"Did you notice that Chloe went through and liked every single photo on your official instagram?" Nino asked, scrolling through his phone with an expression of distaste.

"Is that look for my pictures or for Chloe?" Adrien asked, fiddling with his pencil rather than doing any homework. Nino was possibly the worst influence when it came to homework completion, but having him over for homework was possibly the only way Adrien's father would allow him through the doors these days. "And yeah, she checks the page every day. Sometimes she comments her phone number."

"Well, she's got points for being cheeky I guess," Nino replied. He set his phone down and looked curiously at Adrien, who raised his eyebrows in response. "What's it like, getting so much attention from girls?" he asked.

"Obnoxious," Adrien responded honestly. "I feel like if I ever take off my shirt I'll be responsible for six fainting episodes and a bloody nose."

"I don't know if that's too much anime or a too huge ego talking, my friend, but you're probably right. Which just makes poor old me upset," Nino said, laughing.

Adrien shrugged. "There's nothing to do about it. As long as I'm single, they think I'm free game."

He turned away from Nino's thoughtful expression, honestly dubious about whatever idea he was ruminating upon, and took the time to do a few math problems. Part of him worried that Nino would stay true to his previous ideas and attempt to ask Adrien's father for some help with the problem. He could only imagine what would happen if Nino succeeded that persuasion attempt-would his father conscript another of the teen models to pose as his girlfriend? He snorted as his own word choice. Model? Pose? He was a genius.

"My friend, you may not acknowledge it, but you are in the presence of a genius," Nino announced, striking the temporary fear that Nino might be able to read Adrien's thoughts into his heart. "Your problems only persists as long as you're single, no?"

Adrien narrowed his eyes. "True," he said.

"Then you need to get a girlfriend!" Nino said, hands proudly on hips.

"I don't like any girls though," Adrien replied. He hated to shoot down Nino's ideas but he couldn't picture any girl other than one spandex clad super heroine on his arm. The idea of a Chloe or a Rose so much as holding his hand made him uncomfortable.

"A boyfriend?" Nino offered.

"More tempting, but my father would likely kill me. Anyway I kinda do have a thing for one girl, but she doesn't go to our school and she definitely doesn't like me back," he said, laughing.

Nino pondered, and his thinking face was so dramatic that Adrien couldn't help but laugh.

"What about a fake girlfriend?" Nino suggested at last, looking less convinced of this idea than he had the previous two, but still hopeful. "Someone who knows they're not really in a relationship with you, but is willing to pretend so that you stop getting harassed."

"I…" Adrien began to shoot the idea down, but he paused, thinking about it a bit more. "We'd have to find someone who is really selfless to want to do that."

Marinette was hardly listening to the lecture. She knew it had something to do with physics-or at least that was a very likely topic of the lecture, given that she was sitting in Physics class. But when would physics help her in day to day life? True, she had a fairly good grasp of how fast something was going to fall, how much the wind affected things, and whether or not she had enough momentum to make jaw dropping leaps-but that wasn't really physics, right? More like instinct.

In any case, she'd been struck by inspiration after dealing with the latest akuma victim, and she needed to get all these designs to paper before she forgot them. She didn't know who was turning all of these poor people into villains, but whoever it was really had a sense of colour coordination.

"-ette. Marinette!"

Slowly, with much shame, she came to realize that someone was saying her name.

"I'm listening, I swear!" she said, her eyes snapping to the front of the room and her face turning pink.

"Well that's good to hear," replied Ms. Mendeleiev with a curious smile. She had been writing on the board just a moment ago, and it became clear with Chloe and Sabrina's laughter that she had not been the one attempting to get Marinette's attention.

Marinette covered her face with her hands until the moment passed, and the rest of the class returned their focus to physics problems.

"Psst!" came a voice from in front of her, and she uncovered a single eye to spy who was trying to talk to her.

Adrien was looking up at her, smiling apologetically, but undeniably trying to get her attention. Reflexively, she checked behind her in case someone more interesting was directly behind her and trying to having some sort of private conversation with Adrien. Of course, only Ivan was behind her, and he was snoring peacefully through the lecture. Which lead to the obvious conclusion that, yes, Adrien was trying to talk to her for some reason.

This was either going to be really good, or quite terrible.

"Y-yes?" she replied in a whisper, eyes scanning the front of the class nervously for reprimand.

He shook his head, still smiling, and gestured toward Ms. Mendeleiev, who was still occupied with the chalkboard. Instead of speaking, he turned and retrieved a scrap of paper from his bag, hastily marked something down, and passed it to her. As he slid it across her desk, he shot a friendly wink in her direction, and returned to classwork.

The entire exchange, if it could be called that, took about 5 seconds, and Marinette felt as though she were going to have a heart attack. Her heart hammered in her chest so loudly that she half feared it might be audible to the entire class. Mouth dry, hands shaking, she took the note and opened it.

