Summary: Popular boy band "Code Candy" has just arrived in Japan as part of their international tour, and Machiko happens to get tickets. When her father tells her she can't go and rips the tickets in half, she's crushed. But when she runs into the lead singer and is asked to be his girlfriend, Machiko finds herself involved in the whirlwind life of a star.

California Code Candy

おそくなってすみません – Sorry I'm Late!

Code Candy was a boys' band formed in 2008 by a group of musical producers who wanted to start "the next big thing". It was no secret to the adoring public that this band was created rather than found, but the fans loved that about them; the music industry had created a band with four young men, just out of high school, all very good-looking with amazing singing voices and musical talent in heaps. It was like the industry had purposefully created a band just for them, to their liking – which was exactly what had been done, just with ulterior motives.

Of course, it was very rare that any of the band members played music live. All the instrumentals were pre-recorded for concerts so all of the boys, drummer included, could sing on stage.

Out of context, it seemed a bit tacky, but...

"Kyaa! Did you see last night, on that variety show?" A third year high-school student, Noguchi Kaede, squealed excitedly, almost crumpling the magazine in her hands. "Code Candy was playing their instruments for the show!"

In reality, everyone loved the idea of the four boys singing together, because even though only the drummer couldn't sing while playing, just one voice lost was a big change. If having that beautiful harmony meant that the only time Code Candy played their music live was on television, then so be it.

"I wish I had gotten a ticket for tonight though," another third-year girl, Kaede's younger twin Ruri, sighed. "Kaede, if it wasn't for you we'd be going, y'know?" Kaede and Ruri weren't identical twins; Kaede was shorter by three cm than her little sister (who stood at 162 cm), had darker eyes, and was quite busty, a full cup-size up from her sister. For further differentiation, Ruri always wore her hair in a fun sort of messy bun on her head to make her seem a bit taller, and Kaede kept hers short.

"If I had known..." The third girl in the group, Hibiki Machiko, hesitated. She'd bought her ticket as soon as possible, because that was the only way. Code Candy was famous everywhere, and this was their first appearance in Japan in the year since they had been taken public. Machiko had scrambled for the ticket; if she had known Kaede slept in that day, she would have bought them for her friends too.

Machiko was actually half English. Her father worked for a Japanese publishing company as the legal liaison with China, a job that Machiko's mother had coincidentally shared at a British equivalent; they had met at an office and China and, each conversing in their second language, had hit it off. At 177 cm, she was taller than a fair few boys in her graduating class, and she was easily the tallest girl in school. Her proportions were a bit more modest than her friends', so at least she didn't feel too self conscious about it. Her dark brown hair had a different texture than purebred Japanese girls too, so that didn't help her look any less foreign.

"It's fine," Ruri sighed again. "You're so lucky though! Even though your dad is super strict, he's still letting you go a week before exams. I guess he realizes how amazing an experience this'll be for you!"

"Un," Machiko nodded her head obediently, eyes gazing off to the side. That was true... except that Machiko's dad didn't know she was going to the concert; he thought she had arranged for a last-minute study session with other super-serious seniors in her class.

"But you guys have seen the articles in here, haven't you?" Kaede drew the conversation back to herself. Of course she knew that Ruri had seen it, since they always scoured the gossip rags together, but she also knew that Machiko couldn't have seen it; her father didn't approve of that sort of thing. He just wanted his daughter to become a doctor, after all.

"There are profiles for Code Candy in it," Ruri continued, helping her sister in displaying the magazine to Machiko. It was a sort of routine, that one of them would offer to tell both the other twin and Machiko, but it was a comfort none the less.

"They've never done that before!" Machiko eyed the magazine with new interest. "How much does it have? I know that an American magazine had interviews, but this has got to have more personal information, right?"

"Un, they even have blood-types and birth days!" Kaede was very happy. "See, it says that Rio-kun (1) is a Sagittarius. I'm an Aries – we're a perfect match!"

"But you don't even like Leo-kun," Ruri pouted. "I'm an Aries too, y'know."

