Am I being simulated by their love affair.

Chapter 722 Meeting, Straightforward

September 26th, Friday. Typhoon No. 19 brushed past Mount Tsukuba, crossed Ibaraki Prefecture, and once again entered the embrace of the Pacific Ocean.

Although the storm in Tokyo has not yet subsided, schools and companies will not show any sympathy for lazy people—the Haneoka High School building, which had been empty for a day, was once again filled with the voices of boys and girls.

At 12:30 pm, Mochizuki Haruka and several girls stood in front of the vending machine on the third floor.

The girl looked down at her phone, while the two girls standing in front of her took off their cardigans and tied them around their waists, a classic sexy style.

"What flavor would you like, Moon-gazing?"

Mochizuki Haruka looked up and saw Hana Rion tilting her head to look at her. The girl's neat and thick eyelashes fluttered, clearly indicating that she had secretly used mascara and an eyelash curler.

Seemingly sensing Mochizuki's slightly low mood, Rion added a couple more sentences.

"The ice cream machine recently got some new flavors, don't you want to try them?"

The girl put away her phone and shook her head. "Hazelnut chocolate is fine."

"Let me see..." Spicy Girl stood on tiptoe, her gaze passing over the girl in front of the machine.

"They're still available, lucky you!"

The two quickly bought their respective flavors, and followed the others to the other side of the corridor, where they ate their ice cream by the window.

"It's still raining outside." The girl, who was eating strawberry-flavored food, looked out the window, her voice sounding weak and listless.

"Every time it rains, I feel like the air pressure is so low..."

"Me too! I just suddenly feel listless!"

Someone chimed in, and Hana Rion looked at the girl beside her—Mochizuki Haruka—who was licking a chocolate ice cream in tiny bites, her movements as cute as a kitten.

...Was Mochizuki's mood so low today because of the rain? She wondered.

"The road in front of my house is flooded again. There was still water when I went out today. The ward office said it won't be fixed until tomorrow." The girls were still chatting.

"Even though the typhoon is over, the rainy weather hasn't gone away yet..." someone took a vicious bite of their ice cream. "The typhoon was so awful!"

"Indeed, the wind was rattling my windows yesterday, it was quite frightening!"

"My family had the same problem. The water was cut off for a while. I had just finished using the toilet, and my younger brother was waiting outside. It was so embarrassing!"

"We're eating ice cream right now! Reiko, can you please stop talking about this kind of thing!"

The row of hot girls by the window started giggling, startling a bespectacled boy who was passing by, who quickly walked away.

"Speaking of which, speaking of which~" one of the girls suddenly waved to both sides, and everyone tacitly gathered around.

"I bet Mochizuki-chan wouldn't have this kind of trouble, would she?"

Standing at the very edge, Mochizuki Haruka looked up and saw that she had already eaten half of her ice cream.

"Oh—" the girls exclaimed in sudden realization.

"I saw Mochizuki's post. Even though I can only see one window, it looks really luxurious!"

"Is it a huge villa?" someone asked, leaning closer to Mochizuki Haruka. "Does it have a butler?"

"Are the lawn and pond outside the window also yours?" Others looked over curiously as well.

"I think turning it into a garden and swimming pool would be great!"

The girl who was quietly eating ice cream suddenly became the center of attention. She frowned her thin eyebrows and faced the curious gazes of the hot girls.

"..."

Mochizuki Haruka's homepage is quite active. She doesn't mind showing people her expensive dresses, lazy cats, and glamorous restaurants, but "her living environment must never be exposed"—this is something her aunt has told her since she was little.

Although the young girl was often willful and occasionally flamboyant, she still possessed the caution expected of a wealthy family.

However, yesterday was an exception—

Just like the girls were excitedly discussing, Mochizuki Haruka posted a picture yesterday, taken from her own terrace, showing the wind and rain over her estate. Although it only revealed a small corner of the estate, the post immediately garnered many comments.

She sent that post to Jun Matsue.

Yesterday afternoon, while staying in the bedroom with Jinzhi, the girl looked at the boy's unread messages in the chat list and hesitated for a while.

Even though she's in a cold war with Songzhi, isn't it a bit too much to not even read or reply to the messages from the boy reminding her to be careful...?

So Mochizuki Haruka sat on the sofa, agonizing for half an hour, before finally posting this status update to let someone know that she was alright.

Once Songzhi had liked her post, she felt relieved and deleted it.

