Salad Days
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Heroine
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If Beyoncé and Namie Amuro had a baby, it's me, Mimi smiles to herself. Hi, I'm the problem, it's me.
Whoops, wrong lyrics, Mimi, she giggles softly through the mic, subtly heard. Mimi refocuses her senses to the karaoke music playing to remember the song. She can't place the name… Although she'd probably recall this in the morning. Mimi lets herself get taken away by the 32-bit melody. She relies on her musicality, lyrics be damned, she'll just sing through them by reading the screen. If there's one undeniable talent she boasts, it's that she can always save herself in karaoke, sober or not.
Her head hurts, but she feels amazing.
Maybe it's the sake and steak. Or the sashimi. Or this song — damn it, what's the name of this song again? Mimi grins to herself, knowing this doesn't really matter. She is the song.
Her upper register sounds crisper than usual, and her breathing gets more relaxed for every onset. Mimi feels there's some summer magic going on tonight in this side of Roppongi, but Sora and Jyou think it's just her sky-high level of confidence. They let her dream and believe. Mimi does look and sound magical on the neon-lit podium.
Mimi closes her eyes, mic on hand as she continues to sing. It's her first song on the machine, already on the second chorus. The open karaoke bar is warm and welcoming, the crowd cheers for every artful display of vibrato, riffs, or runs—yes, she has chronic vocal flexing.
They don't know her, but they love her.
Mimi looks deeper into the sea of people and spots her friends at the back, waves at them as they cheer her on.
She belts her heart out once more as she enters the bridge, garnering more applause from the crowd when she perfectly holds a tough high note. Truly, the audience in Roppongi are something else—good taste in music, she notes to herself cheerfully.
A lower voice harmonizes with her in the refrain. Her solo stage ends abruptly as someone else joins her on the podium, she can't clearly make a face out of him with all the lights moving, but he's quite tall and seems young. Mimi quite likes the timbre of his voice for a tenor (she assumes this). Mimi almost loses her voice because of it, but no, she's a natural pro at this. So, of course she won't let him take the last chorus all on his own. So she sings just as passionately, becoming more conscious of her breathing because she wants to nail down the last belt.
And so she does, even if she's overdoing it a little with the ad libs.
Still, he really makes an impression on her, his attempt to upstage her like that.
Mimi's unexpected duet performance ends with the crowd roaring in applause and more cheers, now plenty of people are queuing for their turn. She doesn't bother looking at the man and dashes toward her table with Sora and Jyou, hand immediately out to take a swig on a glass of water prepared by her friends.
"Slow down there, Mimi," Jyou cautions her, urging her to take her seat. She obeys while she drinks down like she came from the desert.
"Ahhh…" Mimi lets out a long and loud sigh as she finishes.
"Now that's entertainment," Sora laughs through the sushi she's munching.
Mimi snickers, "Stealing my show like that."
"You both sounded great together though," says Jyou, picking on the fingerfood in front of him.
"Yeah, you both did," Sora says. "Although, he seemed a little clumsy onstage."
"Must be drunk then. That's really funny… but also cool." Mimi's brow nudges, now eyeing the bottle of sake to her right. She takes the bottle. "Oh, it's empty."
"Sorry, we were meaning to get another one," says Jyou, already standing up from his seat. Mimi gently pulls him down.
"It's okay, let me," she says as she stands up. "I also need to go to the restroom anyway."
Sora and Jyou share a knowing look and let her go.
She sobers up at the image and the bitter reality sets in while the booze leaves her. A rare Taichi selfie, with a female colleague whom Mimi reckons is from uni, just right next to him.
"Of course," Mimi chuckles under her breath, her well-manicured thumb pressing hard on the screen.
Until tonight, Mimi doesn't know anything about Taichi. It's not like Sora and Jyou would tell her anything that will upset her. Her eyes hover over the caption. A woozy emoji. Of course, it couldn't get any more vague. She raises a brow upon noticing that a certain raitakaishi and onlyblue.02 have both hearted the post.
Something uncomfortable sets in. Before the anxiety bubbles up to the brim, she scrolls down further 'til she finds the next distraction, of cute selfies, vacation reels, and random cups and glasses of coffee. She sends in her hearts and comments to her friends before pocketing her phone. From her other pocket, she takes out a small packet with loose greens and a white piece of paper.
