To get from the living room to the front door, you had to leave the living room, go left through the long hallway and then left again to end up right in front of the front door. It was therefore completely impossible for Zhan to see or even hear who had come to visit Yibo. So he stood completely unprepared in front of the large panoramic window in the living room, watching a lonely little cloud in the sky, when he suddenly heard voices in the living room that ended abruptly.

Through the reflection of the window, Zhan could see Yibo, as well as a man and a woman who immediately looked somehow familiar to him. And as he slowly turned to look at the three of them, the realization hit him. He had seen them in a photo on Yibo's living room shelf. They were Yibo's parents! And this realization almost blew Zhan away. How was he supposed to deal with this? What should he say?

Yibo smiled nervously and said, "Mom, Dad, this is Xiao Zhan. My..."

Zhan knew that Yibo was not yet ready to tell his parents the truth about them both. It was still too early for that. Besides, after only one day of dating Yibo, Zhan felt this was hardly the time to make such a big announcement. So he jumped in before Yibo could continue and said, "His civilian coworker from the agency. But Yibo is more of my guardian. Good day." He bowed slightly and tried to look like he was smiling casually.

At first, Yibo looked at him in confusion, but then he understood what Zhan meant and gave him an affectionate and infinitely grateful look. "Exactly. My civilian colleague." Yibo agreed. Which relieved Zhan. Then Yibo's parents introduced themselves as Mr. and Mrs. Wang. No first names! Instead, skeptical looks.

"I don't understand why our son has a civilian colleague? That doesn't make any sense. How is that possible when Mr. Xiao doesn't have the proper training of an agent?" Yibo's mother turned to her husband as if Zhan were invisible. Which made Zhan categorize her as >> totally unsympathetic <<.

"Mom! Zhan has more skills than you think." Yibo tried to reassure her.

"But in an emergency situation, he'd be more in your way, wouldn't he?" Yibo's father asked with a worried look. Zhan also noted Mr. Wang on his imaginary list of unsympathetic people. He pencilled the couple into the list in his mind. They still had a chance of him simply erasing their names. But they would have to be nicer to him and not treat him like air!

"You can't say that, Dad." Yibo said, looking completely helpless. In the end, Yibo was just his parents' son. And parents who behaved like that embarrassed their children to the point where the children didn't know what to say or how to react. A fact that Zhan is well aware of, which is why he remains calm while Yibo looks at him, begging for forgiveness.

"Well, anyway. Your dad and I heard that you weren't working at the moment, so we thought we'd come and see you. It's been a long time since we've spent a few days together." Yibo's mom said and looked at Zhan. She gave him the >> you're just unnecessary << look, which Zhan thought kind of sucked. He could understand her. But her behavior towards him just sucked! It's as simple as that!

"So what do we do now?" Yibo's dad asked. Zhan could see in Yibo's face how much he loved his parents and wanted to spend time with them. And he could also see how much Yibo was struggling with himself. Because he had an obligation to the agency and to Zhan. Besides, Yibo and Zhan had completely different plans for this evening.

"So, um. I should start making my way home." Zhan said after clearing his throat falsely.

Yibo shook his head, approached Zhan and asked him in a whisper, "What are you doing?"

"I can see how much you want to spend time with your parents. They came here especially for you. You should take the chance. Don't worry about me. I'll get a cab, go home and report to Wen Rouhan and then to the agency so they can send someone to stay by my side until you get back."

"We can't do that."

"Yes, we can. And now stop it, otherwise it will only get weirder for your parents. Smile and say goodbye to me."

"No... I don't want you to go. If you want, I'll tell them. About us..."

"Yibo, you're not ready yet. Believe me, you'll feel it when you're ready. So don't force it. Enjoy your time with your parents. You can only see them so rarely."

"Are you really okay with that?"

"Of course it is. Don't worry about it. It's all good."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I am. Now just walk me to the door. I'll see you again soon."

"And what about the trip to your parents?"

"Don't worry about that. We can postpone that for a week. And that's it!" Zhan said. He couldn't help but notice the looks on Yibo's parents' faces. Worried looks that only parents can have. And as Zhan had often seen them on his own parents. With a simple "Goodbye." Zhan said goodbye to Yibo's parents and let Yibo take him to the front door.

Their parting was quick, but with a hug and a kiss. "I love you." Yibo whispered in his ear.

"I love you too." Replied Zhan, breaking away from Yibo, walking a few steps, turning around to face him, waving at him and walking to the elevator. When the elevator doors opened, he stepped inside and Yibo closed the door. Neither of them felt comfortable with it and both were struggling with their emotions. But Zhan was right. Yibo was not yet ready to confess to his parents that he was gay and in a relationship with Zhan.

The elevator doors closed and Zhan was about to press E, for first floor, when the elevator doors slid open again and Yibo came running in, hugged him tightly again and kissed him. "I'm going to miss you Zhan. I love, love, love you. And I will write you a lot."

Zhan giggled sweetly. "I love, love, love you too Yibo. And now go. Your parents are waiting." Yibo nodded, gave Zhan five more little kisses and left with a sad look on his face.

