~Chapter 18 – Sweets Royale (Stage 5/9 Mousse)~

            ‘I got lucky this time around, I’m finally stationed in the back! This will also give me a faster chance to leave the building.’ thought Luhan completely satisfied with his new station as the room silenced once more for the entrance of the Headmaster and the five judges.

            The Headmaster headed to the podium and proceeded with the fifth stage, “Hello students of SMACSE, I congratulate you all on being the ones to advance into the next stage. Now for the Sweets Royale stage five all participants are required to create a mousse based on the theme of darkness within the time limit of two hours. Once again your creation will be graded upon three categories of visual, taste, and theme. Now I am elated to finally announce that this begins the Sweets Royale stage five.”

            Moving on cue, Luhan began setting up a pot to simmer water and placed a bowl over the top of the pot pouring in espresso, a bit of butter, and chunks of dark chocolate. Whisking the mixture together until it was well combined, Luhan placed the coffee mixture on the side temporarily as he replaced it with another bowl and put in egg yolks and sugar, whisking it until it was thick and frothy. Taking the egg mixture off the heat, Luhan grabbed mascarpone from the fridge to add to it, mixing it until it became smooth and then took the chocolate mixture that was now semi cooled and combined the two together into one mixture and set that aside.

            Grabbing a third bowl, he poured in heavy cream and began whipping it until it became a sturdy whip cream and added that to the mousse mixture while grabbing a spatula to mix the entire dessert together. With the mousse finished, Luhan scooped it into a baking piping bag and placed on a star nozzle at the end. He set up the glass containers and carefully piped the tiramisu chocolate mousse into the glass bowl in a circular motion, after that Luhan grabbed some cocoa powder and lightly dusted it over the top of his dessert; finishing just as the bell rang indicating that the fifth stage of the Sweets Royale was completed.

            “All participants stop and place everything down at once; you may now begin to place your dessert in the center of the counter of your kitchen station alongside your assigned number. Please wait to be dismissed and do not move from your station until told to do so by a staff member. You will be able to see your score on the screening board outside of the competition hall on the monitors around noon make sure to check if you will be advancing to the next round. All participants must now listen carefully, in the next stage all advancing participants are expected to create a pie based on the theme of childhood. That is all and we once again wish you the best in your endeavors,” as the headmaster finished his announcements the staff immediately came forth again and began ushering people out of the doors. Since Luhan was in the back station this time, he was actually able to be one of the first ones to leave.

            As he walked outside he took notice of Kris, Kai, Lay, Tao, and Chanyeol standing in the usual spot they all usually met up. Chanyeol was the first to see Luhan exit the competition hall as he waved saying “Hey! Luhan! You’re out first today!”

            Luhan smiled at his friend’s greeting and replied “Yeah I got lucky today and was placed in the back section.” ‘Yeah really lucky…’

            “How did you do this round?” asked Lay.

            “I think I did alright,” answered Luhan with a bit of conflicted feelings as he thought of how the judges were going to score his dessert.

            “This round went by pretty well for me too,” added Baekhyun as he walked towards the group after getting out of the competition hall and hearing Lay’s question.

            “Baekkie! I definitely know you did amazing!” exclaimed Chanyeol as he rushed over to Baekhyun and embraced his smaller boyfriend.

            “Thanks, Chanyeol,” smiled Baekhyun as he returned the hug.

            “Has the competition thinned out even further?” asked Kai curiously as he observed the few participants loitering in the hall.

            “Mmm, I’d say there’s still at least thirty-five percent of the competition left, they’ll probably start eliminating more with the next round since the last four rounds become a sort of free for all for points,” answered Baekhyun.

            “Oh, so how do the last four rounds work anyways?” asked Kai again.

            “Well they’re the same procedure for the students; it’s just the scoring that changes. Basically the judges will score our desserts and our scores will be all three categories added together and then whatever our score is, as long as it’s high enough to stay within the top ten average scores of all the participants then we get to move on, except for the final stage where whoever scores the highest gets to be the winner,” explained Baekhyun.

