How can my simulation be a real love?

"Your friend is here to see you?"

After a slight hesitation, I seemed to hear some faint sounds coming from inside.

Then Kazami waited for a while longer. Suddenly, the door to Shiina Tatsuki's room was flung open. Shiina Tatsuki, dressed in casual clothes, stood at the doorway, her brows furrowed as she looked at Shiina Maki.

Her face was pale and bloodless, and her usually sharp eyes looked tired.

"Maki, what exactly happened?"

Shiina Tatsuki spoke casually with a somewhat indifferent tone, then she merely turned her head slightly to glance at her older sister before her eyes immediately met those of the expressionless Kazami Mei.

This is bad luck.

"what?!"

The shocked shouts immediately echoed throughout half the house.

Shiina Ritsuki, who was originally exhausted and sleepy from staying up all night, suddenly perked up. She frowned and looked at Kazami Mei, who had suddenly appeared, with a look of disbelief. Her astonished expression almost made people think that she had seen Belial resurrected.

After recovering, she spoke in a shocked tone—

"Kazami? What are you doing here?"

It's fortunate you have a mole in your life, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to catch you.

Kazami Mei thought to herself, then spoke the truth: "I came to find you because you weren't replying to my messages, Shiina."

"you--"

Shiina Riki seemed to be about to say something more, but she instinctively swallowed the rest of her words.

Because she saw her older sister, Shiina Maki, looking on with a curious, spectator's expression, Shiina Ritsuki immediately felt her brain buzzing. She turned her head sharply and glared fiercely at Kazami Mei with her sharp eyes.

She didn't want to reveal any information about herself in front of her troublesome older sister.

"Kazami, come with me for a second!"

11

Chapter Eleven: Brothers in the Heart.

In a moment of desperation, Shiina Ritsuki grabbed Kazami Mei's wrist.

Under the shocked gaze of her older sister, Shiina Maki, she pulled Kazami Naru into the room and then slammed the door shut. Kazami Naru could still faintly hear a crisp 'click' sound.

Wait, isn't this definitely locked?

Although it wasn't the first time Kazami Mei had entered a girl's room, something just felt off this time.

Shiina Riki stared sharply at the locked door, then turned to look at Kazami Naru inside the room, her dark purple, butterfly-like eyes fixed on him.

With her brows furrowed, she remained frozen for several seconds before speaking, looking somewhat weary, "Please sit down."

"You're doing it so soon?"

"what?"

A hint of confusion appeared on Shiina Ritsuki's face. Before she could react, Kazami Mei was already sitting by Ritsuki's bedside.

Unlike the room of the wealthy Chihaya Aine, Shiina Tatsuki's room, which is of a more modest size, consists of only a single bed, a desk, and a computer.

Apart from occasionally seeing panda 'Mr. Pan' keychains, there was basically nothing special about it.

It doesn't look like a girl's room at all.

"Kazami... how did you find my house?"

Wearing loose loungewear, Shiina Tatsuki did not choose to sit down like Kazami Mei.

She leaned against the wooden door with her arms crossed over her chest, a hint of weariness hidden beneath her cold expression, and even her tone of voice lacked its usual strength.

"Of course, there are special information channels."

Of course, he would never betray Hai Ling; he might need to rely on his good brother to obtain other intelligence in the future.

"what?"

"If you hadn't been ignoring my messages, Shiina, I wouldn't have come looking for you directly."

Kazami Mei also took the opportunity to explain why she had come.

I sent several messages yesterday and today, but Shiina Tatsuki didn't even bother to read them. If he doesn't come after me soon, am I supposed to keep waiting?

"Tsk..."

Shiina Riki fell silent for a moment, and a hint of sadness crept into her beautiful, violet-like eyes.

She's not replying to messages simply because she's avoiding them.

After all, she spent two days but still couldn't finish the work.

Because she had been working hard to finish composing music these past few days, Shiina Tatsuki had barely slept.

Just before Shiina Maki knocked on the door, she was sleeping at her computer desk. Even now, she felt exhausted and weak from staying up too late, and her voice naturally became a little weaker.

"Shiina, is there a problem with the composition?"

Kazami Mei slowly got up and walked to the computer desk, casually asking Shiina Tatsuki a question.

As soon as he entered the room, he immediately saw a large pile of sheet music scraps on the table, along with several empty cans of coffee and energy drinks casually tossed aside.

Just by looking at the scene before him, Kazami Mei could roughly guess what Shiina Tatsuki had been going through these past two days.

Shiina Tatsuki, who took on the responsibility of 'arranging' herself, has been working hard these past two days to meet the deadline.

However, it seems the result wasn't very good.

"…So what?"

Shiina Riki's tone became somewhat stiff, and she began to tighten her arms around her chest.

The anxiety and guilt in her heart were like a black hole, constantly devouring her reason.

Originally, Shiina Riki could hide in this small room to temporarily escape, but now Kazami Mei actually chased her all the way to her house, leaving her with no way out and only able to stand there and wait quietly.

She couldn't write a piece that would be worthy of this guy.

"It's nothing, I'm just a little surprised."

Kazami Mei gently held the melody written by Shiina Tatsuki in her hand, her deep black eyes, with their heterochromatic color, staring intently at every carefully written stroke on the sheet music.

Seeing his calm expression, as if he had expected this to happen, Shiina Riki felt a sharp pain in his heart, as if it were being squeezed tightly.

