Chloe groaned, stretching as the teacher finally wrapped up the class. While she wasn't necessarily good at the mathematical aspects of business, though if she actually studied she could grasp most of the concepts, the practical aspects and ideas behind marketing were almost too easy for her to grasp. She had been shopping her entire life after all. Only one other face in the room was remotely familiar to her, Max, and he was as indifferent to her as she was to him.

Though she had promised Pollen that she would find a way to earn the bee miraculous, she had no idea how to do it. She hadn't even run into Marinette since then, let alone Ladybug. The only people she did seem to run into over and over were Lilia and Sabrina, and even the latter of the two wasn't necessarily a welcome face.

Sabrina didn't talk to her, only seemed nervous every time their paths crossed. Lilia wasn't even in a business program but she made sure to come over and 'visit' Sabrina at every opportunity, always talking about the boutique they were planning to open after graduation. Apparently she was in the Fashion program.

After packing up her stuff she waltzed out of the room and out of the building, just in time to see Marinette exiting the main building with Adrien across the street. She raised an eyebrow, watching as the two got into Adrien's car and drove off.

"Well then," she said pulling out her phone, "I wonder how the other half of this dynamic feels about this." The tone rang only half a second before the other end picked up. "Hello, daddy? Cancel my car for today, I'm going to be walking home."

If she remembered correctly, that gloomy girl Juleka lived on the river somewhere and she was sure that Marinette had mentioned something about her and Luka being siblings. She walked down the avenue, on the walk above the river as opposed to the one down next to it. A familiar pink and black blur flashed by on roller skates, but Chloe was too preoccupied looking for Luka to notice the skater's face.

Alex stopped, wheeling around and staring after the classes old nemesis. She had never really cared much about Chloe, the girls uppity attitude clashed with her own casual address the way the wrong end of two magnets did when pushed together. There was a pressured awareness, but the two never really met. Even so, the way Chloe had treated her friends had built up animosity against herself from Alex.

"What's she doing?" Alex mumbled, the pizza's in her delivery bag forgotten for a moment. She narrowed her eye's and started rolling towards Chloe, ready to confront her.

Before she reached her Chloe stopped suddenly and looked down at the sidewalk below her, recognition sharpening her features. Alex stopped and looked down to see who had Chloe so preoccupied. Her eye's widened.

Wasn't that Marinette's boyfriend? What was his name again? Luka? Why was Chloe looking for him? She pulled out her phone and snapped a picture. She'd send it to Marinette once her deliveries were over.

Chloe sat above where Luka was playing, the stiffness in her shoulders fading as she listened to the music.

"So," Luka said, voice blending with the song, "why are you here?"

Chloe started, surprised to find the boys calm gaze focused up at her. After a moment she settled back and answered. "I was curious."

"About what?"

"The Marinette I knew was hopelessly in love with Adrien."

Below her Luka stiffened a bit. Chloe continued.

"Everyone was of course, but I had some kind of feeling she was actually serious about him. At least when she could actually speak more than three syllables around him. Come to think of it a part of it may have just been infatuation… well, anyway, my point is, how on earth did she end up dating you." She caught herself and put a hand up to her mouth. "Oh, ah, no offence."

Luka chuckled. "None taken. I actually knew she was in love with Adrien when I met her."

"You did?"

"Yup. Didn't everyone?"

"Wow. You're pretty calm about all this."

This time Luka outright laughed. "It doesn't matter now after all," he settled into a soft smile, "I'm with her now. That's all that matters to me." His melody became smoother, transitioning the conversation into such a natural pause that at first Chloe hadn't even noticed that he had stopped talking.

As soon as she realized he was done she shook herself and jumped back in with her questions. "Sooo, how did you two end up dating?"

"It was all thanks to you."

"I'm sorry, did you just say it was thanks to me?"

Luka nodded. "Something happened to Marinette during the Miracle Queen incident, though I'm not really sure what. But whatever it was, she opened up to me soon after. I don't remember much of the incident, but just before it all she came up to me. I could tell, she was holding back, but after a moment she started crying and then, and then." His eyebrows furrowed, trying hard to call forth the dim memory, "Then I saw a cloud of your bee's flying towards me. I tried to cover her, but I don't remember anything more than that."

Chloe flinched. She didn't remember being akumatized, not really. She did remember fuzzy details that tied into what she was doing before she allowed hawkmoth to akumatize her, and after his darkened butterfly had been purified. But over all she could only really remember the Miracle Box. Hearing about her gleeful conquest brought back flashes of almost-memories, waves of emotion she thought she had left behind when she had first left Paris. Emotions she was scared to touch again.

Luka went on, so wrapped up in his own reflections that he failed to she the shadow darkening Chloe's face. "Something happened during that time, I don't know what exactly, Marinette never talks about it," He sighed and murmured, "never talks about anything." He shook himself. "But whatever happened changed her, helped her grow, and that growth led her to me."

"In that case you shouldn't thank me." Chloe said, voice deep. Luka looked up at her again, surprised at the sudden change. His eye's narrowed as he looked at her, the shadow whose arrival he had missed now clear in his sight. Chloe was not looking him, she wasn't looking at anything, her eyes dull even in the sun. "She fought her own battle and came to her own conclusion that day. It had nothing to do with me."