshing jasmine tea, creating a warm and harmonious scene.

Yamami Maki looked at the lop-eared rabbit sticker on the blue cup, which had the words "Drink more water" and three round hollow exclamation marks written on it, and found it particularly cute.

The girl blinked; the scene of Mochizuki Haruka tearing it off was so clear in her mind.

Was it because I saw this post a few days ago? Or was it because I met Songzhi today?

Am I hoping they break up? But why would I dream of him with Mochizuki Haruka?
Jun Mochizuki… Maki Yamami’s lips were pressed into a thin line.

She thought the name sounded awful.

The girl scrolled through Tomatsu Yuka's posts again, then stared blankly at her phone screen for a while.

She knew that the kiss between Matsueda Jun and the boy in the auditorium was caused by the boy's resentment, but were those loving scenes afterward also just an act for her?

Disturbed and sleepy, Yamami Maki turned off the bedroom light and lay back down on the bed. It was already late at night.

However, as she closed her eyes and her consciousness sank into the depths, the almost indistinguishable dream once again overwhelmed her.

Inside the café at Kasuga Station, Maki Yamami held a hot latte in her hands and looked uneasily at the girl sitting opposite her.

"Yuka, are you saying... you've gotten back together with Matsueda?"

“That’s right.” Tomatsu Tomohana nodded happily. “It’s just that Tsunku hasn’t made it public yet.”

"It wasn't made public..." The girl blinked, feeling the coffee in her hand was a little hot.

Maki Yamami met Tomomi Yuka on her way to buy bread after class. The cherry blossoms outside the French windows had all fallen, and some time had passed since the new students enrolled.

When Jun Matsueda was admitted to the University of Tokyo, the girl sent him a congratulatory message. The boy, who had not replied to her several times, finally sent a thank you and a smiley face after a long time.

However, two days later, Yamami Maki discovered that she had been removed from his contact list.

Did Mochizuki Haruka do it, or did Matsue-san delete it herself? She didn't have the answer in her heart.

So when the girl she met took the initiative to greet her and led her into the coffee shop, Yamami Maki declared that she was completely caught off guard.

"Um... what does it mean to get back together but not go public?"

"What's the deal with Matsue-san and Mochizuki Haruka?"

Upon hearing this question, Tomatsu Yuka's face lost some of its radiance, replaced by a somewhat troubled expression.

"What else could it be? That bitch is just too possessive."

The girl's tone was somewhat resentful, after all, as the loser, she had been driven away from Jun-kun's side for several months.

She picked up her sweet macchiato and took a big gulp. "I don't know what Jun-kun said to Mochizuki Haruka last summer, but he must have confessed to her."

"He likes her, but he can't let me go, and he wants to have his cake and eat it too—that's probably the gist of it."

"Judging from the result, Mochizuki Haruka definitely did not agree, and even made Tsunuk submit to her."

So that's why he deleted his contact information...? Yamami Maki recalled the unread messages and red exclamation marks in the chat box.

"So what's the situation now?" the girl asked, snapping out of her daze.

"Senior doesn't know what Mochizuki Haruka has done, does she?" Tomatsu Yuka sneered.

“She bought a house between the University of Tokyo and Keio University and drove Tsunku to and from get out of class every day. Whenever she had free time, she would come to the University of Tokyo to see him, and she even skipped her own classes.”

“This guy is as wary as a mouse now,” the girl said sarcastically, “he’s hardly given Jun-kun any personal space.”

"Even though we were in the same school, we didn't have many opportunities to meet. Most of the time, he would come to Qiyang to ask questions."

“…Ms. Kurusu?” Yamami Maki blinked.

Tomatsu Yuka turned to look out the window. At the intersection not far away, a promotional video for Kurusu Yosei was displayed on a large screen on a high-rise building.

"Why do you think she's performing all over the place now? It's all because the Mochizuki family suddenly increased their investment."

Yamami Maki's coffee cup trembled slightly; her older sister had never told her about these things...

“Jun-kun definitely wouldn’t want to be with someone like Mochizuki Haruka.” The girl’s expression was cold. “So at the freshman gathering before, I gave him some wine, and he frankly spoke his mind.”

As for how she got Matsueda Jun to the party, how she got him drunk, and what the two did after leaving the party, she didn't intend to say anything.

“He will break up with Mochizuki Haruka,” Tomatsu Yuka declared decisively. “After that, of course he will be with me.”

"..." Yamami Maki didn't say anything, she just took a sip of coffee.

Why does Matsueda seem like a toy, being fought over and taken away by them?

The cold, bitter liquid filled her mouth as she heard the girl in front of her suddenly ask a question.

"Does Senior want to see Jun-kun?"

"...Is that alright?" Yamami Maki looked up.

“Of course you can.” Tomatsu Yuka smiled kindly. “I’m not Mochizuki Haruka, I won’t stop Tsunkun from meeting other people.”

Not now, because she still needs her senior's help to deal with Mochizuki Haruka's troubles.

"...If Matsueda-kun is willing, I would certainly like to see him."

"Then next week it will be." The girl glanced at her phone. "Next week is the May Festival at the University of Tokyo. There will be a lot of people and it will be difficult for Mochizuki Haruka to keep an eye on everything."

Five days later, as Yamami Maki walked into the University of Tokyo campus, she finally saw the person she had been longing for in the crowded throng.

Jun Matsue stood in the deep shade of the ginkgo tree, leaning against the trunk with his head down. He only noticed the two girls when they walked up to him.

"...Why is Yamami-senpai here?"

Yamami Maki didn't speak, but just looked at him intently and eagerly.

The boy was wearing a mask, but his once clear eyes looked much darker. The bright and sparkling things in his eyes seemed to have disappeared, leaving only a heavy, tired gray.

"Why..." the girl's voice trembled, "Why did you become like this?"

Matsueda Jun silently looked into her eyes, then took off his mask, revealing a bitter smile.

"He only has himself to blame."

That afternoon, as Yamami Maki walked out of the University of Tokyo alone after wiping away her tears, she heard the news that famous singer Kurusu Yosei had announced his relationship and departure from his agency.

The girl then realized that the heavy vortex surrounding Jun Matsueda had only just begun to turn.

　Writing about the simulation would be too long, so I plan to return to the real-world plot tomorrow.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)