Pop Rock Love (13 page)

Track #9

“Farewell”. Mimi heard that
song almost every night, yet recording it was so difficult. Partly because she
found it hard to sing it without tearing. To Mimi, it was a song about losing
someone you’ve loved forever. She’d never
 
gone through what Sato did, but thinking about her parents made her
understand his feelings somehow.

She emailed her brother Roy
about her upcoming live. Even though she missed him like crazy, she didn’t want
to trouble him by asking him to come all the way to Japan just because she was
going to be on stage for ten minutes.

Mimi’s keyboardist, Kamaki, had
been working with her in the studio too. He was cool, probably in his forties,
with hair that flowed to his waist and wore silver-rimmed glasses. He reminded
Mimi of an eccentric artiste. He told her that his wife was currently pregnant
with their first child and seemed ecstatic by the news.

She was heading to Sato’s
office with the raw demo for “Farewell” when she heard shouts coming from
behind the closed doors.

“What is the meaning of this?!”
shouted someone. Mimi recognised the voice. It belonged to Shuji from Filth.

“What are you talking about?”
replied Sato calmly.

“Don’t act dumb! Filth was
supposed to record Farewell! Why is she recording it?”

“I never said that I would give
the song to Filth.”

At that moment, Mimi heard the
“clang” of broken glass and Shuji’s voice became even more audible. “Filth used
to be number one in your eyes! Why are we being treated like this now? You care
about nothing else but her!”

“Shuji, don’t be childish.”

“You’ll regret this,” hissed Shuji
and he stormed out of the office. He noticed Mimi standing outside and glared
at her before walking away. If looks could kill, Mimi would have been struck
dead.

With his office door left wide
open, Sato also noticed Mimi standing outside his office. “Mimi, what do you
want?” he asked, irritably.

“Sato, here is the demo, please
listen to it,” she said, holding it up.

He nodded curtly. She wanted to
ask him about what she heard just seconds ago, but Sato didn’t seemed to be in
the best of moods. She decided to just place the demo on the table and leave
quietly. Mimi felt terrible. Ever since she joined Niji Records, the
relationship between her and Shuji felt strained. He kept throwing her dirty
looks and now it was going to be even worse. Ignoring him didn’t seem to be the
solution and what’s worse, she was the opening act for Filth’s upcoming
concert. The stress was piling on her. For eight months she had been cooped up
in the studios and she needed a breath of fresh air.

She decided to text Shina:

Hi Shina,
if you are free tonight, let’s meet for drinks.

Sure!
I’ll meet you at Shibuya at nine!

That night, her Japanese friend
decided to introduce Mimi to the wonderful world of Tachinomi, otherwise known
as a standing bar. They ended up at a place called Coins Bar 300, where food
and drinks were going for 300 yen each.

“Guess who I had a fashion
shoot with today?” Shina asked.

“Hmm... Brad Pitt?” she said,
taking a wild stab.

“No. I shot the Fire Boys for a
feature.”

“Didn’t you feature them the
last time?” she asked, turning her attention to the peanut snacks.

“Yeah, but they are really hot
property these days, they seem to be hitting a winning streak. All their
singles have reached the number one position on the Oricon music charts and they
are filming lots of commercials. Anyway, your ex-boyfriend looked well.”

“How is he?” Mimi asked, not
looking directly at Shina.

“Very professional. In fact,
all of them are. But you can tell they are very close to each other. I’m quite
proud of this shoot in particular. But how are you doing? Ready for your big
performance?”

Mimi sighed and said, “I don’t
feel exactly happy about it. Even though I have lots of things going for me
right now, part of me feels like I have nothing.”

“I think you’re just nervous. I
mean, it’s a really big deal.”

“Maybe it’s because, besides
you, I feel kinda alone here.”

Shina put her arm around her
and helped fill Mimi’s glass with beer.
 
“Cheer up beautiful! You’re going to have a hit single and a great music
career ahead. Let’s cheers to that!”

They both clinked their glasses
and Mimi took a deep gulp of the beer. She reached for her fuchsia Vivienne
Westwood long wallet and passed Shina the concert ticket she had tucked inside.
“Here’s the ticket for the show. I’ll only be performing for the opening, but
you can watch Filth. They are really good.”

“Sure. Thanks for this! Is
anyone else going?”

“I asked my brother, but I
don’t know if he can come. I mean, he would have to cross oceans for this.”

“Well, judging by how you
describe him, I don’t think he’ll miss it for the world.”

Between the both of them, they
continued to down a few more mugs of beer.

“Anyway, there’s something else
we can cheers to. My divorce has been finalised,” said Shina, out of the blue.

“I guess, that is a happy
thing?” Mimi replied, rather uncertainly. She wondered if people celebrated
divorces.

