Chapter Five

Lu Han the Devil ... Or the Angel?

"Finished!"

"Amazing!"

"Siwon-Oppa!"

"Excellent... It's a truly remarkable cake."

"Thank you very much!"

"My eyes weren't wrong in choosing you. Sooyoung, you're truly the best patissiere."

"For Siwon-Oppa to praise me..."

"Sooyoung... Sooyoung!" Kris whispered. "Sooyoung, your cream's..." It was then Sooyoung realized she had been day-dreaming. Sooyoung looked down to where Kris was pointing. She shrieked as she saw that she had splattered chocolate cream messily all over her cake.

"W-W-W-What should I do?!"

"Unbelievable..." Of course... him... "To space out and let your mind float away during cooking practice..." Lu Han was already done with his cake. It was perfect, like always. "What incredible nerve..."

Lu Han's needling me again... Always needling her. Always.

"Lu Han, don't tease Sooyoung so much." Key said, layering his cake with chocolate.

"She failed in the decoration, but she baked her genoise well." Kris agreed, layering chocolate over his cake as well.

Unlike Lu Han, Key and Kris always looked at the bright side whenever Sooyoung screws up. So pretty much everytime.

"Compared to when you first transferred here... You've improved a lot!" Key commented. He gave his usual eye-wink.

"Thank you, Key, Kris!" Thank goodness I secretly practiced making genoise late at night.

"So naive." Again. He had to ruin her thoughts. "You're much too optimistic for one who's only improved this much." Lu Han muttered as he cut a slic of his cake out.

Sooyoung gritted her teeth in anger. Lu Han doesn't appreciate my hard work at all, huh?! Sooyoung noticed the slice of cake Lu Han has cut it. It was way beyond perfect. "D-Did you make that?"

"Yeah..." Lu Han replied with zero excitement in his tone.

"That sure is amazing..." Key complimented.

"No one can beat Lu Han at chocolate sweets." Kris stated.

"I want to make this kind of chocolate cake someday!"

"It's impossible for you even after a million years."

The three of them, Key, Sooyoung and Kris had the same look on their face. Mouths open and eye starting to bulge out. "How cold!" Key and Kris exclaimed in unison.

Sooyoung had made a habit to come to the school kitchen and practice every night. The class was suppose to make a chocolate cake for the following week's self-study test. Sooyoung knew the test was important but she also wanted Lu Han the devil to be made speechless with her chocolate cake. The girl had the whole picture in her head. Lu Han would try her cake, he'll be speechless, he'll beg and beg for the recipe and Sooyoung will get to do the arrogant face Lu Han always does when he-- Actually his arrogant face is his usual face.

Sooyoung giggled happily. "Time to make a delicious chocolate cake roll!"

Sooyoung got all her supplies ready and begin to amke her cake. "You should use a rectangular iron plate in making the cake roll's souffle, right?" she mumbled to herself. "This time, it's a chocolate souffle with chocolate mixed in the batter!" she was talking to no one. "When you spread the strawberry cream... If you spread a reasonable amount from your side, thinning it out near the end... You can roll it up nicely!" Sooyoung recited from the book she read. "Add the chocolate for the finishing touch! If you coat the cake roll with it... It's done! It looks delicious! Time to taste it!" Sooyoung cut a small piece from the cake and tasted it. "It doesn't taste right somehow... The souffle and the strawberry cream tastes good, but... The chocolate cream on top doesn't. It melt roughly on my tongue."

Sooyoung tried making the chocolate cream again. But failed miserably... Seven times. "This isn't good either. That one too... That other one too... This one too..." Sooyoung sighed dejectedly. "I never thought chocolate would be this hard to handle! Why can't I make it taste good?" She had a picture in her head of Lu Han laughing deviously. She suddenly slammed her hands hard on the table. "Don't laugh, you devil!" Sooyoung shook her head. "What should I do?! It's a cake with chocolate as the main ingredient... Yet the crucial chocolate won't turn out good at all!"

