Nathalie knocked on the door to Adrien's room one afternoon carrying a box from the Fromagerie on Rue de Rivoli. Adrien had been receiving packages from this cheese shop weekly for the last few years, so she didn't think anything of it. She didn't know what he did with the cheese and he wasn't putting on weight, so she didn't care.
Adrien was surprised by the delivery, but he didn't let his surprise show on his face. "This arrived for you a few minutes ago," she informed him. She placed the box down on his coffee table. "Do you need me to take any of it down to the kitchen for you?"
"No, thank you, Nathalie. I have room in my minifridge," he responded, trying to remain calm. Internally, he was wondering if Plagg had taken the credit card information and placed extra orders to the Fromagerie without telling him. Nathalie nodded and excused herself from Adrien's room, closing the door behind her.
The box looked exactly like it did when he got Plagg's cheese delivered, so it was no wonder that Nathalie didn't question the box's arrival. He was certain that if he hadn't already been ordering from this store for years, she would have taken it to be examined by professionals like she had done for Adrien's first Camembert deliveries.
As soon as she walked out, Adrien took his phone out of his pocket. He looked at the date, wondering if he just had the day wrong and he should have been expecting his normal Wednesday delivery. No. The screen assured him that it was only Tuesday and he looked at the box on his table.
"Open it," Plagg practically tried to demand. He was flying around the box, desperate to see the cheese that someone would have sent to Adrien. "Maybe the guys from the shop sent us extra Camembert for being such a wonderful customer for them." The kwami's mouth was practically dripping with drool, thinking about his cheese.
He opened the box and there was a package of petits toasts crackers. Under that, there was a plastic package of chévre cheese that was labeled with the word miel. Honey goat cheese. Obviously not what he would usually get for Plagg. The cheesemonger probably wasn't the one who sent it, then.
When he picked the cheese up out of the box, there was a small note taped to the bottom of the packaging. The handwriting was a little loopy, but didn't resemble the writing of Alya, Chloé, Rose, or Lila, the girls he knew who had the loopiest writing in their class.
'Adrien,
I've been trying to get your attention for a while. I've had feelings for you for a long time and I haven't been able to tell you before. I've noticed you usually have cheese, so I figured you'd like it. A friend of mine recently told me about the Language of Cheeses, like the Language of Flowers.
The goat cheese, like a yellow rose, symbolizes friendship. The honey is a stand in for the red tips to show you wanting to become more than friends with someone.
The truth is that you and I are friends. I think we've been friends for a while and I have reason to think that you feel the same about me. I developed feelings for you early in our friendship and I want to tell you how I feel about you, as well as I can.
I hope that this note finds you well. I don't want to make you uncomfortable, so if you want to receive this attention from me, please wear your lucky charm around your right hand. If you continue wearing it on your left hand, I will take that as a request to stop.
I'm sorry that I'm not comfortable enough to tell you how I feel in person, Adrien. I've tried several times, but it seems like this is the best way for me to get my affections across to you.
-Your Secret Admirer'
"Oh, the friendship cheese," Plagg said excitedly. He hadn't been close enough to read the letter, so Adrien didn't know how he came to that conclusion.
"What do you mean friendship cheese," Adrien asked the kwami.
"It's like your little roses, but it got 'outdated' when someone in the 1800s thought 'flowers smell better' which is just plain silly. Nothing smells better than my cheese. Tikki created the language of cheeses for me. Goat cheese was the first one that she gave me, too." Plagg was hovering over Adrien, thinking about his Sugarcube with a smile on his face.
"Tikki," Adrien questioned, "as in Ladybug's kwami, Tikki?"
"As if there's any other. No one could create a language like my Sugarcube. And it was all for me!" Plagg was spinning happily in front of Adrien who was having a sudden, overwhelming revelation.
Adrien went over to his computer and started to research the 'Language of Cheeses.' He couldn't find anything about what cheeses were part of the language, but after a few minutes, he found an artifact that mentioned that the rind of a cheese was used as a marriage refusal in the 1780s.
The article that he found also mentioned that they believed it was a refusal because if the proposal had been accepted, the entire cheese, rind and all would have been eaten by the recipient. He kept searching, slowly getting more frantic, trying to think of ideas about why his secret admirer was trying to resurrect an outdated form of communication.
"Plagg, is there any chance that this cheese is from Ladybug," Adrien asked the black cat floating 6 inches above the goat cheese.
"There might be a chance," Plagg responded unhelpfully. He went over to the note to see if it was in Pigtails' writing. It was, so he read it. "There's also a chance it could be from anyone, though. I don't know what to tell you kitten. If you want this person to pursue you, do whatever the note says. If you don't, it looks here like they're trying to be respectful."
Plagg offered Adrien a whole body shrug and Adrien spun himself in small circles in his desk chair, trying to think of who else might know about the Language of Cheeses. He looked down to the lucky charm on his left wrist and thought about it for a minute, trying to consider the real possibility that the 'Secret Admirer' wasn't Ladybug.
