A/N: completely one-off thing that I managed to churn up after rereading Pure of Heart like, 550984 times. I'd really like to finish a story someday, but none of mine so far? Seem to be getting anywhere. And I mean anywhere. Boo.

It had been eons ago, it seemed. The way he had realized that-she liked him. No, wait. Loved him. Lusted, plainly, after him. And she had watched his disgusted face turn away from her, as she opened the door to let him out, let him go.

After all, he was 17-years old. She read it all: '3 whole years younger than me, an immature, infatuated kid!' the terror, at first. Then the disdain. The wariness.

She hadn't meant to, she was a kid, after all. When he'd asked, when he'd composed himself from the shock of her eyes to ask, 'what's wrong?' she'd blubbered it out, with her face heating up, and her mind cramping up. As if she was being boiled, slowly, in a cauldron of water. Except she was being boiled in the intensity of his expression, of his…eyes. His gorgeous, soulful…then she realized she had said it aloud.

It was as clear as day, the memory.

Scuffling along a path in her neighborhood while people-watching, again. It was a pet habit, thinking intelligent thoughts, elevating herself in the pedestal of her mind. 'Ego', it was called. Shelia smiled pleasantly at an old lady, who quickly looked in the other direction. Yes, ego. Boosted by the crowds who stared her up and down, and then there were some who simply stared…but now a shadow had her full attention. Behind her, what appeared to be a person of the male species was trailing her feet, taking care not to nudge the back of her sneakers with the front of his.

Lost in his own world. Scuff, scuff, he went. Scuff, scuff. She could tell, from his outline, that he had a smoke hanging from his mouth, crooked at an intelligent angle. The slopes of his shoulders were strong, and his being deep in thought gave him a kind of above-you-all aura. She smiled to herself as he stopped for a nanosecond to avoid her fluttering skirt in the sudden breeze. Gentleman.

When she stuck her tongue out to catch the air, there was a minty tingle. Mmm, he smoked a menthol cigarette. She took care to inhale as little of the smoke as possible and blew out mightily before sucking in clean air on the other side of him. Then, she casually crossed to the other side of the path, and slowed, so he could walk by and she could see his face. As it turned out, it was a good move.

He was gorgeous. She didn't know why, exactly, maybe she had been under a spell or something, but he was. To her, at least. She was walking painfully slowly, now, to look him up and down as he appeared to continue counting the cracks in the pavement. Scuff, scuff.

Shelia was watching his hair flutter with each step-scuff, when he snapped out of it, turned abruptly to her. And the entire world came tumbling down…

Had she been caught staring? Shelia Woo did NOT get caught staring. Not even the hottest of guys. Quick, feign disinterest! She let her eyes trail slowly to meet his, dreading what would happen next, maybe he'd ask her to stop staring, stalking, smiling…smiling?

It was brief, and then he stepped into the shoplet and vanished into its concrete depths. Still-he smiled. At. Me. And it was relived in her mind ten thousand times over before she came back down to earth.

The shoplet was 'Fame', the modeling company. She made sure she knew that.