The plan was so ridiculous, it probably had to work, but he still wasn't so sure whether he liked it. Kim Joonmyun wanted his parents to hate him, so if he managed to crush their image of him, he would reach that goal. That was the idea.

"But I mean, think about it," Chanyeol asked doubtfully, when Kris stared at the picture of his girlfriend, as if he needed her to understand that he would always remain faithful to her.
"Don't you think they only like me because he's their son? If he likes me, they have to like me, too. Isn't that what parents would think?"

Kris frowned at him, as he he doubted that fact, and Chanyeol pulled a face.
"I just don't think it'll work," he continued meekly. It was just crazy. The whole plan was literally based on the wild conclusion that Kim Joonmyun's parents would care more about him, the stranger, than about their own son.

Later that day then he sat in a restaurant and forced himself to think of every sad thing that had ever happened to him. His grandmother's dog they had to put down after it had been hit by a car. His other grandfather's death. That one TV drama about a lady who died of cancer. Breaking his leg in fifth grade, so that he couldn't go on the school trip to a theme park. His friends and family members denying his existence.
The last thing oddly made him angrier than it made him sad, but he luckily still looked miserable enough for Kim Joonmyun's mother to rub his back, even though he didn't cry.
"I'm so sorry about this," she muttered. "I have no idea what's going through that boy's head. When your parents arrive, I will personally apologize to them."

"Ah," he said and jumped up. He had almost forgotten about his parents who were supposed to come. During the planning stages they had assumed that Kim Joonmyun's parents would forget about them.
Kim Joonmyun's mother gave him a worried look, and he mumbled something about not wanting his parents to see him like that. He ran out, supposedly to make a call, and almost  bumped into Kim Joonmyun's father who returned from chasing his son down the street.

It really was ridiculous, and the idiot ultimately was him, although Kris had complained about having to play the hardest part. But honestly, Kris had been the only one of them who could just act like himself.

Kim Joonmyun, his parents and Chanyeol had met in a restaurant. Chanyeol had told them that his parents would be late. He had of course not invited them to begin with.  
A few minutes later an angry-looking Kris had barged into the restaurant, looking for 'that rich bastard', or what he lovingly called Kim Joonmyun. He had then abducted him, and had driven off on a motorbike, followed by Kim Joonmyun's yelling father.
Chanyeol meanwhile was left, having to give embarrassing explanations about how he was 'betrayed' and 'heart-broken' and felt as if he had been 'toyed with'. The story was that Kris, an ex-convict who dealt with drugs and stole vehicles, used to be in a possessive relationship with Kim Joonmyun.

It just couldn't possibly work. Any normal parent wouldn't have bothered with him, they would have called the police and made sure that their son would never see that criminal again. If they accepted Chanyeol, they obviously accepted their son for who he was, no matter what he did.

"Well, it's not about whether or not they accept him," Kris would explain when Chanyeol finally came back in the evening. Kim Joonmyun's had insisted on bringing him home to apologize, so they had gone all the way to his parents' house, where he had told them that he didn't want his parents to know why the whole dinner meeting hadn't worked out in the end. They had only left when he finally rang the bell and entered, softly pushing his mother back inside before there was a chance that she and Kim Joonmyun's parents could spot each other. Then, he had acted as if he just wanted to pick up some clothes, and as if he couldn't hear her when his mother told him to stay for dinner.
The whole day really was the worst, and when Kris acted completely unconcerned, it weirdly annoyed him. Kris hated to play the role of an actor himself, but Kim Joonmyun had paid him in advance, so to him it had been a complete success.
"The point is that he now has an excuse to stay away from them," Kris continued obliviously. "I get what you mean, and you're right. I'm sure they won't hate him no matter what he does, so now he can just blame it on me, the random bad guy. In a way that's what he wanted to achieve right from the start."

Chanyeol sighed and looked outside where Kim Joonmyun was on the phone. He was probably calling his girlfriend, who had started the whole mess.

"I wonder why he thinks that his parents wouldn't like her," he mused. "I'm pretty sure they'd like everyone, even you, if you'd introduced yourself properly."

Kris gave him an offended look, before he shrugged. "Who cares? Let's be glad he thinks what he thinks or else we'd have starved to death."

Kris went to the back of the shop, probably to tell his girlfriend where he had been, and Chanyeol sat down behind the counter. He hoped that the whole thing was over, and that Kim Joonmyun's parents weren't too sad. After all the trouble, he would have gladly looked for another cat instead. Lost cats at least didn't leave to live with a bad guy on a motorbike.

Thinking about it, he never found out what had happened to the last cat he had been looking for. All he remembered was that he had spent days running around like mad. He hadn't even slept properly.
Before he could wonder why it suddenly stopped mattering that he never found the cat though, Kim Joonmyun came back inside with a troubled expression.
"What's wrong?" Chanyeol asked, when Kim Joonmyun fumbled with his phone.

"My girl-," he began and interrupted himself. "I mean, the girl I told you about, she," he said and scanned the floor. "I called her. I said I want to live with her. I want to marry her."

"Oh," Chanyeol said, and expected the worst.

"She said that she has to think about it," Kim Joonmyun muttered.

And then it dawned to Chanyeol what kind of situation this was. Kim Joonmyun was the type who couldn't even tell his parents that there was someone he wanted to be with. Instead he had to scare them off. Because he didn't want to be blamed. Because he didn't really know how to mention thoughts he found awkward.

"Did you tell her that you were going to run away?" Chanyeol asked doubtfully, and Kim Joonmyun looked even more miserable.

"I didn't think that I would really leave this time," Kim Joonmyun said meekly.

So they had hurt his parents for nothing.

"Are you an idiot? What's the point of making a fuss, if you don't even know if your girlfriend still wants you without your rich family?" Chanyeol asked in irritation, and Kim Joonmyun seemed to shrink in front of his eyes. And here he had thought that the day couldn't get any worse.

"I thought she would," Kim Joonmyun quietly said, before he bit his lips, and made it almost impossible to be angry. Chanyeol had to fake tears, had lied to people he liked, and had to face his mother, but suddenly he felt as if his day was nothing in comparison to that of Kim Joonmyun. It wasn't like he didn't know what it was like to stand in front of a black hole.

So when Kris came back and gave Kim Joonmyun a questioning look, Chanyeol said, "He couldn't reach his girlfriend, so he's going to stay with us for now."