Chapter Text
Marinette watched as her alarm clock turned 12:00 AM, and pressed the icon with the red-haired boy in glasses. The screen turned black, then to white as the logo of the company, Cheritz, popped up. She watched as the screen changed once again to five people and a catchy tune played in the background. She analyzed the five people. There was the same red-haired boy, a silver haired boy, a prim-looking assistant, a black-haired man, and a blond who looked coincidentally like Adrien.
She tapped the screen immediately.
After signing in, she was taken to a screen full of strange codes, and then...a chatroom?
Marinette sighed and decided to play along. After all, it was Rose and Juleka who recommended it. She supposed it wouldn't be so bad.
It had been four days. Marinette was addicted. Right now, she was talking to Yoosung- the blond gamer who looked like Adrien. She stifled a laugh at Yoosung's surprised emoji. It was so cute, she couldn't help it! The game was funny, and although the times did interfere with her normal schedule, it was worth it. Her smile widened as she obtained another green heart. Another point for Yoosung.
By the end of the chat, she had collected around five hearts. She smiled, feeling accomplished. The world of Mystic Messenger was so immersive, that she didn't even notice Alya staring at her with her hand propping up her head. Her eyebrow was raised, and Marinette knew that she was completely cornered.
"So, what was so funny that you've been checking your phone all day?" She asked. Marinette bit her lip and avoided her gaze. Did she really want to admit that she was playing a dating sim? Especially with one who had a character that looked a lot like Adrien?
"Nothing," she said, and turned off her phone. She gave her a tight smile. Alya rolled her eyes and snatched the phone out of her hand. Pressing her hand on the home button, she gained access to her phone. Marinette groaned, her face quickly turning red.
"Nothing, huh?" she murmured. "If it's nothing, you should be able to tell me. I mean, there's nothing on your phone that looks any diff- well, that's a new one." Alya turned to Marinette, her eyebrow raised even higher. She turned back to her phone and pressed the app. Marinette knew she was screwed when she heard Yoosung's voice greet, 'Cheritz,' and the catchy tune playing. Alya stared at the screen, which featured all main routes of the game. She watched Alya's eyes widened, and her left eyebrow shot up. Marinette bit her lip, waiting for her reaction. Thankfully, Marinette was saved when a person gasped and rushed up to them excitedly. Even more fortunately, it was Adrien.
"Oh my god. Do you guys play Mystic Messenger too?" He smiled widely and looked at them in turn, his eyes shining brightly. His expression brightened further when Marinette shyly raised her hand.
“Yeah, do you play too?” she asked. Her cheeks heated up.
“Yeah! I mean it’s meant for girls, but Seven is too amazing to pass up!” he exclaimed.
Marinette’s eyes widened. “Really? I mean, he’s uh, funny and all, but I like um…Yoosung better.” She neglected to mention that the bespectacled hacker reminded her of Chat Noir.
She glared at Alya beside her when she heard her cough and mutter, “I wonder why.”
“Yoosung was my first route. He’s cool, but honestly? His bad ending creeped me out.” Adrien rubbed the back of his neck.
“Wait, you got his bad ending on purpose ?” Forgetting about her shyness, Marinette exclaimed, leaning closer to him. “How could you even think about doing that? He’s like, a total cinnamon roll! Why would you do that?”
“No! No! Of course not!” Adrien put his hands up defensively. “I saw it on fan archives and stuff. I couldn’t ever do that to him.”
Marinette pulled back, her cheeks bright red. “Oh, right. Of course, you wouldn’t. Hehe. I guess I’m just attached.” She rubbed the back of her head, embarrassed.
Adrien laughed behind his head. “Evidently. Anyways, what do you think about the other characters?” He leaned forward. “Personally, other than Seven, Jaehee is my favourite.”
Marinette chuckled. “I hope this doesn’t mean that you have a thing for your assistant.” She poked his chest. Adrien widened his eyes. Marinette’s eyes widened also when she realized what she said.
"Oh my god!” She shouted, scrambling her arms in random motions. “I didn’t mean it like that! I just found a bunch of similarities, and I mean, of course you don’t have a thing for your assistant. For one, she’s like way older than you, and um, Jaehee’s just er, a character in a dating game, and oh my god, I’m so sorry!” Groaning, she laid her head on her desk face down. How embarrassing. Out of all the things she had to bring out, she had to talk about that.
Meanwhile, Adrien stared at her head, wide-eyed with red cheeks. Alya was roaring with laughter beside them.
It took a few minutes, but Marinette forced herself to look at him. “Um, maybe we should just forget I said that?”
Adrien shook himself out of his stupor and nodded vigorously. “Yeah, yeah. Totally. Um, so do you think you’ll be doing V’s route anytime soon?”
Marinette’s eyes widened. “Another Story? That’s like 300 hourglasses! How did you even get that many?”
Adrien smiled tremulously. “Uh, I actually bought it?”
“Of course you did.”
They glanced at each other and chuckled.
For the rest of the break, Adrien and Marinette talked about Mystic Messenger, the different characters, DLCs, and just the game in general. It inspired a lot of different arguments and discussions between them. Marinette was surprised to find out that Adrien had a surprising cat obsession-one that rivaled his preferred character, Seven’s, obsession. And she couldn’t believe that he thought Jumin was justified in the way he lived his life. He said, she’d find out when she got to his route. Marinette pointed out that Adrien just found him relatable. They avoided the general subject of V and Unknown, Adrien teasing her with the latter’s identity.
There were also a lot of things they agreed on. One of them was Yoosung’s obsession for Rika. Like, did he have to assume MC would be the same as Rika? Another was the main character’s generic responses. Like Adrien pointed out, who would actually be that calm in that situation? Marinette knew that if it was her, she’d have transformed into Ladybug and flew out of there.
Overall, it was a good way to spend the break, and it ended when Adrien had to answer his own chatroom for Jaehee’s route. He wouldn’t let her see it, claiming that spoilers would just influence her choices. She rolled her eyes, but let him do his thing.
Marinette smiled as she watched Adrien’s facial expressions flit from content to exhilarated to frustrated, then back. He was more of a dork than she previously thought, but it made him all the better in her mind.
She was shaken out of her stupor when her phone buzzed. She checked it, and opened the message from Alya.
‘So all it took for you to talk to him properly was to talk about a game where you date his look-a-like? Wow, girl. Colour me impressed.”
Marinette blushed and rolled her eyes. She nudged her in the arm as a response.
So maybe, she did talk to him about dating his virtual look-a-like. But so what? In all fairness, it was still progress. And maybe, she could move on to dating him one day.