~Chapter 29 – Indifferent No More?~

            ‘Alright everything is set up now we just have to wait until Luhan’s parents show up,’ thought Sehun as he finished up his tasks and walked into the living room to check on the others “Hey are you guys done?”

            Everyone basically knew what was going on with Luhan’s parents and the threat of him leaving SMACSE as Meili explained it to them that early morning and went over the plan to help make Luhan’s parents reconsider their decision. They all felt the same way and no matter what, they did not want to lose Luhan so they were going to do their best with this plan and hopefully they’ll be able to make it a success.

            “Yup! All set and ready to go!” grinned Chanyeol.

            Sehun nodded “Okay, is Luhan still in the room?”

            “Err yeah… he said he didn’t want to come out…” answered Baekhyun awkwardly.

            “That’s fine, he doesn’t need to come out until later anyways,” replied Sehun ‘I figured as much when I checked up on him this morning.’

            “Okay, so what now?” asked DO.

            “We have to wait for-” Sehun was cut off by the ring of the doorbell “That.”

            Meili went to open the door and in walked both Jin and Sunhee who greeted the entire group with a polite “Good morning,” which was returned with equal politeness from the group.

            Sunhee seemed to be scanning the room quickly with her eyes but when she noticed that a certain person was missing she frowned, “Is Luhan not here?”

            “Luhan wasn’t feeling well this morning so he wanted to stay in his room,” explained Suho kindly.

            “Oh…” was Sunhee’s reply as a worried expression flashed across her features “Is he alright? Does he need anything?”

            “No Luhan said he just wanted to be left alone for now,” answered Tao.

            “Oh, okay…” was Sunhee’s response as she bit her bottom lip worriedly and glanced at her husband.

            “I’m sure Luhan will be fine, he might have just eaten too much last night at the Korean barbeque restaurant,” said Jin in attempt to reassure Sunhee who didn’t look convinced one bit.

            “Yeah that’s one of the possibilities,” muttered Kris sarcastically under his breath, earning him an elbow in the stomach from Suho. Kris grunted from impact and gave Suho a glare as Suho motioned with his hands to continue, Kris sighed and said loud enough for everyone to hear “So what should we do today?”

            “Why don’t we go to get something for Luhan to help him feel better?” suggested Lay.

            “Yeah, but what should we get?” asked Kai.

            “Is it really going to be okay for Luhan to stay here by himself? Especially if he’s not feeling well?” asked Sunhee concerned.

            “It’ll be fine, besides Xiao Lu can get lots of quiet rest while we’re out of the house and if he needs to contact us he has his phone,” said Meili “Now why don’t we head to a bakery to pick up something for Xiao Lu I know that he has a sweet tooth and it’ll probably make him feel better.”

            Sunhee still had a worried look but decided not to voice anything as Jin said “Okay that sounds like a good plan, let’s go then.”

            ‘Okay looks like things are starting out fine… Part one getting Luhan’s parents to the bakery worked out now on to part two…’ thought Sehun as he walked out of the house.

            It was a pretty simultaneous decision as everyone in the car said that they wanted to go to Deer’s Bakery and with Jin and Sunhee not really thinking any further into it, they agreed to the decision.

            As everyone walked through the doors, it was still pretty quiet in the large store since it was still early out. The employees greeted the Xi family with utmost politeness as they saw their company bosses walk through the door while the boys went straight for the pastry area where all the goods were placed.

            Baekhyun suddenly called out from behind one of the aisles of baked goods and held up a package “Hey! Deer’s Bakery still sells these!? I thought I’d never see these again!” Upon a closer look at Baekhyun’s package Sehun saw that it was a clear box with 4 cutely decorated mini cupcakes of different colors.

            “Hmm?” questioned Meili as she looked closer at the box and a flash of recognition flitted across her expression “Oh those were the cupcakes that you and Luhan ate a long time ago when you were still in elementary school! I remember these, Seon had made them for you during Luhan’s sleepover he had with you, Kris, and Lay because all of you were so well behaved that day.”

            “Yeah! They were so good and I always wanted to eat them again! Ah, I hope they’ll taste similar to how it was back then,” said Baekhyun happily. Jin and Sunhee joined the three curious about what all the fuss was about and Jin suddenly said “Ah, I remember those too, those were the same ones that I accidentally ate while they were cooling off!”

            Kris was the next to approach the group as he heard Jin’s outburst and seeing the cupcake box in Baekhyun’s hand Kris said “Oh yeah, Luhan’s chocolate cupcake was eaten that day and Gramps only made four in total just for us and it would have taken about another hour to make more but it was already late so Gramps wasn’t able to so Luhan ended up throwing a tantrum until Gramps made a different dessert for him.”

            Jin nodded sheepishly “Yeah, I didn’t know the cupcakes were for you kids so I just thought one would be fine but clearly it wasn’t since Luhan didn’t calm down at all until he got another dessert. Dad actually whipped up that other dessert pretty quickly too, it was amazing to watch…”

            Jin trailed off a bit at the end as he began remembering the old memories that had been buried over time. “Yeah, I think I’m going to buy this I’ll be back!” said Baekhyun as he happily went off to the front of the store to get the cupcakes.

