This season actually makes you feel something. Kazuya stops being a passenger in his own life, and watching him finally grow into someone worth rooting for hits harder than three seasons of will-they-won't-they had any right to. The romance stops being a setup for jokes and becomes the actual story, which means every quiet moment between him and Chizuru lands like it matters. The pacing crawls, and the show knows it, but that slowness forces you to sit with these characters long enough to believe they're real. By the end, you're not watching a rental girlfriend anymore. You're watching someone try to become the person she deserves.

Kazuya's rental girlfriend arrangement with Chizuru has grown into something far more complicated. Inspired by her late grandfather's words, Chizuru teams up with Kazuya to crowdfund an amateur film, hoping to fulfill her grandparents' wishes before she loses her grandmother too. With help from Ruka, Kazuya's clingy trial girlfriend, their nosy neighbor Mini Yaemori, and Chizuru's shy coworker Sumi, they hit their funding goal and start shooting. As production moves forward, Chizuru and Kazuya grow closer and wrestle with feelings they both share, just as a new girlfriend enters the picture. The season mixes comedy, drama and romance.