Chapter Text
"I’m telling you Mari, the science behind it is UNREAL. How does it even work? Apparently people who have soulmates are more likely to get cancer than others! ”
“Doesn’t everybody have a soulmate?”
“Still! ”
Marinette rolled her eyes to herself while balancing her phone and cold cup of black coffee on one hand, pushing past another crowd of students, stopping and waving goodbye to her friends a few metres away. The thought of finding her soulmate hadn’t occurred to her lately, no thanks to the pile of projects she had coming.
“Oh! Ranks are out today! I know you’ve been looking forward to this day for WEEKS. For some reason. Most normal people hate getting marks back, you know. Just a thought. ”
If this was still lycee, then she would be inclined to agree. However, ever since she got thrown into the ‘real world’, Marinette had become ‘that one girl’ refreshing the website to see her rank. But first, she had to find a secluded spot where people wouldn’t see her scrolling on her phone like an internet-obsessed addict.
“Is it because of Adr- ”
“NO!” Marinette yelled, slightly too loud for a public space. Quickly realising her mistake, she whipped her head around, only just noticing the large crowd of students that she was hidden in. One of the few benefits to being on the shorter side, I guess. Very few.
“Well, anyway. I wonder what the exact feeling is like when you meet your soulmate. Everybody online has had a different experience, but they all say the same thing; that it’s unlike anything that they’ve ever experienced before. So cliche. But so romantic! ”
Marinette snuck out of the crowd and found a small bench to sit on that was just out of public view, carefully redoing her ponytail while her phone bounced on her lap.
“I don’t get what your gripe is with dating boys. It’s like you don’t do it just to spite them all. I can’t count on two hands the amount of times you’ve left a guy heartbroken and in tears. Not even counting the guy whose love letters you burnt.”
“I’m not particularly proud of that incident. Accident. It was an accident.”
“Not that there’s anything wrong with a bit of revenge against the male species, but it seems a tad out of character for the fangirl who was fantasising about Adrien Agreste the ‘super hot supermodel' when we were in high school.”
Startled, Marinette quickly turned her phone volume down at the last sentence, letting her dark blue hair run wild over her shoulders while her hairband fell onto the bench. Deciding not to reply to such an audacious statement, she resumed her frantic refreshing of the university page. Ignoring the work she had yet to complete, she had nothing else to do for the time being, so she was left to tap on her phone in silence. Of course, until her ‘best friend’ kept talking.
“Still, I can’t believe that you fawned over Adrien for years on end, but as soon as you meet him in the flesh, you suddenly lose all interest? I call BS.”
Marinette hoped her eye roll reached Alya through the call. “Ugh, if you mention his name one more time, I’ll hang up without telling you my rank.”
“Alright, let’s not get too hasty. But I will be expecting a full story sometime. And since when have you been obsessed with getting high marks? I could’ve sworn that you wanted to be a stay at home mom for a certain boy a couple years ago…”
That wasn’t a lie either. Marinette had given up most of her free time that would have been used designing or socialising, instead opting to study to reach the brief glimmer of hope that she would beat him in a perhaps feeble attempt to prove her independence. She was half-certain the love gene had skipped a generation. But just because Alya was right, it didn’t mean she would entertain her.
“Goodbye, Cesaire.”
“Wait wait WAIT- ”
Marinette promptly pressed the red button, leaning back and letting the rays of sun burn the thought out of her head. To an extent, Alya was right. I guess I was pretty bad back then. But that’s before I saw Adrien’s true face, the rat bastard. Even if in some parallel universe, Marinette didn’t have a vendetta against Adrien, he already had a soulmate, while Marinette was perpetually stuck in a cycle of single-ness. Tilting her head to look at her phone, she noticed that her site refresh was taking slightly longer than usual.
