Aoi becomes curious about Hiroomi's secret life and drags Popura into stalking him, despite the fact he is completely aware of it. Later, Popura tries to get Sota to treat Mahiru nicer. Tired of Jun's teasing, Popura tries to get revenge on him which does not go to plan. Meanwhile, Aoi acts very clingy around Otoo after he comes back from his recent trip.

Sōta's novelist sister Izumi enters a slump when she assumes he is dating Popura and will stop paying attention to her. She decides to go on a journey where she ends up meeting Mahiru who helps cheer her up. As Sōta looks after Izumi, Nazuna helps out at Wagnaria, which annoys Aoi who believes she is outshining her. After hearing about it, Nazuna puts on an act to make Aoi feel better about herself.

Popura and Jun end up catching colds due to Aoi's clumsiness, so Kyōko calls in two of her juniors, Yohei and Mitsuki Mashiba, twin siblings who don't get along. When Kyōko offers to put someone else in charge of looking after Inami, Sōta becomes upset and falls out with Inami, but Inami soon manages to build up the courage to make up with him.

Mahiru meets a boy calling himself Kirio Yamada, who she believes might be Aoi's brother. As he is able to withstand her punches, Mahiru ends up conversing well with Kirio, who starts developing feelings for her, but Sōta becomes downhearted when he sees the two getting along. He begins acting strangely the next day and ends up bashing his head against the wall, leading him to think he might've become a masochist. Later, Kozue manages to get the waitresses to dress up in animal cosplay.

Mahiru finds herself a bit too close to Sōta for comfort when he tries to stop a tower of boxes from falling on her, which leads her to become a bit fearful of him the next day. This turns into a complete freakout after she discovers Sota touching her head whilst she was asleep and stops coming into work. Later, Poplar gets locked in the freezer and initially suspects Jun, but soon finds Aoi just did it accidentally. After Mahiru doesn't show up at work all week, Sōta goes to visit her in Kotori-guise to apologise and exchange phone numbers.

Popura and Aoi try to help Mahiru train to cure her androphobia by dressing her up as a guy, but with no such luck. Later, Sōta and Mahiru start exchanging text messages, which causes Izumi to worry. Sōta also runs into Kirio, who manages to deduce that Mahiru has feelings for him. Later one night, Aoi gets locked out of the restaurant, but Jun manages to sort things out for her. Later, Popura and Aoi try to help out Mahiru's progress by exposing her to the other men, only for her to nearly end up punching Hiroomi. Meanwhile, Popura becomes elated when she is finally able to reach the broken items report sheet that was normally out of her reach.