“Yeah. I really loved him. We
were working on a fashion shoot together. He was the photographer. We were
married for two years but he had a temper problem and he would hit me whenever
he was stressed up or drunk.”

“That’s terrible.”

“I really wanted to work things
out. I thought my love was enough to save the marriage, but everything just
took a turn for the worse. I couldn’t live with him anymore.”

“It’s so depressing. Sometimes
love just isn’t enough,” said Mimi, sniffing a little.

“I don’t really believe in love
anymore,” Shina declared, a little tipsy, “Women need to work hard for
themselves!”

Mimi sighed and guzzled down
more beer. After a while, she felt dizzy and slumped her head on the table.

“Mimi... Mimi?” called Shina.
She was unable to respond though. Mimi’s head was spinning and soon she found
herself in her own apartment in Singapore with Roy beside her. He was in his
school uniform and she was cooking breakfast for him. The eggs Mimi cooked were
always slightly burnt, but he never complained.

“Roy, you forgot something!”
she cried in her sleep. Mimi woke up to find herself on Shina’s bed, lying next
to her. Her head hurt a bit and she saw the clock pointing at 7am. She fumbled
around for her mobile phone and saw eight missed calls. And they were all from
Sato. She smelled trouble as she quickly dialed his number. “Sato, you called
me? Is something the matter?”

“Where are you now?” he asked
coldly.

“I stayed over at a friend’s
place, Shina... I think I told you about her before.”

“Just checking if you were
still alive,” he replied and then he hung up.

Mimi shook her sleeping friend
and said, “Shina, hey, thanks for putting me up. But I need to go now.”

Shina just nodded and
grunted,
 
her eyes still closed.
Mimi quietly gathered her things and took a cab back to her apartment.
Surprisingly, he was still home when she arrived an hour after they spoke on
the phone. He was in the living room, watching the morning news. Mimi suddenly
felt like a teenage daughter who broke curfew.

“Next time I would appreciate
it if you told me or your manager when you decide to spend the night somewhere
else.”

“I’m sorry.”

Sato stood up and confronted
her, “As your producer, I would really appreciate it if you treated your music
more seriously, instead of gallivanting at God-knows-where. This is not a
game.”

Mimi felt that these words were
a little unfair. “What? How can you say I’m not treating my music seriously?
Haven’t you heard the demo? Haven’t you seen me clocking 20 hours a day at the
studio? Look, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you where I went last night, but you’re
not my father.”

“You’re right. I’m not. Have
you found a place to stay yet?”

Mimi stayed silent. Sato raised
his voice, “You think too highly of yourself, don’t you? How much longer are
you going to freeload at my place? Who do you think you are? Don’t you ever
think that we are friends.”

She stared at him. What was his
problem? Mimi felt her cheeks burn and in her anger, she felt like crying, but
she didn’t want this unreasonable man to scorn at her tears. She turned around
and walked out, slamming the door shut. Mimi went inside the elevator and burst
into tears. She was fuming. Can’t he ever speak cordially? What right did he
have to say those words? The lift finally reached the ground floor. The lift
doors opened and right in front of Mimi, she saw her brother.

“Roy,” Mimi cried and wrapped
her arms around him tightly.

Track #10

“He is well aware that I have
been so busy preparing for my debut. How is it even possible for me to find
time to search for a new place?” Mimi said through gritted teeth, waving her
arms around, clearly exasperated. They were both sitting on a park bench near
her apartment. Her brother just listened, never interrupting her outburst. Roy
was wearing his glasses and he looked very perplexed. Mimi suddenly felt bad.
Here he was, in front of her. He had traveled for six hours via plane and she
didn’t even ask how he was. “I’m sorry Roy. I’m so selfish. Here I am babbling
about something else when I should be asking what you’re doing here?”

“I got your email and decided
to come here as soon as possible.”

“Didn’t it occur to you to call
me?”

“Well, I wanted to surprise
you.”

“You sure did. Where are you
staying?” she asked.

“At one of those backpackers
hostels at Asakusa. All my bags are already there.”

“Thank you Roy, I’m really
happy that you are here,” said Mimi, reaching out to pinch her little brother’s
cheek. He moved away from her grasp and put his arm around her instead. She
looked at him quizzically and added, “Did you grow taller again? You look like
you did.”

“I think so. But do you want to
stay with me for the time being?” he asked.

“I don’t know. I just want the
performance to go well. But I don’t even know if I can do it.”

“Sure you can. You’ve performed
a million times before.”

“Yeah, in front of ten people.
But now we’re talking about thousands of people who are not even there for me
or my music. It’ll be a tough crowd.” Mimi’s head pounded just thinking about
it. Her mobile phone started ringing. It was her manager, Kenta.