She jerked up as her heart plummeted, frantically scrolling through her results. Come on… Come on… Oh HELL N-
She groaned, slamming her poor phone on the bench. Slumping over, Marinette let out a long breath while staring at the number on her screen. Her worst nemesis and yet her oldest friend. Rank 2. Again. Well anyways, let’s get home before…
“I didn’t think I’d see you here!”
Shit.
She barely turned to see a blonde head of hair grinning at her from ear to ear. Marinette moved her head to glare at his face, and was blinded by his ‘natural model looks’. He seemed to have completely skipped the awkward acne-ridden stage of his life, and transformed into a supermodel overnight. Though he had stopped modelling a while ago, it wasn’t as if he had grown any less handsome. Marinette watched as the sunlight bathed his body in brightness and the winds blew his golden hair in just the right direction. Adrien always had perfect posture and utterly graceful movements, and his pale skin seemed to have its own lustre, protecting it from the harmful rays of the sun. She was sure that a camera went off somewhere, but she was more concerned with the orchestral singing of pigeons in the background. Asshole.
“I assume you’ve seen the results for this semester. I will say, you made a decent effort to beat me. I’ve seen your attempts at studying, however useless they were. But the result was inevitable. Nevertheless, a high rank is commendable, but stop trying to beat me. Might spare you some of the humiliation when you fail next semester.” he said with an implied smirk on his face, bending over her body and blocking out the warm sun.
“Do you ever talk normally, Agreste? I think you have a little Victorian man stuck in your body. I guess I can see where your intelligence comes from.” she scowled, looking up at him.
He seemed to thoroughly enjoy Marinette’s dishevelled state, although his expression remained unchanged. She could feel the smirk on his face. It was right there. “Well, it wouldn’t be very nice if I just called you a loser and laughed at you. I’m not a bully, Marinette. Perhaps changing the manner in which you speak would make you seem like more than a vlogger. Such wasted potential.”
This was hardly better than bullying. Wait . “How long were you waiting for me to see the results from behind me?”
Adrien checked an imaginary watch on one of his leather-gloved hands and leaned further against her bench. “You see, I had nothing better to do than to watch your ghastly reaction at your pitifully low mark. It seems like such a shame that Little Miss Perfect, loved by men and women alike, can’t beat a little old model boy like me.”
Marinette gathered her things and stood up from her seat, looking up at Adrien. “That’s rich coming from a rich boy like you. How much money did your daddy pay to get you that mark? I’ve always wondered why you did design instead of something like law. It’s probably because you’re too dumb.”
Adrien’s sharp chartreuse eyes pierced through her bravado, and he stepped towards her. “Why don’t you go back to your parents, Rank 2? Maybe they’ll have a cookie for you to eat. “
Marinette stood straight, glaring back at him. “Why don’t you go back to the rock you climbed out from and go study until your eyes pop out? Or go cry to your mommy?” she spat, spinning around and storming off.
What an obnoxious asshole. From day 1, he had constantly pissed her off. Marinette was definitely going to rant to her friends about him later that night, she decided while walking back home. I should be more nice to Alya for making her listen to me every day. She decided to ignore the little voice in the back of her head that told her she was obsessed. Marinette would like to think she was a nice person, but something about Adrien’s cocky, narcissistic attitude brought out the worst in her. If her younger self saw how she was treating the love of her life, she would probably enter a coma from the shock.
Well, I think I’ve established that the old Marinette was an idiot. Maybe she’d give Alya a break and rant to Tikki about it for once, mostly due to the fact that Alya would cry herself laughing about Marinette’s struggles. How is he Rank 1 again? And he’s always just a mark above me. Like he’s teasing me or something. He doesn’t even treat his grades seriously. It’s like my life’s dream is just an inconvenience for him! Marinette decided not to consider the possibility that he wasn’t trying his hardest, and decided to look on the bright side. If my soulmate’s anything like him, I’ll die from embarrassment. She didn’t want to be one of the unlucky few people that had a soulmate that they hated. That’d be a lonely club to be part of.
