'Do you always have to choose epic moments to embarrass yourself?' A honey brown haired girl approached and helped her up. 'Are you fine?'
'Yes,' Xing Xing replied and looked after the new comer. 'Li-me, why... why are people kneeling?'
'Ah Xing, you were the first to kneel for him and now you're asking why?' Li-me lifted a teasing brow.
'Me? I knelt for him?' Xing Xing asked and the girl nodded. 'Why would I do that? He's just a person like me. I was...'
'I know you fell. But not everyone thinks like me.' She nodded at the girls that were getting on their knees as the newcomer walked by. 'Look, you're finally successful in something. Everyone is copying you.'
'Li-me you...'
'At least they're not saying you fell for him.' Li-me smoothed Xing Xing's shirt and quickly added. 'It's almost time for class. See you.'
Li-me was off before Xing Xing could say anything more
Xing Xing marched to her locker. 'At least they're not saying I fell for him? I'd rather they say I fell for him than that I knelt for him.' She entered her combination. She got it wrong before it clicked open on the second try.
'It's embarrassing to think that I was worshipping him. I wish I could tell him that I was on my knees because I fell...' A pen fell from her locker and she went down to pick it up. '... and not for him...'
'Hey,'
Xing Xing looked up. Her eyes widened and she quickly straightened, in the process dropping the pen. She quickly snatched it up and turned away from him.
Why was he here? Did he come because he thinks she knelt for him earlier? She must tell him the truth, or he would continue feeling smug and the level of self-importance she had sensed in him earlier would be uncontrollable.
Keeping her eyes shut, she turned. 'Earlier someone bumped into me and I fell. I wasn't kneeling for you.'
No response. She opened her eyes.
Her eyes landed on the lower chest. Was she really that short? Her head wasn't even reaching his shoulders. No, it must be because he was abnormally tall, her height was fine. With that height, if she looked up, was it even possible to see his face?
Xing Xing lifted her eyes and smiled triumphantly. It was possible to see his face. She wasn't so short after all!
He looked like a god, the God of Beauty. Was it even possible for a person to be that beautiful? His appearance was fresh enough for her mind to add droplets of water to his image. Up close his hair was pure white, styled to fall over one side of his face.
From her poor angle the new comer's eyes seemed crystal grey, or perhaps silver. Xing Xing blinked. He was blankly looking down at her like a life-sized statue. She blinked again, stopped smiling and looked away.
Why was she prone to embarrassment ever since she met him? It hadn't even been an hour but...
'The locker.'
His voice was low but not soft, and there was some sort of breathlessness in it. Xing Xing frowned. She had, for some reasons, expected a different voice. Rough and terrifying to match his features but... She looked up again.
His face had definite features of chiseled jaws and a light shade of pink lips below a slightly high bridged nose. The lips were the only colorful part of him. Even the navy-blue blazer seemed colorless on him.
Xing Xing blinked and averted her eyes. He had said something, hadn't he?
'Wh-what?'
'Help if you want.'
Xing Xings eyes flew to his face. Help if she wanted? He was such an arrogant...
He stared back defiantly even though somehow, he managed to keep his face blank. Weirdly though, Xing Xing felt the need to help. But with what?
The locker.
'Oh, sorry,' Xing Xing said. He didn't have to say anything. The lockers of Szalay Academy had a different type of security that nearly every newcomer had trouble with. More yet, asking for help would always be newcomers' nightmare.
'It's okay.' She stepped in front of his locker. 'I also didn't know how to use these lockers when I first came here.'
He said nothing.
She explained and showed him how to change the password. When she looked up to confirm whether he was following, he was still staring at her blankly.
Or maybe thats just how he was.
Xing Xing gave him a polite smile stepping away from his locker. 'You can enter your password now.' She would excuse him for his rudeness on grounds that he was new.
'Do it.'
'Huh?' Xing Xing gawped at him. 'I... It's... your password should be private. Only you should know it.'
The boy said nothing.
Xing Xing was beginning to think he was a robot that ran out of power. She breathed, 'If someone else gets to know your password, they could easily break into your locker. And they could steal from you.'
'Do you steal?'
'Huh? Me?' Her eyes widened. 'Sorry, I'll look away now.' she turned away giving him his privacy. 'He could have just asked me to turn away...' she murmured to herself. 'Instead of standing there like a... and what would make him think I'm a thief? Acting as if he'll store a diamond in there.'
After a while she glanced over her shoulder. 'Are you done?' Why was she even concerned about him?
'Do you steal?'
'No, I dont.' she turned to him. 'Why do you keep asking if I steal? Do you want me to steal from you?'
'Put in the password.'
'No, I can't do it for you.' She turned to him. 'It's better if you do it yourself so that you can remember your... okay.' She turned back to his locker when he produced a notebook and pen.
'Arrogant. He's so arrogant. He doesn't even know my name yet he's treating me like his servant.' She entered a new password and wrote it down for him. Then she paused for a moment.
'Hurry.'
'Do I look like your maid?' The words slipped out her mouth before they crossed her mind.
The boy slammed his hand onto the locker just above her head making her jump. He leaned in, bringing his face close to hers. Her eyes widened as adrenaline rush overpowered her before they closed instinctively, her head turning away.
If he came closer, Xing Xing promised herself, she'd scream.
But he didn't come closer. When she opened her eyes, he was gone. It was as though he was never there. Even the notebook and pen in her hand was gone, his locker shut.
Looking around, Xing Xing noticed how everyone stared after him and knew that she hadn't imagined him and that everyone had been watching them all along. This had to be her bad day. She turned to shut her locker and froze.
The password she put into his locker was the same as hers. Not good at all, but she was already running late for class. She'd change his combination later, or he'd think she did it on purpose in order to steal his nonexistent diamonds.