Cut the Mic!

Another day of school came and went, and all ears were awaiting the moment they could feast upon my sweet, saucy voice for the evening announcements.

I marched through my school, happily accepting the murmurs of fans oogling over me as they did.

“Is that Hade-kun?” one girl whispered.

“I think so…” A boy responded. “But, what’s ‘that’ all about?

As per usual, my people were stunned at my looks. Fashion wasn’t my forte, but I always wanted to keep a recognizable appearance.

I entered the recording studio offices early, excited to get started with the broadcast a little more than normal today. Something in me was saying this was gonna be a great show.

“Hey, Hade…” Mimi-chan passively addressed me when I walked in as she pressed and prodded buttons on the soundboard. “The printer upstairs ran out of ink, so I had to write some ne-”

Her face filled with bewilderment as she turned to look my way.

“Mimi-chan!” I finger gunned. “I hope my favorite gal is doing well on this lovely day.”

She was wide eyed and stunned. Could I have finally broken into that inner fangirl I’d been digging for this whole time?

“O-okay…” she pressed her hands together and held them to her lips, then gestured to me while turning her office chair. “I’m sure there’s a perfectly logical reason why you just walked in here wearing a hockey mask…”

It was all I could find in the closet to cover up my face. Otherwise I’d have to explain to everyone why I had two big bruises on me. The little slits on the mouth allowed my voice to pass through properly too, so it just worked well enough.

“You like it?” my brow bounced behind the mask, which she couldn't actually see. “Thought I’d try a new style for a while, catch me?”

“The only thing I’m ‘catching’ are serial killer vibes.” She leaned over the flat part of her desk. “Hade, what are you hiding under that? Did you get another pimple?”

“I’m not hiding anything, swe-”

“Call me ‘sweet thing’ again and you’ll be hiding a bruised lip!” she shouted. “Take off the mask.”

“No.”

“If you have nothing to hide, take it off.”

“No way.”

“Hade, I’ve seen your eleven year old pizza face,” She had to remind me about those dark years. “Remember the red eye of 23?”

Those god forsaken, acne ridden years, were the worst of my life. I didn’t know how Mimi could deal with me back then, looking like a rashing space alien. I couldn’t even imagine how much money I tossed in shrines, hoping the gods would bless me with good looks, as they eventually did.

Mimi wasn’t backing down, and I knew she was the type to get handsy if need be. Part of me wanted to see how far she’d go before jumping up and pulling this thing off my face, but than another more rational part figured it would be better to just give in and show her the truth.

I decided to remove the mask, like ripping off a bandaid.

“Oh my god! Hade!” she sprung up from her seat, a worrisome look in her gaze as she caringly touched my wounds. “Did you get into a fight? Oh no…I knew this would happen eventually…”

Every press of her fingers to my face should have been a dream come true, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to become the kind of guy who enjoyed pain from a woman's touch. That was a beast I figured best not to awaken.

“Please don’t touch the bruises,” I demanded with a squeal. “It hurts.”

“O-oh…” she reeled back, guilty eyed as she looked over my neck and arms for any other signs of wounds. “Hade, what happened? I-I know I’m always saying I’m going to punch you, but… I’m really not going to…”

“I know you won’t,” I said in a charming tone. “You know the value of this merchandise.”

“Okay, now I’m considering doing it for real…” she looked very disappointed. “Explain yourself, now.”

What was I supposed to tell her? I was creepin’ on a deaf foreigner and she smacked me with a book? Mimi would definitely side with Blondy on this.

“I fell down,” I said.

“You fell down?”

“Yes,” I nodded. “I fell down.”

“Did you go boom too?” She did ‘not’ believe me. “Hade, I’ve known you long enough to tell when you're lying.”

Wait, what? I did something that made it obvious? I rarely ever lied, how could she tell? I mean, white lies maybe, since I was no George Washington, but I never went full Herodotus.

History class was wild this morning, if you can’t tell.

Mimi sighed again and shook her head, a tell tale sign she was ready to drop the subject for now.

“Nobody punched you, right?”

“I cannot tell a lie, milady. Nobody punched me.” Which was the truth.

“And you're not hiding this because you're scared of someone?”

“Nope.”

Her brow furrowed. I was worried she was onto me.

“Fine. But if someone's bullying you again-”

“Hey, we’re gonna’ be late for the broadcast!” I walked past her and entered the recording booth. “Get to your station, Mimi. Unless you want to be fashionably tardy like me.”