His expression suggested that he had believed he couldn't do it from the very beginning, and that he had no expectations of himself whatsoever!

But why did you say "trust" yourself before?!

"Are you here to laugh at me?!"

Shiina Tatsuki's originally tired and pale face instantly turned a bit angry.

Her reason was almost completely consumed, so she stepped forward and grabbed Kazami's collar with such force that she pinned the unsteady Kazami to the bed. Her violet eyes seemed to be burning with a growing rage.

With one hand gripping Kazami's collar, and the other hand bracing hard against the soft bed.

The pent-up anxiety and physical discomfort from staying up late made Shiina Riki's already impatient personality uncontrollable. At the same time, her beautiful, dark purple eyes were glistening with tears, as if a thin layer of mist had risen from her eyes.

Shiina Riki pursed her lips tightly, seemingly trying to suppress the negative emotions welling up inside her.

"..."

Kazami Mei merely looked calmly at Shiina Tatsuki, who was venting her emotions, and remained completely unmoved despite the other party's fierce demeanor.

Why not reprimand her?

Shiina Tatsuki was prepared to face Kazami Mei's disappointed gaze, a gaze that gradually lost trust and expectation in him.

But he didn't say anything!

The growing feelings of inferiority and helplessness made Shiina Ritsuki clench her teeth tightly.

"I can not do it……"

In the dimly lit room, her deep purple eyes were fixed on Kazami's face.

Her face, seemingly filled with anger, contained a subtle heaviness and sorrow, and the tears about to spill made this strong-willed woman appear so vulnerable and helpless.

"I could never be like you!"

Her voice was hoarse, like a kite with a broken string, only collapse remained.

For a genius like Kazami Mei, this was such an 'ordinary' and 'obvious' thing—

But Shiina Tatsuki simply couldn't do it.

From childhood to adulthood, she was overwhelmed by her older sister's "genius halo," and even when she met Toyokawa Shoko when she formed CRYCHIC, she could only look up to someone as "mediocre" as her.

The Kazami Mei before her also possessed talents that she could hardly imagine.

The intro and melody that the other party casually composed completely shattered the music arrangement knowledge she had studied so diligently for so long.

In order to compose a main melody that matched the quality of his intro, no matter how hard Shiina Tatsuki tried, how much effort she put in at home, or even stayed up all night composing, she couldn't achieve it. She could easily have written a passable piece of music to get by.

But she herself could not forgive herself.

If doing so would be an insult to Kazami Mei's work, it would be a disservice to the lyrics that Touka wrote with such dedication.

"call……"

Seeing that Shiina Tatsuki was just staring at him with those beautiful eyes, Kazami Mei let out a long sigh of relief.

Shiina Riki's emotional outburst just now seemed to have released a lot of the negative emotions that had been accumulating in her heart for a long time. However, the glistening little pearls in her beautiful eyes were still hitting his face with a pattering sound.

Ultimately, it was his fault for playing poorly in this match.

It was all because he trusted Lixi too much that this happened.

Because of her family background, she has a strong sense of inferiority. From childhood to adulthood, no one had any expectations for her, the "genius" younger sister. Everyone just regarded her as an accessory to her older sister, Shiina Maki, and no one even compared her to her older sister.

It was simply overlooked.

Despite her low self-esteem, Shiina Tatsuki possesses an extremely strong sense of pride. She is unwilling to accept being ignored by anyone, to feel unappreciated by anyone, and therefore desperately strives to achieve success to prove herself—simply out of resentment.

Kazami Mei already knew about Shiina Tatsuki's personality and abilities, so she had a strong sense of trust in her from the very beginning.

Shiina Tatsuki, who had always been overlooked, chose to accept Kazami Mei's 'trust'.

So she worked tirelessly through the night to write high-quality music, both to reciprocate the trust he placed in her and to prevent his expectations from turning into disappointment.

But it is precisely because of this that Shiina Ritsuki is like traveling in one direction only in the depths of darkness.

I am trapped in a state of 'confusion'.

"Shiina, you seem to be going in circles."

Kazami Mei felt Shiina Ritsuki pressing down on him with half her body, and her previously calm expression now showed a hint of dissatisfaction.

It was also the first time that Shiina Tatsuki had seen Kazami Mei with her brows furrowed.

"You want me to be satisfied, so you deliberately arrange the music to fit my style, without fully letting go and writing your own music. Of course, you can choose to hand over the composition to me as before, but are you really willing to do that?"

"This piece of music is something we created together!"

Ryo Yamada, the herb-eating immortal, has a saying that goes very well.

Losing your 'individuality' is tantamount to death.

Kazami Mei had previously said that Shiina Tatsuki's melodies were somewhat "conservative," which not only meant that she wasn't very open in her compositions, but also that her "personality" wasn't very apparent in the melodies.

This is the soul of a band.

Shiina Tatsuki didn't even show her true self before arbitrarily displaying feelings of inferiority and self-abandonment.

"Rewrite it! Write down what you want to write!"

"I've already said I can't do it—"

"If I say you can do it, then you can do it!"

The positions between the two seemed to have silently shifted at this moment. Kazami Mei, who was usually quite easygoing, became incredibly tough at this moment, while Shiina Tatsuki, who was tough and had a strong sense of self-respect, showed an unusual weariness and vulnerability.

After being 'scolded' like that by Kazami Mei, Shiina Tatsuki was at a loss for words.

Of course she was unwilling to accept it.

Shiina Riki found it more unacceptable than anyone else to compromise like this!