~Chapter 21 – Sweets Royale (Stage 8/9 Flan)~

            As Luhan stood in his kitchen station close to the front once more, he could honestly say that he wasn’t as afraid as he was a few days ago; although he wasn’t completely fearless he just felt that ‘Maybe things will work out…’

            It wasn’t long before the Headmaster headed to the podium with the judges following behind again, “Hello students of SMACSE, I congratulate you all on being the ones to advance into the next stage. Now for the Sweets Royale stage eight all participants are required to create a flan based on the theme of tropics within the time limit of two hours. Once again your creation will be graded upon three categories of visual, taste, and theme.”

            Luhan only partially listened to the Headmaster’s speech as he looked towards the judges’ area, making eye contact with Hyo once more, Hyo however only gave Luhan a grim expression as his eyes seemed to have a darker glint to it than usual. Luhan froze in shock as a shiver ran through his body, ‘What the- he seems angrier than before…’ The eye contact between the two was only broken when Luhan heard the Headmaster saying “Now I am elated to finally announce that this begins the Sweets Royale stage eight.”

            ‘Is he angry because he didn’t find me yesterday after the Sweets Royale ended? Ugh I can’t think of this now, I have to get through this stage and just make my tropical mango flan,’ thought Luhan as he cleared his head momentarily and took out the supplies that he needed to make his flan dessert. Luhan placed mango, sweetened condensed milk, cornstarch, evaporated milk, eggs, and a bit of salt into a blender to puree the mixture into a smooth consistency. After the blend was finished, Luhan placed a pan over medium heat, and put lemon juice and sugar into it stirring the mixture until it began to caramelize. Removing the caramelized mixture from the heat quickly, Luhan grabbed the blended mango mixture and mixed the two together in a circular baking pan until it became one final mixture. After that, Luhan took a slightly larger pan and filled it up to an inch with water and then placed the flan mixture into the water pan, placing the entire thing into the oven to bake.

            As the flan baked, Luhan took out a few more mangos and began cutting them in the shape of small palm trees for the decorations on the top of the flan. Once the baking flan was finished, Luhan removed it from the oven and let it cool off for a bit before carefully extracting it from the baking pan, placing it on a plate and then placing the mango decorations on the top as the bell rang indicating that the eighth 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 chocolate dessert based on the theme of love. 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 once more.

            But since Luhan was stationed in front he would have to wait a bit longer to be escorted out however since so many of the competitors have been eliminated, Luhan didn’t really have to wait for very long. As he witnessed one of the staff begin approaching him, Luhan’s eyes happened to glance back to the stage where he caught sight of Hyo’s dark expression, however this time there was a small smile attached to his face as if saying ‘Just wait and see…’ making Luhan felt his heart drop to the pit of his stomach as he was escorted outside ‘Is he planning something?’

            Walking out of the competition hall and approaching the entire group, Luhan wasn’t even able to utter a single word before Kris suddenly stepped forward silently with a blank expression on his face and grabbed the back of Luhan’s uniform shirt and began dragging him away as the others stared back in stunned shock.

            “What the heck? Did Kris just really drag Luhan off by the back of his shirt?” asked Kai trying to confirm what he just saw with his own eyes as the group listened to Luhan yell out “Hey! Kris! Where are you dragging me off to!?” before disappearing down the hallway.

            “Yup, Kris has been saying that he needed to talk with Luhan, I guess he was becoming impatient?” said Tao with a shrug.

            Suho pouted “Couldn’t Kris have at least told us where he’s going with Luhan?”

            The others looked over at Suho’s look of disappointment and Chen suddenly felt an idea light up in his mind as he threw an arm around Suho’s shoulders “You know, you could always go follow him to find out if you’re so curious Suho. I mean who knows what those two could be doing… alone.”

            The others beginning to understand what Chen was trying to do began adding their own input. “Yeah, I mean hasn’t it been strange how Kris has been wanting to talk to Luhan so often?” said Xiumin.

            Suho only gave Xiumin a nervous look “Maybe Luhan wanted some help with the Sweets Royale too?”

            “But didn’t you see that it was Kris who pulled Luhan away? It was as if Kris had to tell something important to Luhan especially if he just up and did that all of a suddenly,” said DO.

            Sehun knowing what the others were attempting to do still narrowed his eyes a bit at the insinuations the group was making about Kris and Luhan, feeling a bit irked at the implications of their statements ‘I’m just worried about Luhan since he’s my closest friend  and I know what’s going on with the whole situation about Hyo. Although it’d be nice if Suho could get the hint so we could end this conversation.’ Suho however, now had a light frown on his face as what the others said began sinking in slowly.

            Baekhyun also plaid along adding “I noticed that he was constantly looking for Luhan for the past few days…”

            “Oh yeah, he was I remembered he walked into our room about twelve times asking us where Luhan was for the past two days,” confirmed Chanyeol.

            ‘Luhan was hiding out in the library for those days in attempt to stay out of Kris’ way’ thought Sehun as he heard Tao say “That’s true, he asked all of us multiple times if we had seen Luhan anywhere too…”

            Suho remained quiet as he listened to the others speculate with a deeper frown on his face, clearly showing that he was not happy at the moment. Seeing that Suho just needed another tiny push Lay added “Kris has been paying a lot of his attention to Luhan lately as well.”

            At this point it looked like Suho was really upset as he told the others “I highly doubt that because Kris and Luhan are just friends… right?”

            “Who knows…Maybe you should go find Kris and ask him Suho,” said Sehun monotonously hoping that Suho would finally get the hint everyone has been trying to drop.

            Suho bit his bottom lip before saying quietly “Okay… I’ll go find him,” and then walked off towards the direction where Kris had just previously gone.

            When Suho was out of sight, the others burst into a loud commotion “Finally! Maybe they can get together already!” said Chen in an exasperated tone.

            “It’s almost painful to watch them when it’s so clear they like each other!” exclaimed Baekhyun.

            “I know! I almost want to go up to the two of them and smoosh their faces together so they could just confess!” said Tao.

            “Seriously, I hope when Suho finds Kris he’ll be so jealous that he ends up confessing right on the spot,” added DO.

            “Well hopefully things turn out for the best, let’s head back to the dorm for now,” suggested Lay as the others nodded and followed along, well except for Sehun who replied “Ah, I have something to do, I’ll see you later.”

            Sehun was planning on going to find Luhan after seeing the others leave for the dorm since they still had to talk about what they were going to do with Hyo ‘I bet anything Kris probably dragged Luhan back to his favorite kitchen classroom in the baking building since that was where the two encountered Hyo last,’ thought Sehun as he began walking towards the kitchen classroom but halted when he suddenly felt his phone vibrating once again. Upon taking it out he saw that it was his parents again ‘Ugh, what now? I guess I have to take this… Luhan should be fine for a few moments since Kris is with him and Suho is on his way too…’ Sehun couldn’t help but feel a bit uneasy as he picked up the call ‘This better be a quick call…’

            Meanwhile, back to the moment where Luhan was protesting about being dragged off.

            “Hey! Kris! Where are you dragging me to!?” protested Luhan as he struggled to get away from the grip Kris had on the back of his shirt.

            “Stop squirming, you are not getting away again I want answers for real this time,” replied Kris.

            “Doesn’t this count as kidnap!?” questioned Luhan.

            “No, although this may count as an interrogation…” answered Kris nonchalantly.

            “You …” pouted Luhan as he continued to get dragged along.

            “Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever,” said Kris sarcastically.

            “What about Suho!? Aren’t you supposed to be protecting him from the creep!?” asked Luhan.

            “Suho should be safe with the others besides I wouldn’t have dragged you off if I was going to leave him alone by himself,” answered Kris.

            “….Just get together already,” replied Luhan bluntly still a bit peeved at being pulled to wherever Kris was taking him.

            Kris blushed at Luhan’s comment and mumbled “Shut up, why not take Granny’s advice and marry Sehun, the two of you have been close lately.”

            Now it was Luhan’s turn to flush in embarrassment as his cheeks turn a pink shade “Shut up, it’s not like that; Granny just has a hyperactive imagination.”

            “Uh-huh, what ever floats your boat, I guess.”

            “Shut up.”

            “You shut up.”

            “No, why don’t you go marry Suho instead; you can be the Appa and Umma of our group.”

            Kris looked back to glare at Luhan who stuck his tongue out in retaliation. “Shut up,” was Kris’ smart reply as his steps came to a stop for a moment as the duo stood in front of a door, but not just any door, it was Luhan’s favorite kitchen classroom’s door.

            “What are we doing here?” asked Luhan wide eyed at seeing where Kris had dragged him ‘I didn’t want to be anywhere near here!’

            “Interrogation,” replied Kris as he tightened his hold on the back of Luhan’s shirt as he squirmed to escape while walking into the classroom.

            “Couldn’t you interrogate me somewhere else!?” asked Luhan almost in a pleading way ‘What if Hyo comes around!?’

            Kris only gave Luhan a questionable expression, “Don’t you usually spend your time in here anyways?” asked Kris as he let Luhan’s shirt go and motioned for him to take a seat at the kitchen station counter.

            Luhan remained standing, “Yeah but I really don’t want to be here at the moment so…” Luhan began slowly backing away towards the door but before he could really book it out the door, Kris noticed what Luhan was about to do and reached out to grab him.

            Having missed grabbing Luhan’s shirt, Kris managed to grab on to Luhan’s forearm making Luhan stop in his escape plan and face Kris again, with an exasperated look on Kris’ face as he said “No, you are not running again, I have something important to talk to you about.”

            But before Luhan could even protest, the doors of the kitchen classroom banged open effectively making the two occupants jump in surprise as they heard a familiar voice yelling out “Wait! Don’t!”

            Kris and Luhan looked over to the door to see that it had been Suho, and he looked upset, really upset, upset to the point where he looked like he wanted to burst into tears kind of upset.

            Kris, seeing the distress on Suho’s face, instantly let go of Luhan’s arm and rushed over to Suho checking him over to see if there was anything physically wrong with him while constantly asking “Hey, what’s wrong? Did something happen? Are you okay? Are you hurt? Did someone do something to you? Where are the others? Why are you by yourself? Are you okay!?”

            Luhan was also worried for Suho since he’s never seen the younger look so troubled ‘Did Hyo harass Suho!? Oh no, what are we going to-’ Luhan’s thoughts were cut off as he saw Suho shake his head quickly at Kris’ questions ‘Huh? But what’s wrong? Suho looks like he’s going to cry…’

            “You’re okay?” Kris sighed in relief, “That’s good to hear but why do you look so upset?” worry was still etched into Kris’ face.

            Suho looked at Kris with a desperate expression “What were you going to talk to Luhan about? I heard you through the door a few seconds ago… What are you two doing, that you had to drag him off by yourselves?”

             Kris and Luhan widened their eyes at Suho’s questions. ‘Ohhhhh, I get it now, Suho is upset because he thought Kris was hiding something from him and he’s jealous…’ thought Luhan.

            “We aren’t doing anything, I just needed to talk with Luhan about some matters,” explained Kris gently as he heard a sniffle from Suho.

            “But, you’ve been looking for Luhan for the past couple of days and you’ve also been paying more attention to him than usual and it’s really been strange and Luhan has also been avoiding you too, is there something you’re not telling me or the rest of us?” asked Suho as a tear finally dropped from his eyes.

            ‘Ah that’s because he wanted to interrogate me about Hyo and I didn’t want Kris to find out…’ thought Luhan feeling really guilty at having Suho misunderstand the situation and becoming upset over it.

            Kris at the mom