Kannami Rara, a contemporary college girl with a passion for social media and admiration for Ariana Grande, dies suddenly in a traffic accident. Instead of an afterlife, she finds herself trapped in a time loop, forced to relive her life repeatedly up to the moment of her tragic death. Her primary anchor through these endless repetitions is her boyfriend, Kengo, and her main struggle is to find a way to escape her fate and build a future with him.

The narrative takes a surreal turn when an alien figure appears to the dying Rara, claiming that the world she knows is a construct of her own making and that only she can prevent its impending end. This entity urges her to change her actions, specifically to avoid or break up with Kengo, as her attachment to him is seemingly the cause of her recurring death. However, Rara consistently refuses, choosing her love for Kengo over her own survival in loop after loop.

The story explores Rara’s personal struggles, including a difficult relationship with her overly logical and strict mother, which adds emotional depth to her character. The central mystery revolves around the true nature of the time loop and the alien’s motives, encouraging the reader to question what is real and whether the characters are being truthful. The title itself is drawn from Rara’s persistent, anxious question to Kengo, can you breathe? Are you breathing? This refrain serves as a powerful metaphor for the crushing weight of daily stress and the feeling of being unable to move forward.

As Rara desperately scrambles to alter the threads of her life, she eventually realizes that ensuring Kengo’s happiness might be more important than her own existence. The narrative culminates not in her finding a way to survive, but in her accepting a bittersweet resolution where she gives up her own chance at a future to secure a happy one for the man she loves. The story is a single-volume, self-contained work set in a recognizable modern Japan, blending supernatural time travel with a deeply emotional romance.