"I'm going to find out who my secret admirer is," Adrien announced, "but first it sounds like it's time for a cheese tasting." After Adrien received his Miraculous and cheese loving kwami, he began having some small things stocked in his room. Included among those things is a box of compostable plastic knives, small reusable towels, and a few small plates.
He went back over to the table and opened the wrapping of the cylinder of goat cheese. The honey was acting like it was going to make a mess, but Adrien was being as careful as he possibly could. He put the cheese onto one of the plates and opened the crackers.
He spread a bit of the cheese onto a cracker and placed it to the side, he did the same with a second cracker and picked up both. Plagg rolled his eyes at his chosen, but he was in support of getting Adrien into a relationship with his 'friend' and didn't eat the cheese before Adrien could tap the corners of their crackers together in a little 'cheers.'
Plagg ate his in one bite, but Adrien slowly ate his over the course of three polite small bites. Adrien found himself happy about the flavor of the cheese on his taste buds. "This is the best cheese I've ever had," Adrien claimed with a bright smile on his face. "Whoever they are, they have much better taste in cheese than 'some kwamis'." He said it pointedly at Plagg.
"It's pretty okay, I guess," Plagg responded. "They've done alright, but it's still the first cheese they've sent so I'm keeping my expectations low." Plagg eyed the cheese, secretly wanting more, but wanting his kid to enjoy it as much as he wanted to.
Adrien looked at the note, wanting to memorize every swoop of the writing. He sighed happily, excited through the concept of him having a secret admirer. Especially since this one asked his consent to be his secret admirer.
He started absentmindedly snacking on the cheese. It was the happiest he'd ever been about eating cheese. "You can have a bit more if you want, Plagg." Plagg flew over to the cheese and it was the slowest that Adrien had ever seen him eat cheese. He spread some onto a cracker, using more than Adrien used last time while still keeping it a 'reasonable' amount.
After eating about half of the cheese between the two of them, Adrien grabbed out a plastic bag that he kept around Plagg's Camembert supply and placed the remainder of the cheese inside. He carried the note around in his hand for the rest of the night and considered if it would be possible for him to find a handwriting specialist.
The next day, the first thing that Adrien saw was the note that was sitting on top of his phone. He put it into the drawer of his nightstand and got ready for the day. He paused at his desk while he was walking around his room getting dressed, including moving his lucky charm to his right wrist. He saw a thin tip sharpie sitting next to his computer.
He picked it up and moving very, very carefully, he used his non-dominant hand to draw a small heart on the wrist near his lucky charm. Maybe, if the admirer saw the little heart next to the charm, they'd know how excited he is to learn more about them. He arrived at school and kept an eye out for anyone paying extra attention to his lucky charm.
No one spent time looking at the charm except for Marinette and he was pretty sure she was only looking at it because she was the one who had given it to him. He decided that he would continue keeping an eye out for anyone acting suspiciously for the rest of the week, just in case.
On Friday, Adrien was having a rough day. There wasn't one terrible thing that happened, but there were a lot of small things that annoyed him that day. Right before their lunch break, he went to his locker and there was a rose sitting on the top shelf. It was a yellow rose with red tips, like the one that was compared in the letter.
'I didn't think cheese would hold up as well in your locker.
-Your Secret Admirer ' This note was tented over the stem of the flower and he couldn't help but smile at the heart included on the note. He wondered if it was drawn because of the heart that was on his wrist, but he decided to try to not think about it too much.
He put the rose into the side pocket of his bag, not wanting to tell his friends about the secret admirer, especially if it was Ladybug. Marinette noticed the big smile on his face for the rest of the day. She also noticed that his eyes kept straying to the little heart on his wrist throughout the second half of the day.
The following Tuesday, he got another package from the Fromagerie. He knew it wasn't his normal order, so he was hopeful that it was another package from his secret admirer. Nathalie handed the box to him at the door to his bedroom this time and he brought it over to the table by himself.
When he opened the box that day, there was a container of crackers again, but these were table water's crackers. He took the container out and put them onto the table next to him. After that, he saw a small block of cheese. It was a sharp cheddar cheese and the label mentioned that it had been aged for 16 months.
Again, there was a note taped to the container of cheese. The writing matched the letter that he'd gotten the week before.
'Adrien,
I hope the flower last week was okay. It looked like you'd been having a rough day and I wanted to help you. I'm sorry if I overstepped by getting into your locker.
Cheddar is the next type of cheese, it means constant, dependability, and stability. I think that's a very good descriptor for you. People count on you and no matter how stressed and busy you seem, you always make time to help everyone that you can.
I liked the heart on your wrist last week. That was a nice touch, but I hope that didn't get you into any trouble. If you want me to keep writing to you, you should wear your black sneakers this week instead of your orange.
