Hyunseong works at a 24 hour diner and has been for at least three weeks. He starts at 10:00pm and ends at 6:00am. In those eight hours, the diner gets about twelve customers total. The only other human contact he gets besides those handful of customers is No Minwoo, the cook and he’s not sure if he wants to conversate with Minwoo at three in the morning when he’s grumpy and tired and has a knife in his hand.

Hyunseong sits at the counter tapping away on his phone waiting eagerly for a customer. He’s wearing a black apron and a white button up (in the correct work uniform of course), honestly though, what’s the point of looking so nice if barely anyone sees him? Hyunseong looks behind him to spot Minwoo propped on his elbow, slowly falling asleep. Hyunseong smirks.

Slowly getting up as to not to disturb the younger, Hyunseong walks over to Minwoo, “Minwoo,” Hyunseong whispers, in a ghost-like tone, “I’ve come to haunt you for the rest of your life.”

Although it wasn’t a really good ghost impression, Minwoo quickly woke up, flailing his arms. Somehow, he ended up whacking Hyunseong’s face in the process.

“Ow…” Hyunseong whines as he rubs his ouchie.

Minwoo gives Hyunseong a glare, “Ow my . You scared the out of me Hyunseong what if I got a heart atta-” Minwoo’s rant was interrupted by a small jingle, signalling a customer entered.

“Sorry Minwoo, a customer’s here. Gotta go!” Hyunseong rushes out of the room before Minwoo can say anything else.

Hyunseong composes himself, grabs a menu, and walks up to the customer, “Hello! Welcome to Donghyun’s 24 hour diner! Our special today is a nice, warm dutch baby that wou-”

“You’re mighty chipper for someone at 3:45 in the morning…” The customer says, sounding quite tired, “I don’t want a dutch baby. Can you lead me to my table so I can order what I actually want?”

Hyunseong is slightly offended that the customer interrupted his whole speech. Honestly, Minwoo’s dutch babies are really delicious and it’s really worth talking about. But Hyunseong nods and leads the customer to any table, it didn’t really matter considering the diner was completely empty aside from the three people.

“Okay I am Hyunseong and what would you really like to order?” Hyunseong asks once the customer sits down.

“Jeongmin,” the customer murmurs while digging through his bag, not even looking up at Hyunseong. How rude.

“Okay… Jeongmin… What would like to order then?”

“I would like Belgian waffles with extra whipped cream and strawberry sauce on the side.” Jeongmin pulls out a pile of paper from his bag. Hyunseong scans over them, wondering what’s so important that Jeongmin couldn’t even look at him when he was ordering.

They look very boring, so Hyunseong continues, “Will that be all?”

Jeongmin murmurs something incoherent but Hyunseong’s going to assume that means ‘yes’. He quickly goes to the kitchen to give Minwoo the order.

“Minwoo,” Hyunseong whispers, holding out the written order to Minwoo, “Spit in this guy’s food. He’s awfully mean.”

Minwoo motions to grab the order but Hyunseong moves it away from his grasp. Minwoo glares at Hyunseong, “Why?”

“You know how there’s customer service? Well I was giving excellent customer service! But this guy, he was giving horrible waiter service,” Hyunseong pauses for dramatic effect, Minwoo was not amused,  “He didn’t even make eye contact with me when he ordered his food!”

“Listen hyung, we get probably 10 customers total and the one time I finally get to do the job I’m paid to do, you take it away from me.” Minwoo quickly tries to make a grab at the order still in Hyunseong’s hand, Hyunseong raises it above his head.

“Minwoo! Promise by the Donghyun’s Diner code that you will spit in this customer’s food!” Hyunseong shouts. Minwoo sneaks a glance behind Hyunseong, the customer Hyunseong is talking about looks tired and stressed, the last thing he needs is some chef spitting in his food and an overly happy, loud waiter in his way.

“Yeah, yeah, by the Donghyun’s Diner code or whatever,” Minwoo grabs the order from Hyunseong’s hand, Hyunseong woops.

Jeongmin looks up from his paperwork to see what all the commotion is about but quickly decides it’s just nonsense and envelopes himself back into official papers.

