Thanks a lot father, Adrien mentally cursed as he viewed the fake stage setup for the show. Who in their right minds thought that this was a good way to gain publicity for the company? And here's a better thought, why did he have to suffer because of it? Worst of all, this was all happening in front of a live audience, so Adrien had to act perfect the whole time.
He took in the view of the stage and admired its décor. There was a catwalk between two sides of the stage. The right side of the stage facing the audience was basked in a light pink glow, while the other side was basked in a light blue one. There were multiple white podiums along each side of the stage for each contestant.
Luckily, Adrien was smart enough to do his homework and watch at least several episodes of the show's first season. The contestants that he sorted to the light pink stage would be the ones that he favored, opposite to the contestants on the blue stage.
The model turned to Nathalie, his father's assistant who was sent to make sure that everything went smoothly. Meanwhile the actual man who sent him was present through the ipad that she has holding.
"This show has the highest ratings on its channel. The more views we get, the more we boost our publicity. Do not mess this up, son" Gabriel Agreste stated as he looked at the stage once more.
Adrien sighed. Interviews and extra photo shoots were fine, but this? This was his father's worst idea yet.
"How does being on a date show help you with your fashion company?" the model voiced out. His father didn't answer, instead choosing to leave Nathalie with specific instructions on what to do. With his last sentence said, he ended the call, leaving the screen a pitch black.
Nathalie gave Adrien a sympathetic look, or rather, he thought that she did. It was impossible to tell since her face was usually free of emotions. "I'm going to meet up with the producer to discuss the running of the show. The manager would be out shortly to show you the basic steps on what to do".
The model nodded as she walked off with his bodyguard just as he got a phone call from his best friend. Relief swept through him as he picked up.
"Hey, dude. How's the show going?" Nino's asked with a cheerful voice, hoping the best for his friend.
Adrien sighed, not very interested in the topic. As he grew up, the model was always told about finding true love either from silly fairytales or from anime. But that didn't stop Adrien from being a big romantic at heart. It just never occurred to him that he was going to find love through a date show.
"Going as great as my father wants it, I guess," Adrien frowned as he answered his friend.
"That's a bummer. It was right before Alya's master plan too."
The model raised an eyebrow. "You mean the one where she planned to set me up with her best friend?"
"That's the one."
Adrien met Nino's girlfriend on multiple occasions. Alya was nice, had a fierce personality is she ever needed to show that side of her, but if there's one thing that Adrien learned, it was not to question the redhead…until he heard about this setup.
"I wasn't really interested in dating in the first place anyways, so tell Alya thanks for the setup, but I'll pass."
"That's too bad. I knew your suppose to be date since middle school, and let me just tell you, Mari's a real catch. I had a crush on her at one point myself until I realized that Alya's the one for me."
Rolling his eyes, Adrien was about to respond when someone yelled out that Adrien needed to be at a certain point of the stage in one minute.
"See you later Nino, got to go."
"Good luck dude."
Going over the rules wasn't so hard. There was an ipad on the white podium he would be using during the show at the far end on the catwalk. Round one was just separating the contestants to two sides of the stage based on how much he was attracted to their looks. He even tested it out earlier. On the screen, there was a heart in the center of the app with the contestants name at the top. Adrien just had to drag the heart to the right if he wanted the girl to receive a pink heart, and to the left if he thought they should receive a blue one.
Time flew by as the crew started preparing, and Adrien saw the audience members slowly sit down in their assigned seats. It wasn't long before it was air time.
"Adrien Agreste, one minute!" someone called out.
The model hurriedly fixed his hair and made his way to where he was supposed to be. He watched one of the crew members give him the signal, and stepped into the spotlight that blinded him for only a second. He was prepared to meet his match.
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Marinette honestly had no idea why she was here. She sighed as she checked the time on her phone for the hundredth time. If Kagami didn't show up soon then Marinette was just going to have to leave without her.
Her dark-haired friend already knew that the ravenette had an important job interview with Agreste the fashion company, and it took months for the girl just too even be considered for a job position as the head designer.
Yet, the Japenese girl still begged for Marinette to come to this TV set.
"Come on, don't you want to see your best friend try to snag a date for once?" Kagami asked that one faithful day.
Marinette rolled her eyes as she scanned over her email once again. Kagami was considered one of her best friends, second to Alya. After highschool, the redhead and ravenette attended two different colleges, much to the trio's disappointment. But that didn't mean that they didn't keep in touch. If anything, it just made their friendship grow stronger. During her second year of college that's when Marinette met her Japanese friend, who just happened to be her roommate. The two girls bonded instantly, having an efficient system where Kagami would cook lunch and dinner, while Marinette made breakfast and dessert. So far, Alya and Kagami only met once, but they seemed to get along with each other nice enough.