"Yeah, but I fit the description of the kind of woman he likes, and I can change my preferences for a guy like him," Kaede had a dreamy look on her face, which caused Machiko to giggle at her friends' antics.

"Don't pay any attention to her," stated Ruri as Kaede continued reading off of Leo's sheet. "She's just mad that Ben-kun is a Pisces. Rukku-kun matches with us too, but you know what she thinks of him." And Machiko did. Luke was untouchable; they all were of course, but Luke was someone to be looked at, nothing more. Even thinking of touching him was taboo.

"Is it okay if I check my horoscope?" Machiko grabbed the magazine without waiting for an answer, since this was done most mornings on the way to school.

Taurus: You'll find yourself a bit envious of something or someone today, but don't despair. There's nothing you want that isn't within your reach if you try hard enough. Focus on your work, and it can happen.

"That can't be right," Machiko murmured. She had no one to be envious of! She was going to the concert, wasn't she? What on earth could she be jealous about? "Oh well, it can't always be right." Even though it usually was correct, there was the occasional time when her horoscope was incorrect.

It made her wonder, sometimes, if that meant she was in tune with the stars more, generic, or just gullible.

Machiko and her friends continued the walk to school, anticipating a day of study and, in Machiko's case, what was sure to be the best night of her life.

Hotels are boring. That was the consensus that all of Luke Byrd's various trains of thought had eventually come to. This thought was made ever greater by the fact that he was suffering from jetlag; after all, Code Candy had just started their world tour that would last the next three months, and Tokyo was the first stop.

It also happened to be seventeen hour time difference, so even though his brain was saying it was late at night, the world around him was laughing and correcting him. It was early evening.

Luckily, the manager had thought ahead and bought sleeping pills of the legal variety for the entire band, and they had at least slept properly. Luke was grateful, especially since the night before they had been hustled straight from the airport to some television talk show where they had given an interview, played some live music, and been asked to do some improvisational acting with the hosts.

And Luke was so bad at acting that he couldn't act his way into a paper bag, let alone out of one.

Either way, Luke may have been well rested, but his mind rebelled against the idea of staying awake much longer. The fact that the hotel was so dang boring only added to that, since he had nothing to occupy himself with. Mark was borrowing his DS, Ben and Leo were watching some stupid drama (which was extra futile since none of them knew any Japanese beyond "Konnichiwa" and "Sayonara", and there were no subtitles), and his luggage had been lost. No one else's, just Luke's. No books, no iPod, nothing. Just the DS he had brought on the plane and Mark had usurped from him.

It was über boring.

"I'm heading out," Luke finally decided. He rolled off the couch and stood up, getting a kink out of his neck in the process. He brushed his shaggy blond bangs out of his face, even though he knew they were going to fall back in place. It was a habit, one the fans liked.

"We're supposed to stay in the room 'til the show," Ben didn't even look away from the drama as he protested half-heartedly. "Tomorrow's for sight-seeing, remember?"

"Tomorrow's for sight-seeing in Nagasaki," Leo corrected. He grabbed a fistful of popcorn and through it in the air piece by piece to try and catch it; it all ended up caught in his spiky black hair, though a few found their way down the front of the pajama top he hadn't bothered to change out of. One hit him in the eye, though he wasn't too disturbed by it. It rubbed at it anyway, one gray eye still trained on the tv.

"Whatever," Ben picked one of the pieces of popcorn out of his friend's hair and tossed it at Luke. "Anyway, we're supposed to stay."

"There's no 'me' in 'we'," Luke scoffed. He had to get out of this place before he went batty. "So the royal we is leaving. I'll be back before she gets here anyway."

"Can I come with?" Mark sat up a bit from his strange floppy position in an arm chair, feet still up in the air. His brown over-grown crew cut hair was sticking up in weird directions from his seating habits, as usual, and his blue eyes were lit up with curiosity. "Since your stuff got lost, you haven't got any good games. Playing Pokemon without being allowed to save is boring."

Luke rolled his eyes. "No, you can't 'come with'," he replied. "And if you want to play good games, you could buy your own DS. You sure as hell make enough money."

