WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

Honestly I thought that this was going to be a romance story, however I got something different. First half of the movie is knowing what is going on with the male lead, understanding his struggles, and I was trying to piece together what was going on with the female lead.
The male lead, Takao, a 15 year old high school student has aspirations to be a shoemaker and likes to leave the morning section of school to reside in bench at a Japanese tea garden while it rains. The female lead, Yukari, in the first half of the movie is a mysterious women who we don't really know much of, but is stricken what, to me at least, a depression.
As the story progresses, we learn more of the two characters. Takao wants to be a shoemaker, but lives with a mother who drinks and is very neglectful, the father is completely out of the picture, has an older brother who doesn't really believe in his aspirations, and has to work part time to hopefully save for vocational school.
Yukari gets revealed to be a 27 year old teacher at Takao's high school, but the reason she isn't there is because she has grown scared to go there. Rumors spread and misunderstandings caused Yukari to grow fearful of going to work, thus residing at the same spot at the Japanese tea garden bench with Takao.

The plot and story makes it to where both characters help each other out, with Takao gaining confidence into his dream of being a shoemaker and being comfortable in expressing himself around Yukari. With Yukari, we have her gaining confidence and strength to go back to teaching, albeit at another school. This comes in when Takao eventually confesses his feelings of love to her, but prior to their whole interaction/relationship she already accepted a teaching position at another school.

A big point that I and others got confused in or didn't like was that after confessing, Takao leaves Yukari's place, after a while she runs after him, and then he goes on to say that he hates Yukari, for leading him on even though she was a teacher without him knowing, the age difference, and leading him on on being vulnerable to her. Then Yukari opens up to say that she was scared and that she actually helped her gain confidence in herself again and they embrace, crying ensuing. This whole part had me go, "What? I'm sorry what"

The biggest issue with this movie is that ,to me, it it looks like the movie has a romance plot, but it's anything but. It falls out and instead ends it by being a story of 2 characters gaining strength to overcome adversities to accomplish what they desire, or something like that I think? Animation is amazing, OST is great, but the plot just falling out to become something else just had me confused. It ends with both of them living their new lives, Takao going back regularly to school, working hard at his part time job to save money for school; Yukari gaining her confidence and going back to teaching. Rather than romance, this became a story of the 2 leads supporting each other in a way that let's them strive for their dreams and desires, or that's what I think it means, and some people enjoy it, but I was incredibly confused on what it meant.

At the end, after the credits roll, even more confusion. Takao comes back during the winter, sits down at the bench, and sets down a pair of pink heels. Ultimately it ends of as being either him waiting patiently to see Yukari again, since a monologue plays him saying exactly that; or it's symbolism showing that just like Yukari, he himself grew thanks to Yukari's "support?" and continuing to follow his dream of being a shoemaker.

Ultimately to me, the ending of this movie feels very subjective to interpretation, and depending on that and your expectations going into it, your experience will be based on them. I will say that I do recommend to at least watch it and give it a shot, but at the end of the day, I got confused.