Sooyoung decided it was best if she couldn control her emotions properly, wrap all of this up for today and head back to her room.

Sooyoung was hugging herself as she walked out of her dorm and into the open. "It's really cold at 5am, huh?" She walked to the school kitchen and saw that the lights were on. "Huh? Someone's already here?"

She opened the door, not expecting the a gruesome sight to greet her. She jumped back a little at the most horrifying thing at ever. Nothing could be this as the most scariest thing she ever saw.

"It's Devil Lu Han!" she muttered to herself. But she quickly focused on what he was doing. "What's this?" She changed her earlier 'Devil Lu Han' thoughts. Sooyoung had never noticed this... He looked so perfect... Maybe it was because of the lighting but he looked so angel-like. So handsome... But she quickly snapped out of her thoughts as he noticed her.

"Will you quit standing there and shut the door? The cold air will waft in, right?" Sooyoung shut the door like she was told. "Chocolate is temperature-sensitive.

"S-Sorry!" Aww... I got scolded by the devil so early in the morning! But what's he been doing? Sooyoung walked behind Lu Han and tried to peek at what he was doing. She finally figured it out. "You're tempering?! Amazing! That's something difficult that pros usually do, right?"

"I do this everyday to let my body get used to it." I see... Although he's called a genius chocolatier... He also sharpens his skills like this when no one's around... "Did you give up?" Sooyoung was confused by his question. "You still train late at night, right?"

"I-I went to sleep earlier last night..." Lu Han grunted in response. If he knew, he should acknowledge my efforts a little more! She set her chocolate on her table and begin cutting it and placing it in a bowl before putting the bowl over boiling water to melt it.

"You moron!" Sooyoung almost burnt herself. "Why are you using boiling water to warm the chocolate?!"

"Well... I thought the chocolate would melt faster if it were hot..." Sooyoung said something again after a beat. "I can't?"

"Obviously not!" Lu Han barked at her. "Chocolate seperates at high temperature! You should always make sure the temperature doesn't exceed 60 degrees!" he said as-a-matter-of-factly. He held up a thermometer for her to see.

"I-I see..."

"Plus, with the way you're doing it, a lot of steam will enter the chocolate!"

"Steam?"

"Chocolate doesn't do well with even a little moisture. You need to pay the utmost attention to steam coming from the pot. If you screw that up, the quality of the chocolate will drop instantly."

I see... That's why last night's chocolate didn't turn out good... 

Sooyoung was snapped out of her thoughts once again with Lu Han slamming books on her table. "Those are the basics of the basics! At any rate, Sooyoung... Read some total-beginner books and do it over!"

"Okay!"

Sooyoung stirred her chocolate around. "Let's see... Don't let it go over 60 degrees..." After a while, she finished the cake roll and the chocolate. She then poured the chocolate on top of the cake roll. "Done! Let's have a taste!" Sooyoung cut a small slice out and ate it. Her eyes lit up in delight. "It's delicious! The mouth-melting sensation of the chocolate is completely different from last time!" She went over to Lu Han. "U-Um... Lu Han?" Sooyoung bowed. "Thank you! ...For warning me earlier..."

"It's nothing, really. It's just that it'll be troubling if Group A's grades go lower because of you." he said with no emotion and his back facing her.

Oh, so that's why?

"Say, Sooyoung... How much chocolate have you wasted lately?" Lu Han pointed to the bowls of chocolate on Sooyoung's table. "You have to value the ingredients more. With that, long before you fail as a patissier, you fail as a person." Sooyoung badly wanted to kick the arrogance outta Lu Han. "Try eating this." he shoved a spoonful of something into .

Sooyoung's expression instantly soften. "It's delicious! What creamy chocolate! It's the first time I've tasted something like this! Let me have another bite!"

"No more."

"Cheapskate!"

