Sachiko and Rei are watching the people they love leave, and the show makes you feel the specific weight of that. The romance here isn't about confession or kissing; it's about two girls learning to let go of each other while staying close. By the final episodes, you understand that the entire season was about grief dressed up as spring.

Spring arrives at Lillian Girls' Academy, and a new term brings reunions along with bittersweet goodbyes. Yoko, Eriko and Sei are getting ready to leave Lillian, while Sachiko, Rei and Shimako work hard to give their beloved sisters a graduation to remember. Sei's exit will leave a large gap among the White Roses, and it is unclear whether anyone can win Shimako over enough to become the next Rosa Gigantea en bouton. Meanwhile Matsudaira Touko, a distant relative of Sachiko, enters the picture and puts Yumi's place as Sachiko's petite soeur at risk. Yumi struggles to hold on to Sachiko's fading attention, hoping that feelings do not change the way a chrysanthemum's color does.