Am I being simulated by their love affair.

Chapter 682 "Foolish Love," Lessons Learned
August 13th, the third day since Jun Matsue moved out of the Mitakadai housing complex.

At 8:20 p.m., the Setagaya Literature Museum was quiet and dark, with only the corridor in front of the library still lit up, like a scene from a ghost story anime.

The boy sat alone behind the counter inside the store, resting his head on his hand, looking at the few people sitting in the lobby.

A bored expression appeared on Jun Matsue's face. He ignored the girl sitting nearby who was secretly looking at him and glanced down at his phone.

With forty minutes left before he was to leave work, he turned his gaze back to the book laid out in front of him—"Foolish Love," the book he had read in his university classroom during yesterday's nightmare.

The impressionistic style of the river and cherry blossoms on the cover is exactly the same as the one in his dream.

It seems this book was registered before, which is why it appeared... Jun Matsue flipped back to the page and found the content he had just looked up at.

"The more I thought of her as a foolish woman and a helpless thing, the more I was seduced by her malicious beauty."

"People often say that 'women deceive men,' but in my experience, it's never the woman who 'deceives' first. It's the man who willingly 'falls for the deception.' Once he has a woman he's infatuated with, he finds her words adorable, regardless of whether they're true or false."

The boy smiled. A grown man tries to tame a poor girl but is captivated and tormented by her charm. This is "Naomi", known as "the Lolita of the East".

It's actually just a story of "conquering" failure... He took a sip of the jasmine tea in his cup.

I always feel like this book appears in my dreams, like a cautionary allegory.

However, a dream is a dream, a story is a story, and reality is reality.

Yesterday's lackluster dinner made Jun Matsue realize that he did not intend to be like Naomi in the book, "just staying with her like that, letting the small boat carry us to a distant, endless world."

So, to conquer... The boy closed his book and stared blankly at the empty night outside the window.

Regardless of whether it's genuine or not, Tomatsu might indeed be open to coexistence, but the girl's scheming nature might not necessarily be curbed as a result.

As for Kurusu... he recalled the idol girl who had appeared and disappeared like the wind yesterday, with a bright smile.

She wanted to be a unique sun, to be his favorite, a demand that was indeed a bit difficult for a boy who had feelings for multiple people.

But since he said he would never let himself off the hook in this lifetime, there should still be room for negotiation, right?
Jun Matsue took the book from the girl at the counter, looked down to avoid her expectant gaze, and quickly scanned the code to register.

Although the night shift is less busy, the few visitors give the young woman in love more courage to pursue romance.

After decisively rejecting his advances, he continued to ponder the practical challenges of winning over young women.

As for Mochizuki's words... Matsueda Jun recalled the words and actions of the eldest daughter of the Mochizuki family before, and sighed in his heart.

I have a bit of a headache.

As if what he feared most had come to pass; when the boy picked up his vibrating phone, a message from Mochizuki Haruka popped up on the screen.

Is Songzhi home?

"Still at work." He pointed his phone out the window and took a picture of the hazy night view of the Setagaya Literature Museum.

"How much longer until we get off work?" the girl asked immediately.

"half an hour."

"Then I'll take you home."

The sentence was retracted and resent, but there was no difference except that the period was changed to a question mark.

...So, after Kurusu comes Mochizuki? Jun Matsue thought of the girls who came to "visit" him yesterday.

"Thank you, Miss." He picked up a book from the table and sent a positive reply to Mochizuki Haruka.

Half an hour later, the soft "tap-tap" of low-heeled black sandals echoed on the library tiles as she walked against the flow of people leaving the library toward the boy behind the counter.

Jun Matsue took off his staff apron and smiled and waved to the stern-faced girl.

"good evening."

"..." Mochizuki Haruka pursed her lips slightly, unmoved by his smile.

"You got off work so late today?"

The boy tidied up the things on the counter, put the unfinished book into his bag, and walked over to the girl.
"We changed shifts to avoid clashing with Tomatsu's schedule."

The girl raised an eyebrow. "You really haven't seen her?"

“She had already closed when I arrived at the Literature Museum.” Jun Matsuoka walked to the door, pressed the switch on the wall, and the lights in the hall full of bookshelves went out one by one.

Of course, although he didn't meet him, Tomatsu still left him a jasmine tea bag and thoughtfully wrote down brewing tips.

Mochizuki Haruka nodded reservedly, took the boy's hand, and walked towards the exit.

