It had been approximately a week and three days since she had found the tightly scrunched-up wad of paper that contained the most romantic love poem that was to ever exist. At least, those had been Marinette's thoughts when she had been at least 90% sure that the poem had been written for her, but ever since she had replied to the poem and had posted it addressed to the Agreste mansion on the account of the surges of love filling the air and pulsing through her veins, she had come up short when receiving no reply.

Not that she had expected too. To be rational, she wasn't even sure what she had been expecting. Adrien to show up to school in a t-shirt sporting sequins and spelling 'I 3 Marinette'? The image she had conjured up was far too pitiful to be even the slightest bit amusing, so much so that she let out a lamenting sigh.

"What's wrong, Marinette?" Tikki asked, her usually bright blue eyes seemed rather dampened, as if Marinette's deflated mood had rubbed off on her. "You've been sighing a lot recently, are you tired?"

Marinette shook her head firmly, shaking away the pathetic fantasy. "Nothing's the matter, Tikki. You're right; I'm just tired."

Tikki hovered in front of Marinette for a while, analysing her expression before zooming over rather energetically to the letter that Marinette had kept pinned onto the wall. "Oh, Marinette! It's about Adrien's love letter to you, isn't it?"

"His love letter, yes, but not to me," Marinette replied dejectedly and Tikki let out a small giggle.

"Who else could it be for? Don't be so dramatic," Tikki lightly teased. A small smile graced Marinette's face in response.

"I'm trying not to be, Tikki. But I sent him back a poem! He must know it's me! But he hasn't said or done anything different! It's been a week and nothing has changed, yet everything has? Help me, Tikki!" Throughout her monologue, Marinette had resorted to begging on her knees to the black-dotted Kwami, her expression rather lost and desperate.

Tikki took in Marinette's words and after some careful thought eventually fluttered closer to her. "Marinette, I know this is hard for you - you were so optimistic about the letter, but there is a high chance that you didn't even sign your poem that you sent back in response." Marinette let out a small groan and flung herself melodramatically onto her bed, she couldn't deny that it wasn't a possibility. In fact, the chances were very high, and she felt a small ray of happiness pierce through her dark mood; maybe Adrien didn't know who the sender was and that's why he hadn't replied! It also explained as to why Adrien's behaviour towards her had remained the same.

Although, she began to question, even if Adrien had received the poem and it had been signed, he was self-assured and confident in his interactions with others, if he had found out that she liked him would he really change his behaviour towards her? If he didn't recuperate her feelings would he turn her down politely and carry on the same way he always had? She believed he would, after all, it wasn't like Adrien to cut somebody out completely if somebody liked him and he didn't appear to return their feelings. Marinette knew that he and Chloé were fairly close, and everyone knew how Chloé felt towards Adrien - she didn't have a habit of making it secret.

Tikki carried on, "even if you did sign it, he hasn't changed his behaviour towards you, isn't that a good sign? But then again, you can't make it more than ten minutes in his presence without getting overwhelmed and running away, Marinette, so how do you know how he treats you normally?" She smiled cheekily and Marinette pretended to glower at her while trying not to laugh.

And then something seemed to spark within her and Marinette realised something. She shot up from her bed and practically sprinted over to the poem pinned onto the wall, she traced the words with desperate eyes. "Your hair is jet black... It can't be Chloé then... I want to ask who you are behind your mysterious mask... What could that mean? Does it mean who you are inside like you said, Tikki?"

Said Kwami looked slightly on edge and drifted over to Marinette hastily. "It's getting slightly late and you've got school tomorrow, shouldn't you go to sleep?"

"Thanks, Tikki, I will. But I can't until I figure this out! You're right about me not being able to make it through ten minutes without running away whenever I'm with Adrien, Tikki. So how would I know how he acts around me compared to other people? He likes someone, and I need to know who before I lose my mind! 'Mysterious mask'? Like a facade? Jet black hair and eyes as blue as the heavens... A mask..." And then she let out a loud gasp, as if all of the oxygen in the room had been stolen away and she was clinging onto the last lungful. At least, that's what it felt like to her.

"What is it, Marinette? Did you realise something?" Tikki asked, keen for a solution to the problem and slightly confused due to Marinette's horror-stricken expression.

"Tikki. I know who it is. Who Adrien likes and wrote this poem too."

If Tikki had eyebrows she knew she would have been raising them as if to say: 'you're only just now realising this?'

Marinette turned away from the poem and let out a quivering breath before pulling the corners of her mouth into an alarmingly bright smile. "Well, I'll go to bed, Tikki. I've got school tomorrow and we're getting out partners for the project in Literature studies! Good night, sweet dreams!"

Tikki could only watch in dismay and confusion as Marinette crawled haphazardly into bed, still grinning widely as if laughing silently at an inside joke.

"... You too, Marinette," Tikki responded quite limply. A slight coil of dread residing inside her stomach as she laid down and tried to get comfy. Although Marinette represented luck as Ladybug and often possessed good fortune herself, the red Kwami felt only dreaded things were to come to pass the next day. And how right she was.