Manaka's friends Rikiya Komiyama and Okusa suggest the mystery girl could be Tsukasa Nishino, the prettiest girl in school. On Toujo's advice, Manaka confesses to Nishino while doing a pull-up, and Nishino mysteriously agrees to going out with him.

In a twist of events, Toujo decides not to try for Sakai (an all-girl school and her first choice of high school) or Oumi Academy (another all-girl school), deciding to attend Izumizaka with the others. Even more surprising, Nishino decides to go to Oumi Academy instead, hoping to somehow maintain a long-distance relationship with Manaka. Nishino giving up her slot at Izumizaka gives Manaka the opening he needs to get in (he is one of three on the waiting list; the other is Komiyama, and it is later discovered that Satsuki Kitaoji is the third). It is during the entrance exams for Izumizaka that Manaka finally realizes that Toujo is the girl he saw on the roof, as she shows up for the exam wearing contact lenses and with her hair down (a look she mostly retains from that point onward).

Soon after getting his first video camera, Manaka sees a gorgeous girl and begins filming her. The encounter ends up less than pleasant and the girl, Kitaoji, throws his camera into a river. Little does he know that she will be in his school for the next three years. Finding out they are in the same class at their new high school, an argument immediately sparks between the two and they both receive clean-up duty for detention. Manaka's gentlemanly compassion after an accident, however, sparks love in Kitaoji's eye for him. It doesn't hurt that the two of them start spending all their time together while they both recover from that accident. It turns out that the two have a lot of interests in common.

Manaka soon discovers that the movie club at his high school has been converted to a computer-graphics club. As a requirement for starting a new club, Manaka finds four others to join the Film Studies Club: Kitaoji, Toujo, and two other good but perverted friends: Komiyama and Hiroshi Sotomura.

Because Nishino is unable to stand Manaka's hesitancy in furthering their relationship, she breaks up with him. Manaka's complex and comical love life continues as he finds his childhood friend Yui Minamito (who has a bad habit of sleeping naked) asleep in his bed. Minamito is not really considered a potential love interest for Manaka; Manaka thinks of her as a child, and their relationship stabilizes as an older brother/younger sister type. Manaka is told that she is testing at a high school in the city and that he must help her. The high school she chooses is none other than Nishino's high school. Once again, Nishino - who apparently retains some affection for Manaka - enters the stage.

After many heartwarming, complex, and extended volumes, Nishino finally breaks the web of affection for Manaka by confessing her desire to become his girlfriend again in the same way Manaka confessed to her long ago (by doing a pull-up). Although Manaka cannot bring himself to respond immediately, he accepts by the following evening as he now genuinely loves Nishino. After a last-ditch attempt by Kitaoji to force herself upon him, Manaka reveals that he has already gotten back together with Nishino and cannot acknowledge her advances any longer. Toujo, after learning that Manaka and Nishino are going out again, gathers her courage and then desperately confesses that she has loved him since the day they shared their dream with one another in middle school. Though he admits that Toujo was actually his first love, Manaka decides to stay with Nishino because she has become truly important to him.

Nishino's dream of studying in France to be a great pastry chef makes their separation inevitable. Manaka suggests that they should break up and rely on their own strengths to reach their respective dreams. Nishino reluctantly agrees, and declares that when the time comes, she will re-evaluate Manaka to see if he will still make her heart flutter. When they bid their final farewell in the airport, they promise to meet again when Nishino returns to Japan.