"You can just make your own, right? But first, make sure you do nothing but practice everyday. Or do you want me to say it again? That it's impossible for you even after a million years." Sooyoung glared at him with so much power that it could put a hole in Lu Han's body if it wasn't for his ginormous ego shield. "See you. Shut down the power and the ventilation fans when you leave. Short mustache." he waved a faint good bye and left.

"Short mustache?" She used her spoon as a mirror and saw that Lu Han left a chocolate smear above her lip. "He got me!" She used her cloth and quickly wiped it away. "You devil! Making a fool out of me till the end!"

"P... Prali...? Erm... What's this word?" Sooyoung was flipping through books trying to find the meaning of each word as she wanted to make a cake but the instructions were in a different language. She gave up on the chocolate cake roll. The reason for that was because of Lu Han's chocolate. It was just a mouthful but it was so delicious it was shocking. Sooyoung figured she couldn't content Lu Han with that kiddy cake roll and needed to make a high-class chocolate cake. "Time to get in the mood and do my best!"

Sooyoung was constantly keeping an eye on the chocolate, making sure she does the instructions properly and looking up every French word that she doesn't know. Her eyes fell on the clock on the wall. "It sure took a long time..." she yawned. "No, no! I have to finish it!"

"The hot water should be lest than 60 degrees, right?" Sooyoung's eyes were closing, the thermometer she held was getting blurry. The numbers were. She almost fell onto the boiling water but her arm had a small contect with the hot metal bowl and that jerked her awake. She let go of the bowl of chocolate she was carrying at it fell to the floor. "The chocolate... Gotta redo..." Sooyoung couldn't. She just couldn't. She had to sleep. So she closed her eyes and fell backwards.

"Hey, Sooyoung!" she felt someone catch her. She turned her head and Lu Han came into sight. "Are you okay, Sooyoung?"

"L-Lu Han?!" The two were way to close. Sooyoung got out of his grasp and crawled a few meters away from him, leaving a safe distance between them. "I'm sorry! I'm okay now."

Lu Han looked at her with concern on his face. "You haven't slept at all these past few days, right? You're wobbling so much..." Sooyoung got up and sat on a stool which Lu Han looked through her books. "Huh? Royal Purveyor Chocolate Torte..." he stared at the book with his eyebrow arched. "Don't tell me you're trying to make this, Sooyoung? It's still impossible for you... This difficult recipe..."

"No it's not! It's not impossible. I can make it!" Tears stinged her eyes. "I'm in Group A, after all." They finally fell. As much as she wanted to hold them back and not let Lu Han see she was this soft she couldn't. No... For me to cry in front of Lu Han... But my tears just keep on coming!

Lu Han turned away. He knew Sooyoung didn't want him to see her crying. But the main reason was because it pained him to see her like that. "My Samchon is a chocolatier. I used to hang out at my Samchon's shop when I was young. I enjoyed seeing the chocolate turn glossy with tempering and multicolored chocolate being made. I thought it was just like magic. And when I helped clean up, I got some rewards. Here." He handed her a cup.

"Chocolat chaud?"

"Drink it up. It'll calm you down. You've been working all night, right?"

Sooyoung watched him drink from his cup and did the same. "It's delicious."

"I remelted and used the chocolate stuck to the bowls and cooking utensils with hot milk. It'll be easier to wash the utensils... And most of all, it doesn't waste chocolate. It's an idea my Samchon would've think of."

"Your Samchon sure likes chocolate."

"Yeah... The chocolate my Samchon makes has spirit in it." Sooyoung could've sworn she saw him smile. "I guess I'm here right now because of how much I admired him."

"Thanks for the drink. How strange... It's like I got energy from it."

"That's good. Chocolate is composed of arginines and theobromines which give you energy."

"I see..." Sooyoung giggled. "Lately, I've been made to worry by chocolate... But now chocolate's cheering me up. This must be your Samchon's magic as well?"

