Am I being simulated by their love affair?

The red and white striped bag was simple and exquisite. Jun Matsueda reached out to take it, and the girl's hand holding the rope moved away from his in tacit understanding.

The weight was neither light nor heavy. He took a look inside the bag and found that there was more than one box.

"Should I open it now?"

"I just like watching my friends open their gifts in person." Yamami Maki nodded with a smile, and the green knot in her hair shook a little.

He took out the first flat, square box and opened it carefully. A black woolen beanie lay in the white box.

Jun Matsueda breathed a sigh of relief, fortunately the senior student didn't give him anything particularly expensive.

"Didn't we meet a lot of boys wearing beanies riding bikes when we were in Shimokitazawa before?" the girl explained.

"Some time ago, I noticed that Matsueda-san didn't wear a hat when riding his bike. Every time he arrived at school, his hair was messy. If he wore a hat, he wouldn't have this problem."

Although it's also very cool that way, Yamami Moki said to herself.

"Besides, it's cold now. If I'm exposed to the wind too often, my ears will get frozen red." The girl touched her small, delicate earlobe. "The wind is even stronger when I ride a bike. It would be troublesome if I get frostbite on my ears. Wearing a cold hat can protect my ears well!"

"Thank you for your concern, Senior." Matsueda Jun looked at the hat in his hand and felt it was warm. "I will wear it when I ride my bike next time."

"Put it on and let me see it now!" Yamami Moki looked at him expectantly.

"...That's not how you wear it."

Although the boy in front of me is still very handsome, he looks like a patient with terminal cancer.

"There's a way to wear a beanie. You can't just put it on your head!"

Matsueda Jun looked at her with a confused look. Yamami Maki sighed, "First, use both hands to hold the hat open, and remember to align the center line with the back of your head..."

If possible, it would be easiest for her to put it on him herself, but the girl knew that this was forbidden as it was too intimate.

Just like the gift she originally considered was a scarf, but then she thought that giving a scarf as a Christmas gift between opposite sexes might seem ambiguous, so she decided to give a hat.

"That's right." Yamamiya Maki looked at the boy in front of her with satisfaction. The cold hat left a little bangs, which made the boy's facial features and skin beauty more prominent.

The girl took out her cell phone and took a picture to show him, "Remember to wear it like this in the future!" Matsueda Jun nodded.

Without taking off his hat, he took the second and final gift from his bag.

A slender wooden box with a black background and gold lacquer.

"Could it be a magic wand? Holly wood, phoenix feather, eleven inches, flexible and pliable!" Matsueda Jun became inexplicably excited. Magic is much more interesting than systems or something.

"No." Yamami Moki laughed, "You'll know when you open it."

Gently opening the heavy lid, a pair of drumsticks appeared in front of Jun Matsueda. They were a very textured black with green patterns wrapped around them, like vines or thorns.

"Although I like it very much, I really didn't expect that my senior would give this to me." He was a little surprised.

"Because Matsueda-san is the drummer." The girl said as a matter of course.

"I don't think I've ever played drums seriously in front of my senior." Jun Matsueda thought for a moment.

Timpani certainly don't count.

"That's why I want to see Matsueda-san play the drums even more~" There were stars of anticipation in Yamami Maki's eyes.

"If I give a pair of drumsticks to Matsueda-san, when you play the drums in the future, you will remember that someone is looking forward to your performance."

"Be sure to tell me before you play the drums next time. I'll be waiting!"

There was a sly hint in the girl's gentle smile.

Jun Matsueda walked into the chaotic and noisy corridor again, recalling the words left by Yamami Maki when they parted.

"Don't worry about returning the favor. Matsueda-san already gave me a gift."

"The amulet's blessing can last for a whole year~"

The senior sister's kindness was impeccable. He looked at the bag in his hand and walked into the classroom.

Tomatsu Tomoka sat in her seat. The girl kept looking at the back door through which he came in. She was as quiet as a reef in the noisy classroom.

"Matsueda-san," the girl called out to him, "I've been looking for you for a long time since the exam."

"where did you go?"

Chapter 167: The Ballad of the Second Girl

"Does Tomatsu-san need me help?"

The classroom was undergoing a general cleaning. The girl holding the mop passed between the two people, trying to reduce her presence and walked towards the front row of the classroom.

"Ms. Kominato asked us to leave the classroom a little later to check on the cleaning."

