~Chapter 13 – Nerves on Edge~

            The Sweets Royale was approaching soon and there was already tension in the air especially among the Sugar Rush students since a majority of the competition was going to be students from the advanced program. But this didn’t really bother Luhan too much (although it did touch on his nerves slightly whenever he was in class) he was already used to this thing especially after being at the school for a total of five years as he continued towards his favorite kitchen classroom.

            “Sehun!” Luhan shouted happily as he pulled open the door expecting to see the younger in the room already but was only met with disappointment as he saw it empty. ‘What the heck? I thought we agreed to meet here after class so I could give another try at finding his favorite dessert. Am I early?’

            “Looking for someone?” Luhan jumped in surprise whipping his head around to be face to face with Sehun’s stoic expression.

            “Yah! How do you do that!?” gasped Luhan as he put a hand over his heart.

            “What?”

            “Walk around like a ninja and appearing out of nowhere!”

            “…I’m always quiet.”

            Luhan just gave Sehun a look of indignation “Whatever,” and walked into the classroom with Sehun following close behind.

            “So what should I make for you today Sehun?” asked Luhan as he thought over all the recipes he’s seen over the years. Sehun oly shrugged at the older as he took his usual seat at the counter. “Right, I forgot you’re indifferent towards practically everything. Hmmm, alright I’ll make you crème brulee then, maybe it’ll be so amazing that it’ll become your favorite!”

            Sehun simply observed as Luhan began flitting through the kitchen station getting the needed ingredients and tools to make the sweet dessert. After setting the things down, he turned to preheat the oven and place a saucepan over the stove, pouring in heavy cream and milk and also adding in a vanilla bean to the mixture, and then letting it simmer. While that heated up Luhan grabbed a medium bowl and combined salt, sugar, and egg yolks in it, slowly whisking all of it together until he saw that the heating cream was hot enough as bubbles began forming on the sides of the pan. He then took the egg mixture in his hand and placed it on the side of the table as he picked up the hot cream mixture and began to temper it into the egg mixture at a slow pace to ensure he won’t accidentally cook the eggs in the bowl mixture. When both were finally mixed into one, Luhan took out a strainer and poured the mixture over it into a cylinder bowl. Being careful, Luhan lifted the cylinder bowl and placed it into a deep baking pan that was filled half way with water and then placed the entire thing into the oven to finish cooking.

            “There! Now we just have to wait for twenty-five minutes,” said Luhan looking over at Sehun who just hummed in response. “So what do you want to do for twenty-five minutes?”

            “Don’t care, you decide,” answered Sehun monotonously.

            “Alright, how about we just talk,” suggested Luhan taking a seat beside Sehun at the counter.

            “About what?” asked Sehun.

            “The Sweets Royale is coming up soon, what do you think about that?”

            “I honestly don’t care too much about it, I mean I already signed up there’s no backing out, not like I would anyways and if I lose, well I’ll deal with that when I get there.”

            “True, but do you feel the atmosphere among our classmates? It’s becoming heavier as the competition nears, almost as if anything can set someone off any minute,” said Luhan with a look of dislike.

            “Yeah, but it’s expected, there’s many people right now that are putting all their hopes on this competition too and I bet they’re willing to do anything to win.”

            “That goes without saying; in the five years that I have competed at the Sweets Royale there hasn’t been one year where something didn’t get messed up. I’ve only made it as far as the seventh stage last year before something went completely wrong at my station.”

            Sehun looked over at Luhan seeing that Luhan’s expression was serious ‘The Sweets Royale isn’t some joke is it?’

            Luhan continued with his explanation “Someone had apparently decided that I was a threat to them and thought that the best way to increase their chance of winning would be to alter the oven at my station so that it would short circuit when I turned it on making it burst into flames, ruining the dessert that I had placed in it. Not like it really mattered in the end anyways since they got expelled for putting a fellow student in serious danger when the security cameras caught the ones who tampered with the oven.”

            “Desperation can drive a person to do stupid things, that’s nothing new,” replied Sehun although irritation irked at his heart as he heard of someone actually daring to put Luhan in potential danger.

            “Yeah, but that’s over with now, and this is a new year, a new competition, a new chance at advancing,” said Luhan with determination in his voice “No matter what the twelve of us are gonna stick together through this, besides we already pinky promised Sehun! So no breaking pinky promises okay?”

            Sehun looked over at Luhan who was looking back with his big brown doe eyes and a smile playing at his lips. Sehun was stunned for a moment ‘Cute-… wait what?’ Sehun just decided to hum in response again ‘There’s something wrong with me today...’

            Sehun’s current expression seemed to be one of confusion but before Luhan could say anything else the timer for the crème brulee went off, Luhan quickly moved to get it out of the hot oven and left it to the side to cool for a bit in the water bath. As soon as the dessert was cooled enough Luhan moved it into the quick chiller for another few moments so that the crème brulee would be sturdier as he took out the bag of sugar and a small blow torch. When Luhan deemed the crème brulee ready he took it out of the quick chiller and sprinkled a light layer of sugar over the top, then taking the blow torch he turned it on to low and swiftly caramelized the top sugar layer to a golden brown color. “All done!” Luhan exclaimed happily as he began cleaning up the kitchen station and putting away the utensils.

            Sehun didn’t move as he was still a bit caught up in his thoughts ‘Why did I suddenly think Luhan looked cute? Weird…’

            “Sehun,” Luhan called out to the younger after finishing his task of cleaning as he saw that Sehun still had the same expression on his face. Sighing Luhan took a spoo