"You made your choice already?" Madam Zhang asked in surprise the moment Zhang Wei dropped the pictures on the dining table that evening.
Both she and her husband exchanged a look with a satisfied smile on their faces as they took out the pictures to see the ones he had selected.
"That was fast! How did you go about the selection? I expected it to take at least a week since you love being thorough with your selection process," His father said with a grin.
"Well, I decided to disappoint you this time around," Zhang Wei said as he took a spoonful of rice into his mouth and chewed slowly.
"Don't tell me you chose the ones you least like," Madam Zhang said suspiciously.
"I picked out Jiang Zoe myself, but a friend assisted me in picking out the rest," Zhang Wei said with a smile.
"A friend? Is it the same young man your secretary, mentioned to me earlier today that you've been hanging around with?" Madam Zhang asked with interest.
"Yes. His name is Jiang Zane," Zhang Wei said with a small smile.
"Is he related to Chairman Jiang?" His father asked, not wanting to be left out of the conversation.
"Yeah, but according to him, both families are not on talking terms, and I don't think they're very well off," Zhang Wei told them.
"I'm glad to know you finally got yourself a friend. Do well to bring him around so we can get to know him too," His mother said with a pleased smile.
"You're not planning on offering him money to stick with me as you did with those guys from before, are you?" Zhang Wei asked suspiciously.
His parents were very supportive but usually didn't know when to stop and usually crossed a lot of lines which ended up embarrassing and pissing him off.
Back when he was in high school, he had been picked on and made fun of because of his condition, and then most people had referred to him as a weirdo. No one had wanted to be friends with a weirdo, not even other queers like him.
Things had been really difficult for him, and he had often fallen into a state of depression. And then, when he had gotten into college, his parents had wanted to help out and had gone behind him to most of his coursemates and had offered them money to be friends with him.
He had been surprised by the friendly attention he had gotten from the majority of his coursemates and had assumed things were probably beginning to get better for him. Until he got into a misunderstanding with one of his so-called "friends," and the guy had told him how he would never have been friends with a queer like him had it not been that he was receiving monthly allowances from his parents.
Zhang Wei had seen the look on the faces of the others like they shared the same opinion as him. He had walked away then and had cut off everyone else. That had probably been the most embarrassing day of his life.
"C'mon, I already said I was sorry and promised never to do such a thing again. Let it go," His mother said, touching his hand lightly.
"I guess you picked Jiang Zoe because she bears the same name as your friend? Jiang Zoe is a pleasant young lady," His mother said with a satisfied smile, trying to change the subject.
"So when do you want me to go on the first date?" Zhang Wei asked dutifully, making his parents smile. He was really taking it better than they had hoped.
"Who is your first candidate?" His mother asked in excitement. She was really looking forward to his dates and to seeing him finally have a woman in his life who he would dote on and who would also keep her company.
"Yang Lan," Zhang Wei said, pointing to her picture.
"Alright. I will call her mother tomorrow and ask her to prepare for your date. Have your secretary make the necessary reservations for each of your dates, and please be sure to always get there before them," His mother said.
"I thought you both loved making the reservations?" Zhang Wei asked cocking a brow.
"So you can ask us to dine with them ourselves? No way! You'll have to follow the due process this time. I'm sure you saw that in the contract," His father said with a grin as he ate his food happily. Hopefully, Wei would find himself in love with one of the ladies and would finally settle down.
*********
"I saw the young man who was mistaken for you... Do you think you're both related biologically by chance?" Tae-joon's grandfather asked him as they sat together eating dinner.
"I don't know. I didn't want to think about it," Tae-Joon answered truthfully.
"It's not a matter of thinking about it or not. It's a reasonable thing to do. You have never been curious about your real family?" His grandfather asked again, making him drop his spoon.
"You're my real family. I've never wasted a minute thinking about that," Tae-Joon said with a frown.
"Tae-Joon... I don't want you to feel like it is disloyal to me for you to think about the people who gave you life. It is only normal for an adopted child to think about his roots," Chairman Wang said with a concerned expression on his face.
"Was I supposed to ask him if he was adopted?" Tae-Joon asked irritably. He wasn't sure he entirely liked the topic being discussed.
"Would that be an unreasonable question seeing as you both look so much alike and you were adopted? I don't think it would have been out of place to ask," Chairman Wang said patiently. He could tell Tae-Joon was upset with the topic.
"Grandfather, what are you driving at?" Tae-Joon asked impatiently.
"Calm down, Tae-Joon. You're my grandson, and nothing will change that. I appreciate your loyalty and all that you've been doing, but I just don't want you to miss out on other things. Find out whether or not you're both related. It would be nice to know you have someone else to call family apart from me when I finally leave this world," Chairman Wang said with a sigh before pushing away from the table.
"And just so you know, if you don't do it, I will. So if you don't want me to do something embarrassing, I would suggest you do as I've said. Goodnight," He said before walking away.
Tae-Joon sat still in his seat minutes after his grandfather had left as he thought about Brad concerning all his grandfather had said. He couldn't clearly remember what had happened, but he often had nightmares of himself... In his nightmares, he usually saw himself around the age of six standing by the roadside crying in the dark and then his late father lifting him up.
He had always felt he had been abandoned by whoever it was that had birthed him, and he had no desire to know them. 'But what if he had actually been wrong? What if he had gotten lost, and they had searched for him to no avail? What if Brad turned out to be his brother and his biological parents were still alive? What would he do then?' Tae-Joon asked himself.