Fate or Chance

Her family and friends

Marinette Dupain-Cheng considered herself a normal teenager, true, she had two secret identities, one as a mysterious designer and the other as the fucking heroine of Paris, but in essence, she saw herself as a normal teenager.

So why were her two best friends making such a fuss over a boy she had just met?

True, Damien had turned out to be a very nice guy, and you had to be blind not to notice how attractive he was, his jet black hair and deep, beautiful green eyes...

Okay, maybe there was reason to make a fuss.

But Marinette was not the same naive girl who had fallen in love with a boy just because he showed her courtesy by giving her an umbrella. No, Marinette had grown up and matured. Yes, she was still a bit of a dreamer, but her dreams were different now.

Her main concern at the moment was to make sure Hawkmoth was stopped, that would give her time to think and occupy herself with her other goals, namely surviving high school and succeeding in her career as a designer.

At the moment, she was doing regularly well on both fronts.

She had created the MDC brand and only people she trusted, such as Uncle Jagged and those he had recommended, could commission her. Almost no one knew anything about MDC, only Marinette, her parents, Jagged and Penny (they were the ones who helped him create MDC) and his friends. Oh, and Audrey who had caught them in flagrante delicto while they were working. Come to think of it, it wasn't as secret as she would like.

Chloe had been elated when she had discovered the secret, so much so, that she decided to create her own alter ego as a model, thus "Honey" was born.

Both girls' careers in the fashion world were going smoothly. Their school life, on the other hand?

It could be better...

Lila Rossi was a continual source of headaches for the girl with the black hair, after all, she as class president had to deal with a group of teenagers who didn't trust her, all because of the Italian girl.

That had left her and Chloe isolated from the rest. Chloe didn't mind too much, she said worrying about the opinion of "the gullible ball" was useless.

But it hurt Marinette, it hurt that Alya had chosen Lila, it hurt that the group of girls who had previously been able to put together a mission impossible scheme so that she could talk to her crush, now ignored her or looked at her with distrust and reproach.

And even though Chloe would try to play tough, she had seen the pained looks she used to give Sabrina.

However, even though her school life was not very good socially, Marinette was not complaining.

Gradually, as she matured and found other things to occupy her mind to deal with the pain of losing her friends, the stress of maintaining good grades, and improving her skills as a designer, not to mention her heroic activities, she had found new horizons and new friends.

Kagami and Chloe were now her best friends, Luka her friend and confidant, Nathaniel and Marc, the lovebirds Chloe loved to tease.

That's not counting the friends she had made at the Brigitte Bardot Foundation and The Mason of Miracles.

So Marinette saw herself as someone more mature, someone who wasn't going to be easily charmed by a handsome boy.

If only someone would pass the memo on to Kagami.....

Ever since the night the three friends had buried their feelings for Adrien Agreste, Kagami had become extremely overprotective.

That had been the reason for her first fight with Chloe, who accused her of being paranoid after Kagami had not-so-subtly threatened the son of a businessman who seemed to want to get close to Chloe.