Wang Jingyuan silently stared at her for a long second—so long, in fact, that Lu Qingyan began to wonder if he'd gone catatonic from the sheer absurdity of the situation.
Then, without a word, he slowly straightened up and—bang!—shut the locker door in her face.
Lu Qingyan was plunged into darkness once more.
Outside, the chatter and laughter of the boys continued unabated, completely unaware that a girl with a death wish and questionable life decisions was curled up in the middle locker like a rogue raccoon hiding in a vending machine.
'If that door had opened even an inch wider,' she thought, 'I would've seen more than I've ever Googled in my life. I'm too young to be arrested for peeping. I don't even have a criminal record yet!'
No one noticed Wang Jingyuan's unusual behavior.
After a moment, the door of the locker opened a small crack from within.
Wang Jingyuan looked at her from above and raised his eyebrows slightly.
Lu Qingyan raised her index finger to her lips and whispered, "Shh—"
But just as she was about to continue speaking, she heard Han Ming's voice.
"Brother Jing, what are you doing? Why haven't you changed your clothes yet?"
Wang Jingyuan stared at her for a moment before he closed the locker door again. This time, Lu Qingyan didn't dare to push open the door.
When Han Ming walked over, he saw Wang Jingyuan leaning on his locker. He was a little confused, "Brother Jing, why are you leaning like that instead of changing your clothes?"
Wang Jingyuan calmly said, "I couldn't find my goggles, you can go out first."
Although Han Ming was a little confused, he still believed him. He stepped forward to open Wang Jingyuan's locker, "How is that possible? I remember you putting your swimming trunks and goggles in the same place. I'll help you look for it."
Wang Jingyuan directly grabbed the wrist of the hand Han Ming had reached out with. He leaned closer and said solemnly in a threatening tone, "Don't touch my stuff."
Han Ming hissed in pain.
"Ow—ow, okay! Damn, bro, can't you be gentler? You trying to snap my wrist off?" He held his wrist and rubbed it for a while before he felt that something was off.
In the past, Wang Jingyuan never cared when he touched his locker.
Han Ming said half-jokingly, "What's wrong? It's not like you're hiding a beauty in your locker, there's no need to be so secretive."
The youths that were originally talking and laughing turned their eyes toward them as they noticed their movements.
Wang Jingyuan whispered at him without changing his expression, "Do you know what happens when you talk too much?"
"…No?"
A pause.
"Wanna find out?"
Han Ming caught a glimpse of his expression and suddenly remembered a joke he made during a previous swimming class.
As a result, he was directly kicked into the swimming pool by Wang Jingyuan when no one was paying attention.
Han Ming choked, he will never forget how Wang Jingyuan looked down at him from ashore and said, "Since there's water in your brain, you might as well go into the pool to drain it out. Isn't that nice."
Han Ming knew that this person was serious. He immediately stopped and sensibly said, "Okayokayokay, I'm going! Good luck finding your goggles. Don't be late!"
Seriously, don't know how I provoked him for him to suddenly become so hostile.
When the sound in the locker room slowly quieted down and returned to its former silence, Lu Qingyan let out a breath in relief before she slowly opened the locker door and crawled out.
It was not until she stood up that she noticed someone leaning against the locker. He looked down at her, with a deep expression in his eyes as he casually asked, "Deskmate, care to explain?"
Lu Qingyan: "…"
Lu Qingyan explained slowly, "I wasn't feeling well, so I was going to return to the classroom, but I accidentally went to the wrong locker room and ended up running into everyone else, so I could only hide in a locker."
Wang Jingyuan quietly looked at her for a long time before he lazily said, "And it just so happens to be my locker?"
Yes. Yes, it did. She wanted to deny it, but even the universe seemed to be mocking her.
Worse—what if he thought she did it on purpose?
Like she was some obsessive cannon fodder side character trying to seduce the male lead using tactics from Creepy Fangirl 101?
When she thought that the original host's tragic ending might've been caused by her constant attempt to find trouble with the antagonist, Lu Qingyan fell silent for a moment before she said to him, "Deskmate, you really are a good person."