“Hi Kenta, my brother just came
to Tokyo. I’ll be at Niji Building soon.”

“Actually, can you swing by
Shibuya O-Nest instead. There will be rehearsals over there in the afternoon,”
said Kenta.

“Sure, no problem.”

“One more thing, Mimi. I just
spoke to Sato and he sounded rather sulky. Did you two have a fight?” he asked,
rather cautiously.

“Why don’t you ask him? He’s
the unreasonable one!” she exclaimed, snorting in disbelief.

“Okay, okay, I get it, don’t
take it out on me. But Mimi, just remember that Sato’s bark is worse than his
bite.”

Mimi sighed as she turned
towards Roy,
 
“I need to go.”

“But it’s the weekend.”

“Well, the concert is happening
in less than a week... Oh dear, and you can’t speak Japanese. Wait, let me call
someone, she’ll take care of you.” Mimi looked through her contacts in her cell
phone.

“Don’t worry sis, I can walk
around on my own.”

Ignoring his words, Mimi called
Shina. Thankfully, she was free for the day and agreed to bring Roy around
Tokyo. “She’ll come by in twenty minutes. So just stay here, and here’s her
phone number in case anything happens.”

Roy nodded as he stored Shina’s
phone number in his cell phone. Mimi ruffled his hair and gave him another
tight hug before running off towards the live house.

“What happened to your face?”
asked Ayaka, her make-up artist and wardrobe assistant, slightly taken aback by
Mimi’s sallowed appearance. Not only was she suffering from a hangover, her
eyes were puffy with dark circles. Ayaka sat Mimi down in front of the dressing
room mirror and started patting some powder on her face.

“I don’t think we have time to
do this properly, so I suggest you wear a hat to cover your face. You’re lucky,
today is just a sound rehearsal so the only real concern they would have is the
quality of your voice,” Ayaka said, passing Mimi a black trucker cap.

“Thanks, Ayaka,” she said,
taking the cap from her.

“Anyway, Filth is now on stage.
Once they’re done, you can go on and do your thing. Your keyboardist Kamaki is
in the washroom. He’ll join you later.”

Mimi, with shoulders slumped,
walked over to the front of the stage. The hall was empty save for the sound
crew and a few managers and assistants. Filth was on stage, performing a dry
run of the songs for the concert. At the back of the hall, Sato, wearing his
sunglasses, was seated and observing the rehearsal like a silent spectator.
Filth was in top form. They sounded great and the concert setlist was
impressive. Mimi wondered about the situation between Shuji and Sato. The lead
vocalist was not looking at the producer though, and Sato acted as if nothing
bothered him.

Both of them are such professionals,
unlike me who’s always letting my emotions get the better of me, she thought,
bringing the cap closer to her eyes.

Kamaki appeared beside her.
“How’s your wife doing?” she asked, turning towards him.

“She’s doing good. I just came
from bringing her to the hospital for a routine check-up,” said Kamaki. He
tilted his head towards the stage and asked, “Are you nervous?”

“You bet. And this is not even
the real live yet. But looking at Filth, I really need to make them look good.
I can’t let them down.”

“Hmm...” Kamaki winced a
little.

 
Mimi looked at him, surprised. “You don’t
agree?”

“It’s true that you’re their
opening act, but you shouldn’t sing for anyone else but yourself.”

Mimi was a little taken aback
by what he said. But she understood what he meant. Back at her own pub, she
never sang for money or fame. She sang because she loved music. “The stage is
my sanctuary,” she told herself when it was her turn to get on the stage. She
knew that it didn’t matter what problems she had offstage, the only thing that
mattered right now was music and she was going to sing her heart out.

“Great job,” said Kenta, after
Mimi finished her rehearsal. Sato just sat quietly throughout her two songs.
Mimi thought that was much better than hearing him hurl insults at her
performance.

“You want to grab dinner?”
asked her manager.

“It’s alright. My brother’s in
town, I’ll grab a bite with him.”

“Glad to hear he’s here.”

“Actually, I think I’ll be
staying over at the studio tonight, can you help me tell Sato that?”

“What... You guys are not
speaking to each other now? Seriously?” he said, placing his hand on her
shoulder.

“Do me this favour please?
Kenta, you’re the best manager in the world,” Mimi pleaded and her manager
relented.

“Okay,
whatever. Anyway, I’ve already found a place for you. It’s actually in the same
apartment building as your friend, Shina. You can move in after you get back
from Okinawa Island.”

“I’m going to Okinawa? What
for?” Mimi asked. Okinawa Island was a plane ride away from Tokyo, and this was
the first time she was hearing this.

“Your music video. Ah right, I
haven’t given you next week’s schedule yet.” He passed her a sheet of paper
that stated her upcoming schedule.