Ben and Leo had apparently lost interest in the conversation, if they really had any to begin with, but Mark persisted even as Luke grabbed his jacket and one of the "disguise hats" from the coat rack. "Why not? And I'm not allowed to buy my own DS, you know that. I'm supposed to be the 'childish one' but when I actually wanna have some fun they always stop me." Mark was in full on pout mode.

"That's because there's a difference between being childish and being insane," Luke was almost to the door now. "Good-bye, Mark."

"Hang on! Where are you going? In case Ally gets back before you, I mean," even though Luke knew that Mark just didn't want to be left alone with the drama-zombies, he found it amusing that the other boy was bothering to make an excuse for why he wanted to know.

Of course, Luke had no idea where he wanted to go, though he knew to stay near the hotel. "If that lovely manager of ours gets back before me, you can tell her I've gone out to meet a girl then."

And he left before any further questions could be asked.

When Machiko arrived home after school, the first thing she did was wash her hands and change her clothes, as was the ritual. Even on days when she was hanging out with her friends for the afternoon – something her father didn't often allow – she always made a stop home to get cleaned up since her job for after school cleaning was always to take clean up the erasers for the chalk board.

But today was special. It was almost four pm, and the opening act for the concert would begin at eight. People would be allowed to enter starting at seven, and there was a strict rule against lining up at the doors to the venue before six thirty.

That gave Machiko two hours to do her hair and make-up before catching the bullet train to the Northern part of town. It would be plenty of time, she was sure. Even though she rarely wore make-up, Ruri had taught her how to use make-up back in middle school, and she didn't want to go for some sort of keba look (2), so she would use very little.

Machiko and her father lived in a small apartment in the Western part of Tokyo. It was a good neighborhood, and the flat was a decent size, especially for only two people who rarely had any company over. It was bland, really. Even Machiko's room felt cold when she entered it, since her father disapproved of her tacking posters on the wall and had made her store away all of her old stuffed animals. All it contained was a western style bed, a book shelf that was not only full, but surrounded by stacks of books, and a dark wooden desk with a laptop computer.

Even so, Machiko recognized it as hers. She didn't care about the books that filled her shelves, even though she had at least flicked through them all once, now did she have any particular attachment to the bland white sheets and pink comforter that covered her bed.

What made the room hers were all the little things she had stored up through the years and hidden artfully from her father's eye. The Shoujo manga that were on the bottom shelf of her bookcase, cut off from view by the study materials on the floor, were the least of her secrets. There were magazines with gossip about celebrities, pictures she had taken with boys on dates, and video games that she often filled her time with when her father told her to study.

If her father knew what she spent her pocket money on, he'd send it all to the dump. After all, as second in her class, she needed to work harder.

Machiko didn't have anything against her father; she knew he was only like this because he wanted her to have a successful future. He'd driven her in elementary school to the point where she reflexively paid meticulous attention to anything and everything she was faced with, and that was a useful skill, really it was, but he simply took everything too far.

And somewhere along the way he'd forgotten that dreams change. It had been five years since Machiko decided she didn't want to be a doctor, which was her childhood dream job.

Machiko twirled her dark hair around her finger as she stared listlessly in the mirror that rest in her lap. She loved her father, and he loved her. But as was often the case with only children, there was a lot of pressure on her. She sighed and allowed the dark strands to fall back to their rightful place at her shoulders.

The afternoon passed in a whirl of introspection and preparation. The clothes she'd bought especially for the occasion – a cute purple jacket, a black t-shirt she'd gotten on vacation emblazoned with the word California, a dark red skirt that reached mid-thigh – were clean, and her make-up was barely even there since she didn't want to risk looking even vaguely keba.

At five-thirty, Machiko was ready to leave. She picked up her ticket from the hidden drawer of her desk and grabbed her white purse. The front door opened just as she entered the living room, ticket still in hand.

"Machiko, why are you all dressed up?" Machiko was frozen in place under the stern glance of Hibiki Ryoji. "I thought you said you had a study group."

"Er, it's for my acting class," Machiko tried to make something up. "Our exam in that class is to perform a scene, and one of the girl's in the study group is my partner for it and we decided to go in costume so we can get into costume better." It wasn't a complete lie, except that that particular study group was meeting Monday after school.