Twenty minutes later, Hyunseong comes back with Jeongmin’s food, unable to contain his laughter. Minwoo’s spit in Jeongmin’s food and it’s hilarious. Or at least he thinks Minwoo spit in Jeongmin’s food (he didn’t really), “Here’s your-” a small laugh breaks out from Hyunseong, “Ah… Sorry Jeongmin. Here’s your food.” Hyunseong grins.

Jeongmin squints up at the overly happy waiter, that smile is too blinding to be honest. Jeongmin murmurs a quiet ‘thanks’ but Hyunseong doesn’t hear him because he’s too busy trying to cover the flood of giggles that’s about to flow out of his mouth, “Enjoy your meal Jeongmin.” Hyunseong quickly says before walking off in a fit of giggles.

Jeongmin watches as Hyunseong walks off and shrugs.

“You’re a .” Minwoo says to Hyunseong as he walks into the kitchen

Hyunseong giggles the whole 45 minutes it takes Jeongmin to finish his meal and leave. Occasionally Minwoo would throw something at him to get him to stop, but he couldn’t. He felt like he just played the best prank in the world. Minwoo doesn’t have the heart to tell him he didn’t even spit in his food.

When Jeongmin finally leaves, Hyunseong goes to collect his empty plates. He’s slightly impressed on how the plates were practically already clean, Jeongmin ate everything.

Except the strawberry sauce.

Why did he order strawberry sauce on the side if he wasn’t going to eat it?

Slightly annoyed, Hyunseong took all the plates to the sink and dumped out the strawberry sauce.

This happens for the next few days. This annoying, rude, customer Jeongmin. orders strawberry sauce on the side, never eating it. Hyunseong knew he shouldn’t let it bother him too much but how can someone waste food like that?

Hyunseong decides maybe Jeongmin would finally eat the strawberry sauce. As Hyunseong throws out the latest bowl of strawberry sauce, he thinks of all the poor little strawberries that had to get squished in order to make this specific bowl of sauce.

Hyunseong sheds a tiny tear.

The next night, Hyunseong is at the counter, head propped up by his elbow. He waits patiently for someone to come into the diner, he closes his eyes out of boredom. He listens to Minwoo shuffling around in the kitchen, probably doing dishes. He listens to the occasional car driving by the diner outside. He listens to-

Oh my god the night shift is so boring.

At the sound of the door opening Hyunseong rapidly opens his eyes and grabs a menu. He bolts to the door.

“Hello! I’m Hyunseong and I’ll be your- Oh.” Hyunseong’s mood deflates when he sees it’s Jeongmin again.

“Why do you look so down to see me? Have I done something to you?” Jeongmin crosses his arms.

Hyunseong is flabbergasted. Does this Jeongmin guy not understand how much of a sacrifice strawberries have to give each time he doesn’t eat the strawberry sauce? Does Jeongmin not understand that Hyunseong wants to hold a funeral for every bowl of strawberry sauce he has to throw out?

Hyunseong is about to tell Jeongmin off until he notices the latter looks tired today, more than usual even. His eyes look a little bloodshot, hair disheveled, and he looks like he’s going to fall asleep right on the spot. Hyunseong goes closer to Jeongmin, examining his eyes, noses barely touching, “Have you not been getting sleep lately?” Hyunseong never really knew the definition of personal space.  

Jeongmin’s eyes widen at Hyunseong’s closeness, not sure whether or not he’s comfortable with letting the waiter near his face, “Well if I’m in a diner at 2:55 in the morning then obviously I’m not getting sleep,” Jeongmin spits, finally deciding to step back, “It’s not your business anyways.”

Hyunseong gives Jeongmin a skeptical look but leads him to his table anyways.

It’s another night at the diner and Jeongmin is here again.

“What would you like to order?” Hyunseong asks Jeongmin probably for seventh time since they met.

In the past week Jeongmin has learned Hyunseong’s name too, but for some reason refuses to use it.

Jeongmin takes out another stack of papers, “Belgian waffles with extra whipped cream and strawberry sauce on the side.”

