Chloe stared at him for a long moment. Then something in her shoulders loosened, not all the way, but enough.

"She’ll ask about your family," she said. "Tell her about the convenience stores. She respects hard work. Don’t mention how much money your parents make, but don’t downplay it either. Korean mothers can smell false modesty."

"Okay."

"She’ll ask about your grades. Tell her you’re doing well. Don’t mention the C-plus average from last semester."

"I don’t have a C-plus anymore."

"I know. That’s why I’m bringing you home." A small smile flickered across her face, there and gone. "She’ll ask about your intentions. This is the important one. She’s going to want to know if you’re serious about her daughter or if you’re just playing around."

Jordan thought about the golden app in his pocket. The chemistry percentage that had climbed steadily over the past weeks. The quest trackers and the cashback multipliers and the entire supernatural framework that had brought him to this moment.

None of that mattered.

What mattered was that Chloe Kim, the girl who trusted no one, had decided to trust him. What mattered was that she’d let him see the real her, the exhausted and brilliant and terrified girl beneath the mask, and she was now asking him to prove worthy of that trust in front of the person whose opinion she valued most.

"I’m serious," Jordan said.

"Are you?"

"Chloe." He shifted to face her, cupping her face with one hand. Her cheek was warm beneath his palm, soft, and her eyes searched his face for something she seemed afraid to find. "I know this is complicated. I know I’m not supposed to know about Calypso. I know there are things you’re not telling me and things I’m not telling you and we’re both walking around with secrets that could blow everything up. But I am serious about you. This isn’t a game. You’re not a percentage or a quest or a challenge to beat. You’re the first person who looked at the real me, the mess of me, and decided I was worth something anyway."

Chloe’s breath caught.

"Jordan."

"I’ll meet your mom. I’ll wear nice clothes. I’ll answer her questions honestly and I’ll be respectful and I won’t embarrass you." He rubbed his thumb across her cheekbone, and she leaned into the touch like a plant toward sunlight. "And when dinner’s over and she goes back to Koreatown, you and I are going to have a conversation about all the things we’ve been avoiding. Because I’m tired of walking on eggshells around the truth, and I think you are too."

She was quiet for a long time.

Then her hand came up to cover his, pressing his palm harder against her cheek.

"Okay," she whispered.

"Okay?"

"Okay." She turned her head and kissed his palm, a gesture so soft and unexpected that Jordan’s chest did something stupid and painful. "Dinner’s at seven. Wear the navy button-up. The one I tied the Windsor knot for."

"The one Alexis picked out?"

"The one I approved." A flash of the old Chloe, territorial and sharp. "And don’t be late. Korean mothers remember lateness. They hold grudges about lateness. My grandmother still brings up the time my father was fifteen minutes late to their first meeting and that was thirty years ago."

"Got it. Navy button-up. On time. Don’t mention OnlyFans or hot springs or the fact that I’m dating two women simultaneously."

"Three," Chloe said.

Jordan’s brain stuttered again. "What?"

"You’re dating two women. Alexis is working on becoming the third. Don’t think I haven’t noticed." Her voice carried no accusation, just observation. The same tone she used when reviewing analytics. "We’ll discuss that too. Eventually."

"Chloe, I’m not—"

"You’re not pursuing her. I know. But she’s pursuing you, and you’re not exactly running away." She pulled back from his touch, though her fingers remained intertwined with his. "My mother doesn’t need to know any of that. What she needs to know is that her daughter found a good man who treats her well and has a future. Everything else is noise."

Jordan nodded slowly. "I can do that."

"I know you can." She leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his forehead, brief and warm. "That’s why I’m bringing you home."

She stood, straightening her clothes, and Jordan watched her reassemble the pieces of her armor. The girlfriend mode faded. The business mode returned. Chloe Kim, founder of Nova Network, co-owner of something resembling an empire, preparing to leave his apartment and return to her own complex double life.

"Get some sleep," she said from the doorway. "You have classes tomorrow before dinner, and you need to look rested. My mother will notice if you look tired. She’ll assume you’re not taking care of yourself, and she’ll judge both of us for it."

"Korean mothers sound terrifying."

"They are." A smile, genuine but tired. "Good night, Jordan."

"Night, Chloe."

The door clicked shut behind her.

Jordan sat on his couch in the sudden silence, laptop still open to a half-finished sponsorship email, and stared at the ceiling of his once-disgusting apartment. The moonlight through the factory windows painted silver patterns across the concrete floor. Somewhere in the building, a pipe groaned. Somewhere outside, a car alarm wailed and died.

Meet her mom.

Tomorrow.

He was going to meet the mother of the girl who ran a secret six-figure OnlyFans empire while maintaining a scholarship and a double life and somehow finding time to manage a content creator collective that existed largely in his imagination. He was going to sit across a table from the woman who had raised Chloe Kim and answer questions about his intentions while a supernatural app tracked his romance metrics in real time.

Jordan McKnight climbed the stairs to his loft bed, collapsed onto sheets that smelled clean because he’d actually washed them, and stared at the ceiling until his eyes finally closed.

His last thought before sleep took him was that the old Jordan would have panicked about tomorrow for hours. Would have spiraled into anxiety and worst-case scenarios and elaborate plans for how to fake being a person worth introducing to parents.

The new Jordan just had to show up and be himself.

Funny how that was somehow more terrifying.