THIS IS THE SUMMER TIME [matthew]

[SANDRA HARU CHANG]

Sandra and Matthew had been in Japan for a few weeks now, and their trip was nearing an end -- it was pretty standard, as far as annual trips to Japan went, but that definitely wasn't a bad thing, because hello, they were halfway across the world in one awesome country. Canada was awesome too, but in a totally different way... and Japan had all this amazing food. Food! The two of them were both kind of ridiculous foodies -- shut up, they grew up surrounded by good food -- so it made sense, actually, that aside from the AKB48 store (she was still judging the heck out of her brother) the first places they'd actually gone were full of food... and food, and food, and more food, and occasionally they'd gone shopping, and of course her brother had more pink to add to his collection, but Matthew could wear whatever he wanted as long as he didn't drag her back for more pictures of the AKB girls.

The fact that it'd been a year meant a couple of things, actually. They were both another year older, Sandra's birthday having been just last week -- eighteen now, oh man -- though admittedly she didn't think they'd changed very much themselves. It also meant that it'd been just around a year since Matthew's girlfriend had broken up with him, which probably meant that he was over it, but did that mean that Sandra was done making fun of him for it (or subtly listening to totally beautiful and heartbreaking songs by some of her favourite Japanese artists)? No, not at all, even though mostly she refrained from talking about things back at home anyway. It was so really not time for that, not when there was a country to explore and things to do and family to visit and food to eat and more food to eat. Okay, so they went every year, but a month was really not enough to do everything Sandra ever wanted to do when they did visit.

They had friends in Japan, and they'd spent the day out in Hachioji -- a welcome break from spending time just with her brother -- but as it neared the evening, everyone else had dissipated, and now it was the two of them again. "Soooo... Sweets Paradise, then?" she asked hopefully, the huge grin on her face showing her excitement already. Going had always been the plan, but she didn't know if there was anything else they wanted to do first. What was more important than dessert, though? It didn't matter even if Matthew said no -- they were going. Did they need a proper dinner before going to get all-you-can-eat dessert? Um, no. No, they didn't. Without waiting for an answer, she started walking off down the street -- there was chocolate somewhere calling her name.

It didn't take long to reach the restaurant, and they hadn't even cleared the door and gotten inside when Sandra was already practically drooling because seriously, all-you-can-eat dessert. Anyone who didn't get excited about this was clearly not normal, and she felt so sorry for those people. It didn't matter much anyway, because everyone there did seem to like sweets, and most of them were girls even younger than Sandra -- which just meant Matthew towered over everyone. Well, at least she wouldn't lose him in case there was some kind of awful sugar-induced riot. "Maaaattiiiiiiiie," she whined, employing the nickname just to be a pest, poking his arm. Then she grinned as she looked all around, her eyes huge. Sweets, sweets everywhere -- paradise was right. She didn't even know to start. "Betcha I can eat more ice cream than you," she said after a second, even though she was already gravitating towards a row of cakes or something really really pretty nearby.

Real food? What real food?!

[MATTHEW FUYU CHANG]

IN MATTHEW'S DEFENSE, though also mostly to make him feel better about himself not taking up an internship when it was pretty much what was expected for those in his year of college, going to Japan was one of the highlights of his years, to be honest. It wasn't like he didn't enjoy Canada -- he loved Canada and he bet that Tim Horton's made up 75% of the reasons alone -- but the anonymity Japan gave him was honestly...kind of great. Of course, the language barrier was kind of a hassle sometimes, but his Japanese hadn't deteriorated as much as he thought it would have, considering he never even lived there, but having a parent fluent helped. And not to mention the actual friends he and Sandra had there -- they spoke English, which was nice because sometimes Matt confused a whole bunch of words together, and so it was also nice to be able to talk about anything -- anything! -- and not worry about people being able to understand him. If anything, they just stared at him like he didn't quite fit in the picture, but that was more or less the life-lesson of being Matthew Chang, so really, it was whatever. Sandra may never let him live down his love for AKB48, but then he'd never let her live down her adoration of that chubby-faced kid from NEWS, so they were pretty even. And the pink in his wardrobe added character, thanks. It also helped that no one in Japan side-eyed him for his choices in clothing -- guys who wear leopard print were dime a dozen! If only Canada could get on the bandwagon and not make him feel so friggin' self-conscious every time he wore his cardigan out. He's used to the weird looks from dudebros around campus by now, and he also had a pretty good excuse for it -- herp derp ART MAJOR I'M QUIRKY! -- but still. It was nice to know that, in comparison, he would get more dates in Japan than any of those morons.

It was almost the end of their trip now -- Matthew had been there a week or two longer than Sandra, since his break started earlier, but even then, he still had a giant list of things he wanted to do. (He could never make it to the blasted AKB48 cafe without there being a gigantic line and goddamnit Matthew loved them but he just had no patience for that sort of thing, okay?) He spent that week or two, truthfully, not doing much -- jetlag always killed him and there wasn't much Matthew felt comfortable with doing alone, except for things like going to Tokyo Tower and such because -- do you really need company to see a tower? But by the time Sandra came out and met up with him, his jetlag was about over and he'd have adventured enough to tell her what's new in the year that they've been gone -- oh, they changed the street sign at Harajuku! and oh, there's a new Beard Papa's right in our train station! and dude, the Lawson stopped selling dango so I'm boycotting and going to 7-11 from now on, but I picked up some of the NEWS lotto stuff for you anyway so be grateful because it took me 4000 yen just to get something of your dude's!!!! Because Matthew knew he couldn't really pride himself on a lot of things -- he was a mediocre socialite, absolute shit at courting girls, didn't like to party or drink much, and was passable for teaching himself how to cook -- but he did like being a good older brother. Did that always include trying to get her to change her weird hot sauce habit? Nah, but hey...it didn't hurt to try.