The girl snapped out of her daze, frowned, licked a drop of melted ice cream, and looked at the chattering hot girls surrounding her.

It's all Songzhi's fault for liking it so late; now I have to deal with them...

Just as Mochizuki Haruka was about to speak, a tall and conspicuous figure appeared behind the hot girls, catching her eye.

"So this is where Wangyue is."

The boy's voice was gentle, and the girls around him subconsciously made way for him as he walked to the girl by the window.

Mochizuki blinked, moved the ice cream in her hand a little further away, and pursed her thin, delicate lips into a stiff line.

"...Did you need something?" Her tone was exactly the same as when she chatted with hot girls.

Jun Matsue nodded nonchalantly.

"I waited in the classroom for a while but you didn't show up, so I had to ask the other girls and came looking for you myself."

Did I interrupt your conversation?

He looked at the girls on either side of him, the hot girls holding ice cream and shaking their heads happily in unison.

"Let's go then."

Mochizuki Haruka walked past the boys with an ice cream in her mouth, while Matsueda Jun waved to the girls and turned to follow her.

"Bye~"

The girls waved goodbye to the two in sweet voices, watching the young man and woman walk into the stairwell.

Their conversation quickly shifted from the Mochizuki family's mansion to Mochizuki's unrequited love. Only Hana Rion remained silent, watching the figure disappear at the top of the stairs.

As the melting ice cream dripped down, she hurriedly looked away and licked her hand.

The sweetness, devoid of its coolness, melted on her tongue. The girl turned her head to look at the continuous rain outside the window behind her.

So Mochizuki has been unhappy lately, probably because of Matsueda's situation, right?
Stepping out of the stairwell, Mochizuki Haruka took the last bite of her ice cream.

"What does Songzhi want with me?"

Jun Matsue watched as she raised her right hand, and the bare wooden stick was thrown into the trash can in the corner of the corridor.

"I just have something I want to say to Mochizuki."

The girl turned and glanced at him, but she didn't say anything. She simply walked straight to the other end of the corridor.

Since she didn't refuse, it meant she agreed, so the boy followed her.

There were no vending machines on the fourth floor, and the corridor was correspondingly quieter. The two passed by only a few figures and soon arrived at the end of the corridor.

This is the home economics classroom, which is usually locked, and no one comes during lunch break. Mochizuki Haruka closed the sliding door to the corridor terrace, turned around, and smoothed her silky black hair.

"You can say what you have to say now."

Looking into her clear eyes, which were filled with shards of ice, Jun Matsue stepped forward.

"Mochizuki still doesn't intend to make up with me, right?"

“…Otherwise what?” The girl stepped back warily, her back pressed against the closed glass door.

"You don't think that a hug or a kiss will make me make up with you, do you?"

"Unless you give up your ridiculous idea of ​​wanting it all, let's just continue this cold war."

The answer was exactly what he expected, and the boy, who was already mentally prepared, took a breath. "I won't change my mind."

Wang Yueyao clenched her hands tightly.

"Mochizuki, I have no intention of turning back, nor any room for regret," Jun Matsue said in a gentle tone.

“I’ve said everything I needed to say. I know that with your personality, no matter how gently I try to persuade you or how humble I am, it won’t work.”

“I’ve thought about how to deal with your indifference,” the boy continued. “Should I lower myself and beg you again, or retaliate by giving you the same cold shoulder and not sending you a single message?”

The girl blinked and turned her face to look at the wall beside her.

"Whatever." Her tone wasn't so firm.

Jun Matsue shook his head. "I don't like either of these methods."

"Because what I need is not your momentary soft-heartedness, nor do I want to make you even more sad and upset."

"After all, we're going to be together for the rest of our lives."

His tone was natural and gentle, as if he were stating an undeniable fact. Mochizuki Haruka's shoulders trembled slightly, but she did not refute him.

"So, considering that our current argument is only temporary, of course I will continue to care for you and cherish you." The boy looked at the girl's bangs.

"However, I won't go any further."

"I won't kneel down and beg you, nor will I chase after you and pester you, making you feel annoyed."

"If you still insist on the Cold War and want to push me away, then I'll have no choice but to find someone else."

Mochizuki raised her head and glared at him with resentment and sorrow.

Jun Matsue smiled helplessly.

"But I will wait for you."

"As long as you change your mind, I will rush to your side immediately. I will hold you and tell you how anxious I have been waiting all these days."

“…Sweet talk,” the girl said coldly.

The boy simply gazed at her tenderly.