“Oh, so now we’re acknowledging our tardiness?” she rolled her eyes and snickered. “Nothing fashionable about that. Whatever. Let’s get this show going.”

We got everything set up quickly. So fast in fact I had time to preread the script. Oh, there was some stuff about a missing cow in the Hobagi farms nearby. It happened last night, apparently? Strange.

Mimi gave me the thumbs up, which meant we were just about to get started.

I took in a breath and gave her a thumbs up back. Then leaned close to the mic. It smelled nice today–That typical metallic tech smell I loved.

Once I saw the red light on my mic, I let my voice loose like horse girls on a race track.

“Hey-oooaaah!”

My voice cracked hard with a shriek as my jaw lit up with excruciating pain. Mimi was looking at me like I’d just committed a crime before her very eyes.

“H-eEYy boOOiS and GurRlsSs…”

Oh god, I sounded like a clown on drugs. I tried to recover and continue the introduction, but the pain of talking loud enough in my usual smooth tone was making me a very squeaky man, and I thought I put that behind me after puberty.

Mimi cut the mic and pulled her own in close to address the elephant in the room.

“Hade, are you sure you can do this right now?”

“Yyyyeesss…” I grit my teeth and tried to force a thumbs up, but even I knew this was my limit. “Dooon’t wooorry…”

Mimi-chan sat there for a moment, likely deciding the best thing to do. But I really didn’t need her to shut this down. I just needed a minute to figure out how to talk loudly with this agonizing pain.

“No…” she shook her head. “We’re cutting it there.”

“No!” I shouted, feeling extreme pain in my jaw. “Ouch! You can’t! Ouch! Mimi, seriously. Ouch!”

“Hade! You can’t even talk right now to me without using ‘ouch’ as a prefix!” she raised her hand as a gesture to me. “I’ll just let the school know you're not feeling well today…”

I couldn’t let her do that. It was like admitting defeat in a war against my own personal demons. This was something I needed to do every day, or I’d be right back to the worthless man I once was.

“Mimi, if you cut me off, I’ll never speak to you again,” I growled.

She just looked at me with a raised brow of confusion, her mouth open agape, slowly drifting toward her mic.

She pressed the intercom button on her side of the office.

“Hey everyone, this is Hade-kun’s helper, Mimi-chan! You don’t hear from me often!”

“How dare you betray me?!” I shouted. “Ouch!”

That was it. This was the start of my villain arc. And it was all her fault!

“Just wanted to let y’all know that Hade-kun’s a little under the weather, so we’ll be cutting the broadcast short. But hey, don’t fret, because your girl here’s still gonna’ hit ya’ with whatever news you’ll need to have a good evening.”

That should have been me talking to my subjects right now! They were going to think I was weak if I didn’t addre… Oh, forget it. I couldn’t cast right now for the life of me. She made the right call.

That did not mean I was happy about it. I was pissed, in fact. So angry that one could say I was blistering with fury, but they’d be wrong, because those were just my bruises.

Mimi went ahead with the rest of the broadcast and gave the daily deets. The longer she talked with her surprising amount of charisma, the more I actually calmed enough to listen carefully. She was so good, the perfect, temporary substitute for me in fact. I was jealous that she was taking my role, but also very impressed, even a little awestruck.

“Alright, hope y’all have a lovely rest of your night! Make sure to study hard, but not too hard! Bye bye!” She cut the radio and breathed a sigh of relief. “You do this every day…I gotta’ admire that energy.”

“Mimi, that was great…” I uttered, softly so my jaw wouldn’t hurt.

“I learned a thing or two watching you all this time, you know?” she kindly smirked. My eyes fixed on those beautiful lips of hers. “Look, Hade. I know you don’t want to take a break-”

“I don’t mind you doing this for a few days, Mimi,” I said, passing her the temporary torch.

“Maybe go see a doctor and get that checked. I think you probably shouldn’t come to school until you get some medicine, or maybe bandages or something, I don’t know.”

I had to let a doctor figure that part out, because I didn’t want to be known as someone who skipped school. Nothing good about that at all. A king needs his strong castle, but his castle needs a strong king.

Mimi recommended me to her aunt, who worked in a clinic downtown. With a quick call she said she’d see me right away and find out what damage had been done to my beautiful skull.