MARIO AND MAYOR PAULINE DATING? IT'S LIKELIER THAN YOU THINK!
Read the scoop on pg. 23!
Pauline huffed at the bold letters on the flashy and gaudy magazine cover. She didn't know what she had expected, having picked up a gossip magazine of all things, but that didn't stop her from feeling very unamused.
She couldn't exactly attest to not caring, however, for she flipped to the page listed, reading through the article.
"Mario and Pauline's relationship goes way back, even before Mario started saving Peach! Donkey Kong, who was a bad guy back in the day, kidnapped Pauline and ran away with her. Mario couldn't stand to see a damsel in distress––"
She couldn't help but cringe at the phrase.
"––so he ran to her rescue! Love sparked between the two after that, and they began dating."
Love sparked––yeah, right. Pauline sighed, remembering the disaster which had been their attempt at a romantic relationship. No, not because Mario had been a bad boyfriend, but because their relationship had been founded on what they had thought they should do rather than what they had really wanted.
Pauline had grown up believing she would eventually have a husband, and that she would love him. But once she had hit her adult years without having had even one boyfriend, she had started questioning herself. Why didn't she feel anything for men?
Then the whole situation with Donkey Kong had happened, and Mario (who at that point was simply an acquaintance who had fixed her broken sink once) had saved her. It screamed of the chivalrous dream perpetuated by all those cheesy romances she had ever seen. She thought it was the sign she had been desperately searching for, and so she grasped it, asking Mario out.
Mario had been as clueless as her, having the same amount of inexperience as her––possibly even more because, looking back, she had had crushes on women without realizing it. Mario, on the other hand, later confessed to her that he had never felt that way toward anyone.
Of course, the relationship never got anywhere, and after having an honest discussion about it, they amicably broke off.
Did she regret dating Mario, however? She couldn't say she did completely; she had learned a lot about herself in the short span of time. In fact, she felt that she had grown as a person, knowing that she didn't have to do what she thought others would expect of her. It was what drove her to reach for more, to take on the role of Mayor of New Donk City––and she had never been happier.
She placed the magazine back on the rack from where she had gotten it, right along with the others. Even though it was abhorrently wrong, it didn't deserve any more of her attention.
Besides, there were better ways of countering it than feeling miffed about it: like going out on a date with her girlfriend, Eclair.
She returned to the metal mesh table she and Eclair were seated at in the open-air café, where she had spotted the magazine from afar. As she sat down, Eclair joked, "Catching up on the news?"
Pauline let out a single chuckle, rolling her eyes as she reached over and placed her hand on Eclair's. "Please, as if they are ever accurate."