As promised, it's a Q&A section *ding ding ding* hooray! I apologise if some of your questions aren't written over here just yet or answered completely and my reason for doing so is entirely because, uh, I maybe can't answer it yet or it might lead to spoilers. Most importantly, I'm glad that all of you are so invested enough to ask questions about this book (or me haha)! Apart from doing my best to answer the questions from the previous chapter, I will do my best to answer to comments on this section as well. So, without further ado...

"When will Leroy kiss Vanilla?" @cinnamonq

Well *with hands steepled* that is a question everyone has been asking and I'm sure it's because you guys have either read or reread the Baked series and realize that for both Baked and Brave Love, the kiss happens on Chapter 13. Admittedly, I had been tempted to write something similar for this spin-off but then (if you haven't realized), my language for Vanilla is so much heavier and advanced compared to my language in the Baked series and the reason for that has to do, of course, with the perspective I'm taking.

While Chip had adorable thoughts and moments whereby he's more emotional than rational, Vanilla is someone who thinks based on logic most of the time. Moreover, with the kind of vocabulary and IQ he has, he thinks very differently from Chip, Xander, Leroy—basically any other character I've written for first person. He's knowledgeable and resourceful; time-efficient and straightforward. This makes each chapter very, very long even though I've kept to the usual skeleton I go for: 3 events/scenes per chapter.

The reason why I try to keep to content instead of word count is because focusing on content drives the story forward and keeps my readers at the edge of their seats instead of knowing 'oh it's going to be about three thousand words.' This is why my chapters in Vanilla have been amounting to 5k, 6k, and sometimes 7k words per chapter when those in the Baked series are roughly 3-4k.

Therefore, although we are 14 chapters into the story and about 75k words done, the timeline of the setting in Vanilla is literally only 2-3 weeks apart. This is very different from the timeline in the Baked series, whereby I did multiple time skips and allowed Xander and Chip to spend quality time together on a more intimate level. Also because Chip was older back then and has already figured out his sexuality.

Vanilla's birthday is in October whereas Leroy's is in August. This means that in their timeline (September, when school starts), Vanilla is still 14 years old while Leroy is already 16.

As you can tell from Vanilla's perspective, he hasn't had any romantic relationships or even experienced falling in love or having a crush. He is very, very far from discovering his sexuality or even coming to terms with the prospect of romance.

The focus of this story is therefore very different. It's more about finding yourself and finding grounding for the first time, taking a step towards something new and then learning about the world. The romance in this book will set in fairly late, I believe. And yet, Leroy and Vanilla are one of my most sexually tensed couples and I honestly don't know how that happens sometimes HAHAHAHA.

Just know that both teens are finding themselves and will take some time to figure out their feelings towards one another. And if you understanding Vanilla's character (or if I've written him well enough), you will know that Vanilla will never agree or jump into the unknown without doing any research beforehand. If he's going to do any frisky activities with his man, he needs to research. If he thinks he might be sexually attracted to I-don't-know-what, he needs to do his research.

So yes, the kiss... well... it won't be soon :') a rough estimate is about ten, twelve chapters down.

"Who are Chip and Xander's adopted children? What are their personalties like and when did they get adopted?" @Randomstranger321 and "I'm very curious about Xander and Chip's adopted children! How much can you tell us about them? Will they get their own stories? Did Vanilla meet them already?" @GCChiara42

I knew everyone would be dying to know once I mentioned something about Chip being a parent and that is entirely because I have been trying to set up for a particular 'arc' in this spin-off whereby Vanilla goes back home for thanksgiving and his family has a cosy dinner with Chip's family. Still, I haven't quite decided on the occasion although I know for sure I will be doing a wholesome few chapters on how Chip and Xander are doing now. You will also be able to find out if Giselle finds love several of you have asked about that as well! The chapter will even feature Shin and Nguyen, who are now married and ******** yes I cannot disclose.

HOWEVER.

I know Xander's birthday is coming soon and as per usual, I fEeD you Bakers with quality content *lenny face* with my one-shot 'Not Good for the Heart' collection on Inkitt. This year's birthday chapter will be from Xander's perspective when they become a foster family for their third child—a teenaged boy.

Miki, who Chip and Xander named after a random discussion through texting (this is available on Wattpad's TAP application by the name of 'Chip's Phone'), is in elementary school and is their first adopted child. Their second adopted child is actually older than Miki and is a girl, but I won't be revealing it until said thanksgiving chapter.

I'm glad all of you are still interested in Chip and Xander's life, even though they are now old and grey (JUST KIDDING I MEAN CHIP IS STILL ADORABLE and XANDER IS PROBABLY THE KIND OF GUY WHO GETS SEXIER THE OLDER HE IS). Chip is 33 years old while Xander's is 35.

"Was Leroy raised by Xander?" @Krap_Nnif

This is funny because I can't quite tell if this Bean is being serious about the question or asking it as a joke ;v; Leroy and Vanilla are meeting after 11 years of not seeing each other and so logically, Vanilla, who is close to Chip's family, has never seen Leroy while they were growing up.

I understand that Leroy and Xander have their similarities though. Both of them don't know how to watch their language and are instinctively closed-up, defensive, possessive and suspicious of strangers. This can be seen when Xander first meets Leroy back in Beyond Love, while Leroy is only five. Leroy's first instinct was to ask Vanilla who this man was and scrutinising him to see if it was safe to leave Vanilla with him. And even the reason why Xander and Leroy both find it hard to trust other people is because of the way they were brought up—more specifically, their familial circumstances.

