Lookup pointing to a virtual entity is triggering virtual entity retrieve plugin on the form load, is this expected behaviour, how to stop it?

We have a Dynamics 365 native Entity A which has a lookup pointing to a Virtual Entity B. Whenever a record in Entity A is opened using the (main) form it's triggering the Virtual Entity Retrieve for the record associated with that lookup. Is this normal behaviour for the CRM to trigger a Retrieve message when a lookup is pointing to the Virtual Entity or native Entity. Also the depth of the Virtual Entity Retrieve message is 2 which means it's getting triggered after the Retrieve operation of the Entity A instance. If the lookup data is stored in the Entity A (which I think is the case, what is the point of an extra unnecessary retrieve operation being triggered for Virtual Entity B), is there a way I can stop it from triggering as this is causing issues on the UX?

thanks in advance.