Our Uber driver lets one of us charge our phone while he tries to find a 24 hour store that sells clothes and shoes. I let Jongin charge his, my phone feels uncharacteristically useless tonight and I like not having the urge to check it every minute. 

It takes a while for our driver to find a CVS. There was nothing but hiking trails and large estates around us till we finally broke into some main road. The CVS looks deserted and a little scary, but we get out and thank our driver before shuffling into the pharmacy. The clerk looks at us strangely but we ignore him as we trail straight to the small section of the store where corny ‘I LOVE LA!’ shirts sit, collecting dust. We’re in Torrance, no tourists come here but I appreciate the effort. 

We snatch a couple of shoes and sweatshirts before going to the register, in the florescent lights I can see the grains of sand stuck in Jongins fluffy hair, there’s a piece clinging onto his cheek, near the outer corner of his eye and he looks so perfect. We toss in a few candy bars for the cashier to ring up.

When we’re back outside I’m wearing an obnoxious green shirt with ‘Happy Easter!’ Written in pastel letters, my new windbreaker is neon yellow and my old vans have been replaced with white socks and bootleg Birkenstocks. Jongin’s new fit is much worse. He sits on the curb, ravenously eating a Milky Way as he orders an Uber to a diner. He’s in a mustard yellow sweatshirt with awkward shrimp designs on it, his own adidas swapped for purple crocs. At least he’s wearing socks. 

“I can’t believe they only had one pair of the birks” he sighs

“Too bad I saw them before you.” 

Jongin just chuckles under his breath as he hands me a candy bar, I nearly swallow the thing whole. “Where are we going to eat?” 

“The closest place that isn’t a McDonalds is a diner called Jimmy & Zacks. It’s in Compton”

“And it’s open right now?”

“Says 24 hours” He shrugs, looking down the street, probably looking out for our next Uber. 

We sit and wait for a while till a black car pulls up, the drive is short compared to our other rides, and we’re in front of the grimy looking diner. It’s supposed to have a neon sign reading ‘Jimmy & Zacks Diner’ but some of the letters are out so it reads ‘Ji  Z’

“Can’t wait to eat at Jiz” Jongin laughs, pushing me towards the door.