“Okay. Anyway Kenta, please
remember to pass the message to Sato.” Maybe she was being childish, but she
didn’t want to speak to him, not until he apologised. Although there was a
better chance for pigs to fly than that happening. Mimi met Shina and Roy for
dinner and was glad to see the two of them hitting it off so well. Roy was
usually shy around strangers, but the both of them seemed to have many common
interests. Before tonight, Mimi didn’t know that Shina used to play the violin
and had the same passion for classical music like her brother. Leaving the two
of them to rave about Bach and Beethoven, Mimi took a cab back to the studio.
She had finished recording for her debut single and the only things left were a
few more songs for the album. Honestly, she didn’t really have to be in the
studio, but Mimi wanted to be alone and the instruments in the studio helped to
calm her down. There was a couch in the recording studio and Mimi could always
fall asleep on it.

It was nearing midnight when
her mobile phone rang. The easily excited voice of an elderly lady spoke at the
other end. “Mimi, how are you doing? I heard that you’ve been losing weight
these days, so I prepared a nice home cooked meal for you. You’re in the
studios right?”

“Yamada!” she exclaimed, happy
to hear the warm woman’s voice, “It’s so late now though.”

“Don’t worry, I live very near
the Niji Building. Anyway, I am already at the lobby. I’m coming up now.”

Mimi hadn’t seen Yamada around
as often after her ankle had fully recovered. She was so busy with her debut
preparations and she had heard that Yamada was on a holiday overseas. The
elderly lady burst into the studio with a big smile on her face. She was
carrying a bento set, wrapped in a purple cloth.

“Yamada, so nice to see you.
Please take a seat,” Mimi said, motioning to the couch.

“Mimi, you really have lost a
lot of weight. I prepared some tuna sashimi and rice balls for you.”

“Thank you. How did you know I
was here?”

“Oh, I was at Mr. Sato’s
apartment in the evening. He’s leaving for an important meeting in Osaka
tomorrow. Anyway he told me to keep an eye on you. Isn’t he such a kind man?”
Yamada raved.

He just wants to make sure I
don’t run amok, thought Mimi.

“Yamada, I heard you went on a
holiday. Where did you go?”

“Ah, I was on a packaged tour
around Asia! You see, the Fire Boys were on an Asia Tour, and a group of
Japanese fans traveled with them. It was so fun! And we traveled with the
members too!” she gushed excitedly, clasping her hands together.

“Wow...” Mimi replied, not
knowing what to say. But she had to give props to Yamada’s dedication. She
opened the bento box and was about dig in when Yamada’s mobile phone rang.

“Hello? What!!!” she suddenly
shouted, startling Mimi. “Yuki is in hospital!? I will be right there!” Yamada
looked at Mimi apologetically. “I’m sorry but I need to go. If you’re not
hungry, can I bring the bento set to Yuki? He is in dire straits right now! My
boy needs me!”

“Of course, let him have it.
What happened to Yuki?” she asked, furrowing her brows.

“My friend Maki told me that he
suddenly collapsed in the dance studio,” Yamada replied, frantically packing up
the food and wrapping it back with the purple cloth.

“Wait, so you are going to see
him now? It’s way past visiting hours!” Mimi cried, looking at her watch. The
time was 12 midnight.

“Yes, my friend Maki and I will
try to,” she said standing up, getting ready to leave.

Maybe she was too caught up in
the moment, or maybe she just wanted to make sure the two elderly ladies didn’t
get into too much trouble. Whatever the reason, Mimi wasn’t sure what spurred
her to say the next few words. “Yamada, take me with you,” she said, reaching
out to grab Yamada’s arm.

“Are you sure, Mimi? We will be
infiltrating hospital security,” she replied in a solemn manner.

“Let’s go,” she said, standing
to her feet.

They arrived at the hospital in
Yamada’s purple Mini Cooper. Yamada’s friend, Maki, was waiting for them in
front of the hospital entrance and got inside the car. She was ten years older
than Yamada but seemed to have ten times more dedication and passion for the
current mission. Holding on to a huge black duffle bag, she explained the
intricate details of their “must-feed-the-tired-idol” plan to the other two.

“Okay, so I managed to get us
some disguises,” Maki whispered, unzipping the bag. She fished out one light
blue outfit for Yamada who was going to disguise as a hospital patient, and one
nurse uniform for Mimi. “Since visiting hours are over, we need to have a valid
reason for being there. So Mimi will be the nurse, and the two of us will be
patients. I believe he is staying in room 707.”

Mimi didn’t know if she should
be impressed or scared by Maki’s resourcefulness. But she was the commander of
the current mission, so she thought it was best not to raise any questions.
“Let’s change in the car now,” Maki directed. “And after that, we put on the
surgical face masks.”