"Please don't make me wait until winter, okay?"

"I still hope that when I ride my bike to and from school, I can see your white scarf fluttering past me."

Mochizuki Haruka remained silent for a moment, then began to walk.

The girl nudged his left arm hard and walked toward the classroom without looking back.

Jun Matsue turned around, and Mochizuki's loose black hair swayed resentfully as he disappeared through the back door of Class 3-6.

He looked up at the ceiling of the corridor and sighed with relief.

Now all we can do is wait...

The boy didn't leave with the girl. Instead, he turned back and opened the sliding door to the terrace—the room was a bit stuffy, and he wanted some fresh air.

Pulling open the slightly jammed plastic door frame, a cool breeze rushed out as Jun Matsue stepped onto the terrace and looked at the gloomy rain clouds floating above the campus.

A second later, he turned his head and looked into the eyes of the girl next to him.

Natsumi Imokawa squatted on the ground to the side, holding a book in her arms. She looked up and blinked awkwardly and innocently.

"Um, I didn't mean to eavesdrop..."

"What are you doing here, Imokawa?" the boy asked in surprise.

The girl stood up, pulled her cardigan down a bit because it was pushed up by her chest, and used her little finger to brush away the strands of hair that had been blown to her lips by the wind.

"Obviously I came first..."

She stomped her feet—her legs were a little numb from squatting for so long.

Matsueda Jun looked at the "Complete Collection of Film Theory" in the girl's hand and asked, "You came here to memorize books?"

"Because it's too noisy in the classroom," Natsumi Imokawa said, sounding a little aggrieved.

"I couldn't get into the other classrooms on the fourth floor, so I thought I'd come to the terrace to study."

She hadn't expected anyone else to come to the other side of the corridor besides herself, and she certainly hadn't expected Mochizuki Haruka to close the terrace door without even looking, shutting her out.

"Be careful not to catch a cold from the wind." The boy looked at her rather thin clothes; he himself was wearing a coat.

"I just added another layer," the girl said, tugging at her cardigan.

Matsueda Jun glanced at her coat, which was wide open at the front, guessing that it would be too stuffy to button it up at the chest. He was too lazy to tell Imokawa.

An odd silence fell over the terrace. Natsumi Imokawa hugged her textbooks tightly and looked at the profile of the person next to her.

The boy's eyes and brows remained still before the flowing wind and rain, inevitably tinged with a melancholy gray, which made the girl's mood also drop a little.

"Is Matsue still arguing with Mochizuki?" she asked cautiously.

“It’s the Cold War.” Jun Matsueda corrected the girl’s words without turning his head, facing the swaying bushes in the rain.

"You heard everything just now?"

Natsumi Imokawa nodded. "This door doesn't really have any soundproofing..."

"It's okay if Imokawa heard it." The boy turned his head and smiled at her. "I told you before."

"Mmm." The girl nodded hurriedly again. She had been complaining that Songzhi wouldn't tell her everything like before.

However, hearing about it from a guy is one thing, witnessing it yourself is another...

Only after listening to the conversation behind the door did she realize how heavy a seemingly casual remark from Songzhi actually was.

"Will Matsue make up with Mochizuki?" Natsumi Imokawa couldn't help but ask.

“Of course.” Jun Matsue nodded without wavering.

"Because our affection for each other still exists."

"If you like it so much, why are you arguing like this?" the girl continued.

"Is this strange?" The boy looked at her. "Imokawa has seen so many movies, surely you'll encounter similar plots eventually, right?"

Natsumi Imokawa thought for a moment, "That's true."

Although she was well-informed in the fictional world, she found it difficult to connect those bizarre experiences with her real life.

"But it's still strange..." she said weakly.

Jun Matsue smiled. "Because all you see right now is me and Mochizuki, isn't it?"

“I really like Mochizuki, but I also really like Tomatsu, and even Kurusu.”

"From Mochizuki's perspective, it would be very difficult for her to accept that I have the same feelings for other people as I do for her."

"What?! Ms. Kurusu is here too?!"

The girl's eyes widened in surprise, and her small mouth rounded out.

“That’s right, and Kurusu too,” the boy repeated.

The wind, carrying rain, picked up and seeped between the two of them.

"..." Looking at his calm expression, a bittersweet and sticky emotion began to surge in Imokawa Natsumi's heart.

An urge to speak out welled up in her chest, and the girl took a step closer to Jun Matsueda.

"I don't understand—"

"Is dating them really that interesting?"

(End of this chapter)