--

The first time he sees her, she's been dragged across the Shinwha ballroom kicking and screaming, clad in a tiny, tiny dress.

Ji Hoo pretends he wasn't looking anywhere but the shocked look on Jae Kyung's face when she's been announced as Jun Pyo's fiancée.

(It was Yi Jeong's or Woo Bin's job to check out her mile-long legs, not his.)

Her dark eyes widen and her mouth forms a perfect 'O' and for a moment, Ji Hoo forgets Jan Di is sitting beside with an even shorter dress.

She's brash and loud and everything he should hate but something about the way she stares at Jun Pyo ever so curiously, like he could be (will be) something to her, makes Ji Hoo shiver.

It's full of hope, of wishful thinking and of maybe-this-could-be-the-one, and it's so honest and frank that he has to look away.

It's the same way he looks at Jan Di when she's not looking, and it makes him think he's not the only one fighting a losing war (Jan Di and Jun Pyo were endgame, Ji Hoo always knew that).

As Jun Pyo drags her away talking to her as if she's Jan Di, Jae Kyung looks back at the F3 and their country bumpkins, and catches Ji Hoo's unreadable eyes.

There's a spark, a tiny flicker. It's too short for it to catch fire and burn down the walls of unrequited love, but it's enough to make Ji Hoo's mind wander when Jan Di is being too loud (fucking annoying) and remember a pair of bright eyes and long, long legs.

--