By the time she walked up to the villa, two girls were already there, greeting her with lovely smiles. Alya and Rose were accommodating and easily willing to chat about which attributes they were hoping for the guys to have, but before their arrival, two other girls joined them.

The next girl, Kagami seemed a little bit stand-offish at first, but Marinette soon realised that it was just her assertive personality. The last girl, Alix, was joyful and prepared for the challenges. A competitive streak was part of all the girls' personalities in the show in one way or another, otherwise they wouldn't have signed up to compete in a show that involved coupling up with multiple people.

Marinette only stepped forward for two guys, Luka and Adrien. When Luka arrived, she was attracted to his overall appearance, the bright blue hair and the personality that gave the impression that he was outgoing, assuring her that she would have great time with him whether as a friend or a romantic partner. Although most of the time the guys would have chosen the girl who actually fancied him, Luka's decision was out of the norm. He chose Kagami, who didn't seem thrilled by his abnormal action.

Adrien, the fourth guy, a gorgeous model with an attractive personality on top, prompted her, Kagami and Rose to step forward–the latter stepping forward for every single guy, because she didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. It was always an uncomfortable situation, if nobody was attracted to the new arrival and they therefore needed to pick someone who wasn't initially into them.

This time she was actually really nervous about the decision. Adrien seemed perfect, well-mannered and kind, ticking all the boxes in the dating list she pretended that didn't exist. So, when he picked her to couple up with, a weight dropped from her chest and her heart was beating slightly faster than before.

He kissed both of her cheeks and snaked his arm around her waist to comfortably stand next to her while waiting for the last guy to arrive. Marinette already knew she was not going to step forward for anyone else.

Then, Lila appeared in the picture and her mood turned downhill. The girl was from her old school, a compulsive liar, absolutely deceiving and selfish. She had once caught her out on a lie and never trusted her afterwards, which of course didn't prevent anyone else falling for her ridiculous lies. Lila got people wrapped around her finger and Marinette couldn't do anything about it without looking like she was jealous or petty.

Lila seemed to recognise her as well and gleefully smiled and played coy when the host announced she had the chance to "steal" one of the men by the end of the next day. There was no doubt in Marinette's mind–Lila was going to do her best to ruin Marinette's chances in this game.

After the arrival, Marinette sat down on the bed with Alya, Rose and their respective guys, Théo and Max–neither seemed to be keen on their partner in the game so far.

"What do you think of Lila? Do you think she'll go for you?"Alya addressed the question to the guys who shrugged and seemed nonchalant in general.

"She seems very nice and she's pretty, I guess," Max said hesitantly, most likely because Rose was sitting next to him.

"You know, I actually know Lila from high school," Marinette decided to speak up.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I recognised her instantly. She's not a good person, so take everything she says with a grain of salt. She's very manipulative."

Théo rubbed his goatee and looked to be in deep thought.

"Did you piss her off or something?"

"I just exposed her lies and she didn't take it lightly."

"Oh no, so do you think she would want Adrien for herself out of pure spite?" Rose gasped and covered her mouth with her hand.

"Certainly, if she doesn't already like him, too. Even more reasons for her to kick me out of the game. She's vindictive as hell." Marinette leaned her chin on her hand, accepting her fate that her days on the island were likely numbered.

"That must suck…you could talk to Adrien and see how well you match and how close you two can be? Maybe that would change her mind." Of course Alya would have probably preferred for Lila to go after Théo instead as she didn't seem at all attracted to him and was picked without her having any say in the matter.

"I don't know about that, on first impression he seemed to like Lila. I'll go find him." Marinette left the room in search of Adrien who lounged on the sofa, Lila already hanging off his arm. Lila didn't waste any time. One reassuring thing about it was that Adrien appeared to mind the physical contact and Lila's forwardness.

"Hey, can we talk?" Adrien looked up to her and if her eyes were not deceiving her, he was relieved to have an excuse to leave Lila's presence. Lila narrowed her eyes at her, but kept her lips sealed. Adrien smiled gently, brushed Lila's arm off and stood up to join her.

"It was nice meeting you, Lila," he said and rested his hand on Marinette's back to guide her towards the bench on the other side of the courtyard.

"How are you enjoying your stay here so far?" He asked when they had sat down once again.

"I would feel more at ease if Lila wasn't here."

He gave a chuckle. "Fair enough. She has the power to rock the boat and split one couple up."

"Not just that, I know her from a while ago. She's a liar and generally unpleasant to be around."

"Oh, really? She did seem to be bragging a lot while trying to impress me, and that comment about Jagged Stone's cat was a complete lie. I worked with Jagged once as a model, and he made a remark that he wasn't fond of cats, because his crocodile was freaked out by them."

"Yes, exactly! I thought she might have changed since high school, but it's obvious she's still keeping up the same facade of telling people what she thinks they'd like to hear. Also, Jagged having a crocodile as pet is pretty common knowledge."

"Are you worried that she will pick me tomorrow?"

Marinette nodded and Adrien sighed.

"I'll tell her not to pick me."

"I don't think it would really affect her decision. She has a personal vendetta against me."

"Worth a try." Adrien took her hand, planted a light kiss on her knuckles and went back to the house, leaving Marinette flustered and hopeful.

Lila ended up choosing Adrien next day while smugly smiling and pretending that her only motivation was that she liked Adrien the most. He reluctantly left her side and Marinette was now single again. If she didn't couple up during recoupling, her time on the island was over. Matters were made worse when they soon after got a message that there was a date arranged for Lila and Adrien.

Marinette and Adrien had been spending much more time together, trying to get to know each other better, but this was something she couldn't prevent from happening. It was a game after all and the executive decisions were out of her hands.

"I have no control over this, just remember I chose you." Adrien told her before he went on a date and she truly believed that he was not going to develop any feelings towards Lila. She just had to trust him.

As the new formed couple of Lila and Adrien couldn't be broken up during the next recoupling, Marinette held on hope that a new guy arriving to the villa or one of the ones already part of the cast would choose her and some other girl would get dumped, even if she didn't have any malicious feelings towards the rest of the girls.

To her relief, Luka switched out his original partner and selected her, so she had an opportunity to last longer in the game and reconnect with Adrien. And when the next occasion rose, she was able to do exactly that–dumping Lila in process as nobody actually wanted to couple with her.

There was no way that despite all the twists and turns and the obstacles the game threw in their way, her and Adrien were not going to try their hardest to hold onto this relationship until the end of the game and win it all.