Standing outside the Literature Museum building, Jun Matsuoka looked towards the entrance not far away, but there was no sign of any cars on the road.

"How do we get back?"

"You came by bike, right?" the girl asked, looking at him. "I'll sit on the back of your bike."

"Where's your car?" the boy asked, somewhat surprised.

"Because my aunt was in the car, she said she would get angry if she saw you, so she told the driver to drive the car away."

"..." He turned and walked towards the bike shed. "Then I'll ride a bike."

Pushing the cart out of the literature museum, Jun Matsue turned around to look at the girl following behind him.

"Be careful when you come up."

"I know."

Mochizuki Haruka tossed her hair, pressed down on the hem of her skirt behind her thighs, and sat sideways on the back of the bicycle.

Feeling the girl's hands wrapped around his waist, the boy gripped the handlebars tighter.

"Hold on tight?"

"uh-huh."

He slammed on the pedals, and the bicycle glided into the deserted intersection. The loud cicada chirping of the daytime had fallen silent, and the branches on both sides of the road drooped in the night. Jun Matsue turned his head and glanced at the girl clutching her clothes tightly.

Mochizuki Haruka was still wearing a black dress today. Her long hair and the hem of her dress swayed gently in the wind. The boy couldn't see the girl's face because she was pressed against his back.

"Aren't you cold?" he asked, turning around and looking ahead.

On nights after the start of autumn, the lowest temperature is 24 degrees Celsius, and the chill is still quite noticeable.

"It's not cold." The girl rubbed her cheek against his back. "It's warm."

The bicycles nimbly made a turn and passed under the traffic lights. The two were lucky; no police officers were patrolling nearby.

Upon entering the main road, Jun Matsueda slowed down, walking close to the edge of the road. Haruka Mochizuki, pressed against the boy's back, revealed half of her face, watching the headlights of passing cars leave illusory bright trails around her.

"Why did you decide to pick me up today?" A gentle voice drifted from ahead.

"My aunt and I just came back from Kamakura," the girl said, glancing at the shop signs flashing by. "We stopped by to drop by."

It turned out to be the Obon festival for ancestor worship... Matsueda Jun was silent for a moment, and Mochizuki didn't mention taking him back this time.

"Hey." Mochizuki Haruka patted his thigh. "Is living alone really that interesting?"

"It's so-so," the boy said, looking at the next traffic light in the distance. "It's much more boring than when I lived alone before."

"..." The girl blinked and gently poked his firm abdomen under his shirt.

"Then come back quickly."

"Hmm." Jun Matsue rang the bell on the handlebars, the clear and short sound cutting through the night.

"I'll definitely be back soon." Twenty minutes later, the bicycle lay quietly downstairs at the Kugayama apartment building. Mochizuki Haruka pushed open the door of room 609 and looked curiously into the room.

"It's so small..." the girl said with obvious surprise, "Can people really live here?"

"I've been here for three days already." The boy standing next to her rolled his eyes at her. "Aren't you perfectly fine?"

"Hmph..." Mochizuki Haruka chuckled, looked around the room, and then sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Maybe I should sleep here for the night too."

The girl put her bare feet on the bed, rolled around twice, and finally crawled in front of the boy.

Matsueda Jun looked at her rolled-up skirt and the straps slipping off her shoulders, and it seemed that Mochizuki's talk of sleeping wasn't as simple as it seemed.

The boy remembered the book "Foolish Love" that he kept in his bag—"She knew that her body was an irresistible temptation for men, and that she could defeat them at night."

"No, that won't do." He pulled the tank top back up, which had fallen onto her smooth, fair skin. "We can't do it today."

"Why?" Mochizuki Haruka pouted at him. "You've only been gone a few days? And you're already losing interest in me?"

"The soundproofing here isn't very good." The boy tapped on the thin wall. "If you make even a slightly loud sound, the neighbors can hear you."

"Besides, it's a hassle to change the bed if it gets dirty." He patted the blanket under the girl again. "This is Aya-chan's apartment."

“Most importantly—” Matsueda Jun gently pinched Mochizuki Haruka’s nose.

"I feel like you don't want to do it, but rather you want to make me lose my mind."

What the girl wanted was more than just love; perhaps subconsciously she already knew that physical intimacy was the best way to influence a boy's will.

"...You don't love me anymore, do you?"

Mochizuki Haruka slapped the boy's hand away and, in a fit of pique, kicked him.

A glimpse of what lay beneath the girl's skirt flashed by. Jun Matsue caught her calf, then sat down and gently massaged it on his lap.