“That’s what you ordered yesterday! And the day before that and the day before that! Is that all you’re going to eat for the rest of your life?,” Hyunseong whines, obviously in distressed. He continues, “Why don’t you eat the strawberry sauce? Think of all the strawberries that sacrificed themselves for this bowl. Why not just order waffles without strawberry sauce?”

Jeongmin doesn’t answer. He is either thinking about how to reply or flat out ignoring him. Hyunseong huffs, running a hand through his hair. Hyunseong decides he’s just not going to give Jeongmin strawberry sauce this time and walks to the kitchen to hand Minwoo the order.

“Excuse me,” Jeongmin calls out, a few minutes after Hyunseong handed him his food, “There’s no strawberry sauce. I asked for strawberry sauce…” Jeongmin looks kind of sad, but Hyunseong doesn’t care.

Okay, maybe only a little bit. But Hyunseong doesn’t like seeing anyone sad.

“But you don’t even eat the strawberry sauce. Why should I give it to you if you’re just going to waste our delicious strawberry sauce?” Hyunseong retorted.

“If I want strawberry sauce for my own reason then you should give it to me because I’m paying for it! I have my reasons for wanting strawberry sauce.” Jeongmin argues, progressively getting louder.

“But you aren’t even paying for strawberry sauce because the sauce comes free! But not eating it…. You’re just wasting it at this point!” Hyunseong says just as loud.

“I still want it! You can’t just take it away from me when I want it!”

Hyunseong wants to clutch his head and scream, “It’s not even that bad tasting. It’s really good! Look,” Hyunseong takes the spoon out of Jeongmin’s hand and scoops a dollop of strawberry, plopping it into his mouth, “See? Delicious!” he says, speech muffled by a mouthful of strawberry sauce.

“Why won’t you eat all the of my strawberry sauce then?” Jeongmin suggests, passive aggressively.

“I will!” Hyunseong sits across Jeongmin, chair scraping across the floor too loudly. Hyunseong finishes the sauce, “Delicious!” Hyunseong tries to make his point by waving his spoon in front of Jeongmin’s face.

Jeongmin stares at Hyunseong then snorts.

“What?” Hyunseong stops his spoon midair.

“You just… Nothing.” Jeongmin looks back down at his papers with a smirk on his face.

“What? Tell me.” Hyunseong whines.

“You have some strawberry sauce on your face,” Jeongmin gestures to his own lips.

“Where?” Hyunseong tries to wipe his face, completely missing the stain.

“No it’s right...” Jeongmin picks up his own napkin and wipes Hyunseong’s face himself, “Here.”

    When Jeongmin finishes, he pauses, realizing what he just did. Hyunseong pauses too, not really sure what to do next. So they do the most natural thing: laugh.

They continues like this. Jeongmin comes into the diner, tired and hungry. Always ordering Belgian waffles with extra whipped cream and strawberry sauce on the side. He would always make Hyunseong eat it, but he would never not order strawberry sauce on the side.

To Minwoo’s relief however, the duo stopped fighting as much as they used to. There isn’t as much yelling just… A lot of laughing. It didn’t even take long either, the two clicked so well Minwoo doesn’t even understand why they fought in the first place. He has eavesdropped on one of their conversation one time, let’s just say there wasn’t anything worth laughing about.

“So why do you get strawberry sauce if you don’t like it?” Hyunseong asks as he inspects the gloop of strawberry liquid on his spoon.

“It looks nice with the waffles.” Jeongmin looks at his plate, grinning.

“What do you mean?”

Jeongmin thinks for a little bit, wondering how he can explain without it sounding confusing, “Well… The waffles and whipped cream look plain next to each other, so I order strawberry sauce just to make it look more colorful.”

“That’s a dumb reason,” Hyunseong scoffs, shoving another spoonful into his mouth.

Hyunseong’s grown to like Jeongmin. He’s funny and nice sometimes. He also gives Hyunseong a big tip when he leaves the diner. The strawberry sauce is just a plus.

