Toshihiko Katayama is a cram school teacher whose almost supernatural beauty inspires obsessive behavior in men and women alike. He has long grown accustomed to the stares and strange reactions his appearance provokes, but his life takes a darker turn when an unsettling woman begins stalking him, leaving threatening letters at his door and following his every move. The stalker’s actions escalate into a violent attack on a female student who had shown interest in Toshihiko, and he is injured while trying to protect her. Desperate for help, he turns to the Sasaki Agency, an investigative firm specializing in paranormal and psychological cases, run by his former classmate Rumi Sasaki.

At the same time, a bizarre urban legend is spreading among local elementary school students. A girl named Nanaka, who is connected to the agency’s assistant Kouki Aoyama through his family’s church, reports a disturbing rumor: a story about a woman called Haruko that must be passed on within a week or the listener will be visited by Haruko in their dreams. Nanaka has already seen the dream figure because she refused to pass the story on and risk harming someone else.

Rumi Sasaki and Kouki Aoyama take on both cases. As they investigate, they begin to see connections between the stalker haunting Toshihiko and the Haruko dream legend that is spreading through the school. The stalker appears to be a living woman driven by a distorted obsession that has taken on supernatural qualities, while the Haruko phenomenon seems to propagate like a contagious curse. The agency’s work reveals that both cases stem from warped human desires—possessiveness, envy, and a refusal to be seen for who one really is.

The narrative explores themes of lookism, identity, toxic attachment, and the ways beauty can become a curse rather than a blessing. The setting moves between Toshihiko’s cram school, the elementary school, and the cramped offices of the Sasaki Agency. The story is told from multiple perspectives, including those of the stalker, the children, and the investigators, building a slow, uneasy dread. The resolution offers a temporary halt to the immediate threats, but the closing pages deliver a sudden, brutal twist that recontextualizes earlier events and sets up deeper consequences for the series’ ongoing characters.