Office Diaries - Chapter 182

“W-What?”

Mr. and Mrs. Lee looked at their daughter then their gazes transferred to the towering man next to her with perplexed expressions. Then, like people who got hypnotized, their eyes simultaneously lowered to the part where Yanee had linked her arm with Tohru James.

“Auntie, Uncle, you look like you’ve been petrified,” Chummy commented at the side followed by a giggle. “You can ask questions, you know.”

“Cynthia Tan,” Yanee growled in warning, giving her best friend a glare, which of course, did not work.

Chummy was having a great time watching the drama with a front seat ticket that her worry over how Yanee would unleash her wrath on her later was nonexistent. Well, considering how things were, it was not as if Yanee still had time or brain cells left later to scold her.

“Of course, we’d like to ask questions, but…”Mrs.. Lee’s voice trailed off as her gaze transferred from her daughter to the man she was hanging onto again, and she hesitated.

This brought about an awkward silence that lasted several seconds, and Chumy sighed. She thought the boss would do something to ease the atmosphere, but it seemed ‘meeting the parents’ could also shake the man’s confidence. She turned her gaze from the lovers in disappointment but caught sight of the singer who was silently giggling.

Anjee also saw her look her way, so she gave Chummy a playful wink before clearing her throat and breaking the silence.

“Why don’t we go to the restaurant now, then and talk while having a meal?” Anjee suggested which the others unsurprisingly agreed to.

In no time, all of they were out of the apartment and into the cars on the way to a traditional restaurant where Tohru made a reservation earlier. Anjee came to Yanee’s place in Tohru’s car, but she opted to go to the restaurant with Chummy so that the Lee couple and Yanee could ride with him.

“Er… Idol, you didn’t ask me if I have a car first before you decided to come with me,” Chummy told Anjee when the two of them were left at the parking lot of the apartment complex.

Anjee grinned. “If you don’t, we can always grab a taxi, you know,” she retorted. “As if I’d want to get in a car with all those confused people.”

“You have a point,” Chummy agreed before taking the singer’s arm. “Well, let’s get to our ride, then.”

“Oh, so you do have a ride!”Anjee happily followed Chummy towards her vehicle and they laughed as the speculated about what’s going on in the other car as they drove to their destination.

Thirty minutes later…

To say that it was an awkward meal was an understatement. However, how it was awkward was not something that anyone would have expected after the big reveal earlier. Instead of everyone trying to gauge everyone’s actions and taking care of their words in case they said something wrong, the table was surprisingly lively, albeit, in a weird, awkward way.

Instead of Yanee and Tohru sitting next to each other, the young editor found himself sitting in between the Lee couple, while their daughter was kicked to the side to watch them helplessly as they fired question after question to the poor guy.

Still, Tohru was able to get food as Mrs. Lee didn’t forge to put food on his plate, refilling it when he did get a chance to put it in his mouth to eat. It wasn’t difficult as he had someone— Mr. Lee to be precise, to remind him to put food in his mouth before answering from time to time. Even if he couldn’t eat more, he’d have no choice but follow his elder, didn’t he?

Of course, this did not guaranteed the other people at the table having appetite.

Peter, Anjee, Chummy, and Yanee watched the scene at their table with a mélange of reactions. Yanee felt embarrassed as she tried to buŧŧ in her parents’ “interview” to her beau that she bȧrėly touched her food.

“Where did you meet?”

“When did you start noticing Yanee?”

“Have you been in a relationship before?”

“Have you had casual flings before?”

All the questions were very awkward considering they’re from her parents and they were asking them not just in front of her, but also with other people’s presence. Surprisingly, Tohru never complained and answered all questions patiently even if some of them were embarrassing.

Yanee felt upset then. If it were this easy for the potato to answer her parents’ questions, she should have asked her mom and dad to do the interview months ago and saved her the previous grievances.

The rest, on the other hand, was not able to eat properly as they were trying their best not to laugh at Tohru’s expense.

After all, it was very rare for the usually cool big boss to look flustered. Peter toasted Yanees’s parents for the rare sight, making Anjee slap his arm, although she was obviously trying not to laugh out loud. Tohru’s expressions were just priceless.

An hour later, the meal finally finished. They just lingered for some desserts and coffee.  However, compared to earlier, the expressions of the people at the table were more relaxed. Yanee’s parents seemed to finally approved of Tohru for her.

Well, in reality, they already approved of him as a person even before learning about his relationship with their daughter. However, as normal for parents who truly cared for their children, everyone knew that the couple truly felt they had to do what they did. It was some sort of confirmation that Tohru seemed to pass.

“We didn’t mean to put you on the spot, but you have to understand that we had to do this,” Mr. Lee apologized.

Tohru smiled as he shook his head. By this time, he and Mrs. Lee had exchanged seats so he was now sitting next to his girlfriend. “There’s no need to apologize…”