The area around Hachioji was rather familiar to them, it being the closest quasi-city to where they lived and the main station stop closest to all their friends, so they spent a significant amount of time there. Sandra had been egging him on this entire trip to go to Sweets Paradise, but Matthew kept holding out because honestly, as much as he enjoyed the place, it was almost a walking 10 pound weight gain. The idea of a timed all-you-can-eat dessert restaurant was...really, something that only Japan would have, considering the culture's obsession with keeping things girly really fucking girly, which Sweets Paradise did up in spades. But since it was the end of their trip, he figured he could relent -- plus, their rose mousse was fucking divine, and their curry had a bit of a kick to it that he also loved. "You know, if the whole college thing doesn't work out for us, we should just open up one of these back home,"

[/color] Matthew suggested, only slightly kidding as he and Sandra traversed the overpasses, past the department store and into a tall building right next to the station. "Though you'd probably just eat everything and we'd go out of business so forget I said anything."[/color]

The place had a strawberry fondue fountain this time, bowls of marshmallows and strawberries and bananas next to it to dip, and even he had to admit, it looked amazing. The moment they were seated, Sandra nearly bolted to the lines -- figures, really. Matthew took his time and ventured to the (albeit small) real food section first, picking up a small bowl of curry and rice and a plate of pasta carbonara to start with. A stop at the drink fountain secured him a glass of melon soda -- so bad for you, so fake but deliciously green -- and then he was back at the table. "Why would I bet against myself? That's not in my best interest, I mean, really Sandra,"[/color] Matthew deadpanned once she sat back down across from him, hands full of a whole ton of dessert, as he himself began digging into the pasta. Yeah, yeah. Defeating the purpose of a sweets paradise, blah blah.

[ LOL OH MY GOD MY MATT MUSE IS STRONG TODAY PLEASE DO NOT MATCH WORDCOUNT I WILL DIE ][/blockquote][/blockquote][/justify]

[SANDRA HARU CHANG]

It occurred to Sandra that maybe she should be more offended by the things people said to her, making her out to be some kind of useless and awful at everything, but then again, that was probably the reason people did it so often -- they could get away with it! They were usually just kidding, and she knew they were just kidding, so really, there was nothing to be all offended over, and besides, she'd always thought it was a plus to be able to laugh at herself anyway. Besides, she knew that she wasn't really that awful at everything. Cooking classes had taught her to be handier in a kitchen than her brother would have suspected, considering he usually cooked when he was home; she knew the city transit system in Maple Hollow like the back of her hand at this point, despite her own constant jokes that she was going to wind up horribly lost one day. She was good at school, if only she'd put a little bit of effort into it once in a while! If nothing else, she was pretty darn good at being friendly, which meant that she made really good tip as a waitress, thanks Matthew, you're welcome for that last birthday gift.

Why Matt's comment made her think about all of this she didn't know, but she just rolled her eyes and gave him a look, shaking her head. "Let's try to graduate first before we think about opening Sweets Paradise, but hey, that's not a totally bad idea! At least your cardigan would blend into everything," she suggested, grinning. She wasn't sure if an all-you-can-eat dessert place would do particularly well back in Maple Hollow though, because... well, just because. Was there a market for it back in Canada? It seemed even around here that most of the customers were teen girls, which was okay because Sandra would have blended in with them right away if only something about her didn't just give off the immediate appearance of being an outsider. The Vancouver accent was a tip-off, too -- her Japanese had been much better when she'd been living yearround with her parents. She stuck her tongue out at him, the picture of maturity, when he said she'd probably just eat everything. "That's if you don't get there first. Try not to finish all their pasta, okay, I bet they work hard to cook it for all the customers." Pfft, forget it. They were both total foodies -- maybe Matthew wasn't a bottomless pit, sure, but he could totally put it down too.

She managed to stack a plate with as many things as she could possibly carry on it without having to fear for other people's safety as she made her way back to the table, and then she was back, already having stolen a marshmallow from one of the bolws by the fondue fountain and munching on it as she sat down. "Matt. Matthew. Fuyu... no. Mattie!" she said, testing names to see which would be the most appropriate for a situation like this before settling on one and continuing, "You need to learn to live life a little. And like, y'know, maybe totally stuff your face with sweets when you're at Sweets Paradise, c'mon. You could probably totally not really but maybe win if you took the bet." Considering this was said while she shovelled down most of an entire slice of some awesome chocolate cake thing, though, she wasn't sure that was particularly reassuring to him. She just wanted to make sure her brother had a good time here, okay, but she wasn't about to do it that nicely. That would just make it way too easy for him.