I am convinced that Taeui is an unreliable narrator. The twink-ish Xinlu from the early chapters was probably nothing but Tae's eyes being blinded by God knows what. He has probably looked the same all along, like how he is in this chapter.
Office worker guy during the day, lolita by the evening. Office worker girl during the day, cool/emo idk what to call it but that kinda outfits by the evening.
Then they both see eachother off work one day or something, dressed up and all.
Oh hell naw. Who is that mf following around my lovelies ಡ ʖ ಡ