The next time you saw Jihoon, well… You saw him.

It was weird and kind of exciting to see Jihoon when he didn’t see you first. Every other time that you had seen him it had been the other way around.

He was with the rest of the group. It looked like they were taking pictures, probably to help with promotions. All of the boys were dressed in casual outfits. Sweaters and jeans, and if they weren’t up by the camera they were just lounging around.

Caitlin saw them just after you, her jaw dropped and she squealed, grabbing your shoulder.

“Look who it is!” She said excitedly.

It was cute that she thought that he wasn’t the first thing you saw as soon as you could see all of the boys there. He was leaned back against a small brick wall, his fingers thoughtlessly dancing around one another, and his gaze especially dazed out.

God, you wondered what he was thinking about sitting there all on his own. He was in a yellow sweater and a faded pair of jeans that were cuffed at the ankles. He kept pursing his lips thoughtlessly. Maybe there was a song stuck in his head.

“I should say hi,” you stated thoughtfully. Julia’s jaw dropped.

“And here I was trying to figure out how to convince you to do just that,” she mumbled. You elbowed her. 

“Come on, I’m not that stubborn,” you quipped back. There was another moment in which you watched all the boys interacting with one another. Vernon was looking at the crowd, waving at all the fans that were watching respectfully from a distance. When he saw you his eyes widened.

You waved, and then immediately pointed at Jihoon and put a finger in front of your lips. Vernon nodded once and returned to paying attention to the other fans.

You were wondering exactly how you should get his attention, and in that process ended up standing directly in front of him- at the correct distance, but still right in front of him. Before you could really think it over, you sat down, rested your head on your hands and snapped a picture of him.

Click.

He didn’t seem to notice, so you figured this might be a good chance to test a theory. You inspected the picture and then went onto your instagram.

I couldn’t resist snapping a picture… Sometimes I feel like every time I turn the corner there is a seventeen member there.

You posted it and then returned your attention to Jihoon.

Almost as soon as you made the post Jihoon’s attention got shifted. He looked down and pulled his phone out of his pocket. It took him a moment, but it wasn’t long before he looked up in surprise. You smiled the moment your eyes met and waved.

You had always loved that face he made when he wasn’t entirely expecting to be happy. Any Woozi fan knew what it was like to watch an otherwise blank expression cross his face, his eyes previously focused on something else, his mind clearly somewhere completely different than where his eyes were. Then he would turn his head and his eyes would fall on something, in this case, you. Then after a second, his eyes would begin to widen a bit, his lips would spread and begin to curl up and his eyes shined with delight.

You never in a million years imagined you would be the recipient of this look.

It had always brought a smile to your face. His smile was just, impossible to ignore.

Yet here you were, and here he was and here he was smiling just at getting to see you.

You waved at him and mouthed him a question.

How are you doing?

You had never been good at communicating with people over a long distance. Mouthing things no matter what language always ended weirdly for you. You were just bad at it.

Tired, Seungkwan woke me up.

You could understand exactly what Jihoon was mouthing you. Was that even possible?
You look distracted. Do you need anything?

Jihoon laughed, his shoulders visibly bouncing as he did so. You smiled even larger.

Send me a heart?

You knew he was joking, but even so, you curled your fingers into that of a heart, giving him a cheesy smile. He began to crack up even harder, and before you had the time to drop the pose, he lifted his phone and snapped a picture of you.

Click.

You heard the sound from all the way across the sidewalk.

You tricked me.

Jihoon shook his head.

You’re too nice sometimes you know that? Don’t you have somewhere to be?

You shrugged.

I hadn’t seen you in a while.

You considered your next words carefully. You two may not actually be talking to one another but it still felt like you were. You could practically hear each word leave his mouth, and you really, really didn’t want to come off as odd. Like a weird fan who really liked being around him.

But you knew that Jihoon actually genuinely liked getting attention from others and you thought he’d like it if you were really raw and open to him.

I don’t know I guess I missed you.

You could’ve been wrong. It was very likely, that what you saw was a trick of the light, or was just, in fact, a product of the warm sun on his skin on a hot day, but you could have sworn that you saw a small red flush crossed his face at that. You smiled and stood up nudging a few of the fangirls beside you. You whispered into their ears, able to feel Jihoon’s eyes on you as you did.

One of your ultimate favorite videos from the Kpop world ever was the one in which a fanboy aggressively professed that one of the members of Red Velvet made him happy. You had done it before at Red Velvet concerts and had always loved the way it sounded. You’d always wanted to do it for an idol that could hear you. To avoid too much attention, you got some of the other girls in on it too.

“Lee Jihoon,” you all yelled out, cupping your mouths with your hands. It granted them the attention of almost the whole group… And even some passerbyers. “When you smile, I am also happy.”

The smile on Jihoon’s lips was insane, and he stood up clearly intent on walking over to say something. You winked at him, shot him a wave a shrunk back into the crowd.

You didn’t have to talk to him when he was busy. You were honestly just happy to be able to see him smile like that.