The lights shone through the window and it shone upon Lu Han. The feelings she felt way earlier was back again. "Don't stress over it, Sooyoung. You should find your own magic."

An angel? Lu Han looks like an angel with huge white wings! I thought he was a devil, but... For him to say such kind words... 

I guess I learned about chocolate from Lu Han somehow or another. I'm not sure if I'll find my magic, but... I'll try making it wholeheartedly with spirit just like my Halmoni and Lu Han's Samchon.

The next day was a test day and Sooyoung was prepared. She went back to the chocolate roll but she'll arrange it in a way which will make it taste better. She changed it into bitter chocolate. Sooyoung had put in fruits too.

"Noona, I'm done." Kris called to the teacher.

"Let me see."

"It's a cake with a green tea sponge topped with chocolate mixed with green tea powder. And inside, there's green tea mousse and bean paste."

"I see. There's a new kind of taste to it."

"Noona, please have a look at mine too." Key said. "It's made of raspberry chocolate and I decorated it with a flower. It tastes bittersweet with the franboise and mascarpone inside."

"You decorated it very nicely."

"Noona, please have a look at min too." Lu Han said.

"This is..."

"I arranged it like an opera."

The whole class broke into whispers and gasps.

How fun... Things are getting done step by step... This process is so much fun! Sooyoung poured her white chocolate on her cake roll and scraped the remaining chocolate and placed it on the cake as well. "All right! I used them all up well! I can't waste any!"

Lu Han's hand was stretched out in front of her. "Give me that. I'll wash it."

"It's okay! I'll do it myself."

"Just give it here!" He snatched the bowl. "Just focus on your work. With you taking so long, Group A takes longer to clean up too."

"I'm sorry!"

"And... You didn't waste any chocolate this time, so it's easy to wash..."

"Thank you!"

"Just finish it up already!"

"Okay!"

Bitter and sweet. Devil and Angel. By mixing them all up... I'll give you a delicious moment. With my magic...

"Finished! Unnie, please have a look!"

"Your cake's finally finished, huh?"

"Yes! It's an Angel and Devil fruit roll."

"Angel and Devil?"

"The sweet milky white chocolate and the fine bitter chocolate. It's a cake where you can taste two different types of chocolate at once!"

"Now, let's taste the cakes!"

Sooyoung's eyes lit up at that word. "Taste? I can eat everyone's cakes?!"

Key had a slice of Sooyoung's cake. He tasted it. "Sooyoung, this cake roll is delicious!"

"Yeah! It's great! The two chocolates make a good balance!" Kris agreed.

"Really?!" She glanced at Lu Han. He already had a bite. I wonder... I wonder what Lu Han thinks... of this cake?

"Come now, say it's delicious too, Lu Han." Key urged.

"The cream is stiff. You beat it too much." Lu Han could see her expression saddening. He decided just this once he would go easy on her. "But among all the other stuff you've made so far... It's the most delicious."

"Did you say 'delicious' just now?"

"Y-Yeah..."

"Really?! You're not thinking it's 'so-so' deep in your heart?"

Is it so hard to believe that I'm actually being nice?! "I'm complimenting you!" he barked ferociously.

"He doesn't praise someone often, so he's all embarrased." Kris whispered to Sooyoung.

"All right! Thanks, Lu Han! Although I'm still far off from becoming like everyone else... But I guess you've acknowledged me a little!"

Lu Han rolled his eyes annoyingly. Well, at least he made her happy. 

Hai everybody! Five chapters down!

So, this was basically a SooHan chapter. You can see that Lu Han likes her a teeny eenie weeny bit. So small that he, himself, doesn't even know it! For Sooyoung... I won't say. I'll leave it up to you all to guess if she does like him or the others or not. I still prefer SooRi, though. keke

VOTES!

Ah! Just as I suspected! Lulu is first with 30 votes?! OMG. Kris has 28 votes! Wow! And still last... Key with only 7 votes. Poor Key... Show him some love too! lol

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter!