~Chapter 22 – Sweets Royale (Stage 9/9 Chocolate)~

            “The explanations worked out… well…” said Luhan in attempt to fill the silence.

            “Hnn,” was Sehun’s only response as he looked at Luhan with complete indifference.

            Luhan returned Sehun’s stare with a sheepish one of his own, “You don’t agree?”

            Sehun only continued looking at Luhan with a blank expression. The two were at the moment situated in Luhan’s usual kitchen station in his favorite classroom the morning after everything finally settled down after the entire incident with Hyo. Luhan sighed “I guess I could have handled that a bit better…”

            Sehun raised an eyebrow in question at Luhan’s statement. “Aish! Okay, okay, I get it my… tactics were not the… best… just stop looking at me like that!” said a flustered Luhan avoiding Sehun’s straightforward gaze.

            Why was Luhan having a seemingly one sided conversation with a quiet Sehun (who was generally quiet anyways)? Simple really, because the entire dorm broke out in to nothing but chaos as Sehun and Luhan entered their dorm the other day after the announcement about the Sweets Royale. It happened like this…

            “You guys! You’re finally back! Did you guys hear about the Sweets Royale!?” exclaimed Baekhyun with wide eyes seeing the duo walk into the dorm.

             The duo nodded, confirming that they knew what Baekhyun was talking about. “I can’t believe this happened! After we all worked so hard to get so far, the best the Headmaster could do was just let us retry for the next Sweets Royale!?” complained Baekhyun.

            “I know, the four of you were so close to the final stage! But there’s nothing we can do about it now, especially since the Headmaster said it was because of that crazy judge Hyo or whatever was messing with the scores! Ugh what is his problem!? I want to know the kid who probably paid Hyo off to do this or which kid’s scores were changed by him just so they could advance!” exclaimed Chanyeol as he agreed with Baekhyun.

            Luhan looked away at the arguing pair for a moment in guilt ‘I wonder if they’ll be twice as mad when they find out it was my fault.’

            Sehun gave Luhan a little push by the small of his back so he would step forward, Luhan turned around to give Sehun a ‘What are you doing?’ look, which Sehun replied with a quiet whisper of “Tell them.”

            Luhan didn’t get to reply as Tao suddenly spoke out “I want to know too! They should be taught a lesson on the rights and wrongs of cheating!”

            After hearing that remark from Tao, Luhan’s eyes widened and he began shaking his head back and forth at Sehun.

            Sehun raised an eyebrow in question, “Why?”

            “Didn’t you just hear that!? Tao knows wushu! I don’t want a lesson from him!” whispered Luhan desperately.

            Sehun sighed “Tao’s not gonna hurt you, they’ll understand so just tell them before they get even more worked up,” giving Luhan another little push to get him closer to the others.

            “No, wait until they calm down, they’re scaring me,” whispered Luhan as he got out of Sehun’s arm range and hid behind him.

            “They’re our friends,” replied Sehun looking behind him to give Luhan an ‘Are you serious?’ look.

            “Yeah, but wait until they calm down,” whispered Luhan peering over the side of Sehun’s arm to look at the others who were now arguing with each other over what would be the best way to get back at the cheater who ruined the entire Sweets Royale.

            “You’re crazy,” said Sehun monotonously looking over at the same direction as Luhan.

            “Call it what you will, I’ll just call it survival,” replied Luhan.

            “Really?” Sehun asked sarcastically, but wasn’t able to receive a reply back as the door to their dorm opened once more and in walked Suho and Kris.

            The entire dorm was so quiet for a moment at the sight of the two that if a pin dropped it could have been heard by all twelve boys. The sight of Suho and Kris themselves weren’t the cause of the sudden shock that the other occupants in the room were experiencing; it was the sight of the two’s intertwined hands that caught the attention of the ten others.

            Suho was the first to break the silence as he sheepishly said “Hey…”

            The entire dorm basically exploded, “Finally!!!” yelled out Chen.

            “No way!!! Is this for real!?!?” exclaimed Baekhyun.

            “Ugh about time!!!” screamed out Tao.

            “You two were so oblivious!!! Finally!!!” exclaimed Chanyeol.

            “Geez if you didn’t get the hint this time I would have thrown something at the two of you!!!” shouted Kai grinning.

            “Congrats you two!!!” exclaimed DO.

            “We’re so happy for the two of you!!!” shouted Lay happily.

            “Took you long enough!!!” yelled Xiumin.

            Sehun and Luhan only stared at the newly formed couple with a smile on their faces as they heard Kris who was now turning a bit pink in embarrassment mumble out “Shut up.”

            “No way, we were waiting for this moment since we met the two of you!” exclaimed Chen grinning.

            “Were we really that oblivious?” mumbled Suho quietly towards Kris.

            “YES!!!” answered everyone in the dorm even the quieter members like Lay, Sehun and DO yelled this out.

            The two were now turning an even darker shade of pink as they heard their dorm mates’ exasperated shout. “Whatever,” replied Kris turning his head over away from the others in attempt to hide his embarrassment but then his eyes landed on Luhan who was still hiding behind Sehun, “Luhan! We didn’t finish our conversation!”

            “Who’s fault was that!?” replied Luhan.

            “Oh yeah why did you drag Luhan off earlier anyways!?” asked Chanyeol.

            “Because I wanted him to explain some things,” replied Kris vaguely unsure if he should tell the others since this was Luhan’s situation.

            “Explain what things?” asked Xiumin.

            “Things about the Sweets Royale…” answered Kris.

            “The Sweets Royale? Didn’t you guys hear? It’s been cancelled cause of the judge Hyo or whatever has been messing with the participants’ scores,” explained Baekhyun.

            Kris and Suho widened their eyes “What!?”