            Sehun took a look at Jin’s reaction carefully as he saw the much older man let out a quiet sigh and walk down the aisle of sweets with Sunhee close by. ‘Hmmm maybe this step might not go as smoothly as expected…’ thought Sehun as he went in a different direction in hopes of finding any of the others.

            Suddenly he spotted Xiumin, Tao, Chen and DO as he walked by the cake section with Tao suddenly yelling out “That used to be the strawberry sponge cake that we ate when we were in what? High school?”

            “Yeah it is! Gramps made this for the very first time when we were all in that dumb argument and refused to talk to each other!” said Xiumin with widened eyes.

            “Argument?” asked Jin walking in from the other side of the aisle as he heard the boys shout out.

            “Oh, it was really ridiculous, basically what happened was we all had a misunderstanding, we had set up a day where we were supposed to all meet up to go hang out before summer ended since a lot of us were in different grades it was kind of hard to meet up with each other at school,” began DO “But some of us wanted to do different activities that day and we all ended up arguing and fighting with each other instead of having a fun day like we were supposed to, it was really just bad especially since the summer was going to end in only a week.”

            Xiumin nodded “Yeah, I remember that and it was not great at all.”

            Sunhee had realization dawn on her face as she said “Oh was that what happened when Luhan became really sulky and upset for a few days during that one summer?”

            “Most likely,” said Chen.

            “I tried almost everything that I could but Luhan just wouldn’t cheer up but then Seon stepped in and had a talk with Luhan one night and the two of them just left for that whole afternoon and I didn’t see either of them until late that night,” said Sunhee

            “Oh that was probably when Gramps had came by each of our houses and picked each of us up, Granny even drove a second car so that all of us could fit and we all went to their house where Gramps made the cake and told us to just eat and make up already because the dessert was too sweet for our sour moods,” explained Xiumin with a light smile.

            “That explains it, because I dropped by a few hours later to drop off some stuff from the company and I saw all of you laughing again and I was surprised because just a day ago I saw Luhan in his room sulking over something,” said Jin.

            “Yeah, we each had been given a slice of the cake but we didn’t really eat it until Gramps told us to and when we did we couldn’t help but smile because it was so good, our moods were instantly uplifted even though it was just a little it got us talking bit by bit and we eventually got our apologies through to each other and we’re all together again to this day…” said DO smiling fondly at the cake.

            “You boys really have a strong friendship…” said Sunhee with a small up turn of her lips, “Why don’t I get you all this cake then and we can eat it later for dessert after dinner, hopefully Luhan will be feeling better.”

            “Oh no we couldn’t ask you to,” said Xiumin.

            “Believe me it’s okay, I want to get this for all of you for at least old times sake,” smiled Sunhee as she went to the front with the boys following after her but not before Sehun could send a discreet nod to Chen who nodded back and pulled out his phone.

            Jin let out a sigh while looking at where Xiumin, Chen, DO, and Tao went with Sunhee before saying quietly “These boys have changed quite a bit since then…”

            Sehun stayed quiet for a moment before saying “I may not have known them then but Seon sounded like a great person to everyone.”

            Jin smiled “He was, it was a shame that the two of you couldn’t meet, I bet you’d have liked him a lot, he could do so much with something so simple and whatever he made was always amazing, I have a sweet tooth and having a patissier as a Father was the greatest thing ever. Luhan really loved Seon too… He really looked up to him… But being a patissier versus being in business… The safer choice would be business wouldn’t it be?”

            “In all honesty I think it should be up to Luhan to decide,” replied Sehun.

            Jin was quiet for a moment before saying “The decision has already been made though…” and then walked towards a different aisle of baked goods.

            Sehun sighed ‘This step is definitely not going to be easy… But at least everyone seems to be giving it their all…’

            Continuing his exploration of the bakery Sehun stopped when he heard Jin’s voice down the sample area, walking towards that direction Sehun also heard Kai, Chanyeol, Suho and Lay. “These are Luhan’s favorite, I know he’d be happy if we brought them home to him,” said Lay.

            “Oh yeah I saw him eat like twenty of those all at once before, he seriously likes eating these,” said Chanyeol.

            Sehun came up to the group and saw that they were talking about the dough sticks that were all neatly arranged in the glass cases with bags and tongs on the side for anyone who wanted to purchase some.

            “Luhan still likes these that much?” asked Jin a bit bewildered.

            “Yeah he does, after so long it’s still his favorite he even said one time that he wished he could make the dough sticks as good as Granny makes them, he still practices to perfect it too,” said Suho.

            “Oh, I remember when he was young, whenever the dough sticks were made and he got to eat them his face would just light up as if he was getting the best present in the world,” said Jin.

            “I haven’t even known Luhan for that long but even I can imagine that clearly,” laughed Kai “It sounds just like Luhan, he really loves desserts, it’s his calling.”

            “You think so?” said Jin softly.

            Kai nodded “Of course, not only does he love eating it but he also loves making desserts, it’s Luhan being Luhan.”

            Suho smiled “Luhan without desserts is just like a puzzle missing a piece, so let’s get him some of this to cheer him up after being sick in his room all morning.”

            “Yeah, it’ll definitely make him smile,” said Chanyeol as