In the polished hallways of a high school where nobody knows his name, Keisuke Shizuki walks with shoulders straight and a haircut sharp enough to sever every memory of junior high. The trauma of being rejected so brutally it rewired his instincts left him with one iron rule: stay far away from beautiful girls. His makeover is flawless, his anonymity secure, and his carefully rebuilt confidence holds steady — until a single face in the crowd shatters the illusion. Shizuka Kusunoki sits in the same classroom, rumored to be the most stunning girl in the entire year, and she knows exactly who he used to be. Because she was an outcast right alongside him.

Kusunoki's transformation is physically complete — she looks like she was born to rule the school caste — but her social skills are still trapped in the body language of the girl nobody wanted to sit next to. She can't sustain a conversation, misreads every cue, and watches her supposed "glow-up" turn into a slow-motion wreck. Desperate and cornered, she turns to the only person who understands the impossible gap between a new face and an old fear. Her proposal lands on Shizuki's desk with the weight of a confession: "Would you like to make friends with me?" Helping her means spending hours beside the exact type of girl his phobia screams at him to flee. Refusing means abandoning the one person who sees through both their masks. With a time limit hanging over their arrangement and eyes already watching from the sidelines, Shizuki has to ask himself — is his own high school debut stable enough to carry two?

Also known as: 楠木さんは高校デビューに失敗している, Kusunoki-san wa Koukou Debut ni Shippai Shite Iru, Kusunoki's Flunking Her High School Glow-Up, She Is (Not) a Cool Girl (in High School).