Kaoru Nishimi moves to his uncle's house in Kyushu and starts attending the local high school. He meets Shigetora Maruo, the class nerd, Ritsuko Mukae, the class representative, and Sentaro Kawabuchi, the class ruffian. The next day, when Kaoru asks where he can buy records, Ritsuko invites him over to her family's record store. Ritsuko takes him down to the basement after he mentions that he knows how to play the piano. However, Sentaro is already there and will not let Kaoru play any classical music. Sentaro demonstrates his intense jazz drumming. Kaoru and Sentaro have an argument about how to play a jazz song on the piano, and Kaoru leaves the store after purchasing the record for that song, which happens to be "Moanin'" by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.