Synopsis
After the sudden death of her mother, Shinozaki Sumire finds herself alone with no way to support herself. In desperation, she uses the message board Free Friends to make some money. She forms a bond with her first client, Kaito, not realizing that they share a deeper connection than mere strangers. Kaito, the newest student teacher at Minatohashi Higashi Academy, harbors a secret vice. Incapable of and unwilling to build genuine intimate relationships, he instead fulfills his craving for closeness through compensated dating. To feed this habit, he relies on the message board Free Friends, where he can arrange meetings with various girls who use the site—mainly students who have run away from home or simply need extra cash. The root of his troubles lies in a deeply ingrained complex: a hollow, aching sensation triggered by the mere thought or sight of violets. Violets—or "Sumire"—remind him of the sister he lost when their parents divorced and separated them as children. The only way he can shake off those clinging, nostalgic feelings is by losing himself in a woman's body. Just before the school term starts, a reminder of the academy's famous violet flowerbeds—despite their not being in bloom—drives Kaito back to Free Friends. A seemingly ordinary encounter leaves him completely unprepared for the girl waiting for him: an absolutely stunning beauty going by the handle "Sumi." A few days later, he discovers that "Sumi" is not only a student at the very same school where he teaches, but her classmates call her "Sumire." In disbelief, Kaito checks the school rosters. Surely it cannot be the same Sumire he knows; surely it's just another girl with the same given name? Yet, as if the universe is setting him up for the ultimate punchline, the only Sumire enrolled is none other than Shinozaki Sumire—his own sister, whom his mother took away from him. Kaito's long-held dream of one day reuniting with his sister has already come true... just not in a way he ever could have imagined.