Instead of believing her or smiling or even interrogating her further, Machiko's father marched forward and grabbed the concert ticket out of her hand, not even looking at it before he ripped it in halves, then quarters, then eighths, until her five thousand yen concert ticket was confetti on the hard wood floor between them.

"I don't know where you were planning on going, but you're staying home tonight and studying," dark eyes flashed with ire. "If you feel the need to get dolled up for this 'study group' of yours, then there's obviously some distracting boy involved who will keep you from realizing your dream to become a doctor."

There was more said after that. Machiko saw her father's lips moving from the corner of her eyes as she continued to stare at her torn up ticket.

And she left. She ran past her father and out the still open door. He probably tried to catch her, but even in a skirt she could outpace him easily, especially being as upset as she was. So if he did try to capture her, Machiko was oblivious to the attempt.

Unbeknownst to Machiko, the instant she was out the door her father realized his mistake. But, then, she wouldn't know about that for a good while.

If she had known at that exact moment, Machiko might have felt a bit guilty. But she didn't know, so instead she was distraught. Not crying – sometimes she wondered if she was even capable of crying, since things that made her friends cry didn't have that effect on her – but her eyes stung a bit at least.

At least now she understood her horoscope. "You'll find yourself a bit envious of something or someone today" but the rest of it...

Don't despair.

Too late for that.

Machiko didn't run when she got to street level; it only would have drawn unwanted attention. She strode quickly and calmly through the hustle and bustle of the busy sidewalks, as if she knew where she was going, though at this point Machiko didn't care where she was going, just that it was away from her father. In a few minutes he would probably call her mobile and tell her to come home, but until then it was safe to fume and mourn the loss of her ticket.

It wasn't until she was on the bullet train that Machiko realized she was headed in the direction of the concert venue; she got off one stop before she would have if her ticket hadn't been ripped to shreds and went back to sulking as she wandered the city.

Her father still hadn't called.

If she were Ruri or Kaede, Machiko knew she wouldn't just be wandering like this. She had no aim and was just walking around, trying to get lost even though she knew her way around the city like a first aid kit – that is, far too well. Her friends would have been scared, but Machiko portrayed a much different image than either of them; she looked like she had places to be and things to do. Her walk was a business walk, or as the acting teacher at her school said, she was driven forward by her toes, while her back was pulled back to keep her posture perfect.

Combined with her height, Machiko was a little intimidating, and she had been told that she sent out subconscious signals that said "leave me alone or I won't be held responsible for the consequences". There was no real reason for this, since Machiko wouldn't hurt a fly – well, she would hurt a fly if she were fast enough to catch it, she was just a gentle person – but it worked to her advantage.

"Damn it, it's March! Why the hell is it so cold?" A voice grumbled, and in English no less. Machiko slowed down her walk to observe the complaining figure a few paces ahead of her. The light spring wind carried his words to her effortlessly. "Stupid weather. I'm so glad we're only here for a few days... so cold."

"It's not cold," Machiko pointed out, her casual toned English coming out without a hitch despite not speaking it at all since summer vacation. As she drew abreast of him, she noticed that he was taller than her, somewhere around 190 cm, and his accent was definitely American. Shaggy blond hair fell from below the baseball cap that sat firmly on his head. Even from the corner of her eye, she could tell he was good looking, but she didn't examine; she was still boiling with emotion from her father's actions. "You're probably just used to places that are hot – it's more than 17 degrees out, you know."

Machiko was already picking up speed again to pull ahead. Even though she wasn't as worried as other high school students, this street was pretty much empty already, and this guy was bigger than her.

"Oi, of course it's more than 17 degrees, or else it'd be all icy," the guy seemed to decide she made a good ear or something, since he picked up his pace to match hers.

"Centigrade," noted Machiko. The guy paused a moment but kept up the swift pace that Machiko had set.

"Don't see why you'd use Celsius anyway, outside of science I mean," Machiko didn't even look at the man, but she could imagine he was wrinkling his nose or something. "Fahrenheit's easier to remember anyway. More precise without using decimals."

