Chapter 3: The Scene Under The Sun

See the sun, and its blinding rays which bring light to shadow and reflect off glass like a mirror. It stands tall and giant over Kaneko High, omnipresent like a great god among celestial beings for which not even man could look upon even in his most selfish desires to taste and reach all of nature. The sun stood above all like a god among man and nature, its slender rays outreaching like the digits of man.

It's fingers tickled the wooden bench of one in Kaneko High, dotting its ipe frame in a golden haze. There sat Kyu, who kicked his legs like an infant, his eyes closed as he plugged his ears with music. 

Up and down the path walked Abel, landing eyes on the seated Kyu. He sighed.

"Of course, the one spot I never even thought to look."

He approached Kyu in a brisk, calling his name aloud to no response. He tapped Kyu's shoulder, breaking the boy from his trance.

"Y'know," Abel said, "you don't usually just walk off without telling me anything. What gives, man?"

Kyu set his earphones aside in their case, inserting one like a reverse cigarette. "Ah, I apologize for that!"

"This is the third day in a row, man." Abel sighed. "Three days I've caught you out of our homeroom, seated on some random bench with your ears plugged and your eyes closed like you're meditating. What gives man?"

Kyu grinned, and he grinned with delight. "Well you see, I've found something new! Something exciting!" He stood atop the bench with a fist raised in triumphant glory. "And for me to ignore it would simply be immoral!"

Abel crossed his arms. "Quit with the dramatics man. You're making yourself look like a maniac."

Kyu jumped down from the bench, crossing his arms mockingly. "You just don't understand, I've been enlightened in a way only a few people can!"

"Yeah, that too, what the hell are you even talking about? What song you listening to that's got you acting like this, jumping onto benches like the main protagonist or something?"

"Only the most underrated genre of music to ever exist! One that a mainstream simpleton such as yourself could never comprehend!" He raised his fist, as if set on a journey. "Punk rock!"

Abel blinked once, then twice. "Punk rock? You mean like the one with all the weirdos who have spiked hair and studded jackets?" Abel shrugged. "They don't seem that enlightening to me."

Kyu's face dropped, and he looked almost destroyed from the inside. "...so cold..." He muttered, before shaking himself back to his wits. "You just need to listen to it first, then you'll understand!"

"No way." Abel said. "If I wanted to hear non-stop screaming, then I'd go to the nearest primary school during playtime."

"Just please!" Kyu begged, taking out his earphones and wiping one clean with the cloth of his uniform. "Here, I'll let you listen to the song I left off on! If you hate it, then I'll never bug you with it again!"

Abel stuck his hands out. "Nah man, seriously, I'm good on that."

"Come on, the more you refuse, the harder I'll push!"

"I'm serious man."

"Just take the freakin' airpod!"

Abel cautiously took it in his hands, huffing as he put it in his ear. His eyes widened slightly as the music brushed his eardrums, tickling his nerves through his brain. He stifled his muscles' natural instinct to move as the song continued to lyrics.

The song was calm and sounded not too far from any Western rock song, yet the vocals sung a different tale. Strangely in English, and almost in a strained singing.

"Now I got a reason, now I got a reason"

"Now I got a reason and I'm still waiting"

"Now I got a reason"

"Now I got reason to be waiting"

"The Berlin Wall"

Abel glanced at Kyu, the boy back in a trance. He snapped his fingers, waking Kyu.

"If you're gonna show me a new song, at least be concentrated enough to ask for my opinion."

Kyu rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry, I just get too lost in it, you know? But what did you think it?" His eyes beamed as he looked at Abel in anticipation.

Abel sighed, taking the earphone out from his ear. "I'll give you this, it's actually pretty decent."

"That's it? Just decent?" Kyu almost looked shocked. "Come on, there HAS to be more!" He pressed.

Abel sighed, groaning. "Fine, fine. It was actually pretty good. At least from the couple seconds I heard of it."