Marinette looked at her pleading friend, switching between looking at her expression and the email sent from the head's assistant of Agreste. The one that told her about the interview that could make all of the ravenette's dreams come true. Also the email that told her that the interview was on the same date as the day Kagami was on the show.
"As much as I would like to see you catch a date, I already have my interview remember? That's why I told you to come over in the first place".
But Kagami wasn't swayed. "Please Mari? You could just stay 30 minutes into the show, and then you could head to the interview!"
When Marinette first heard about the show Kagami was in, the ravenette quickly did some research but nothing about the show really caught her eye.
It was basically a date show set up where a guy asks a bunch of questions to some girls in front of a live audience, and whoever he likes best gets to be his date.
At first it kind of surprised the ravenette that the Japanese girl would even apply to enter this kind of show in the first place, but she didn't really question Kagami any further. Whatever she planned to do with her dating life was her choice.
"I could really use the support," Kagami said in a quieter voice. "I'm not really experienced in these types of things anyways."
So with a forced smile, Marinette reluctantly agreed to go. What kind of friend would she be if she didn't support her other friends?
And yet once they entered the set, Marinette was running out of patience, quickly forgetting why she was persuaded to come here at all.
"Two minutes to go!" someone yelled to her right.
Automatically, all the contestants exited the makeup room and headed out the door to line up. Everyone but Kagami.
Marinette checked her phone again.
"I have to head to the bathroom. I'll be quick," Kagami told Marinette before handing her a nametag with the fencer girl's name. But that was 10 minutes ago. And she still didn't show up.
After the sixth minute gone by, that's when Marinette actually began to worry.
She watched as the makeup crew tidied up; each one that passed by her gave her a questioning glance.
Ok, I'll wait two more minutes, and if Kagami's still not here, then I'm leaving for my interview, Marinette thought to herself.
That's when someone came bursting through the door, stealing the ravenette's attention. Unfortunately it wasn't the person she was looking for.
The worker who came in had a frantic expression on her face, looking around until she spotted the raven haired girl.
"You there!" she pointed at Marinette while snatching Kagami's nametag and pinning it on the ravenette's dress.
"Everyone is already ready to go and you're just in the makeup room as calm as ever!" the worker shouted.
Marinette raised both eyebrows, clearly this was a misunderstanding.
"Actually, miss, I'm not-"
She was cut off as she was forcefully dragged out of the makeup room and pushed in line.
"I don't care if you're not ready! Some people have to keep their jobs!"
Just as Marinette was about to protest she was interrupted, again!
"All ten pink spots are filled, contestants must be ready to go!"
To her horror, the remaining two people quickly walked on stage, leaving Marinette behind.
The worker who dragged her out earlier gave the ravenette a final glare before Marinette was pushed on stage, into the blinding spotlight.
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So far the show was a success, at least that's what Adrien thought.
When the cameras first rolled on, all Adrien really had to do was tell his name and talk about his personal life, as well as what he expected from a love interest. Hopefully all his answers were enough to satisfy his father, since this particular episode was going to be aired tomorrow Sunday night.
Afterwards it was just a matter of pretending to laugh at the host's lines and separating the girls to the left and to the right.
So far, there were eight girls with pink hearts and eleven girls with blue hearts. Hopefully the contestants with the blue hearts won't take anything too personally.
Adrien looked at the next girl who entered the catwalk. He looked at the iPad and saw that the girl's name was Chloe.
She looked rather smug about her appearance, but she had too much makeup on and she wasn't really Adrien's type anyways. He gave her a blue heart and the familiar buzz signaled her to go to the left, much to her surprise which was noted all over her face.
The next girl's name was Lila, and she looked attractive enough. Adrien slid the heart on the screen to the right where a few musical notes filled the air, signaling the Italian to go to the right.
The girl after her got a pink heart too, meaning that the 10 pink slots were filled.
There are only three more girls left anyways, he told himself as two girls entered the show. One second later, Adrien saw the last girl enter the stage, slightly startled, but composed herself immediately and walked left. However, Adrien did notice the hand that quickly retreated away back to behind the scenes, coming to the conclusion that someone pushed the last girl onto the catwalk.
He looked at the last three contestants and automatically regretted filling out the first five pink slots so quickly. The last contestant was pretty cute with dark raven hair and bluebell eyes with thick lashes. Judging from her red face, it seems like she was a bit embarrassed over her small stumble onstage.
Adrien looked down at his iPad and saw that her name was Kagami. Hmm…interesting name for an interesting girl.
The host Alec introduced Adrien again as the model went over some of his interests, making sure to skip over what he did for a living. After that, Alec immediately started going over the next part of the show.
