Am I being simulated by their love affair.

Chapter 89 The Story of Your Life
Jun Matsueda and Haruka Mochizuki walked through the corridor of the teaching building together. It was time to go home from school and there were quite a few people in the corridor.

On the bulletin board in the middle of the first floor, there are two commendation letters with photos attached.

One photo shows Jun Matsueda standing in front of the Aoyama University auditorium. He has a calm expression, which makes people feel that "this guy has already won."

"Congratulations to Jun Matsueda from Class 17, Grade 19, for winning the gold medal in the th Neon Science and Geography Olympiad Championship and the th International Geography Olympiad Trials. Special commendation."

One photo shows the wind orchestra on the stage of Century Hall in Nagoya International Conference Center, with Tomatsu Tomoka performing a solo in the center of the picture.

"Warm congratulations to our school's wind band for winning the gold medal in the high school category of the All-Neon Wind Band Competition."

A few days ago, at the school's request, Jun Matsueda and Tomoka Tomatsu both accepted interviews from local media, and now everyone in the school knows them.

"So where are you taking me?" Mochizuki Yao looked at the boy next to her.

"Let's watch a movie." They went up to the fourth floor of the activity building, where there were many idle classrooms.

"Watch a movie?" The girl frowned. "My aunt is still at the hospital. I don't have that much time."

"Starting today, her physical examination will be adjusted to this time period. There's no point in you going back now."

Jun Matsueda opened the door of the empty classroom. The sunlight penetrated the dust, leaving mayfly-like spots of light in the air. He pulled all the curtains, turned his head and said to the girl.

“They say people go to the cinema when they die.”

The tables and chairs were piled up randomly in the back row of the classroom. Mochizuki Yao pulled out two chairs and placed them in the middle of the classroom, wiping the seats clean with a tissue.

Jun Matsueda stood at the podium, bent over, and pressed the power button. The computer case hummed to life, shaking off dust from the edges. He covered his nose, took out a rag from the cabinet under the podium, and wiped the dust off the table.

He pulled a disc out of his pocket and showed it to the girl who was already sitting in the chair, "This is the movie we're going to watch today."

Mochizuki Haruka walked to the front of the podium and looked at the words on the CD cover.

"Arrival".

"Do we have to watch movies after school from now on?" This is the question the girl is most concerned about.

"Don't worry, it won't prevent you from seeing your aunt, and I won't see her every day. I don't have that much time."

Jun Matsueda put the CD into the computer case, and the projector on the ceiling lit up. He sat on the chair next to Mochizuki Haruka, and the girl twisted her body awkwardly.

The picture on the screen on the blackboard began to move.

"Arrival" is a science fiction film in the style of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" that tells the story of aliens coming to Earth, but the core issues it expresses are very philosophical.

The film's protagonist, Louise, has the ability to predict the future after contact with aliens. She sees herself falling in love with her colleague Ian, marrying him, and having a daughter named Hannah.

But her daughter, the fruit of their love, will die early due to an incurable disease, and after she tells her husband about her future, he will leave her because he cannot bear the blow.

A future where happiness is short-lived and pain is long-lasting.

“If you could look at your life from birth to death, would you try to change it?”

With her back to the camera, Louise asked this question to her colleague and future lover Ian, and Mochizuki Haruka's hands trembled.

At the end of the film, the two hugged each other for the first time, but for Louise, it was as warm as their last hug after many years.

She still chose to move towards her destined future, experiencing happiness mixed with pain and pain mixed with happiness.

The screen went dark, and neither of them moved. The only sound in the pitch-black room was the hum of the computer case. A few minutes later, Matsueda Jun finally spoke, "Do you still think you're wasting time?"

"It's very good." For Haruka Mochizuki, it is more than just a movie.

"Is this your first time watching this?" she asked Jun Matsueda.

Jun Matsueda nodded. This was the film he asked the people from the Film Research Society to help pick out, and it seemed to be quite good.

"If it were you, what would you do?" the girl looked up at him in the darkness, her expression unclear.

"I will try to change." In fact, Jun Matsueda has already made a similar choice. His rejection of the system in this life is proof of his change.

"But the future is not something that can be changed so easily." Just like although he rejected the system, things did not go so smoothly.

Mochizuki Haruka knew that Matsueda Jun wanted to remind her about her aunt, but that was not what she was asking. No matter what the outcome was, her aunt must be saved.

She was hesitant about whether or not to try to like Jun Matsueda. She had also seen a future where happiness was short-lived and pain lasted.

"Let's go. There's too much dust here. We'll clean it up next time we come." Jun Matsueda pulled open the curtains again and opened the windows to ventilate the room.

Jun Matsueda looked down. The area downstairs was the edge of the school, where usually no one would come, but this was an exception.

"What's wrong?" The girl walked up to him with a subtle expression, as if she was trying hard to hold back her laughter. "Someone confessed to her again."

The two looked at Tomatsu Tomoka and the strange boy on the ground. Judging from their school uniforms, they were third-year students and had giggling expressions on their faces.

Due to the height, they could not hear the conversation downstairs clearly. They could only see Tomatsu Tomoka's impatient expression. After a few minutes, the boy left with an embarrassed look on his face.

Haruka Mochizuki leaned forward to attract Tomatsu Tomoka's attention, but was pulled back by Jun Matsueda.

"Don't do anything weird. Aren't you going to see your aunt? Go quickly." He drove the girl out of the classroom and went to the film research institute to return the disc.

Tomatsu Tomoka watched the boy in front of her walk away. He was frivolous and ignorant of etiquette, and confessed his love to her after seeing her photo.

She kind of wanted the school to change the photo on the bulletin board so that it wouldn't attract some unknown people.

The girl sighed and raised her head as if she realized something.

There was nothing there but an open window, with white curtains fluttering outside the wall.

In front of the car was the white hospital building. Mochizuki Haruka was sitting in the car, still thinking about the questions in the movie.

If the ending is destined to be sad, should we continue to go on for the sake of short-term happiness?
She remembered the gentle eyes of Jun Matsueda beside her bed when she woke up in the hospital bed.

I thought of the pictures sent by the bodyguard again, the boys and girls who looked out of place in the crowded subway, and Jun Matsueda leaning on the shoulder of the pink-haired girl, sleeping peacefully and quietly.

"I'll try to change," he said.

She would also change, Mochizuki Haruka made a decision. She would suppress her affection, slowly grind it into powder, and swallow it with cold water, just like taking medicine.

Anyway, Jun Matsueda would not choose her, and the girl didn't want to have any unnecessary expectations.

She didn't know that some things cannot be changed even if a decision is made.

　"Story of Your Life," by Ted Chiang, is the original novel of "Arrival." Both are excellent reads; science fiction fans should definitely check them out.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)