The inside looks better than the outside, white circular tables stand around the booths lining the walls and windows, there’s black and white checkered tables cloths with large center pieces. Some are flowers in plastic vases, others are jars with tiny paper cranes in them. 

“Hello?” Jongin calls out

There’s no response for a while, but eventually someone shouts back “Just sit down wherever I’ll be out in a minute!” 

Me and Jongin take a seat by the window, grabbing a couple mango colored menus. “What do they even serve here” o mumbles, looking at weird array of food listed.

“We it’s a diner, so they have pancakes, burgers, chicken strips, Chinese noodles, spam in the can” Jongin stifles his laughter and chokes out the last item “peanut butter.. cheese fries” 

I giggle as I read the menu for myself, it’s so random and weird that it seems like only a stoner could run this place. 

I’m looking at the ingredients to the ‘Holy Mole Cannoli Sandwich’ when a young man with a mischievous smile comes towards us. His face looks like he’s up to no good but it could just be the sharp upturns in the corners of his mouth. 

His name tag says ‘Helo Me JD?’

I hope he realizes what’s wrong with his name tag. “Nice shoes” he says to Jongin who tries to cover his wounded expression with a grimace 

“What can I get you two?” JD asks, peering at my own attire with a grin

“I’ll have the uh.. I stare back at the menu and pick the least disgusting thing I see “I’ll take two waffles and a lemonade” 

“Would you like cheese with that?” He looks up from his notepad 

“Uh no thank you” 

He nods and scribbles some more “And what kind of lemonade? Grape? Apple? Or a mangonada?” 

“J-just regular lemonade please”

“Watermelon it is.” He nods again and looks at Jongin “And for you?” 

“Just a cheese burger please with a coke” Jongin says decisively

“Any syrup for you today?” 

“No thanks” 

JD writes some more on his notepad, rips off the paper and places it on our table. It’s a picture of us with enormous heads and tiny bodies. Our odd server then takes his leave into the kitchen. 

“That was weird” I mumble to Jongin who shrugs

“We are in a random diner at four am in the middle of Compton. Everything about tonight is weird, it’s be even more weird if it was normal” 

I sigh and lean into the booth some more “It doesn’t look like Compton out here” 

“Compton’s making a real comeback, the only reason you expect anything bad to happen is because you’ve seen Straight Outta Compton one too many times” 

“You’re probably right” I chuckle, making a tower out of small coffee creamer packets. It topples after five. 

Soon Jongdae comes back with two drinks. They don’t look like the drinks we ordered. He hands Jongin what looks like a root beer float but with orange fizzing soda and a thick red drink goes to me.

“Uh we didn’t-“ 

JD leaves before I can finish my sentence. “What is this?” I poke my spoon into the glass and smell it. It smells like strawberries. And I take a sip. “It’s a strawberry smoothie” I inform Jongin as he takes a sip from his own drink.

“Yep mine is just cream soda and ice cream” he continues drinking happily “It’s not bad either” 

I shrug and continue drinking my smoothie, it has a slightly bitter aftertaste but I keep sipping nonetheless. It’s just a smoothie right? Completely harmless. 

By the time our food comes our cups are empty and for some reason JD’s suspicious cat smile has widened “I’ll get you two some water” he grins, setting two huge, fluffy waffles down in front of me. The thick slice of butter is halfway melted, making little pools in the squares of the waffle. Jongin is practically drooling over his magnificent burger, the bun  perfectly toasted and the meat thick and juicy. 

I think Jongin looks a little deranged as he bites into it with wide eyes that shut slowly, almost sensually, as he chews. I immediately dig into my waffles, after pouring the rich brown syrup over both. They taste absolutely heavenly, but it feels like something’s missing for some reason. 

“Hey can I have some of your syrup, don’t judge me but I think some maple syrup would be great with this” Jongin laughs, a small tomato seed stuck to his upper lip. Wordlessly I hand him some of the syrup. 

I find myself wishing I had ordered cheese with these waffles, some part of my brain is telling me that somethings not right but I can hardly focus on anything but the food in front of me. JD returns, with two water and a small bowl of something. It’s cheese. 

He offers it to me with a wide smile “Foods Alright?”

“It’s delicious!” Jongin shouts “Absolutely amazing!” He has tears in his eyes but to me it seems normal because well I’m practically tearing up over my own food. 

“Great. Here I’ll leave the check right here. Take your time” 

I nod as I continue to shovel the food into my mouth. Jongin hastily guzzling down his own food. We’re done in record time, I feel incredibly full as I lay down my card. JD seems to appear the moment I scribble my signature and write down a 30% tip on the receipt. He hands me back my card and me and Jongin are on our way. 

It’s still dark out as we walk down the street. I don’t know why we didn’t call an Uber but it feels like a wonderful night to walk. The sky looks like it has patches of pink, green and purples streaking across it. I see a dog with duck feet run past us, chasing a yellow squirrel. You don’t see those everyday! 

I think about the dog and squirrel for a minute, admiring their cleverness before it starts to dawn on me that squirrels are not yellow and dogs are supposed to have dog feet, not duck feet. 

“Uh Jongin?” I look at my friend, who looks crazily at everything around him, for some reason it looks like he’s glowing. Kind of like how when Sailor Moon transforms? 

“Y-Yeah Sehun?” He turns slowly towards me, staring directly into my eyes.

“I think that guy drugged us.” I whisper, looking back at the grimy diner, sure enough, JD is standing at the window laughing maniacally at the two of us. 

“Oh” Jongin nods “That explains why your hair’s orange”