"Remember ladies, it's your turn to judge Monsieur Adrien on how he looks. Just type your numbers into the keypad on your screen."
The screen wall behind the contestants lit up as they submitted their answers, broadcasting their numbers to the audience.
Adrien mentally noted that Kagami was one of the last ones to answer, scoring him a 9 out of 10. Pretty good, if I do say so myself, Adrien thought.
Alec quickly tallied up the score to move on with the show.
"According to our calculations, Adrien received an average of 9.5 out of 10! That's the highest score ever on 'Do Ya Think You Can Date?' Congradulations, sir!"
Adrien paid no mind as the host went on about what the audience should expect next. If all went well, maybe this date show idea wasn't such a bad thing afterall.
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Just to be clear, Marinette was only participating in the show for Kagami. Hopefully if Marinette played her role well enough, during the commercial break, she could explain her situation to the manager, or something like that. Depending on if she made it to the second round of course. Worst case scenario would be if Marinette won the show pretending to be someone she wasn't. Wouldn't that be a great explanation to tell someone?
As she watched Adrien explain his interests and hobbies, she couldn't shake off the feeling that she seen the blond before. There was the possibility that she attended the same college as him, but she wouldn't know for sure.
At one point, the ravenette caught him looking at her out of the corner of her eye, but immediately dismissed the thought since she was just plain old average Marinette.
"Remember ladies, it's your turn to judge Monsieur Adrien on how he looks. Just type your numbers into the keypad on your screen," the host, Alec, explained.
Marinette looked down on her podium's screen and noticed a keyboard just as an intense melody flooded the set, probably going for a dramatic mood.
The ravenette glanced at the blond then back at her screen. She typed in a nine. He was pretty attractive after all, but it just depends on his personality. So far, Adrien seems like a friendly outgoing person, but one could never be too sure.
After the host announced Adrien's average and what to expect next, the cameras stopped rolling and went straight into commercial, giving everyone a break.
Marinette herself was more than relieved.
She entered the lounge room where a bunch of people were already gossiping on who would be eliminated.
"According to the show, the first round has three eliminations."
"The people that are going to be eliminated are obviously the people with the blue hearts."
"Yeah, as if they'll ever be as pretty as us."
Marinette noticed that the pink heart group was in their own little bubble while the blue heart group was in another. And even though everyone was acting like good friends in their own groups, it wasn't going to stay that way for long.
Kagami wasn't in this room though, so Marinette moved along. That's when she noticed some crew members fussing over one certain door.
"Are you still ok?" she heard one of the crew members ask.
"Yeah," a muffled voice called out, one that Marinette knew all too well, "but as long as you get me out, I have no problems in here."
Immediately Marinette pushed everyone out of the way and pressed her ear against the door.
"Kagami?!"
"Marinette? Are you on the otherside?"
"Yes. Are you ok?"
That's when Marinette felt a yank on her arm and saw who she assumed was the producer.
"What's going on? I thought you were Kagami?" she pointed at Marinette, not that Kagami could see through the door. Just as Marinette was about to clarify and tell her about their little situation, Kagami interrupted.
"Yes she is. I'm just clarifying if it was her."
This puzzled the producer a little bit, "But you guys just said-"
"She's Kagami, and I'm Marinette, her friend. Before I exited the bathroom, I heard someone outside the door messing with the doorknob. I'm pretty sure they thought that I was one of the contestants and was trying to sabotage me."
With those words, the producer relaxed a little. "Ok, Marinette. We'll get you out of there as soon as we can. But right now, everyone needs to get back to work, so on the next commercial, we'll try to break down the door, ok?"
Kagami let out a hum of an agreement while everyone got ready for the next round. Meanwhile, Marinette stayed behind.
"What are you doing?!" the ravenette whisper hissed, "You're Kagami, and I'm Marinette! We can't just switch those roles around!"
"Actually, yes we can. They won't know that," her friend said behind the door.
A million different thoughts ran through Marinette's head. By now she was late to her interview and they would now probably never hire her again! So much for her 30 minute stay!
"The show has strict rules about pretending to be someone they're not, Marinette. Something about not wanting a repeat of Season 2, episode 5. At least least you're dating life would get started, so at least try taking a chance," Kagami exclaimed.
"But-"
"Just be yourself!"
Marinette groaned and glared at the door, even though Kagami still couldn't see her.
"You don't get it Kagami! I never signed up for this!
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This was supposed to be a one-shot but then I got lazy. It was in my drive for a long time so I decided to post it unfinished. Anyways, eventually, I'll just merge it all together for one long shot...or not. I'm not sure yet. This was also supposed to be a break from my other stories for a while but nevermind. I might not post the next part for a long time but I'll appreciate your patience! Thank you!