~Chapter 20 – Sweets Royale (Stage 7/9 Cake)~

            ‘There’s definitely something wrong with Luhan…’ thought Sehun as he glanced over towards the older who was constantly fidgeting at his station about five down from Sehun’s own station ‘He’s been avoiding almost everyone for the past two days especially Kris…’

            Luhan’s station was once again placed in the middle and he couldn’t help but feel nervous as he waited for the seventh stage of the Sweets Royale to begin ‘Quickly begin so it can quickly end… I already have everything planned out for this stage, I just need it to start… Ignoring Hyo will only cause problems, I’ll have to spare him a glance if I want him to leave the others alone.’

            As Luhan thought this, the Headmaster headed to the podium with the judges following behind and preceded with the seventh 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 seven all participants are required to create a cake based on the theme of elements within the time limit of two hours. Once again your creation will be graded upon three categories of visual, taste, and theme.”

            This part of the speech however completely blew past Luhan’s notice as he looked up and made direct eye contact with Hyo who nodded at him with a sickening grin on his face as if saying ‘Good, you finally listened to my threats’ effectively making Luhan’s blood run cold through his veins ‘Ugh, he better not mess with any more scores,’ thought Luhan. The eye contact between the two was finally broken only when Luhan’s ears registered the Headmaster saying “Now I am elated to finally announce that this begins the Sweets Royale stage seven.”

            ‘Finally!’ thought Luhan as he quickly got his things together ‘I need to just shake it off, the stage has started and I have to focus on this. For the elements theme I’ll make a coconut cake since it’ll have a snow type of look to it after I add the shredded coconut.’ Luhan took a long pan and began greasing and flouring it to ensure the cake would get stuck when it bakes and set it aside. He took out another bowl and mixed flour, baking powder, and salt together and also set that aside. Taking a second bowl Luhan placed in butter and sugar, beating it with an electric mixer until it became light and fluffy, while mixing in eggs and coconut extract at the same time. Then he picked up the flour mixture he had placed aside and began mixing that into the second bowl alternating between adding the flour mixture and buttermilk that he had quickly grabbed from the fridge. Once the coconut batter was finished mixing, Luhan grabbed a pack of shredded coconut and folded it into the batter until it was evenly distributed throughout and then poured the entire batter into the pan and placed it into the oven to bake.

            Luhan immediately began making the buttercream frosting to cover the cake by getting another bowl and pouring in salted butter, shortening, milk, confectioners’ sugar, and vanilla extract, mixing the ingredients with the electric mixer until the frosting was smooth and easy to work with. Once the coconut cake finished baking, Luhan removed it from the oven and as soon as it cooled, he began spreading the white vanilla buttercream over the entire cake making sure to get every inch of the surface covered in the sweet frosting. After getting the frosting neatly on the cake, Luhan began to take hand fulls of the shredded coconut and covered the entire cake in a layer of shredded coconut making it look as though the cake had gone through a snow storm finishing just as the bell rang indicating that the seventh 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 flan based on the theme of tropics. 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 but not before Luhan caught one more glimpse of Hyo who was sitting on stage looking pleased with himself. Luhan couldn’t help but feel disgust boil in his stomach.

            As Luhan walked outside the competition hall he saw everyone except for Sehun, standing in a group. Approaching them he heard Chen say “Kris, you’ve been really clingy to Suho lately, he didn’t even walk out for a full ten seconds and you’re already stuck to his side like glue and asking if he’s alright like a body guard, are you going to confess soon or what?”

            Kris and Suho both blushed at hearing Chen’s comment, “What are you talking about!?” spluttered a flustered Kris sending Chen a look that said ‘stop talking’

            The others bursted into laughter, “Oh you two are so… Dude I haven’t even been here for a full year and even I see it,” said Kai laughing slightly.

            “See what?” asked Kris cluelessly.

            “Your obliviousness,” answered a nonchalant voice from behind Luhan making him jump slightly.

            “Hey! I’m not oblivious!” replied Kris facing the maknae.

