A freeter named Taigo Ebikawa spends his days scraping by on convenience store wages while raising his younger brother Ayumu on his own. On the recommendation of an aunt, he reluctantly volunteers at the library of the elementary school his brother attends. Though Taigo is not fond of dealing with people, he finds himself warming to the school librarian, a gentle and sincere teacher named Yuu Hamada. One night, however, he witnesses Hamada arguing with a stranger in front of a love hotel. That chance encounter becomes the catalyst that pulls the two much closer together. The story traces their age-gap relationship as the kind, reserved librarian and the shy, inward-looking freeter navigate the growing feelings between them. After Taigo manages to confess, Hamada gently turns him down with the words "I cannot give you an answer right now." Hurt but unwilling to give up, Taigo resolves to change the half-hearted life he has been leading so he can convey his feelings properly a second time. A casual comment from his younger brother Ayumu gradually begins to open up a future that had seemed closed off. The narrative follows Taigo's efforts to better himself—both for Ayumu's sake and his own—as the distance between him and the librarian slowly shrinks.