It was rather tiresome for there to be another Akuma at her school, but Ladybug had handled the Akuma fairly well with Cat Noir by her side.
At her school, it was always a risk to transform or detransform with the fact that people were more likely to recognize her if she slipped out of a place that Ladybug had hopped into rather than in more public areas where most people just assumed that she was one of many people in that particular place or where she had an alley to detransform in.
Ladybug though certainly wouldn't have slipped into the girl's locker room if she expected anyone to be in there, and a quick glance around before the last spot on her earring went out, shown no one nearby at all.
It was only when she heard a faint gasp and saw Mylene leave from some place further in the room that she realized that the other girl had been in the locker room with her, probably slightly out of sight behind a locker, but not far enough away to not catch sight of Ladybug detransforming.
"U-Um, th-thank you, Marinette for saving Ivan that one time and for being there when I got Akumatized." The other girl looked nervous and while she was surely surprised, she didn't say anything of the sort to hint at it; it felt almost normal in its own bizarre way.
"Mylene, you can't tell anyone at all what you saw today." Marinette flushed, noticing the way that Tikki hid slightly out of sight.
"I-I won't, Marinette. I wouldn't want anything to happen to you." The shyer girl smiled softly and pressed closer to Marinette, "And I won't really tell anyone."
"Ivan can't even know or your parents or anyone, n-not even the teachers or Cat Noir." Marinette was trembling slightly even though she'd always felt safe around Mylene; she'd never proven to be untrustworthy before, but Marinette felt more than a little wary to be standing here with her secret identity revealed to one of her classmates.
"Cat Noir doesn't even know?" Mylene's eyes went wide in surprise before she shook it off, "I won't tell Ivan or my parents or Cat Noir or even the teachers." She smiled though she clearly was nervous under the pressure of finding out Ladybug's secret identity.
"He doesn't know." Marinette confirmed, "Thank you. I really didn't want anyone to know, but it is what it is."
"O-Okay, I can come up with excuses if you need me to, for whenever you have to leave really fast or for why you're late." Mylene tried to smile a carefree smile, but it fell short, "I can stay close if you'd like it better that way?"
Marinette felt pressing guilt on her stomach as she truly did think that Mylene was a kindhearted girl, and the idea of pushing her own burden on to her shoulders as well hurt more than it should.
"I trust you." Marinette shrugged, "Just watch yourself, alright? Don't let your emotions get you Akumatized if you can help it." She was relieved that it wasn't someone like Kim who just may be prone to getting into terrible situations again or someone like Adrien, who for some reason or another had not yet been Akumatized; Marinette wasn't a gambling woman, but the odds were certainly stacked up against her crush.
"I will." Mylene nodded, and Marinette quickly hid Tikki as other girls entered the locker room before she walked out by Mylene's side.
Marinette wondered though if she'd gotten lucky that it was just Mylene and not a group of students or even someone else entirely.
Mylene wasn't out to unmask Ladybug after all and didn't have a crush on her which may lead to trouble if someone who liked Ladybug found out her identity, and she wasn't a naturally loud person.
She's quiet and shy, usually only spends time around a small group of close friends, usually in their class, and her family; she's happy most of the time since she and Ivan got together, and she had always been kindhearted.
Ladybug attributed it to luck that it wasn't someone like Alya though she trusted the young reporter or someone like Lila or Chloe since the latter two girls didn't really care much for her at all since they also liked Adrien or even Kim or Alix that tended to be naturally loud and often stuck in some insane bet with one another.
Marinette sighed, taking a deep and soothing breath, letting the pieces fall where they may after having already warned Mylene about telling people; she trusted the quiet girl to not tell everyone she saw, and she knew her fairly well from often having class with her all these years.
Mylene definitely wasn't a sneak, and she worried vaguely that the girl wouldn't be able to lie her way out of it; she liked acting due to her father being a mime, may be she'll think of it almost as a new role to play though that thought didn't sit well in Marinette's belly at all.
"Just don't act suspicious or suspiciously close to me or anything." Marinette whispered, "And we can become closer friends."
Mylene's answering smile to the second, soft statement relieved some of the ache over Marinette's heart; Mylene genuinely wanted to be her friend, and she had a feeling it wasn't just because of her secret identity.
"Okay, thank you." Mylene still seemed happy, and most of her nerves seemed to have dissipated until certain students, mainly Chloe, demanded to know where Mylene was during the Akuma attack.
"We hid together in one of the locker rooms." Marinette shrugged, smiling slightly as she spoke the half truth and feeling her own shoulders relax when Mylene relaxed.
"Oh, really now?" Chloe was doubting them, but Marinette felt a little bit relieved to hear Mylene speak up.
"W-We were. We couldn't leave the locker room without being attacked by the Akuma, and so when Marinette saw me in there, she stayed with me. She's a good class president, isn't she?" Mylene though nervous when she started, eased into the lie with a sort of confidence and effectiveness that made Marinette proud though slightly anxious.
If it didn't take much for her to get into a lie, she wasn't a liar, right? Desperate times called for desperate measures, and surely she'd only risen up to the plate when she needed to.
Chloe grew quiet seemingly unsure of how to respond to that as it seemed to be true despite the fact that things certainly didn't happen that way; Marinette knew that that didn't mean that Chloe backed down just that she'd be finding a way to get back at Marinette later on.
She was definitely glad that it hadn't been Chloe in that locker room and just Mylene.