After hearing what Tomatsu Tomoka said, Matsueda Jun looked around the classroom. Everyone was cleaning and playing with tools, and it seemed that it would take a while to finish.

"Mr. Matsueda, are you going to work in the afternoon? You can go first, and I will check it out later." The girl said considerately.

"I'm not on duty today." He took out his cell phone and sent a message to Mochizuki Haruka, asking her not to pick him up today.

The 24th was the second day of the first round of the Winter Cup. Yuqiu Gao did not have a game, and the girl originally wanted to take him home directly.

As soon as Jun Matsueda's message was sent, it became read, and then came a call from Haruka Mochizuki. Tomatsu Tomoka watched him walk out of the classroom.

"Hey?"

On the other end of the line was the sound of a girl trying to suppress her breathing.

"Don't you need me to answer the phone today?" Wangyue Yao asked softly.

"Well, the class still needs to be cleaned, so you don't have to come pick me up, and you don't have to wait for me to eat lunch."

"Is that just the reason?"

"What else?" Matsueda Jun turned around and prepared to go back to the classroom.

"Isn't it because the quality of the ingredients for yesterday's dinner deteriorated, affecting your mood? You ate fifteen mouthfuls less of rice and nine chopsticks less of fish yesterday. You've never eaten so much less before."

"You remember all this?" Jun Matsueda returned to the balcony. The wind outside became stronger and began to blow up fallen leaves on the road.

"Of course I remember. I have counted the average number of times you eat each ingredient and each dish." The girl's originally depressed tone became high-spirited. These records were proof of her hard work.

"...It's not the ingredients, I just drank too much sports drink while watching the game yesterday."

"So last night in Laiqi Yangshi, the TV was too loud and disturbed your sleep? I will take care of it today."

"No, no, no, it's not her fault. I slept well last night." Hearing the word "deal with" from the other end of the phone, Matsueda Jun felt the wind on the balcony was a little colder.

"You lied to me." Mochizuki Yao's voice sounded a little aggrieved. "You clearly got up twenty-three minutes early today. It's obvious that you didn't sleep well, and you weren't in a good mood after getting up."

"If you were in a good mood, you wouldn't have put just one sugar cube in your coffee this morning."

"...Did you get up earlier than me today?" Matsueda Jun recalled. The girl came in from the balcony just as he walked into the kitchen.

"It doesn't matter whether I get up early or not!" the girl said in a slightly higher voice. "What matters is the pine branches!"

Mochizuki Haruka was in the bedroom of room 507, checking the location of everything Matsueda Jun had left before leaving the room, trying to find any useful information. The girl clutched her phone tightly, staring at Matsueda Jun's profile picture on the screen, and asked cautiously.

"Did I do something wrong that made you angry, so you don't want me to pick you up today?"

Matsueda Jun was silent for two seconds. "It has nothing to do with you. You don't have to think too much about it. It's just because of the cleaning. It's lunch time now, and I want you to eat lunch on time. It's that simple."

"Then why were you silent just now? Is it related to me? Can I know the reason?" the girl asked hesitantly.

"It's just because there was someone next to me just now." Matsueda Jun said with a smile, but there was no one else on the balcony except him.

"If you have any requests, or if I did something wrong that made you unhappy, you must tell me immediately, okay?"

"it is good."

Jun Matsueda hung up the phone and stared at the cat avatar for a while.

This was the first time he lied to Mochizuki Haruka since he met her.

Jun Matsueda returned to the classroom with mixed feelings. Except for the students in charge of cleaning, everyone else had left.

Tomatsu Tomoka was wiping the blackboard. The girl looked particularly cute as she stood on tiptoe and wiped the edge of the blackboard.

Half an hour later, Jun Matsueda locked the classroom door and stood by the window in the corridor with Tomoka Tomatsu, taking a last look at the classroom.

"No problem, let's go return the key." The girl nodded.

There was no one in the corridor anymore. A girl's voice came from the stairwell. I couldn't tell if it was from the third or fourth floor. It was so distant that it seemed to be in the sky.

"Matsueda-san seems to be in a bad mood after receiving the call." The girl walking beside him suddenly said.

"Really?" Matsueda Jun smiled nonchalantly, "I didn't even feel it myself."

Tomatsu Tomoka jogged two steps, turned around, stopped Matsueda Jun, and stared at his face.