“Jeongmin, why do you come to the diner so late?” Hyunseong asks one time to Jeongmin, who is concentrating on whatever papers he had today.

“My shift at work ends at midnight but I get really hungry after work. So I’ll just come here,” Jeongmin looks up at Hyunseong, “Why do you work so late?”

Hyunseong likes that Jeongmin has been giving him eye contact more, especially when he’s talking to him, “I feel like I have more energy at night I guess. Might as well be productive about it.” Hyunseong pauses.

He looks at tiredness in his eyes, “Jeongmin, you should get an earlier shift. You look so tired all the time.”

Jeongmin doesn’t answer for a bit. The silence hung between them for a few minutes. Hyunseong was thinking about just leaving until Jeongmin finally says something.

“If I get an earlier shift then I wouldn’t be able to eat here anymore. Then I can’t see you anymore.”

Hyunseong looks at Jeongmin curiously.

“You…” Jeongmin continues, “You’re one of the closest things I’ve had to a friend since I started this dumb job. I’m swamped in paper work a-and my boss just keeps giving me more work. Honestly Hyunseong, you keep me motivated.” Jeongmin laughs harshly, “That sounded really cliche, but something about you…” Jeongmin shakes his head, “Nevermind forget I said anything,” He covers his face with his palms, “That was embarrassing. Just pretend I didn’t say that.”

“Aw Jeongmin…” Hyunseong moves to sit beside Jeongmin and hugs him, “Don’t be embarrassed. That was the nicest thing you’ve said to me in the five weeks we’ve known each other.”

Jeongmin is still covering his face, “Hyunseong go away…”

“Are you crying? Is little Jeongmin crying because he said something heartfelt?” Hyunseong squeezes Jeongmin tighter, “Don’t worry Jeongmin. I’ll be your friend for as long as I’m here.” Hyunseong feels Jeongmin relax in his hold.

It’s strange how their friendship just spontaneously evolved, but Hyunseong thinks that’s what makes it even more special.

“Hyunseong,” Jeongmin says, stopping Hyunseong mid chewing, “When are we going to hang out besides at this diner? Like… A movie or something?”

Hyunseong quickly swallows whatever was in his mouth, “You want to watch a movie with me?” Hyunseong laughs, “Are you saying you want to go on a date with me Jeongmin?”

“W-What?” Jeongmin sputters, “That’s not what I meant!” Jeongmin feels his face getting a little warm.

“I’m just playing with you,” Hyunseong chuckles, waving his strawberry covered spoon in the air, “We really should hang out together. You can buy me tonkatsu.”

“But you’re older than me. If anyone is buying anyone anything it’s you to me.” Jeongmin takes a spoon and scoops a dollop of whipped cream.

“But your job seems to pay more.” Hyunseong snatches the spoon from Jeongmin’s hands and eats the whipped cream himself.

“Hey! I was going to eat that…” Jeongmin tries to reach for the spoon back.

Hyunseong laughs as Jeongmin’s feeble attempts. He scoops another dollop of whipped cream and holds it up to Jeongmin, “I’ll feed you.” Hyunseong grins.

“I’m not five years old Hyunseong.” However, Jeongmin still opens his mouth to allow Hyunseong to feed him.

“Anyways, where do you want to go together?” Hyunseong asks, setting the spoon down.

Jeongmin looks down at his papers, lightly tapping on the table with his fingers, “Well on Thursday I’m free. I also need to buy a book from the bookstore. Do you want to go with me?”

“Yeah that sounds cool. Then you can buy me some manga,” Hyunseong cheers, “Make sure you get a lot of rest before that okay Jeongmin? I don’t want you to be tired or I’m going to take you straight home.”

Hyunseong stands up to collect the dishes to place them in the kitchen.

“Are you guys dating yet?” Minwoo asks with a smirk.

“No,” Hyunseong answers simply, “Not yet at least.” Hyunseong jokes. Well, maybe not entirely joking.

Hyunseong waits at the train station that’s near the bookstore. He actually came a little early because he liked watching the trains go by. It’s almost therapeutic.