            “You guys didn’t hear!?” asked Kai as both Suho and Kris shook their heads.

            “Well apparently there was foul play involved with judge Hyo and now all scores are cancelled and the Sweets Royale is over,” said DO.

            “But how!? Is this the same creeping weirdo that’s been harassing Luhan!?” blurted out Kris due to his shock.

            Almost everyone gave Kris a confused and shocked look including Suho as they yelled out “WHAT!?” before turning their attention towards Luhan who was still standing behind Sehun in an attempt to hide from the others’ piercing gazes. Sehun had a blank expression on as he took a step to the left revealing Luhan, who was hiding behind him, to the others.

            “LUHAN WHAT’S GOING ON!?” yelled out a majority of the others.

            “Uh um, you see, hee hee, uhhhh” began Luhan nervously as he tried to gather his thoughts and explain to all of them in the easiest way possible what had been happening.

            “ALRIGHT WHERE IS THIS FREAK SO I CAN KICK HIS ALL THE WAY TO THE HOSPITAL!” yelled out Tao upset over the fact that someone has been endangering his friend as a few of the others like Baekhyun and Chanyeol stood up as well cracking their knuckles and stretching a bit.

            “NO! WAIT, STOP! LET ME EXPLAIN!” exclaimed Luhan in a panic waving his arms up at seeing the others beginning to stand.

            The others looked at Luhan signaling him to continue, “Um okay here’s what basically happened, Hyo has been after me for the duration of the Sweets Royale, he was constantly leaving disturbing remarks and was a complete creep. He was apparently giving me full points on my dessert entries for the Sweets Royale, Granny even confirmed this but she didn’t find out until today what has been going on, Hyo was trying to get what he wanted from me through at first bribery with the full points and then when he saw that it didn’t work he tried threats. Kris was the first one who found out and saw that Hyo was planning to get at me by threatening to drop Suho’s score to get him kicked out of the Sweets Royale but Kris intimidated him and Hyo backed down but Kris still didn’t know the whole story because I didn’t tell him. Hyo followed through with his threat by messing with a few of your guys’ scores to get you kicked out and then Sehun found out about everything and he knows the whole story and managed to stop Hyo with Granny’s help just earlier today since Hyo had been angry over the fact that I have tried avoiding him, which leaves us at the current present where the Sweets Royale is cancelled and I’m explaining things to you guys.”

            Everyone in the dorm began to absorb the information that they heard as Luhan took a deep inhale of air. “Finally! That explains a lot!” said Kris glad that he was able to understand the situation completely.

            “So, what you’re saying is that the judge Hyo has been messing with yours’ and ours’ score the entire time?” asked DO.

            Luhan nodded as Tao opened his mouth “So…”

            Tao didn’t finish his sentence because Luhan finally caught his breath and surprisingly yelled out “I AM SO SORRY FOR NOT TELLING ANY OF YOU ABOUT WHAT HAS BEEN GOING ON! PLEASE DON’T TEACH ME A LESSON!!!”

            Not even waiting for a response from the shocked others, Luhan quickly made a run for it up the stairs to escape ‘I really hope they’re not mad but I’m going to go hide in my room, I can’t face them right now!’ but he didn’t quite make it as both Tao and Kai gave each other a nod and Tao said “Help me get him?” which Kai agreed to since the two made an attempt to catch Luhan. But as the chase began Luhan saw that Kai was blocking the stair way and quickly turned around running in the opposite direction towards their dorm kitchen that hardly anyone ever used except to store stuff in the fridge.

            As Luhan neared the second exit of the kitchen Tao showed up blocking the way, causing Luhan to skid to a stop and turn back around running almost instantly into Kai but managed to just barely slip away from the younger’s grip. Luhan ran towards the circular table that the group sometimes used to eat snacks at with Tao and Kai chasing after him, Tao yelling out “Luhan! You need this lesson! Come here!” and Kai yelling “Luhan! Stop running! We’re going to catch you eventually anyways!” and Luhan responding with “I don’t want a lesson! I know what pain is already, thank you!”

            The trio ran in circles around the table a few times before Kai and Tao realized there were two of them and they could have just went in opposite directions to corner Luhan, which they did, slowly the two began approaching the older with smiles on their faces “We got you now, Lu~”

            Luhan stood there a moment looking at the advancing duo before an idea entered his mind and without any hesitation Luhan dove right under the table and crawled out to the opposite side yelling “No you don’t!”

            Tao and Kai both had their jaw drop in surprise at suddenly being out smarted by Luhan, after the initial shock the two resumed their chase on the older while yelling out “Luhan come back, that’s cheating!”

            Luhan looked back at the two younger ones chasing him and yelled back “No it’s not!” but since Luhan wasn’t really paying complete attention to where he was running he suddenly ran into the sofa back in the living room where everyone was standing out of the way of the chaos. Tao and Kai who were unable to stop quickly enough, both ended up also tackling Luhan, causing the trio to tumble all the way to the floor in a heap with Luhan smooshed on the bottom of both Tao and Kai who were sprawled out on top of each other, all three groaning from the pain of the collision.

            DO and Xiumin could only sigh as they looked at the heap of limbs that they had called their boyfriends while Sehun wondered if Luhan was going to be okay with both Tao and Kai smooshing the older. On the other hand Baekhyun, Chanyeol, Chen, and Kris were laughing at the hilarity of the situation as both Suho and Lay stepped forward towards the pile of groaning boys to see if they were okay.

            “What the heck was that?” chuckled Chen watching the entire thing play out.

            “Luhan panicked, that’s what the heck that was,” replied Chanyeol.

            The trio on the floor finally began untangling themselves groaning and complaining as they sat up, both Tao and Kai had Luhan situated in the middle between them while the two each had an arm around Luhan’s sh