Hana Tabata, a self-described ugly high school freshman, goes to school early every morning to replace the flowers arranged in a vase in her classroom. She becomes so immersed that she ends up with leftover flowers in her hair and is seen by Yōsuke Ueno, the most handsome boy in the class who happened to arrive at school early. Yōsuke has always been curious about the person who changes the flowers in the classroom, and when he discovers that it is Hana, the two slowly grow closer. However, the distance between Hana (who holds deep insecurities) and Yōsuke (who is ignorant and natural when it comes to love) remains difficult to bridge.
An anime adaptation was announced in November 2022. But not much has being said since then.
This manga provides examples of:
- Accidental Hero: A lot of the things Sumire does to sabotage Tabata's chances with Ueno tend to backfire and help the two out.
- Appearance Angst: One of Tabata's major issues is that she feels insecure about her body and appearance and is constantly thinking people are going to mock her because of them.
- Apologizes a Lot: Because of her low self-esteem, Tabata tends to feel like she's constantly bothering everyone and thus usually apologizes for rather small things.
- A Shared Suffering: Tabata and Shimbashi end up bonding over their mutual lonely experience in middle school and both choosing table tennis when being forced to join a mandatory club.
- Becoming the Mask: Sumire only started hanging out with Tabata because she wanted information on what she was planning to do with Ueno and possibly stop it so she could have him for herself. But as the story progressed, Sumire started to truly like Tabata, and by the time Ueno rejected her, there's no hostility between the two in the slightess.
- Berserk Button: Saying Tabata is under his league or calling her ugly is the easiest way to make the usually calm Nice Guy of Ueno lose his temper.
- Beta Couple: Sumire/Gotanda, and later on Shimbashi/Otsuka.
- Big Beautiful Woman: Despite what she thinks of herself, Tabata only looks less impressive than her more traditionally beautiful and slim classmates, but she's still rather adorable-looking. This is how Ueno ends up feeling about her.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Sumire is a mild example. She puts on a facade of being a pure and humble Nice Girl, while in her thoughts she's constantly snarking and judging poorly anyone who isn't Ueno. With that said, she's still a Jerk with a Heart of Gold at worst.
- Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: Tabata's dad is not amused by Ueno suddenly being around Tabata all the time. He's however, glad that her life in high school has become better since they started talking.
- Can't Act Perverted Toward a Love Interest: Ueno has no issue kissing Sumire during the Snow White play and barely seems to flinch an eye, but any type of touch with Tabata is capable of making him nervous.
- Casanova Wannabe: Shimbashi's attempts to get a girlfriend tend to be in vain.
- Characterization Marches On: Before getting her first A Day in the Limelight, Sumire was portrayed as a Nice Girl played straight rather than the more manipulative First-Person Smartass Jerk with a Heart of Gold she ended up becoming. Her first major role in Chapter 3 even has her trying to give Tabata and Ueno some time together after believing they were a couple, which is the exact opposite of what she tries in her following appearances.
- Classical Antihero: Tabata is a shy and insecure Shrinking Violet who has so little self-confidence that she would overanalyze any comment their classmates made to find the way she thinks she's being a problem in that moment. Nevertheless, that doesn't stop her from trying to be a helpful person to anyone around her.
- Clueless Chick-Magnet: Ueno attracts all types of girls wherever he goes but never catches the hints that those girls are flirting with him.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Sumire was already something of a False Friend to Tabata, but once Ueno rejects her confession, she becomes friends with her for real.
- Double Date: Shimbashi wants Ueno to get interesed in love, so once he gets together with Sumire, they can go on double dates. He gets his wish, but with Otsuka rather than Sumire.
- Emotionally Tongue-Tied: Akabane's biggest regret is that he couldn't properly apologize to Tabata for calling her ugly in front of their classmates.
- Even the Guys Want Him: At the beginning of chapter 53, Ueno charms everyone at one table he was serving, including the boys.
- Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones:
- Downplayed. Ueno doesn't hate anyone but the only character he expressed any harshness towards is Akabane, after discovering the way he treated Tabata in the past .
- He's also not fond anymore of an old classmate after he tried to talk badly of Tabata.
- Everyone Has Standards: For how constantly helpful and kind Ueno is, he refuses to let Akabane take the easy way out of his guilt and tells him he has to apologize in person to Tabata instead of his attempt to make him do the dirty work. He also tells him he's not going to make it easy on him either because he knows Tabata would easily forgive him.
- First-Person Smartass: Sumire, who acts friendly and easy-going with most people, is constantly making sarcastic and condescending comments in her head.
- Formerly Fat: Shimbashi loses weight between the first and second semesters because of a sickness during the vacations.
- Friend to Bugs: While Tabata hates worms, she admits to herself that there's a lot of bugs she really likes and is a bit disappointed she can't share this with Sumire.
- Genre Blindness: Before going out with Sumire, Tabata decides to check Shoujo manga to see if there's any scenes of girls hanging out together, only to find a scene of two friends confronting each other for their mutual love interest. She discarded it because Sumire would never do that.
- Green-Eyed Epiphany: Ueno realizing that Tabata is making more friends, and that could lead to more people discovering her Hidden Depths, is what finally leads him to realize he's in love with her.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Ueno doesn't enjoy other boys giving Tabata attention. He tries not to be possessive about it, but he can still explode about it every once in a while, much to his shame.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Tabata's internal thoughts are constantly ranting about how ugly and annoying she thinks her classmates perceive her.
- Hopeless Suitor:
- Pretty much any girl who is interested in Ueno has to go through how incredible clueless he is about any love gestures and how uninterested he seems to be about love in general. Sumire, in particular, spends the first half trying her best to impress him and gets constantly overshadowed by Tabata.
- Shimbashi tries his best to get Sumire's attention, but given that she's only interested in Ueno,and then Gotanda, this constantly fails.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Pretty much everyone:
- Tabata herself seems under the impression that everyone around her finds her ugly and obnoxious and that the guys talking to her either find her a disappointment or aren't truly as nice as they seem. Of course, Ueno is a legitimate Nice Guy, and everyone else either likes her or is indifferent about her. Zigzagged with Sumire, she can sometimes guess she's angry at her but never really guess the reasons why.
- Ueno, as she starts to grow closer to Tabata, seems to fall under the impression that he might be constantly invading her space or making her unconfortable and that she is being too nice to tell her to please leave her alone. The truth is, Tabata has never seen him as a bother.
- Sumire seems to have the impression that Tabata was The Chessmaster who was pulling the strings very carefully to get Ueno to be her own. Tabata is, of course, completely unaware that she has gotten Ueno's attention and didn't try anything to get it.
- Everyone but Gotanda has the impression that Sumire is nothing but a Nice Girl, completely ignoring her hidden jerkass behavior.
- Innocently Insensitive: Part of Ueno's Character Development involves him realizing a lot of his behavior towards women who admire him can come across as insensitive towards her feelings and that she might not have respected Tabata's space as much as she should have before. He tries his best to avert this, but he can still not perceive the hints sometimes.
- Insecure Love Interest:
- Tabata considers herself very under Ueno's level and is constantly worried he's thinking the worst of her; the possibility of Ueno having any interest in her (platonic or otherwise) never crosses her mind. Once they start dating, she's still constantly worried that she's messing everything up.
- Ueno ends up becoming this after his Love Ephipany, despite the fact that Tabata isn't exactly popular with the boys.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy:
- Attempted from Ueno's part. He briefly thinks Tabata likes Akabane, and the reason she took the time to respond to his confession was because she was thinking in a way to turn down, so he leaves, telling her it's okay if she chooses Akabane.. Of course that's not the case.