When the elevator reached the first floor, Zhan was still red-faced and looked around sheepishly for the exit. Because as he rode down, he remembered how modern this apartment building was and wondered if there might be a surveillance camera in the elevator? What if there was? And what if someone from the security staff, who are undoubtedly there, had perhaps just seen them kissing in the elevator?

Looking at the doorman, who was sitting in a kind of glass box at the entrance, Zhan made his way to the exit. He had almost reached the automatic sliding door made of safety glass when someone called out behind him: "Xiao Zhan, please wait a moment."

Zhan stopped abruptly, spun around and looked into the face of Yibo's dad. "Um, was there anything else?" He asked him nervously. Had Yibo's dad come to tell him that he didn't want his son working with a guy who had no idea how to defend himself in an attack?

Yibo's dad looked around, then pointed to two armchairs on the left, only now Zhan saw them at all and wondered why this actually looked like a hotel lobby and silently went there with Yibo's dad. They sat down and Yibo's dad put a hand on Zhan's hand, smiled and said, "Thanks."

"Um, yeah sure." What did Yibo's dad want him to say? And why was he smiling now when he'd given him such an icy look in Yibo's apartment? Zhan had to pull himself together not to ask him directly what had suddenly gotten into him?

"You're probably wondering what I want from you after we weren't very nice to you just now."

"To be honest, yes."

"I wanted to apologize. Also on behalf of my wife. We were just surprised that our son wasn't alone. As he usually is. Not that we have anything against it if he's not alone. On the contrary, we're happy."

"You're happy?"

"Yes, of course. I don't think our son has any friends other than Seungyoun. No one who means anything to him."

"I see."

"Yes, I know, I'm talking in riddles. All right, what I'm saying is that we saw the look on our son's face. And it was only when Yibo brought you to the door and had that disappointed look that we realized it."

"And what did you realize?"

"That you're not just a colleague. I'm right, aren't I?"

"I um..."

"That's okay. We're open."

"What do you mean?" What the hell was Yibo's dad talking about? Couldn't he clearly say what phase was?

Yibo's dad cleared his throat, now grabbing Zhan's hand and holding it tightly. "We think you two are more than that. More than colleagues and more than friends."

Zhan now realized what he was getting at and his face immediately turned tomato red again. Searching for words, he stuttered: "But how... how do you... well, how do you... come up with that?" The words stuck to Zhan's tongue like chewing gum and he had to spit them out.

"Because we could see it in your eyes. Yes, we behaved stupidly towards you. But not on purpose. We were confused and needed a moment to understand what was really going on between you. But we were sure when we first saw your bracelet and then Yibo's bracelet. And the sad look on his face. He also had tears in his eyes when he smiled and offered us something to drink."

"Oh." What else could Zhan say? The very idea that Yibo might have had tears in his eyes because of him left Zhan completely speechless. And worse, now Zhan himself had felt like crying.

"We want you to know that if you two are a couple, we won't mind. And we'd like to ask you to come back upstairs so that we can get to know each other. I also promise we'll be nicer to you now."

In his mind, Zhan erased Yibo's dad's name from the >> totally unsympathetic << list and nodded slightly. "Okay." He said and wiped away the Imaginary crumbs from the also Imaginary list. Why did erasers, even if it was only in his mind, always have to leave so much dirt behind?

"Fine. Come on then." Said Yibo's dad. They straightened up and walked back to the elevator. Once in the elevator, Yibo's dad smiled with satisfaction, pressed button 26 and they rode up in silence.

When they got upstairs, Yibo's dad opened Yibo's apartment door with a key card, they walked in to the living room and when Yibo saw them both, he rushed towards Zhan, completely ignoring his dad, cuddled Zhan in his arms and actually cried. Zhan was quite overwhelmed at first, stroked Yibo's back and then couldn't hold back his own tears. Like two crazy people who hadn't seen each other for a whole year, they stood in the middle of the room and cried!

It was only when Yibo's mom's voice reached Zhan's ears and she said something like: "That must be true love." Zhan began to calm down again. And so did Yibo, who had started kissing Zhan's cheeks. As if it was completely normal to do this in front of his parents, for whom it was still completely new that their son had a boyfriend. Or even being gay.

They finally managed to pull away from each other, with Yibo insisting on holding Zhan's hand very tightly. As if Zhan was about to run away again. Yibo also wiped away Zhan's tears with a handkerchief before drying his own tears. "I shouldn't have let you go. I just told my mom who you really are and that we're a couple and wanted to get you back, and you've already come back." Yibo said softly as he now proceeded to fix Zhan's hair like an overprotective boyfriend.

"Your dad stopped me and took me back up." Zhan said, looking over at Yibo's parents, who were standing there holding hands and giggling. In his mind, Zhan now also erased Yibo's mom's name from the >> totally unsympathetic << list. But both names could end up on it again at ANY time!

Yibo pulled Zhan to the sofa with him, asked his parents to sit down too and then it was quiet until Yibo's mom laughed out loud and said how cute the two of them were and that she was almost jealous because this phase had been so long ago for her and her husband. Everyone then relaxed and they could start getting to know each other!