~Chapter 44 – Custard & Pastries~

            “So glad this lesson is at noon and not at 8am,” muttered Luhan as he and Sehun found themselves sitting at the kitchen station countertops once again, this time with Kai and DO.

            “Yeah there was no way I was going to get up that early,” replied Kai while getting out his supplies.

            “Neither of us are going to be early risers during spring break,” agreed DO.

            “Yup,” agreed Kai before finally finishing his set up “Okay, custard lesson will now begin.”

            “You got our full attention,” said Luhan as Sehun nodded.

            “Alright, so there are about two ways to make custard; baked and stirred. The one I’m going to make to show you is just a stirred vanilla custard,” began Kai as he poured milk, sugar and cornstarch in a medium saucepan on the stovetop “Okay while that heats up I’ll explain some tips for baked custards that I’m not making at the moment; for baked custards the important thing to know is that insulating the custard from the pan is what will keep it from overheating and separating so a good thing to do is to place a tea towel on the bottom of the pan, place the custard bowls on top and then fill it with boiling water that way it helps insulate the custard from the oven’s heat.”

            The mixture on the stovetop began to bubble and Kai quickly took it off of the heat and began to temper the milk mixture into the egg mixture that he had on the side. “So after tempering the two mixtures together it’s a good idea to strain the entire thing before putting it back on the stove top to thicken,” being careful of the hot liquid Kai took out a mesh bowl and placed it atop of the pan to strain the custard mixture “This way the custard can stay smooth and it gets rid of any of the leftover egg mixture that didn’t combine properly with the milk mixture.”

            “Oh right that’s a good way to keep the texture consistent,” said Luhan.

             Kai nodded at Luhan and placed the custard mixture that was now in the pan on the stovetop to be heated up once more “Okay so this time you need to add the flavoring and make sure it thickens a bit more by stirring constantly with a wooden spoon and it should coat the spoon when it thickens and when you swipe your finger down the middle and it leaves a trail that means it’s done, do not let it boil that’ll be really bad,” Kai showed Luhan and Sehun the spoon so they could visually see what he was talking about.

            Sehun and Luhan nodded showing that they took the detail down.

            “Alright and I think that’s pretty much all I have to tell you about custard, now we just have to let it cool,” said Kai as he grabbed a bowl and poured the vanilla custard into it.

            “See? Now it looks soft and squishy,” said Kai poking a spoon into the custard and then he suddenly paused for a second before turning towards DO.

            DO shot Kai a questioning look “What?”

            Without another word and a sly grin on his face, Kai cupped DO’s face and squished his cheeks together “Soft and squishy like DO!”

            Luhan and Sehun let out a light chuckle at DO’s wide eye surprised expression.

            DO blushed and protested “Kai!”

            Kai laughed “I couldn’t resist,” giving DO a quick kiss on this lips, Kai picked up his vanilla custard and placed it into the refrigerator to cool.

            DO rubbed at his flushed cheeks as if that would help rid of the embarrassing color but seeing as how that didn’t really do much, DO instead went to get his own supplies out while muttering under his breath about how random his boyfriend acted.

            “Ack,” that sounded like it came from Sehun.

            DO and Kai stopped what they were doing for a second and looked over curiously, with what they saw, they couldn’t help but smile and give a small laugh.

            Luhan, with a look that could only be described as curiosity, had pulled at Sehun’s right cheek with his thumb and first finger “You’re not very squishy Sehun.”

            Sehun looked a bit taken back as he replied “Okay...?”

            Luhan giggled releasing his pinch on Sehun’s cheek “But you’re soft though!”

            Sehun’s eye twitched at Luhan’s merriment feeling the sudden want to poke at his boyfriend as well Sehun reached out and pulled gently at both sides of Luhan’s cheeks muttering “You’re the squishy one.”

            Luhan playfully squealed and swatted at Sehun’s hands with a laugh.

            Meanwhile Kai laughed even louder, bounding over to the couple “I wanna check Sehun’s squishyness too! Come here baby maknae!”

            Sehun shot Kai a look, which Kai promptly ignored as he reached over the counter to try to pull at Sehun’s delicate pale skin on his cheek, who was instantly retracting from him.

            Luhan laughed at the look that Sehun was shooting Kai while DO came over and pulled Kai away before Sehun might possibly whack him.

            “That might not be a good idea Kai,” said DO gently.

            Kai gave a whine “How about just once? On the left cheek?”

            “I don’t think Sehun agrees with that,” replied DO side eyeing the younger for confirmation to his statement.

            “I don’t,” confirmed Sehun eyeing Kai with a look that said ‘No.’

            “Oh I see, Sehun’s only going to allow Luhan to touch him like that,” said Kai while wiggling his eyebrows suggestively in a joking manner.

            The response Sehun had to that statement almost shocked Luhan, DO, and Kai as Sehun, instead of answering back like they all thought he would, turned a bright red and hid his face in his arms that were laid on the table, refusing to lift his head back up.

            It took three seconds before the others reacted.

            “Sehun didn’t even deny it! Awww he’s embarrassed!” squealed out Kai bursting into another round of laughter.

            Even DO had to agree that the sight (no doubt a rare one) was a pretty cute reaction especially since it came from the usually indifferent blank faced maknae but he managed to keep his reaction under some control to avoid further embarrassing Sehun.

            ‘So cute… I didn’t know Sehun would get embarrassed like that,’ thought Luhan briefly before trying to coax Sehun to show