- Once Shimbashi realizes how in love Sumire is with Gotanda, he decides to back off on his original intention of confessing and helps the two reconcile.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Shimbashi proclaims to be an expert in love to Ueno, which he believes him, but everything he knows about the subject comes from magazines and mangas, since he has never got a girlfriend despite his attempts to get one.
- Loser Friend Puzzles Outsiders: Once Tabata is introduced in her second year sandwiched between Sumire and Otsuka, many of the new students are immediately surprised that such a plain looking girl could be friends with much more popular girls.
- No Social Skills: Poor Tabata has no idea how to start a conversation. Or what to say in a conversation. Or how to leave a conversation.
- Oblivious to Love: Ueno. He never understands when a girl tries to flirt with him nor when other people are having love-related issues unless someone pointed out to him.
- Precocious Crush: Keisuke, Ueno's little brother has a very obvious crush on Ritsuko, a florist.
- Remember the New Guy?: Akabane is a very blatant example. He first appears at the last page of Chapter 40, is quickly presented as someone with history with Tabata that has never being mentioned before. And then the following chapter, reveals he also happens to be Ueno's work friend, despite the fact the restaurant was seen multiple times before and he was never shown to be there. Justified in the case of Tabata, given they never were very close, he just happened to be a classmate that called her "ugly" behind her back, who accidentally awaked her insecurities.
- Romantic Wingman: Once Otsuka finds out what is going on, she starts setting up events so Ueno and Tabata have more time to interact with each other.
- Rotating Protagonist: While Tabata is the titular character, the series tends to switch between her, Ueno, Sumire and Shimbashi as the POV character with the ocassional A Day in the Limelight focused on other more secondary characters like Keisuke. Many chapters and storylines had her playing a minor role or don't have her at all.
- Secret Relationship: Tabata and Ueno start their relationship like this to avert Tabata from gaining unwanted attention that could make her unconfortable.
- Shipper on Deck: While most of the main characters grew to be supportive of the couple, is Otsuka the one who's interesed in the Ueno and Tabata relationship the hardest and the one that tries to make them happen the most.
- Sheep in Sheep's Clothing: Otsuka immediately causes worries in Sumire and Tabata for being another girl interesed in Ueno and the fact she was making a team to investigate with who Ueno went to the Festival made them all suspect of her. It turns out she was never interesed in doing anything bad and just wanted to meet Ueno's girlfriend because it had to be a wonderful person for her to make Ueno finally fall in love with someone.
- Shrinking Violet: Tabata, starts as someone so shy, she spends the entire first chapter trying to find a way to say one single sentence to Ueno. She improves with time but still has a hard time saying everything she needs or has to say.
- Show Within a Show: The Shoujo manga "Sweet Berry" which is Tabata's favorite series and the one were she tries to get advices for her regular life.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Sumire only has eyes for Ueno, precisly because unlike other boys, he has no ulteriors motives to be with her. She falls in love with Gotanda later on, for similar reasons
- Socially Awkward Hero: Tabata, who spends most of her screentime trying to be as helpful as possible without being a bother.
- The Stoic: Gotanda is constantly with a serious expression, which is why Sumire has a harder time reading him that with the rest.
- Unknown Rival: Tabata has no idea Sumire sees her as an opponent for Ueno's affection or that she's trying to make her relationship not happen. She never figures out by the time Sumire has left her interest for Ueno behind.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Akabane left Tabata to make the whole work with the beautification committee after making a joke in class without really meaning it and then called her "ugly" behind her back in a poor attempt to not play with her feelings when his friends wanted him to confess to her for a truth or dare game. Both of these things are part of what caused Tabata's low self steem in the present, but he didn't really mean any of them and wanted to apologize for both.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Sumire hates bugs in general, this includes more harmless ones like butterflies.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Ueno's first reaction to getting a mysterious love letter to reunite with him in the back of the school, he comes to the conclusion he has being challenged to a duel.