“Hyunseong!” Jeongmin calls out from a distance. Hyunseong looks up to see Jeongmin in casual clothes. He looks… Different. Usually when Jeongmin goes to the diner he’s in a boring business suit, today, however, he’s in a brightly colored floral flannel (those shirts that tourist wear when they go to Hawaii) and lightly tanned khakis. Hyunseong kind of wants to laugh.

“Jeongmin,” Hyunseong greets as soon as Jeongmin walks up to him, “I didn’t even know you owned clothes like these.” He laughs.

Jeongmin laughs too, “This is my favorite shirt! Look how nice and bright it is.” Jeongmin gestures to his torso.

Jeongmin looks less tired than usual, actually, today he looks brighter. It makes Hyunseong even more elated than he was earlier, “It’s great. Maybe you can buy me one and we can match.”

“Of course. Let’s go now, I want to make it on time for the one hour discount at the supermarket after we buy the books.” Jeongmin grabs onto the hem of Hyunseong’s sleeve and drags him toward the direction of the bookstore.

Jeongmin’s arm slowly slips down Hyunseong’s arm as they walk, now loosely holding his wrist, leading him to the bookstore.

“Slow down a bit Jeongmin. Are you really that excited?” Hyunseong chuckles, slipping his hand into Jeongmin’s instead. Jeongmin’s hands are really small compared to Hyunseong’s. His fingers are slim, but somehow, Hyunseong thinks their hands fit perfectly. How cliche.

Jeongmin glances at their intertwined hands but quickly looks up to answer, smile widening, “Yeah, I think I am.”

When the two finally arrive at the bookstore, Jeongmin headed straight to the cookbooks. Hyunseong let go of Jeongmin’s hand to allow him to browse freely, even though the absence of his hand kind of makes Hyunseong cold.

“So what book are you look for?” Hyunseong asks, also looking over the cookbooks.

“My uncle sent over a lot of chicken to my house recently so I want a chicken cookbook,” Jeongmin pauses from browsing the books and looks up at Hyunseong, “Maybe when I cook chicken you can try some.”

“Yeah. That is if you can cook it correctly.” Hyunseong jokes.

“Hey,” Jeongmin lightly punches the side of Hyunseong shoulder, “You never tasted my chicken before. You don’t know if I cook well.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever,” Hyunseong shrugs, “You would think there would be more chicken cookbooks in this store, don’t you think.” Hyunseong says still looking over the shelves.

“Oh wait, I see one down there,” Jeongmin points at a book on the very bottom.

Both of them moves to grab the book at the bottom of the shelf but end up banging their foreheads together.

“Ow,” Hyunseong rubs his forehead, “Your skull is thick.”

“It’s not my fault you have such a huge head,” Jeongmin teases, also rubbing his forehead, “Are you okay though?”

“Yeah. Are you?” Hyunseong bends down to pick up the chicken cookbook, “Here we go.” Hyunseong quickly flips through the book, “They all look delicious.”

“Let me see.” Jeongmin moves next to Hyunseong, close enough to hear the subtle breathing of the other.

“This one looks the best. You should make it for me.” Hyunseong grins, facing sideways to face Jeongmin. They’re too close and at the same time not close enough. Jeongmin’s lip looks the softest at this moment than any time he’s ever seen. Hyunseong almost wants to lean in and-

Hyunseong suddenly closes the book and hands it to Jeongmin, taking a step back, “Here you go.”

After some thinking, Hyunseong realized he really does like Jeongmin. Maybe a little too much. In his 22 years of life, Hyunseong has only confessed to someone once, and he was painfully rejected. Confessing isn’t really a thing he likes to do. He’s rather just wait for them to confess first. Or maybe he can wait until Jeongmin shows more signs that he likes him back.

Hyunseong has had a few experimental kisses before, going to an all boys’ high school forced Hyunseong to go through embarrassing dares, silly pranks, and accidental slip ups. But all the people he’s kissed he didn’t really like that much. All he knows now is that he really wants to kiss Jeongmin.

Jeongmin’s eyes are furrowed as if he’s thinking, pen moving furiously. Hyunseong thinks he would look very businessy if he didn’t have a little bit of whipped cream at the corner of his mouth. It’s almost laughable.