"Matsueda-san hasn't acted in a while, and his acting isn't as good as it used to be."

The calm expression on Jun Matsueda's face disappeared. He raised his head, let out a long breath, and patted his face. "Maybe."

Trying to deceive Tomatsu Tomoka is a difficult task in itself.

"Since Mr. Matsueda doesn't want to say, then I won't ask." The girl remembered that she was not qualified to be a trash can, so she turned around and pushed open the office door.

There was no one in the teachers' office. The teachers were holding a final meeting. Jun Matsueda pressed the key under Shoko Kominato's lesson plan and left a note.

On the way back, the two seemed to walk slower than when they came. In the blink of an eye, the school was deserted and only the wailing of crows remained.

Matsueda Jun turned around and looked at the girl walking behind him, "Tomatsu-san, do you have something to say?"

In fact, the acting skills of these two people in front of each other are not very good.

The girl, who was walking slower and slower, finally stopped. Tomatsu Tomoka hesitated for a moment and looked at the activity building outside the window.

"The door to the wind band room should still be unlocked..."

Jun Matsueda looked at the girl sitting in front of him. The soprano saxophone was placed on Tomatsu Tomoka's legs. She put on gloves, picked up a soft cloth, and wiped the delicate tubes and buttons one by one. Her movements were so gentle that it seemed like a caress.

The black-haired girl with lowered eyes, the golden instrument on her legs, and the transparent sky behind her, the colors are as classical as an oil painting.

The reason why Jun Matsueda was here was that after answering the phone, he didn't want to go home for a while.

He needs to rethink his attitude towards Mochizuki Haruka.

"I've been practicing a new piece of music lately. Would you like to listen to it, Matsueda?"

Tomatsu Tomoka looked at Matsueda Jun, and he nodded in agreement, which was a way to relax.

The girl clicked on the accompaniment on her phone, and the high notes of the piano sounded bit by bit.

Jun Matsueda soon discovered that, like "Kikujiro's Summer", this was also a song he had heard before - "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence".

But because of this, he is even more looking forward to Tomatsu Tomoka's performance.

The piano prelude is like falling rain and snow, which makes the listeners' memories and emotions settle together. Along with the snowflakes, the delicate and melodious sound of the soprano saxophone appears.

The sound of the saxophone is often heavy and affectionate, but Tomatsu Tomoka's soprano saxophone has a touch of girlish delicacy and softness.

It rarely snows in Tokyo during Christmas. People usually don't see the color of snow in the gloomy sky until February. However, in the band room with closed doors and windows, Matsueda Jun could clearly hear the sound of snow.

The sadness and tearing entangled in the arrangement become very faint, as transparent as the sky outside the window. The restrained saxophone is as calm as telling a story, with traces of sweetness overflowing from the chest.

Only pure blessings remain in the long outro, so beautiful and pure that it is breathtaking.

The five-minute performance, the emotions pouring out like snow, the complex waves of music, are actually just to say one thing.

"Merry Christmas, Matsueda-san."

The girl put down the saxophone and spoke to him softly.

She had originally prepared a lot for Christmas, but in the end gave up everything and only had this song left.

From now on, I will give you everything I have, returning to you all that was taken from me in the past. Oceans and mountains, spring flowers and winter snow. A brown bear that sleeps through the winter and a loyal dog that waits patiently for its master. A fairy tale with a sad ending and music so beautiful it makes you sigh.

The hand-knitted scarf in her bag was never given away.

Chapter 168: Do you like the girl who only has you in her heart?

On the way home by bike, the melodious music of the saxophone was still lingering in Jun Matsueda's mind.

After wishing each other Merry Christmas, the girl from the orchestra room left. She had an interview at the Setagaya Literary Museum in the afternoon.

No longer recalling Tomatsu Tomoka's hesitant look, Matsueda Jun lowered his head and avoided the branches of the crooked tree on the side of the road.

The more pressing issue at the moment was the other girl waiting for him at home. Matsueda Jun had thought that Mochizuki Haruka's condition was starting to improve, but now it seemed she was on a strange path again.

After passing a convenience store, he bought two rice balls for lunch, parked his car downstairs of the apartment building, took off his cold hat and went upstairs.

As soon as he reached the door of Room 506, the door of Room 507 had already been opened. Wang Yueyao held on to the door frame with both hands and stuck her head out to look at him.

"came back?"