ㅤdiner

@❛ ⚜ ₊ jaehyun j. ᵖʳᶦᶰᶜᵉ ᶜʰᵃʳᵐᶦᶰᵍ Smile shifting into something a little softer, she chuckles and lightly shakes her head in amusement and reaches for the extra menu tucked in between a set of condiments at the table's back edge. After a full 4 hours of laughing at jargon-filled jokes she only half understood, standing on pin-thin heels, and eating the (very few) palatable finger food options at the event of the day, she was starved. Girl's most definitely gotta eat.

Before she can glance over the menu to fulfill some unspoken restaurant rule to at least entertain the idea of new things, her brows lifted and eyes widened minutely in surprise. Jane loves diners. Largely for their cozy atmosphere where everybody lacked pretense, but the food made by some old dude whose kindly speaking volume was yelling was nothing to turn a nose up to either.

"You don't? Come /on/, These places are the best at, like, 3 a.m. after a party or a gala—when you're wayy dehydrated and starving because rich people think all they need to survive is fancy booze and hors d'oeuvres- Or- y'know, even after a night at the club." Brows furrowing at the clunkiness of it, she cuts her introductory pitch short, used to getting an adverse reaction for rambling. An acrylic nail clicks against the frayed laminated menu to land on the perfectly staged picture of the cheeseburger combo, shoe string fries and a default drink flanking it on either side. "If you eat meat, this one. No works—no other toppings, except the house-made burger sauce. It's perfect on its own. If you're not, you're ed—No, I'm kidding," She giggles, pausing just long enough to let her finger trail across to the restaurant's sole vegan option: an almost exact copy of the first, save for the darker patty. "Their black bean burger is just as good, *maybe* even better. Nobody else makes them as good as they do here, not even full vegan places. Not too salty, not too bland..." She trails off to kiss her fingers like a stereotypical chef. "That is what I'm getting."

@❛ ⚜ ₊ jane c. ᵍᵒˡᵈⁱˡᵒᶜᵏˢ Due to the nature of his job, and his personal history, he also wasn't much of a dater. Where she experienced a terrible first relationship, he's had several failed marriages that left him not wanting to put himself back out there for real. And lately the only dates he actually HAS had the opportunity to go on have all been because of work. This one was no different, sure, but it reminded him of two things: his suppressed loneliness, and his awkwardness on first dates. But who knows... Maybe this date will turn out better than he's actually expecting.

At her invitation, he takes a seat across from her and takes hold of one of the menus to briefly browse through it. "That's a fair point. Though, I wouldn't have minded. Girl's gotta eat, right?" he rhetorically questions, eyes flicking back up to her and a small smile spreading over his lips. Now that he had a moment to properly face and examine her, she was quite noticeably pretty. More than he was expecting her to be in person, and enough to where he could see himself actually taking someone like her on a real date if it were just based on looks. That aside, however, he focuses his attention back on the menu and scans through it once more. "Speaking of, what's your go-to? I don't usually eat out at places like this, so I don't know what's good."

@❛ ⚜ ₊ jaehyun j. ᵖʳᶦᶰᶜᵉ ᶜʰᵃʳᵐᶦᶰᵍ Jane wasn't much of a dater. There was something about your first real relationship ending in a major falling out that sowed a deep seed of apprehension in you. And, now that she was more or less self sufficient, she didn't need to find anyone to rely on. Recently, however, she's been bored. And juuust lonely enough to entertain the idea of redownloading her preferred dating app and engaging in stilted small talk with the night's random stranger.

She isn't sure how long she's been waiting but, eventually, the dozenth passing pedestrian turns into a vaguely familiar blur of hair and a fluttering coat. A quick glance at her long-abandoned phone confirms his identity just he sails through the rickety front doors, the bell above the door trilling to announce his presence to the diner's masses.

"Oh, it's fine! I haven't been here too long," she replies, the same sweet smile given to the waitress dancing on cherry-tinted lips while her shoulders draw up in a nonchalant shrug. She gestures to the plush seat across from her—an invitation to sit. "I, uh, figured it'd be weird if I was finishing up, or done, by the time you got here so just this..." Trailing off with a light laugh, she motions to the still-billowing coffee by carefully tapping its sides with her almond-shaped nails. "We can actually order when you're ready- unless you are now? I usually have a go-to with these kind of places."

@❛ ⚜ ₊ jane c. ᵍᵒˡᵈⁱˡᵒᶜᵏˢ He was late. Horribly so, even if it was just 5 minutes so far but he knew it would be longer. And he'd only managed to make it home literally 2 minutes ago. ", , !" he curses under his breath, practically running around his apartment to try and ready himself for this date. He hurriedly hops in the shower to wash off all the work he did today; throws on his nicest jeans, sweater shirt, and overcoat before sliding into his shoes after; then practically flies out of the door. The diner, thankfully, wasn't too far a drive from the Tall-Tale Tower, but this whole ordeal cost him 20 extra minutes, not including the 15 minute traffic hold up. Alas, he finally arrives and breezes past the entrance. Past the blue collar men who give him a discomforted side-eye, past the couple that was too absorbed in one another, past the too-hungry man he's seen loitering various corners and sleeping in various alleyways during work was his final destination. His date and primary suspect... The one rumored to be Goldilocks.

"Hey, sorry! Got caught up with something at work." His voice cuts through the movement of the air briskly and sharply, easy and boyish smile trained on his lips. It certainly nagged his mind that he'd been 40 minutes late to their meetup, but he wanted to appear warm and easygoing, friendly. After all, he'd been trying to track down the socialite for quite some time. He wanted to, at the very least, try to leave her with a decent impression of himself despite the setback—for the sake of the case she's potentially involved in, and for future relationship building. "I'm surprised you're still here. Have you ordered?" he asks. Slim chance she hasn't, especially given the fresh mug his eye briefly catch a glance of before her, but it's a conversation starter at least.

[free starter! hop on it or pm for further discussion]

another long day and jane sits in the back of an old diner, a relatively newer face among the usual generations-long regulars. a couple of older blue collar men laugh heartily at the bar; a young couple share one side of a booth table, giggling over a shared milkshake despite the cold creeping in every time someone opens the door; at a two-seater, a guy around her age inhales his food as if he hasn't eaten in days. before she can proceed with evaluating anyone else, a white porcelain mug and a sparsely tattooed arm coast into her view, the former being set down with a light clink.

steam billows out of the coffee cup, a clear indicator that the old machine tucked away in the corner of the cluttered back counter had little temperature control after however long and was fighting against its last days. jane blinks, looking from mug to server as she returns to earth and smiles sweetly, "thank you."

thin fingers barely ghost the mass produced ceramic ware before they immediately recoil from the heat and she lets out a quiet hiss. god, those things really absorbed heat. if the display amused her at all, the deadpan waitress shows no indication and merely turns on her heel with an invitation to holler if the fable anything else. left alone again to wait for her only order to become just right, jane turns her attention to the window to resume her people watching.

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