College junior Shinichi Sakurai just wants to be alone, but loudmouthed sophomore Hana Uzaki sees it as her mission to keep him from being lonely.

Uzaki visits the café where Sakurai works, much to his dismay. An encounter with a cat goes horribly awry. Sakurai eats lunch with an actual friend.

Turns out the café-owner’s daughter Ami loves people-watching, too. Sakurai comes down with a really bad cold. Uzaki has a big request for her senior.

Uzaki tries to get Sakurai out of the house over the extended Golden Week holiday. A crowded train takes Sakurai someplace he doesn’t want to go.

Sakurai’s friend is determined to get him and Uzaki together, but meets resistance from an unusual place. Uzaki has some thoughts about choco-mint.

Uzaki starts her part-time job. Sakaki orchestrates a summer getaway for the four friends, including a fun day at the beach and a spooky night walk.

Sakurai asks Uzaki to join him cuddling friendly felines at a cat café. Uzaki asks Sakurai to accompany her to a pub for drinks on her 20th birthday.

The café owner and Ami encourage Sakurai to take a downhearted Uzaki to a fireworks festival in an attempt to get things back to normal between them.

Sakurai meets Uzaki’s mother, who’s surprised to learn some basic facts about him. A sudden change in personality leaves Uzaki’s coworkers befuddled.

An innocent trip to Tottori soon becomes a calculated effort to turn Sakurai and Uzaki into a full-fledged couple. After all, Tottori is for lovers!

Sakurai makes Uzaki clean up her stuff, then takes cooking lessons from her mom. A solo karaoke trip spirals out of control and ends in disaster.

Uzaki reminisces about her time with Sakurai in high school, then cooks up a scheme to see what he's like when he's drunk as summer comes to an end.

When Hana becomes depressed due to summer break being over with, Sakaki cheers her up after they have a conversation about Shinichi. They then decide to go bowling, and knowing that Shinichi is bad at it, Hana proposes a penalty game and uses underhanded tactics to try to throw him off. On another day, the café is closed and Ami uses the opportunity to make Hana and Shinichi try on new sexy uniforms. On campus, Shinichi is sleepy from playing video games with Hana into the wee hours of the morning. She later finds him taking a nap between classes and also falls asleep next to him.

Sakaki shows pictures of Hana and Shinichi napping together on campus to Ami. The four of them then go clothes shopping, and Hana shares with Ami that she has been going swimming with Shinichi, who complimented her on her bathing suit. Later, they play futsal and meet acquaintances of Sakaki, who challenge him to a game. On another day, Hana daydreams she is Shinichi's upperclassman while they head to her house. After Tsuki taught Shinichi how to make udon, he became good at it but Hana gives him harsh criticism. While Shinichi practices properly cutting the noodles, Tsuki still misinterprets his motivations, and a conversation with Hana only makes the misunderstanding worse. That evening, Hana's younger brother, Kiri, eagerly eats the udon prepared by Hana's senpai, who he erroneously believes is a woman.

Sakaki convinces Hana and Shinichi to attend the college's festival, bribing them with the opportunity to win a video game console in a lottery. On the first day of the festival, they actually have fun together and decide to have their fortunes read at the Occult Club's stand. They then try to leave when they discover that only romantic fortunes are told, but are forced to comply. Shinichi is left emotionally shaken after he hears their fortune. Later, Hana prepares a meal for Shinichi and herself. She concludes via a self-absorbed thought process that he needs her around and tries unsuccessfully to get him to say it.

Annoyed that Hana and Shinichi's relationship has not moved forward, Ami and Sakaki decide to shake Hana out of her confident attitude by telling her she might lose Shinichi to other women if she lets her guard down. While teaching Shinichi to cook croquettes at her house, Hana is still bothered by her conversation with Sakaki. Meanwhile, her mother once again misinterprets Shinichi's intentions when he asks what is her first name. The croquettes turn out really good though.

Hana is upset that Shinichi calls other women by their first name but not her. Shinichi gets a coupon for a gym's free trial, and meets a trainer named Fujio. At the Uzaki household, it is revealed that Fujio is none other than Hana's father. He calls a family meeting when he finds out that her senpai, who he had assumed was a girl, is in fact a guy. The situation escalates when Hana defends Shinichi to her father and younger siblings. Kiri is dismayed to learn that the maker of the udon he had enjoyed is male, while Yanagi is highly amused by it all. Meanwhile, Shinichi tries to sweat out his Hana-induced inner turmoil.

At the gym, Fujio shares his worries with Shinichi and two other regulars about his daughter having a boyfriend. Since Shinichi spends so much time training, Hana feels neglected by him and reiterates that he is the one who likes her in response to Yanagi's teasing. The next day, still under the delusion that Shinichi has feelings for her, Tsuki spends time at the café and leaves him alone with Hana for his cooking lesson, in the hopes their relationship develops. Later, she bumps into him on her way back home and erroneously believes he and Hana had sex. On November 29, Hana spends time with Shinichi for his 21st birthday and he privately acknowledges she is special to him. Meanwhile, she realizes he will graduate from college in a little over a year, and requests he do something outrageous.

Hana is worried she will not be able to hang out with Shinichi once he graduates from college. Since she is adamantly convinced that he likes her, and not the other way around, she plots to make him confess his feelings to her. She cooks him lunch, which attracts the interest of her whole family. After Hana refuses to introduce her to Shinichi, Yanagi visits the café.

Hana has a meltdown at the café because Shinichi does not call her by her first name, although he does with other people and he called Yanagi by her first name not ten minutes after they met. Back home, Yanagi tells her mother about her meeting with Shinichi, making Tsuki spiral down into further misunderstandings. Kiri is stressed studying for exams and lack of physical activity. As such, he goes to exercise at the gym where his father works to cheer himself up. However, when Shinichi also shows up, Kiri ends up feeling completely outclassed.

The Uzaki family go to a hotsprings resort, minus Kiri who is still traumatized after running into Shinichi. Fujio reminisces of the days when Hana was a child, and soon after arriving at the resort chases off guys hitting on Hana and Yanagi, and then Tsuki. He then gets surrounded by young men admiring his physique, which turns into a photoshoot as he basks in the attention. While the cat gets training from the resort's mascot, Hana goes wandering and runs into Shinichi and Sakaki. She offers to hang out with them but Shinichi tells her to spend time with her family. As they part, Hana gets Shinichi to compliment her bathing suit. Back to the Uzaki household, Kiri regrets not having joined his family's outing, while a now buff cat scares a bunch of the neighborhood's kitties.

Tensions are high between Sakurai and Hana as the lovers' holiday of Christmas approaches. Sakurai gets a shock when he touches base with his family.

Hana reminisces about high school with Sakurai while his father warns him about their relationship. Sakurai gets solid advice from an unlikely source.

It's Christmas Eve, and Hana finds a way to spend it with Sakurai at her home. He's introduced to her father Fujio, who knows him from somewhere...

Christmas Eve at the Uzaki house comes to a confusing end for just about everyone involved, leading Sakurai to reexamine his feelings for his junior.