Can we talk after class? I have something a bit awkward to ask you! read the note. It was punctuated with a hastily drawn smiley face, as though to reassure her.

Marinette tugged on Alya's sleeve and slid the note toward her, unable to speak.

Now, Marinette couldn't focus on the lecture or her designs. Her mind was a lovingly rendered portrait of Adrien, and nothing else. It was as though all thoughts had been scrubbed from her brain. When class was five minutes from ending, however, the portrait faded in favor of every single insecurity she had.

True, it seemed like this was a setup for Adrien to confess feelings for her-but when did things ever work out like that in real life? More likely he was going to ask if she could move seats in class so that someone cooler could sit close to him. Or he was going to ask if she could do his homework since he'd be so busy with photoshoots this upcoming week. Maybe he'd ask if Alya was single and he could date her. Maybe he wanted to know if he'd look cute with Chloe. Maybe, maybe, maybe-there were too many possibilities and there was exactly one outcome that would come out favorably for Marinette.

She wondered if it were ethical to try to use Lucky Charm to increase her chances of success.

The bell rang indicating that class was over, and she nearly jumped out of her seat in shock. She had gone from being delighted to miserable in less than five minutes, and she knew that no matter what Adrien asked of her, it would be a rollercoaster of emotions from here on out. Alya patted her back encouragingly and gave her two hopeful thumbs up.

Marinette smiled back at her friend, glad to have such a stalwart supporter, and knew that if Adrien asked if he should date Alya, she would absolutely say yes. The two best people she knew outside of costume should definitely be together, if neither of them could be with her.

She began to pack up, waiting for Adrien to call for her to ask whatever disastrous question that he thought she might be able to answer.

He beckoned her into the hallway, and with much dread, she shrugged on her backpack and followed him. Nino and Alya stayed in the class behind them, politely giving their friends some space to talk.

Marinette stood stiff as a board, heels clicked together, as though she were a soldier standing at attention. Her fingernails nearly punctured the straps of her backpack as she gripped them in anxiety, and she closed her eyes in anticipation.

"Relax, Marinette," Adrien said, putting a friendly hand on her shoulder.

Somehow, she stiffened even more. "You had a question for me?" she asked, her voice tremulous.

"Sorry for this whole cloak and daggers routine, I just didn't want to get yelled at by Ms. Mendeleiev, and I'm sure you didn't want any more attention in class. Sorry, by the way, for that," he began, rubbing his hand along the back of his neck.

"Oh! It's okay, I promise!" she said, waving her hands nervously. "It's my fault I wasn't paying attention in class!"

"You're so nice, Marinette," Adrien said, smiling comfortably at her. She could feel her face getting hotter, but was powerless to stop the pink blush from spreading across her cheeks. "Which is why I want to ask you a pretty big favor."

"G-go on," she said, daring to get her hopes up once more.

She looked up at him, eyes encouraging and hopeful, and Adrien just kept smiling. Perhaps he was on the right path with this. If anyone would be willing to sacrifice their time and possibly reputation to help someone else, it would be Marinette. She was always getting put into situations which couldn't be fun for such a shy girl, but she always managed to pull through and perform her best for the sake of the group. There wasn't a selfish bone in the girl's body.

"Well, you know how Chloe is always bugging me? Nino and I thought of a way to get her to cut that out, and maybe get all the girls who like me off my back," he began, and he watched her eyes widen in confusion. He'd best get this over with, so she could stop guessing at what he wanted. "If I had a girlfriend, they'd leave me alone. So uh-"

All the blush that had been filling her cheeks seemed to drain from her face at once. Was it shock? Was it anger? He suddenly began to regret asking her-it really was too much!

"Y-you want me to be your girlfriend?" she asked, her voice scarcely above a whisper.

"Well, sortof?" he said, grimacing with discomfort. She clearly wasn't amenable to the idea of being his girlfriend, but he'd gone this far, and he had to keep going. "It would be an arrangement. We'd pretend to be dating so that people would leave me alone," he explained. "I know it's a lot to ask from you, but if you wanted me to do something for you in exchange I totally would!"

She gulped. She blinked once, twice, hard. She shook her head.

"I'm sorry I-" he began, hoping he could backpedal away from this and pretend it had never happened.

"I'll do it!" she said, a smile stretching her face. "If it helps you, I'd love to. You don't need to do anything for me."

He smiled and let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you so much," he said, putting both of his hands on her shoulders. He could feel her tense up, and then relax under his hands. She was so uncomfortable with him, he couldn't fathom why she'd agreed to help, but he was glad. "I appreciate this so much, Marinette. You're a real friend."

With that, he began to walk back into class to collect Nino.

"Wait!" she said, reaching out for him. When he turned, she blushed bright pink again, and stammered for a moment before she managed, "If we're going to do this, we'll need to exchange phone numbers."