Speaking of which, she suddenly got a strong desire to reopen the Adrien Agreste Hate Club. Of course, she was the president and vice-president. As well as its employee of the month.
Marinette turned the last corner into her apartment, and walked into the elevator muttering an Ancient Chinese curse she had seen on the internet. And why is it always me!? Surely Adrien Agreste has some fangirls he’d love to degrade. She muttered a few more choice words in Mandarin while fumbling with her keys, and walked into her place. Her small unit had a living room, bathroom and bedroom, a very cramped yet cosy space. Marinette had tried her hand at interior design, but had eventually settled on a very plain browny white design so that she could add photos and souvenirs as they came along. Not that you could tell, because the place was trashed.
I am so going to beat up yesterday me for this mess. There were scraps of paper littered around her desk, and random books and pencils like landmines across the room. Grumbling, she moved to pick up the drawing tools off of the floor, trying to remember if anyone was scheduled to come over that day. She’d hate to be known as a slob, after all she went through to prove she could live by herself. She could already hear Adrien’s mocking voice in her head. Wait, Adrien?
GET OUT OF MY HEAD! She thought fiercely, toppling over the stack of coloured pencils she had just made, leaving some unseemly marks on the wall. She grimaced, but tried to look away from it, opting to move a pot plant over to cover it. After all, this was only a temporary living space she was renting out, but she still wanted it to be nice and homey. I get home after dealing with Adrien, and more chores are waiting for me. Yay.
Barely bothering to change, she walked to her bedroom and unceremoniously flopped onto her mattress and sunk into her pillows. And why does Adrien always call me Little Miss Perfect whilst also viciously insulting me for every mistake I make? She sighed and rolled over in her bed. Men make no sense.
Staring at a picture of her and her highschool friends, she noticed a slight blur in her vision, probably clouded by that darn nostalgia. And why does that bastard have a soulmate while mine is still out there somewhere? She shook her head, looking around for something to distract herself so she wouldn’t have to think about him. She sat up and slowly took out the designs in her closet. I wonder what the love of my life would look like in these clothes. I wonder what he’d look like at all. Barely paying attention to measurements and feasibility, she took out her sketchbook and drew, pen easily sliding across the paper to create tuxedos and suits, subconsciously adding more details to the model rather than the outfit.
After an indiscriminate amount of time, she noticed that her designs had started to resort to the proportions that she knew the best, as well as the body type she knew the best. Damn Agreste. She closed her sketchbook, unable to look at the blonde hair any longer, and went to go brush her teeth. Her apartment was always quiet due to her regrettable lack of a roommate and even more regrettable lack of a boyfriend, and it was something that she had wanted to fix for a while. Serendipitously, she had managed a scholarship in highschool, and was able to live by herself with some help from her parents and commissions.
Not that the loneliness didn’t still get to her. She considered calling Alya for a second, but decided against it, opting to just go to bed so she’d be more awake for lectures the next day. But no matter how much she counted sheep or let her mind drift off, she couldn’t keep her eyelids shut. Marinette would never admit it, but she was a drop-dead romantic. But she didn’t see the need to go search for boyfriends when she wouldn’t trust anybody but her soulmate. Absolutely not. Never again. Of course, she would have loved to be Adrien’s soulmate. Maybe then he wouldn’t treat her as badly as he did. But right now, just the mention of him left a sour note in her mouth.
She peered over at the photo of her highschool friends again. She did miss a lot of her friends since they had all split up to do different majors in different universities. But wishing she could go back to highschool wasn’t an option she would consider even if she had some sort of magical powers. In a way, university was the best thing to ever happen to her. An opportunity to start anew, meet new people and to be a new person. Someone who wasn’t weighed down by ghosts of the past. Of course, the price was to deal with an annoying insufferable blonde boy.
She bitterly laughed at her ceiling and closed her eyes again. Today was the worst day ever. And it’s all because of you. She hated Adrien Agreste.