            “That sounds worse than what we were doing in the first five rounds,” gaped Kai “I mean at least if we scored 90 we were able to move forward without a doubt but now with this scoring there’s no guarantee of moving forward even if you scored high.”

            “Exactly, which is why this competition becomes harsh during the last four rounds,” said Suho as he walked up to the group with Xiumin right beside him.

            “Hey, you’re finally out of there! You did great right?” grinned Tao as he greeted the two.

            “I actually think I’m done for in this round you guys,” pouted Xiumin.

            “What!? Why!?” questioned Tao surprised at what Xiumin revealed.

            “Errrr, the hazelnut mousse sort of didn’t come out well…” replied Xiumin quietly shifting his gaze towards the side in a bit of embarrassment at his minor mistake “Ummm I may have accidentally scrambled the eggs while making the basis of my mousse and I don’t think that’s going to go over well with the judges…”

            “At least you completed a mousse that fit the theme; I confused the last theme of brightness with this one and made a white chocolate mousse with absolutely no dark chocolate in it. I only remembered that the theme was darkness as the bell to stop went off,” complained Chen as he walked out of the competition hall with Sehun and DO walking beside him.

            “It’ll be okay,” said Lay patting a sulking Chen on the back.

            “Well then that leaves about five of us left in the Sweets Royale if we all make it past the judging,” said DO.

            “Yup, so we’re really going to need to give it our all on the next round too, we have to make a pie based on the theme of childhood, I think I did well enough to get me to the next round,” said Suho.

            “Yeah, that’s true the sixth round is where competitors start becoming desperate and resort to their under handed tactics,” grimaced Baekhyun.

            “Well, let’s head back to the dorm for now then, we won’t know for sure until the scores come out anyways,” said Kris as he began walking towards the exit with the others beginning to follow.

            “I actually think I’m going to try drafting out my plan for the next round, so I guess I’ll see you guys here later,” said Luhan pointing in the direction of where he was planning on heading ‘If I do make it to the next round I want to be prepared for anything to happen, I don’t want another disaster like last year’s incident.’

            “Okay,” replied the others agreeing to meet up later, leaving behind Luhan and Sehun.

            “What about you Sehun? Want to come with me to the usual kitchen station?” asked Luhan hopefully.

            “I can’t, my parents want me to call them after I finished the round, but I’ll meet you up there if you want and if there’s still time,” replied Sehun with an annoyed look flitting across his face directed towards his phone that was now in his hand.

            “Oh, okay I guess I’ll see you later,” said Luhan feeling a bit disappointed “Just remember I’m around if you need me, okay?”

            “Yeah, see you later,” said Sehun walking in the opposite direction as he gave a small wave.

            Luhan sighed a bit as he started off in his own direction ‘Sehun should be fine, it’s just a phone call, and his parents probably want to know that he’s advancing in the Sweets Royale. The fifth round went by pretty smoothly, now it’s time to prepare for the sixth…’ Luhan frowned a bit as he remembered his previous scores in the Sweets Royale ‘Hyo has been giving me full points so far, is it my own skill that’s getting me through the Sweets Royale? Do I even deserve to move forward?’ Luhan was beginning to worry as he realized that it might not even be his place to advance into the next round considering how his score was being plaid with by one of the judges ‘What am I going to do? He hasn’t been around for a few days, maybe he gave up?’

            Luhan was suddenly ripped out of his thoughts when he heard “Luhan!” being called out in a familiar voice, turning around he saw that it was Ms.Jae.

            “Hello Ms.Jae, did you need something?” greeted Luhan politely.

            “Hello, and I do actually, I’m really glad I caught you in the hall right now,” replied Ms.Jae as she approached Luhan while carrying a small stack of manila folders “These are the transcript files of the students who are left in the Sweets Royale so far, can you please take this to the office in the main building? I would do it but I have a meeting to attend and I’m already about ten minutes late.”

            “Uh, sure, I don’t mind,” answered Luhan as he took hold of the stack of folders while Ms Jae rushed off while saying “Thank you so much Luhan! I’ll be sure to give you a homework pass later or something but rig