            The others continued laughing, even Sehun cracked a smile at Kris’ reaction as Suho said “Okay, okay stop teasing Kris before he starts making a bigger commotion.”

            “Awwww, Suho you’re so cute defending Kris like that!” joked Tao smiling widely.

            Causing Kris and Suho to blush an even darker shade of red, “You all are so… Wait a second, Luhan! I still need to talk to you, you’ve been avoiding me for the last two days!” said Kris as he gave Luhan an accusatory stare.

            “What? I wasn’t avoiding you, you’re imagining things,” replied Luhan nervously.

            “Whatever, still want to talk to you,” said Kris not giving up.

            “Uhhhh, sure… But I’ll talk to you after I practice in the kitchen classroom because I feel really nervous about getting to the next round since we have to make flan with a tropical theme…” said Luhan quickly as he began backing away from the group with a nervous smile ready to make a run for it if necessary. ‘Oh crud, Kris still wants me to explain things to him.’

            Kris was going to say something more but was cut off when Baekhyun said “Oh yeah! That has to be the weirdest combination ever! The next round is going to be difficult; maybe I should go practice too…”

            “Baekhyun and Luhan are right, and since there are only four of us left in the Sweets Royale, practice would be the best thing right now,” added Suho thoughtfully before turning to Kris with a hopeful expression “Do you want to come with me to the candy building’s kitchen classroom again? Your advice for this round was really helpful; I could use your help again if you don’t mind.”

            Kris paused in his actions completely blanking out on what he was going to interrogate Luhan about, as he looked at Suho, who was giving him puppy eyes, and stuttered “Err, Ye- Yeah, I don’t mind helping you out again.”

            Suho smiled happily, completely ignoring the murmurs of “Just get together!” from most likely Tao, Kai and Chen, “Great! Let’s go!” Suho grabbed Kris’ hand and began dragging the blushing and stunned Kris towards the candy building.

            Once they were out of sight, Chanyeol said “I guess we should get going too. Baekhyun you wanted to practice right? I’ll go with you; the chocolate building should have an open kitchen classroom!”

            Baekhyun smiled at his boyfriend as the two linked hands and headed towards their destination after saying “See you guys later!”

            “Alright I guess we’ll just head back to the dorm, good luck with practice!” said the others as they walked towards the dorm leaving Luhan and Sehun behind.

            “Are you coming with me Sehun?” asked Luhan looking at the younger.

            Sehun nodded, following after Luhan who was leading the way. As the two made their way down the hallways, Luhan suddenly stopped walking, Sehun also stopped as he noticed the older pause in his movements and asked “What’s wrong?”

            ‘If we go to my favorite kitchen classroom, there’s a high chance that Hyo will show up since he found me there last time…’ Luhan turned around facing Sehun and gave him a strained smile “Um, let’s try a different kitchen classroom today; I heard that the kitchen classroom in the décor building was just cleaned and got new utensils.”

            Sehun only gave Luhan a confused look “Why? You always go to your favorite kitchen classroom.”

            Luhan avoided meeting Sehun’s eyes as he mumbled “Ah, I just want a change of scenery…” and began walking the opposite direction to head towards the décor building.

            ‘Is what you’re hiding also affecting the place that you go to most?’ thought Sehun remembering how much Luhan had loved the quiet kitchen classroom that was hidden under the staircase in the baking building, as he quietly followed along until the two reached the kitchen classroom in the decor building.

            ‘Even my favorite place has become a place that I can’t go to anymore…’ thought Luhan sadly as he sighed aloud while taking a seat at the unfamiliar counter near the kitchen station of the classroom.

            Sehun however continued standing as he leaned a bit on the counter top, observing the look of sadness that laced Luhan’s face, and feeling a weird sensation in his chest at seeing the latter upset, he said “You know, being alone can be painful when there’s no one to turn to…”

            Luhan’s head snapped up at once in surprise to look at Sehun ‘That’s what I told him on the first day of school in class…’ “You remember that far back?”

            “I have