Description

Yoshimura Osamu (28) is on the brink of despair. Love has slipped through his fingers, his job is but a memory, hope seems like a cruel jest, and even his youth threatens to desert him. He's aimlessly wandering the streets after blowing his last dime on a drink at a snack bar.

Out of the blue, he is approached by an enchanting woman who was previously the cynosure of all eyes at the pub. Her words of encouragement, offered amidst the bleakness of his circumstances, seem to him like a thread spun by fate. Enthralled by this older woman, Honoka, Osamu decides to lay his feelings bare, but...

"If you ever find yourself in a pickle, don't hesitate to come to see me," she tells him, along with an address. As it turns out, she runs an apartment complex in a reputable district, and he decides to take her up on her offer.

However, upon arriving at the 'Terrace House Hinosaka,' he finds it more reminiscent of a ramshackle boarding house than a prestigious apartment complex.

The one to greet him is not Honoka, but a young girl, Hinosaka Mitoko, who could be mistaken for Honoka's daughter due to her petite stature of 144cm—only, she really is her daughter. The twist of fate? While Osamu was wrestling with destiny and his feelings, Honoka had found another man and eloped, leaving behind the apartment and its eccentric tenants to her daughter.

Thus begins an unlikely cohabitation—the unemployed, tall, and highly educated young man (as he describes himself) and the vertically-challenged but plucky and hardworking girl (though she disputes the 'vertically-challenged' part).

While grappling with his quirky new neighbors, he finds himself fending off the baffling advances of a colleague at his new job, resisting the clandestine schemes of a wealthy young lady living next door, and unearthing the truth about Mitoko's homeroom teacher with a mysterious preference for black stockings.

His future, deeply entangled with misfortune, now hangs in the balance. Where will Osamu find himself at the end of this story? Only time will tell.

[Based on MangaGamer and the official site]