Jeongmin looks up at Hyunseong, “What are you staring at?”

Hyunseong doesn’t say anything. Instead he uses his thumb to wipe the bit of whipped cream at the corner of Jeongmin’s lips. He then brings his own thumb to his mouth, tasting the cream.

Hyunseong wants to die of embarrassment. How incredibly cliche. He can practically hear Minwoo laughing at him from the kitchen.

Jeongmin just stares at him, looking back and forth between Hyunseong’s thumb and mouth.

Finally he says, “You have the nicest fingers.” They both laugh.

When Jeongmin leaves and Hyunseong brings his dishes the the kitchen, Minwoo is leaning against the countertop, all creepily.

“So when’s the wedding?” He grins.

Hyunseong doesn’t know how long he and Jeongmin are going to keep flirting back and forth like this. He also doesn’t know how long Jeongmin is going to eat the same breakfast foods every night. Hyunseong’s not sure if he wants to have their relationship progress, or stay right where they are.

Jeongmin’s going to eat the same Beligan waffles for the rest of his life and Hyunseong’s going to keep eating strawberry sauce.

Hyunseong sighs as he dips the mop into the bucket of water then continued to clean the floor.

All this Jeongmin business makes his head hurt.

The next night Hyunseong asks Jeongmin to go out again.

“Where?” Jeongmin asks without looking up from his papers.

“I was thinking we can see a movie together.” Hyunseong tries to keep his voice as composed as possible, but he’s internally screaming. What if Jeongmin doesn’t like movies? What if when they go to the movies he steps on gum and Jeongmin gets disgusted?

Jeongmin looks up and smiles, “Sure Hyunseong. How does Thursday sound?”

“Yeah that sounds great.” Nailed it.

Hyunseong wants to watch movies with Jeongmin forever.

Jeongmin talked throughout the movie, but it’s okay because Hyunseong does too. They made comments about the actors and judged the special effects. Sometimes they would even try to voice over the characters. They were giggling the whole time.

Hyunseong and Jeongmin walk out of the theatre, still laughing with each other.

“Do you want to get a burger?” Hyunseong points behind himself, “I’ll pay.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever tried a burger?” but Jeongmin nods anyways as they walk toward the burger joint.

Their hands are so close, Hyunseong could easily just-

Hyunseong intertwines his hand with Jeongmin’s. His hands are so small and soft compared to Hyunseong’s, it’s almost the complete opposite. Yet, Hyunseong feels like they fit together perfectly.

Jeongmin looks down at their hands then looks up at Hyunseong.

“I like you.” Hyunseong says suddenly.

“What-” Jeongmin bumps into a light pole, “Ow.” It was almost comical the way Jeongmin’s head bounced off the light pole, like a basketball. Hyunseong feels bad for almost laughing as Jeongmin rubs his forehead.

“Are you okay?” Hyunseong thumbs Jeongmin’s forehead, it’s only slightly red.

Jeongmin freezes at the close proximity of Hyunseong, “I-I uh…” Jeongmin gulps, “Hyunseong did you say… That you liked me?”

Hyunseong freezes too, “Uh… Yeah…?”

Jeongmin gradually relaxes and takes Hyunseong’s hand, which was hovering over his forehead, “I think… I think I like you too,” He pauses for a second, thinking, “Yeah. I like you too.”

They both grin stupidly at each other.

Not much changes after that.

Jeongmin still comes into the diner every night to order Belgian waffles with extra whipped cream and strawberry sauce on the side. Hyunseong still sits across from him and for some reason still not tired of eating strawberry sauce. They still tell lame jokes as their laughter echoes across the diner.

Probably the few thing that changes is that Hyunseong gets to hold Jeongmin’s hand whenever he wants and he’s allowed to kiss that spot of whipped cream on Jeongmin’s lips instead of just wiping it off. Hyunseong’s also allowed to drag Jeongmin to the last booth in the back of the diner and makeout with him (but only when Minwoo isn’t paying attention).