Nozaki frantically cleans his apartment for his editor, Ken Miyamae, who appears and leaves so quickly that Sakura thinks he does not like Nozaki. However, Nozaki praises him in comparison to his previous editor Maeno, with whom he had bad experiences. Sakura meets Nozaki's neighbor, Yukari Miyako, who also draws manga in the same magazine, and later meets Maeno himself. When Ken tells Nozaki that the heroine of the manga should express more feelings, Nozaki pretends to act like the heroine for the day by giving lunches to his friends and carting Kashima away from a mob of livid girls. He concludes that Mamiko needs to study more and draws that into his storyboards.

Kashima has been driving Hori crazy with her antics, but she gets confused when she discovers that Hori and the guys have been reading Yumeno’s shojo manga and taking it rather seriously. Hori challenges Nozaki to do some backgrounds, but Nozaki frustrates him when he does not get the perspective right, placing boxes under his characters to compensate. Thinking Hori aspires to be a princess, Kashima replaces his clothes with something more feminine. When Hori collapses during a rehearsal, Kashima carries him to the nurse’s office while wearing a bull mask.

Hoping for some ideas for his side characters, Nozaki has Wakamatsu accept a movie date with Seo. When Hori suggests doing a musical production, Kashima scrambles for help as she is tone-deaf and cannot sing. During rehearsals, Hori duels Kashima, but when Mikoshiba is volunteered to do a part, Hori realizes he resembles Mamiko.

Nozaki wants to create some excitement within the manga's story, and for reference, he tries a variety of strategies to surprise Sakura. Later, Mikoshiba, Hori, and Wakamatsu get caught in the rain, and all sleep over at Nozaki's apartment for shelter. Nozaki begins to use the others as a reference point for another chapter of the manga.