She sits on the toilet, staring at the packet. Taichi's moving on, huh?
She tastes something bitter in her mouth, and it's not the sake. She wants to wash it away with something else, all the bitterness that taints her perfect image of him. Of him abandoning her. Breaking his promise. Love becoming a lie.
A tear runs down her otherwise calm face, makeup still intact for the entire night.
It hurts, it hurts, and it hurts even more when she recalls she's lied (betrayed) him in the first place—and he knows. The idea of rolling this joint, getting it over with and forgetting, all the more becoming too appealing.
A loud burst of cheers erupted back outside. Mimi gulps and is reminded of another promise she made, now too sober to break it. If she can't be sober for herself tonight, she might as well be for Sora and Jyou.
She steels herself before exiting the cubicle and fixes her appearance in the mirror. She removes any streak of mascara and touches up her lips. Adjusts her crop top and bell bottoms, ensuring no thread out of place.
Just as she was about to comb her hair, the restroom door flings wide open, three women in their skirt suits, each in a different shade of grey, enter the room. The lady in the middle intensely heaving in and out.
"It's just karaoke, Kana-senpai," the youngest of them says.
"You should have also said earlier that it's your first time," the other lady exclaims, rummaging through her purse. She takes out an inhaler and some wipes. "How on earth did you become a junior manager without having gone to at least one izakaya? Had I known, we wouldn't even be here tonight!"
Mimi continues to comb through her hair, subtly eavesdropping in with the three. She glances at them at the corner of her eye.
"Quiet, you!" The woman in the lightest grey suit shushes them. She looks the youngest among her group. She has full front bangs and wears muted coral lipstick. Her nails are all trimmed, no polish. Loafer heels, no accessories aside from a mid-range smartwatch. Mimi assumes she may be a yamato nadeshiko type in her student years. Sheltered, protected, filial.
Everything otou-san wants.
"I thought we'd finally talk tonight but he seems already too drunk for that," Mimi hears Kana-senpai whine, cupping her own face, as if embarrassed. Her mood then shifts, a coy smile now across her face. "He sounded amazing though. I didn't know he could sing."
Mimi's brow slightly twitches at that. She likes him, huh. She holds her giggle back, something about the idea of an office romance seems very cute and wholesome to her.
"It Is a good thing Hamaguchi-kun can sing," one of the other ladies says. "Otherwise he'd just look ridiculous and he won't ever move on from it."
"I hope the lady he butted in on stage won't come after his head," one of them says. "she seemed offended at first." Mimi bites her lip as she continues to brush her hair, feigning innocence. One of the ladies in grey finally looks around and locks eyes with her.
"Oh my gosh, it's you!" the woman who is not Kana-senpai exclaims at her, taking a step forward at Mimi's direction.
Shit. Mimi tilts her head toward them, a toothpaste-commercial smile graces her face in acknowledgement.
"You have an amazing voice, miss," Kana-senpai tells her.
"Thank you," Mimi replies, trying to appear as nonchalant as she can be. Her companions begin grooming themselves, reapplying lipstick and powder. Mimi notes the lipstick shades to be all in subtle grades of coral.
"You look pretty young to be in an izakaya, miss," one of them says, eyeing her head to toe.
Shit, shit, shit. "I get that a lot," Mimi forces to widen her smile.
"Oh?"
"Maybe you should mind your business." Mimi says this in a purposefully heavy western English accent.
The three women turned to her in surprise, quite shocked. "Ohh, you're a hafu?!"
Success. They bought it! "Something like that." She says in Japanese. They did not understand a thing she previously said.
"Ahh, no wonder."
That seems to end her conversation with them. "No wonder," she says. No wonder you're in a bar. No wonder you're here. Mimi understands the unspoken prejudice behind it. But... Just for this occasion, it works in her favor.
With a final pat of blush on her cheeks, Mimi then bids them goodbye.
"I hope you can say hi Hamaguchi-san for me... and I can't wait to share the stage with him again. Ja, ne." she waves with a wink, then skips her way to exit, leaving the three women flabbergasted.