"Doing it means loving, not doing it means not loving it. That's what Mochizuki thinks, which is why she's so weak, yet she still tries to be so diligent?"

"Where am I weak!" Mochizuki Haruka glared at him resentfully as her calves were massaged comfortably.

"Isn't that what couples are like?"

"How could that be?" Jun Matsue lowered his hands and began to massage the smooth soles of his feet.

The girl comfortably squinted her eyes, letting him do as he pleased.

"Perhaps it's because there was something wrong with how we started, that's why you feel that way." The boy lowered his eyes and carefully rubbed the slender, fair toes in his hands.

"Sex is certainly an expression of love, but it's not everything—most couples only do it because they're driven by desire, and expressing love is just a side effect."

"Compared to various positions in bed, what truly shows my love is how I tirelessly coax you to get up every day, how you're willing to buy groceries and cook for me, and how I ride my bicycle to take you home like just now."

"Of course, the same applies to massage nowadays."

As he spoke, Jun Matsue lowered his head and gently kissed the girl's smooth, delicate instep.

“…I didn’t wash my feet.” Mochizuki Haruka struggled for a moment, her face turning a little red.

"Otherwise, how could I say I like you?" The boy rubbed her feet. "They're clean and don't smell."

The girl tilted her head back. "Even if there is, it smells good."

Jun Matsue nodded with a smile.

He had been so focused on satisfying his own and Mochizuki's desires that he assumed the girl's behavior was simply due to adolescent restlessness. The boy thought he had expressed his love enough, but for Mochizuki Haruka, she needed a more direct way to prove it.

Tomatsu might be right, the boy thought.

Having lived with her aunt and rarely having deep conversations with others, it's quite normal that Wangyue doesn't understand what love is like, given her upbringing.

"Why aren't you pressing the pine branches anymore?" He moved his little foot in his hand.

Matsueda Jun snapped out of his daze and smoothed out the girl's skirt. "If you press any lower, it'll be her thigh."

If you go any higher than the Absolute Territory, the chances of things going wrong increase significantly, so it's best to be cautious.

"Then let's switch legs." Mochizuki Haruka rolled her eyes at him and put her left foot into the boy's arms as well.

"If you don't mind, then just finish the massage for me."

Seeing the girl's reluctant expression, Jun Matsue kneaded the smooth skin of her legs again.

"I need to wash my hands properly later."

After seeing off the satisfied Mochizuki into the car waiting downstairs, the boy returned to his apartment, took out the book "Foolish Love" from his bag, and opened it.

"She has a bad habit of pouting her nose and smiling haughtily—but I think that's what makes her so adorable."

"You've been rubbing for too long." Jun Matsue closed his book, the image of the girl's white skin still lingering in his mind.

He lay back on the bed, staring at the small Mount Fuji hanging from the ceiling light cord.

Although he didn't do anything with the girl, the boy felt that he had still achieved his goal.

Matsueda Jun closed his eyes. In the simulation, he was also gradually swayed by Mochizuki, and finally gave up his plan to conquer her before the summer vacation ended.
"It can't go on like this..."

He thought about it in bed for a while, then took out his phone and found the parrot avatar that had recently become familiar again.

"I have something I'd like to ask Senior Yamami."

After waiting for a minute, the girl sent a cute parrot emoji that was hopping around.

"Yes! You can just ask me, Matsueda-kun~"

Despite receiving such a reply, the boy stared at his phone screen and hesitated for a long time before making any move.

"Matsueda-san?"

He finally stretched out his fingers to type.

"Does the senior know when I had my first time with someone else in the simulation?"

"Apart from looking at the moon."

The senior student who had read his message didn't reply for a while. Matsueda Jun knew it was strange to ask this question, but he felt it was very important.

"...I'm not really sure," the girl replied with some difficulty.

"Yuka should have enrolled at Tokyo University after that, and Ms. Kurusu at least after May of the same year."

"Thank you so much."

Jun Matsue scratched his cheek. His senior didn't reply, probably because she felt too embarrassed.

"So that's a problem, isn't it?" he thought, putting down his phone.

No matter how much you say you love someone, if you don't take that final step, it's like you won't be held responsible...

They will definitely have such concerns and then take extreme measures—wasn't that what Mochizuki did back then?

Jun Matsueda glanced at the book "Foolish Love" lying beside him.

If we don't want the conquest to fail, even if it's just to prevent Mochizuki from becoming the sole authority in our hearts, we must make changes in this regard...

(End of this chapter)