Kyu laugh, wrapping his arm around Abel. "I knew you'd like it! Here, I'll send you the song link so you can listen to the full thing on your own time!"

Come later that night, while Abel laid rested in his bed, for sleep refused to come to him easily. His finger hovered over the video link sent by Kyu, and he read the song title and band name carefully.

"The Sex Pistols, eh?" He chuckled at the name. "And the song's Holidays in the Sun? Didn't sound too much like a holiday to me."

He hummed, tapping the link as he closed his eyes and waited for the music to reach him. As the clapping chorus of the beginning faded to overdrive guitar, Abel once again felt that same exhilaration he felt earlier in the day. 

He found himself craving more, as a deep part of him lit ablaze like a fire set on a still winter.

They met again the next day, as Abel approached the same bench he found Kyu sat in the day prior, the sun once again reaching at their shadows with its digits. Kyu beamed as he saw him. He dashed to Abel.

"How was it?! Did you listen to it? Come on, tell me you liked the whole thing!"

Abel kept him at arms distance as he tried getting closer, laughing as he did. "Relax man, I did! I listened to the whole thing last night."

"Well, how did you like it?!"

Abel paused for a moment, scratching the back of his neck as he muttered. "...it was pretty good."

"What was that?" Kyu teased. "You're gonna have to speak louder, Abel!"

"I said it was pretty good, man!"

Kyu cheered. "I knew you'd like it!"

"Chill out man. You just showed me one good song, that's about it. I'm still not sold on the whole "enlightenment" you were on about yesterday."

Kyu grinned, and Abel knew he would soon swallow his words.

"Well, my dear friend, it just so happens that there's a punk show I'm going to later tonight! And I know full well you don't have anything better to do, so meet me by the station after school and I can show you what you've been missing out on!"

He stood smug and confident, but Abel shrugged.

"Yeah, I'm good man. You already got me ankle deep, and you got lucky with that. But a whole show?" He shook his head. "Now you're tryin' to push me into the deep end when I still got floaties on."

Once again, Kyu begged. "Come on, I swear it won't be bad! And if it is, I swear I'll never ask you for help with homework again!"

"You swear?" Abel intrigued.

"On everything I love."

Abel laughed. "Alright then, looks like we got a deal."

--------------------------------

They sat together on the train as the sun slumped down behind them. It fell like a great bulbous thing, split squarely by the towering pillars of concrete and window in front of it, which stood like a jungle of city. It had a golden orange disk circling around its blood eye, standing like a black hole as it colored the sky a golden hue. The sky was split similarly to its light, towering obelisks cut its plane like it were mache.

"So how'd you even find the song in the first place?" Abel prodded.

Kyu glanced at him, tapping his knees in a rhythmic pattern.

"It came up on my recommended songs on YouTube, I think. Just clicked it because I didn't have anything else to listen to. I'd never really heard anything like it before, so I checked out more songs and it got me where I am now."

Abel hummed. "And when did all of this happen?"

"Oh, I think about last week."

Abel's eyes nearly popped out of socket as he hunched his back over, speaking in disbelief. "You think?"

"Yeah, I think. Is there something wrong with thinking?"

"I guess I didn't expect you to get so attached to a genre like that in a week."

"It doesn't usually take me that long to get into a genre!" Kyu defended. 

"It did for MJ, remember? I tried for a whole month to get you into Jackson's music, just for you to drop it before the semester ended."

"That's different! Michael Jackson's just really popular, too popular! It gets old after a while."

"And your idol groups don't?" Abel crossed his arms.

"Hey, leave Celestial Girls out of this! At least I can understand what they're saying."

"Sex Pistols are English too. Probably more than MJ, since they sound British. What makes them different?"

Kyu was silent for a moment. "...that's not the same."

Abel flipped his arms as he leaned back in the train seat. "I give up, you win this one man."