However, Leroy and Xander have very different surface personalities.

While Xander can strike up conversations with ease (although he may not necessarily want to) and exudes a more deliberate and apparent attraction and appeal which helped him in his father's hotel business, he is, deep down, someone who is very emotional and easily crushed when it comes to the people most important to him. The reason why Xander slipped into depression but Chip did not is primarily because of this—Xander is actually mentally weaker than Chip is, despite of what he shows on the outside.

On the other hand, Leroy is someone who does not care about striking up conversations, awkward silences, needing to please anyone, or even getting to the top of the food chain. He literally did not do anything to gain the attention of the school or people in general. Leroy is naturally silent and has, for most of his life, walked alone at the front of the pack. Xander on the other hand, has Blake and Giselle—two people who can stand alongside him apart from Chip. Leroy, on the other hand, has never had anyone. He doesn't care if he's first in the school or last. All he does is cook; and... yeah, that's it. He's a natural.

Until Vanilla comes back into his life and he's all like oKaY it's not just about cooking now it's cooking for Vanilla.

"Did you take classes in cooking? It seems like you know a lot about it." @Krap_Nnif

I've never taken cooking or baking classes ;v; however, I find that flavour profiles and the description of things I've never tasted before comes almost naturally. For example, the rum and raspberry hot cross bun recipe from the last few chapters of the Baked series was completely made up. In fact, nearly every recipe from the competition in the last book was a 100% from my mind. Yet, how can I know that the combinations work when I don't even bake them or have never tried these things in my whole entire life, and yet try to convince you that it sounds delicious or would be amazing and revolutionary? I honestly don't know.

I recently made Indonesian fish in banana leaf for dinner and I was looking up the recipe on Google but then realized that I lacked nearly all the ingredients to make it. The flavour profiles were complex and Southeast Asian cooking is honestly one of the hardest cuisines to master, which I not only came to know because I live in Southeast Asia but also because I've done my months of research before actually writing this book.

So back to the pepesan or the Indonesian fish. Good god I basically couldn't find any of those ingredients in my supermarket and so I had to 100% improvise and go into this blind. I substituted a lot of the ingredients with my inexperienced reasoning and went with instinct as to come up with flavour profiles for such a complex seasoning for this dish. The number of ingredients that went into it was sheer torture.

Either way, I somehow managed to make the most weirdly delicious fish I've ever had the privilege of eating and I was so, so confused because I literally wInGeD the shit out of it. Hehe. ;v;

If you die and get reincarnated into wheat then get turned into flour, what pastry do you want to become? @CryTheWriter

What an insanely creative question uwu. I'd become a donut. Maybe then I'll change my username to TheDoNut instead of TheCuppedCake but like I honestly don't even know why I named myself that either eep.

Yes so I've been obsessed with donuts recently ajdoiwjdaoijdwaiwj uwaaaa give me donutssssssss GIVE MEeeE

"I have a question about the flight school references. So the Baked Love series has a bunch of spin-offs that turned into it's own world/universe. But the Flight School series is more fantastical in its setting, making its characters unlikely to truly exist in the BL world. How/Why did you decide to make the FS stories a part of the BL world?" @Randomstranger321

The most straightforward answer is actually: I just like it. But then again, I'm never straightforward so uwu.

If you've read Flight School, you will know what I mean by the Flight School characters being more realistic and incredibly easy to obsess over compared to those in any of the Baked series universe.

Yes, Flight School is set in a fantastical world of imagination—an island in the sky—but lo and behold, the characters in this series are nothing fantastical. If anything, Chip is my most fantastical character. He is someone who is out of this world. In contrast, every Flight School character have the most realistic personalities, dialogue, and most raw, human emotions that don't just consist of romance in being in love. This is why my Stars (FS readers) tend to be so much more obsessive over their sons and daughters in Flight School than in the Baked series. The characters in FS change lives at a level deeper than anything the Baked series can ever imagine to achieve. And as the author of both universes, I can vouch that this is true.

So that is all to say that... hm, I don't think Flight School is, in the end, very fantastical at all. Yes, the universe may be but the characters... the values, the philosophy, the way this entire book works—it's a reflection of the society we live in. So much more than the smaller world that the Baked series is set in.

More importantly, Vanilla and Io have huge similarities. Both have a higher intelligence than the rest of the world and it makes them feel lonely. While Vanilla strives in academic intelligence and high IQ, Io is heads above everyone else in his capacity for moral intellect and a mind that can house the sublime. This makes the both of them feel quite alone in their journey and I wouldn't be surprised if Vanilla actually felt Io to be the most relatable character among all my other books. Therefore, I simply felt that Vanilla would be someone who would actually appreciate and enjoy the Flight School series! So I made him out to be a reader of it.

Crossovers: my guilty pleasure. Admittedly. ;u; Thanks for asking.

What is Vanilla and Leroy's shipname? @everyone

So I've seen several Beans coming up with cutesy ship names like VanRoy or Lenilla or LeVan or stuff like that and honestly you can call them anything you want because it sounds cute nevertheless HAHAHA. My secret name for their relationship (not just romantically or as a ship name but just them as a whole) is

Seesaw

Balance. The need for two; the sound of company, it's soothing creak and the presence of another; the inability of one to do without the other, for one to propel the other to greater heights and for both to take turns; the sheer beauty of what it means to be a part of whole that no one else can fulfil...

If you can't see it now, I promise—you'll see it soon. 

-Cuppie