"I'm not getting in a debate about temperature with a stranger," Machiko announced, picking up the pace a bit more. She was really glad that she had slipped on a pair of tennis shoes instead of the heels she'd wanted when she ran out the door. Since her father accidentally broke the shoe cabinet they had been sitting right in front of the door anyway, so she hadn't even paused while putting them on.

"You look like your dressed for a date or something," he was still keeping up, long legs and lack of skirt giving him an advantage. "Is there a special boy?"

"I was supposed to go to a concert," Machiko didn't really want to talk to this man, but since it had been so long since she'd last spoken English for anything more than helping Ruri and Kaede with their English class, it felt strangely comfortable.

"'Was' and 'supposed to' mean your not," the man continued, "meaning that your date stood you up? I'm going to make an educated guess and say you were going to go to Code Candy."

"I didn't get stood up, my ticket was ripped," Machiko didn't want to think about this, but her friends were saying she should talk about problems rather than bottling them up. Not to strangers, but whatever.

"You're not going because your ticket got a rip in it? They'd still let you in," the amused snort released by her strange companion made her bristle.

"Try turned into confetti," Machiko pinched her lips, but didn't bother increasing her pace anymore. A couple more blocks and the streets would be crowded. There was a really famous hotel up there, and she'd heard from Ruri that that was where Code Candy was staying for the moment.

"Ah, that bites," Machiko glanced over and almost rolled her eyes at the sagely nod he gave. "'Course, if you want, I could get you in no problem."

That made Machiko stop in her tracks. Her conversational companion only went two more steps before realizing she'd stopped, and did so himself.

"Why would I believe that, anyway?" Machiko sniped. He was mocking her! "Somehow, I doubt you would 'just so happen' to have a spare ticket in your pocket or something, and I probably wouldn't like whatever price you want for it."

The man laughed again, throwing his head back this time, and Machiko gaped.

That face... that hair... and there was no mistaking those sharp hazel eyes that stared out from so many magazine pages she'd seen.

I just insulted Luke, THE Luke, Machiko's mind was spinning. I'm dead.

"I like you," the-person-who-could-not-possibly-be-but-who-most-definitely-was Luke said after he had calmed down a bit. "When you get the stadium, go to the ticket pick-up with the name 'California'. I'll make sure they have a ticket for you." Machiko wondered at the password until she recalled her shirt.

Luke turned around before Machiko's mind could properly process what was happening. Her shock was broken by his sudden call back at her.

"In exchange, you're my girlfriend now!"

Author's Note: Okay... so I think I should explain a bit. The idea for this – and 12 other Shoujo manga-type stories – came to me because of a Shoujo Manga Title Generator (see my homepage for a link). It was giving me all these random assortments for Shoujo titles, and this was one of them. But I got bored and posted summaries to go along with the titles I got... well, apparently I'm good at thinking up random Shoujo ideas, 'cause more than one person liked them. Since this one got a specific mention, I thought I'd try my hand at actually writing it. Tada!

And you should notice that I used very little Japanese throughout the whole thing... well, that's 'cause I hate fangirlisms. As someone with at least a passing understanding of Japanese (I'm only a third year student), I hate it when people toss thing in "in language", y'know? You guys know they're speaking Japanese, I don't need to add in "sugoi" or "hontou" or anything to make that obvious at all. In the future, there will be moments when, while speaking English, Machiko will say something in Japanese, in which case I'll put a footnote saying what the word is.

This should only be eight chapters, but I'm not really sure. We'll have to see. And chapter titles make sense in my head, but I can't really explain how.

(1) I don't mean to stereotype or anything, that's just how it would be said. The names of the band members are Leo (Rio リオ), Mark (Maaku マ–ク), Ben (Ben ベン), and Luke (Rukku ルック). Since Machiko is fluent in English, she doesn't pronounce them like that though.

(2) A "keba look" basically means one involving heavy make-up. Keba is "gaudy", so Machiko wants to be careful about how much make-up she uses (I don't use make-up at all, so I don't really know what constitutes as "heavy" or "light", but just think of it as her wearing very little make-up).