As night fell and the city descended into neon luminescence, the two boys stood in front of a venue. It was lit with graffiti styled signs that read "Gold Coast Studios" and the door posted a sign that told those outside of the show and scene inside.

"Is this the place?" Asked Abel.

Kyu looked to his phone, then back up. "I'm pretty sure it is."

Inside was dimly lit as louder music played beyond. A thin man was placed at a front desk kiosk. He had a black afro and he looked rather pathetic as his face looked like a beaver with black glasses that stood in front of his thin eyes. The rest of his body was short and dressed in floral white.

"Good evening boys!" The thin man greeted. "My name is Daikichi, and I am the owner of this fine little place we call Gold Coast! Now, I'd assume you two are here for the show tonight?"

"Yep!" Kyu nodded, as Abel stood idle behind him. Daikichi hummed.

"Tickets are starting at a hundred yen per person!"

Abel hummed as they walked together into the venue. "Those tickets were pretty cheap."

"Seriously." Kyu sighed. "Whatever, I'm just glad there was still enough tickets. Although..." He paused, looking around at what few people stood before the dimly lit stage. "...it doesn't seem like there was much demand to begin with."

A group began to walk onstage, and Abel tapped Kyu's shoulder. 

"Looks like they're about to start."

Kyu's eyes beamed. "Oh, if this is anything like The Sex Pistols, I'm so pumped for this!"

The band began, and it began with a screech. Enter fast drums that sounded closer to rhythmic primal drumming and guitar that was faster and more distorted than what they had heard earlier. The lyrics were loud and raspy, with each word speaking things that were not before heard in any song that dare played on a radio or in a shopping mall.

As the night continued so did the rate at which each band grew in intensity. Some bands were dressed in regular loose clothing while others dressed in more traditional attire for the setting, with studs placed in patches on leather jackets and hair that was multicolored and reached the ceiling. 

Each sang about more or less the same. Some lost themselves in ramblings of what could have been had not been for the woes of work while others sung of depravity, and it all clumped together with a attentive audience in a bizarre case of ordered chaos.

Henceforth, the night concluded, and the two boys walked out the venue, a mix of feeling and uncertainty in each.

"It definitely wasn't like The Sex Pistols," noted Kyu. "I'll say though, it was definitely a nice change of pace! I never knew someone could play guitar that fast and that messy without it sounding awful." 

He turned to Abel, intent on an answer. Abel stayed silent, pursing his lips before speaking.

"It was, definitely something. Some of it I liked, but others were more of an...acquired taste."

Kyu pouted. "It's not like they didn't put effort into it! Calling it an acquired taste is just trashing on all the heart and soul they could've put into those songs!"

Abel shrugged. "I said what I said. It's an acquired taste, and I just haven't spent a week on this genre like you have to appreciate it enough."

The two walked, and Abel glanced back at the small studio at the corner of the street. "That isn't to say I hated all of it," he thought to himself.

Now they boarded the train again, discussing things to soon be forgotten before saying their goodbyes. Abel arrived at his room, turning off his lights as he slumped into bed. Before he fell asleep, he turned on his phone, the blue light reflecting to the gloss on his eyes. As the beginning of Holidays in the Sun began to blare in his ears, he closed his eyes.

Yet he found himself not yet satisfied. He opened his eyes again, and began scouring for the names of the bands which he found he could not get enough of.

He chuckled. "Shit, I guess Kyu did get me hooked on it."

In but a few minutes, he'd found a band which fulfilled his newfound need for the intense and the brash, and he let it blare all throughout the night as the playlist began on other songs ranging in difference. Blended together, it provided a plentiful trail mix of the fast and the slow, the vulgar and the decorous. And there, he let himself bask in all its unevenness as it gave him something long forgotten in that music industry. 

A taste of reality, of honesty. And he'd felt it opened his eyes in a way that no other song in the mainstream could. An art only found in the underground.

Abel wouldn't admit it, not to anyone he knew, but he'd found enlightenment. And he'd found it in punk.