Ocean Waves/I Can Hear The Sea

The story opens narrated by Taku who is working part-time at a restaurant.

He goes to meet his friend Matsuno at the school. It seems that their junior-high school trip had been cancelled since the scores of the students on the tests were low. Now that they are in high school they are going to go to Hawaii for their school trip.

His friend is attracted to the new girl at school, Rikako. She seems to be very good at tennis.

As happens at various times, some resentment of Rikako develops among the students because she is so good at her studies and at physical activities, both, and she's also attractive. However, she doesn't appear to be very happy. She transferred to the school since her mother moved back to the town with her due to some problems at home.

Rikako asks Taku if she can borrow some money during the trip to Hawaii, saying that she has lost hers. They talk and she tells them that she believes most of the students hate her, especially the boys, except for Matsuno. He agrees to loan her the money, but she doesn't want anyone to find out about the loan.

There's still some tension between Matsuno and Taku over their interest in Rikako. After the trip to Hawaii they start their next year in high school and Rikako is in the same class as isTaku.

A problem arises when Rikako and a friend are supposed to go to a concert, but Rikako wants to go to Tokyo instead. It is obvious that Rikako lied while they were in Hawaii about losing money; she was just gathering enough to pay for her airplane ticket later.

Taku tells Rikako's friend to call her mother, say she was not feeling well and return to her own home. Rikako herself is not feeling well since it's the first day of her period and she has anemia. He offers to go to Tokyo with her, instead.

When they get there she introduces Taku as her boyfriend.

Rikako's father gives Taku back the money she borrowed and the address of a hotel room he's reserved. Taku calls his mother, but Rikako suddenly shows up. It seems her father has already remodeled her room and has a female friend of his own, even though he and his wife are separated and not divorced.

The next morning she asks Taku to leave for a while so she can see a male friend of hers from her former high school. She needs to get ready but will meet the guy down in the hotel lobby. A short time later, though, he gets a call from her asking him to come to the café on the first floor and rescue her.

The boy downstairs used to date Rikako but now dates someone else. Later, after they return to school from the holiday, Rikako ignores Taku, talks only to her friend Yumi, and scorns other students when they talk to her.

Taku becomes upset when he finds out Rikako told Matsuno that she hated him (and his accent?), so Taku confronts Rikako who ends up slapping him. He ends up slapping her right back.

In the fall Rikako isolates herself even more, not taking part in the school festival or other activities. Some of the girls in the class end up confronting her, feeling that her actions are hurting the unity of the class. (Unity is a very, very big thing in Japan; emphasis on the group and not the individual.). Taku overhears everything and when the other girls leave he compliments Rikako on how she stood up to them, but she only slaps him again in response. Then Matsuno appears, gets mad at Taku for not actively stopping the girls and hits him.

Their friendship is destroyed and when they graduate, all three go to separate colleges.

After his first session in college Taku returns home and is met by Matsuno who apologies for hitting him.They later attend a class reunion and Taku is told that Rikako regretted the nasty things she said to him. Later he sees Rikako at a train station and the story ends.