It’s the big day! “Welcome to the Annual Confectioners’ Contest here at Lee and Jung’s Pastry Academy. Please go to your assigned spots. Now is everyone ready? Your task today is to make two desserts. These two desserts will then be turned in for the judges. You will be judged on taste, presentation, and originality. Ready? Your first dessert must be a peach tart.” I groaned as Baekho started doing a little dance and humming the chorus to the song Face. “And your second dessert must be a type of mousse cake. You have one hour. You may begin.”

            Yes! Mousse! Even though it is a mousse cake, I can still work with it! I better start on my peach tart though. I don’t have much time. Gawd, peach tarts are difficult, I thought as I washed and sliced my peaches.

            Baekho, looking calm, taunted me. “How you doing, Soonie? Peach tarts are another one of my trademarks. I’m going home with the money today!” He was crimping his tart crust like a pro and sticking it into the oven to pre-bake.

            I was mad. Of course, I was mad. There’s no need to go rubbing your tart skills in my FACE! “What’s up loser? Your mousse cake will look dead next to mine!” I yelled back.

            I know it was wrong and mean, but when his back was turned, I grabbed my salt shaker and poured a whole bunch of salt into his peach pastry cream. When he went back to taste his pastry cream, he made a face and looked directly at me. Hahahahahahha, I loved looking at his furious face expression. However, karma should never be forgotten. Baekho took ground chili pepper and dumped it into my raspberry chocolate mousse mixture! Oh no! There was only 30 minutes left in the competition so there was no time to make a new batch of mousse! What was I going to do? I glared at him, and he leered at me and said, “Now we’re even. Little did you know that one of the secret ingredients in my peach pastry cream is a lot of salt! Thanks, Soonie.”

            OH MY GAWD, MY WORLD WAS COMING TO AN END! I ACTUALLY HELPED MY OPPONENT INSTEAD. OH NO. Well, there’s no time now to stress over this. My hands flew as I rapidly shoved my makeshift peach tart into the oven, and I tried to remove the chili powder from my mousse; however, the chili powder was already kinda mixed into the mousse so I was forced to leave it. I dumped a pound of sugar into my mousse to try to hide the spiciness but sadly that didn’t work either. I was doomed.

            All that was left to do was plate up my desserts. I finished just as the timer went off. Then, all the students were herded out to a waiting room, as the judges walked around each student’s stations to taste and jot down notes.

            The waiting room was killing me. I sat down in the nearest sofa, and twiddled my thumbs. Yes, twiddled. So grade school, I know. I heard someone sit next to me on the sofa, and seeing the broad shoulders, I automatically knew it was Baekho. I glowered at him and hissed, “You are totally ruining my fame here! I’m supposed to be the prodigy! You’re so cruel!”

            Baekho raised his eyebrows and pointed out, “Well, you were obviously the one who waited until my back was turned before dumping a whole bunch of salt into my peach tart.” Yeah, even that backfired on me. Sigh…..

            “Sorry,” I mumbled, surprised at myself. I thought I told myself he was my sworn enemy.

            “Yeah, I’m sorry too.” Baekho said in a very cheesy, simpering tone. HE STILL GETS ON MY NERVES.

            Suddenly, the proctors call us back in and we are ushered back to our stations to await the crowning of the first place student. I closed my eyes when they brought out the gleaming trophy that had been my heart’s desire for so long. I knew there was no chance whatsoever that my desserts had won. My mousse was a moose that was killed by a hunter with a rifle. Yeah. That bad.

            Chef Instructor Kim glanced at his paper, and declared, “The first place winner of the Annual Confectioners’ Contest here at Lee and Jung’s Pastry Academy is… Soonie Han.”

            I opened my eyes in disbelief. I felt like I was in a dream as I walked to the front to receive my thousand dollar check and my big trophy. “You’re peach tart was good but mediocre. It was your delicious mousse that really turned the tables. Who knew your added ingredient of chili could contrast the flavors of chocolate so well? Congratulations. You deserved it,” the proctor said.

            I was ecstatic! I jumped and skipped all over the place, while the other students grumbled and filed out of the building to the locker rooms. And then I stopped because I remembered. I didn’t add the chili powder on purpose. It was all because of Baekho. I ran out and caught up to him as he entered the locker room. He kept walking, so I followed him in, yelling his name, “Baekho! Baekho!”

            “What?” he turned around, a smirk on his face. “Ready to bow down to me? You won because of me, you know.”

            “Yeah. Well. I just wanted to thank you. So yeah. Thanks for making me win! You’re the best!” I said happily as I waved my trophy and check in the air.

            Baekho snatched my trophy out of my hands and stuck his tongue out at me. “You don’t have to give me the check, but I deserve the trophy at least. I helped you win that money, anyway.”

            Grrrrrrrrrr he got me there. “Fineeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee,” I grumbled and turned to leave.

            “Wait Soonie?” he stopped me.

            “What?” I said warily.

“You’re in the guy’s locker room.”

            AGH, I turned to check if he was right and immediately wished I hadn’t. “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEK,” I shrieked and ran out the door, blinded for life.

            What's more is that there are cameras here at LJ Academy. And that’s how I got detention again.