Sota Oshio is a high school student who works as a waiter at his family's café, Café Tutuji, in Sakuraba City. His classmate, Koharu Sato, is known throughout the school as "Salty Koharu" for her perpetually cold, expressionless, and cutting demeanor that keeps everyone at a distance. The story begins when Sota witnesses Koharu being persistently harassed by a group of college students while she dines alone at the café. After he steps in and scares them off, Koharu's tough exterior crumbles, revealing a vulnerable girl who was terrified by the encounter. In that moment of distress, she hugs him and cries, showing him a side of herself that no one else has ever seen.

This event is the catalyst for their relationship. Sota discovers that beneath her icy reputation, Koharu is actually shy, gullible, and deeply awkward, especially when it comes to her one secret passion: taking pictures for social media, at which she is hopelessly inept. Sota, who runs the café's social media account and is an excellent photographer, begins spending time with her under the pretense of giving her photography lessons. The core of the story is built on a mutual but unexpressed longing. Both Sota and Koharu have secretly harbored feelings for each other since they first met in school, but neither can bring themselves to confess. Koharu, who is cold to everyone else, becomes overwhelmingly sweet and flustered around Sota, while Sota, who is kind to everyone, reveals a slightly teasing side only to her. This results in a slow-burn romantic comedy where both characters are aware of their own feelings but remain painfully oblivious to the other's. Key narrative arcs follow the progression of their relationship through shared moments at school, at the café, and during their photography practice, gradually chipping away at the walls Koharu has built and deepening the bond between two people who are secretly in love with each other from the very beginning.