Thrill surges within her after that little incident in the bathroom, Taichi finally forgotten at the moment. Still feeling light on her toes, Mimi heads to the counter to get their drinks.
"Tokki Gold..." Mimi tells the bartender, bats her eyelashes charmingly. "and maybe espresso martini... pretty please!" He smiles at her as he gets going to mix her drink.
A smug look on her face comes with the accompanying glint. She always congratulates herself for fooling the adults. Every fucking time.
"Screw this..." a dramatic groan comes from her right, at a sober state, immediately realizing it's the salaryman she had a duet with. Mr. Hamaguchi! He seems drunk, in pain, and not interested in anything.
Mimi looks at the figure up and down, she takes in every little detail from the way he shined his brogues, how he folded his cuffs to the comb of his hair. His accessories and perfume tell her he's single and here to impress. A little overdone, Mimi thinks, as she almost sneezes on the scent, but she gives him extra credit for the effort to tidy up — for a salaryman fresh out of university, that is. She smiles.
"Do you come here often?" She asks him kindly, head tilting, trying to catch his eye.
"No. I'm new here," he hiccups. "Just moved in a few months ago."
"Oh?" she leans in further. Noticing this guy will truly not look up. "And you work right now as...?"
"Accounting," he says, side-eyeing her. "Listen; I'm not interested. I already like someone. Go."
Right on cue, the bottle of soju and her martini arrives. Mimi immediately takes a sip.
"Rude. She won't like that," Mimi teases, recalling a certain Kana-senpai.
"Huh?" That gets him to look up, although he's still too dazed and confused to even recognize her nor get his reality lowdown. Of course he won't recognize you, Mimi. He was drunk when he invaded your solo! She viciously takes a longer sip, indeed relishing her victory that she did not give in to her worst vice tonight, believing she's doing better than this salaryman who's missing an opportunity in life.
Truly, chivalry is dead.
"Kana-senpai thinks you have a lovely voice." Mimi tells him, rather slowly, hoping he understands her in the midst of his drunken haze.
"She -" he hiccups. "she said that?"
Mimi nods.
"Who are you anyway?"
Mimi turns back to the bartender and orders a food plate.
Once it arrives, she stands up, gently shoving the tray toward Mr. Hamaguchi.
"Eat this and drink your water, ojisan," she boldly pushes a cube of cheese into his mouth, alarming him. "She'd prefer you sober when you make the first move."
With that, she takes her soju and returns to her table, leaving the salaryman confused at what just happened.
Mimi slides back into their booth, looks at Jyou and Sora. Jyou and Sora - her current summer besties and part time parents. She looks at them with glassy eyes. Appreciate of their presence. The way they'd break the rules for her but also keep her in line, watch out for her. She would've probably used that last roll of joint she had earlier if she wasn't with them.
"You sure took a while," says Sora, attention breaking from her phone, going to Mimi. "long queue?"
"Actually, there is no queue," responds Mimi, taking another sip of her martini as she tucks a strand of hair behind her ear.
"You know," Jyou glances at his marine watch. "I think we should all go home in 30. I have clinicals later."
Mimi frowns ."You work too hard, senpai."
Jyou sighs and chuckles at that. "Not by choice. It's the only shift available."
"Would you want me to wait? I'm free tomorrow," Sora offers to him. He smiles at her and rubs his thumb on her hand as he shakes his head.
"No, it's not worth it, you should sleep. Or study."
Mimi did not miss the way their hands clasped. A small smile graces upon her lips, yet uncharacteristically subtle. Her mind goes back to a certain brunet male. Before his full image could project into her mind she forces it out. She tries to reframe her mind as she scans the room.
Shecatches from afar Mr. Hamaguchi—a salaryman who can sing good enough for her to forgive him for ruining her karaoke solo—now sits upright. A lady in a grey skirtsuit, now alone, approaches him. She sits beside him and they laugh.
A couple of meters away from them, honey caramel eyes wide and glisten at the sight, as if witnessing a miracle in the night. She's smiling, a bit proud of herself for what she did tonight. Her gaze shines of longing, wanting, hoping... envy.
They make it look so easy.
She takes one last sip of her martini before she looks away.