Everything under this sentence will contain spoilers to some degree.
Now that the protagonist has declared her inexplicable love for the forty five year old manager of hers, who describes himself as "an empty middle-aged man", and he has acknowledged that this isn't a prank, but that this elegant, precocious high schooler we have for a protagonist is indeed in love with him, he has grown fond of her in an "ain't she sweet" kind of way, but not contemplating a relationship with her. She, however, has found meaning in pursuing a relationship with him. She has learned that he's into reading. They bond over Ryūnosuke Akutagawa's "Rashōmon" (I believe they also mention his "Hell Screen", and I recall reading it a few years ago because it was mentioned in the anime). My favorite scene of this volume happens when they discuss in the break room at work the incoming exam she's going to have that will feature that book. They discuss the reaction of one of the characters upon learning that some old woman is looting corpses to take their hair and sell it as wigs, to make a living. The character in the book considers that maybe stealing and such risky behaviors are justified if it's a matter of life or death. The protagonist asks the manager if he would ever consider doing such a thing, and the manager starts saying something to the effect that at his age he doesn't want to rock the boat, just wants a quiet life, but that in any case he's unlikely to face such a life or death situation of that nature for the remainder of his existence. However, he realizes that he has this lovely, youthful girl who is offering him a whole new life, and he's distressed. At that point even contemplating such a disturbance is painful, and brings up way too many bad memories that need to remain buried to keep living.
As she's attempting to read books regularly both to seem more interesting and also to feel closer to the manager, they run into each other at the local library. She gets some suggestions from him, one of the first examples of the main thread of the story: that of two isolated people who grow up as individuals through learning from each other, when otherwise they would have remained frozen. However, the manager realizes that one of the new books on display is written by someone he knows. At this point of the narrative we don't have the details, but he says later on that he does know the author. The manager is clearly bitter that the author managed to do something with his life, while the manager, in his words, had "done nothing at all". In the lowest point between the manager and the protagonist, he suggests that despite her youthful delusions, she doesn't actually know anything about him.
We also get some stuff between the former best friend of the protagonist and her. They used to be together all the time from middle school, and both belonged to the track team. The flashbacks show a protagonist more lively and open, something that has changed since she suffered her career-ending injury. Although the protagonist probably doesn't realize it, she avoids continuing a relationship with this former best friend because having lost her passion is too painful to revisit, and the former best friend is still on the track team.
By the end of this volume we learn that a typhoon is hitting her city, and that although she needs to work at the restaurant, the manager is home with a cold. The college-age dude that forced the protagonist into going on a date with him on the previous volume brings up that she's backing the manager into a corner by pursuing a relationship with him, that he probably feels that she's doing nothing but causing him trouble. Distraught, the protagonist ventures through the typhoon up to the protagonist's home, who is enduring a fever. The distress is evident on her face as he opens the door to let the protagonist in. She likely feels that she's close to losing the only thing that gives meaning to her life any longer.
Very pleasant read as usual, and you get invested in the small lives of these two confused people.