-Your Secret Admirer
PS. I chose a block that was aged for 16 months because that's how long I've known you, maybe this cheddar started aging the day we met'
"Oh, she thinks you're constant. I don't know that I agree with stability, but I suppose I know you more than most people in that regard," Plagg joked.
Adrien barely heard him, though. He was too focused on the hint. He's known her for about 16 months. That was a year and four months ago, right around when he started school. That meant she could be anyone from school, or it could still be Ladybug when she'd saved him during Timebreaker.
The only real 'evidence' that he had for the Ladybug theory was the fact that the admirer would have to know this cheese language despite it not being found online. Plagg knew it well enough to have been able to call out the meaning of cheddar without seeing the letter, so the admirer had to be right about the meanings.
He smiled and grabbed a plate and knife to enjoy his cheese. It was nice. It was creamy but the sharpness of the cheese caused it to softly break when he bit instead of his teeth indents causing the cheese to cut cleanly. He enjoyed it more than he enjoyed the last cheese, but it was possible that it was just because this one meant more.
As with last week, he shared his cheese with Plagg. Plagg appreciated it and ate it slowly in order to respect Adrien and his secret admirer. The kwami ate each slice in several bites instead of eating all at once and looking like an old 'Tom and Jerry' cartoon.
He put his black Gabriel brand converse style sneakers next to his bedroom door to give himself the best chance of remembering to wear shoes other than his normal orange sneakers. Just like last week, he tried to identify the writing and tried to memorize every curve of how they wrote. The writing looked familiar, more familiar than just the fact that he'd seen the letter the week before.
Adrien packed up the cheese after eating part of the block, then he went over to his desk to think through why the writing looked so familiar. He had a bit of a eureka moment when he thought about the anonymous letter from Valentine's Day. He dug through his drawer until he found the letter.
It was in the back, under a few notebooks to keep it away from the eyes of Gabriel, Nathalie, or Gorille. He took the note out and it was in cursive, which was unhelpful initially, but he looked a little closer and noticed that the spacing of the letters was similar, as were the curves of the letter 'c'. It felt like flimsy evidence, but it wasn't impossible that the admirers were the same.
He put the note from this week and the one from last week into the drawer with the Valentine's Day letter. He put on his pajamas and went to sleep with a loving smile on his face.
The next morning when he woke up, the first thing he noticed was the pair of black sneakers next to his door. He wondered if it would be possible to put some sort of symbol near his sneakers like he had done with the heart on his hand the week before.
Before he got dressed, he went over to his desk and grabbed a roll of tape and the sharpie. He put them into his bag and put on his normal striped shirt and jeans. He brushed his teeth and styled his hair. His favorite part of getting ready that morning was putting his sneakers on and he did so as quickly as he could.
He left his room and practically sprinted out the front door to get to school and show off his sneaker choice as soon as he could. Gorille drove him to school and he was lucky that Nathalie wasn't in the car with him that morning. He took a section of the tape from his backpack and used the sharpie to draw a small heart on it.
He used a second piece of tape to essentially laminate the little doodle and taped it onto the stripe of the shoe, where he hoped the tape would be able to stick without falling off for that day. He knew that he'd need to get rid of it before he went home, but he was going to keep the heart for as long as he could.
When he approached his friends, Marinette, Alya, and Nino were wrapped up in a conversation about the Ladyblog. He approached and Nino was the first to notice him. Nino waved over to Adrien and he approached the group standing in the courtyard. Marinette noticed the change to his outfit.
"I always thought black sneakers would look better with this outfit than the orange ones," she said using her emdesigner voice/em. "I'm happy to see you mixing things up once in a while, Adrien." His reception of her notes was causing her confidence around him to spike, as was the fact that she could talk about fashion easily.
"Thanks," he said, "I don't know why I don't wear neutral shoes more often. These are much less attention seeking than the orange ones, and this style of sneaker is so comfortable."
"Oh," Alya spoke up, "it looks like you may have stepped on something. I think there's a piece of tape attached to your shoe." She was going to offer to get rid of it for him, but she looked at it a little closer, "aww, it has a little heart on it. That's so cute."
"Well," he chuckled, "if there's a heart, I think that means I have to keep it. I think it really pulls my outfit together, don't you all agree?" The friends smiled at his comment and they all went back to the Ladyblog discussion before they had to go to class. On the way to the classroom, Adrien stopped by his locker where he left a note taped to the inside part of the door. Hopefully the admirer would see it if they got in again.
'I don't mind you going into my locker '
He lightly jogged to catch back up with his friends as they were entering the classroom. When he sat down, he glanced toward his shoes to make sure that the little piece of tape was still there. They had Mme. Bustier first thing that morning and their unit was one that he learned earlier because of homeschooling.
Instead of focusing on the lesson, he was focused on compiling two lists. One list was clues about the sender, the second list was possible senders.
Under the list of Clues, he had written:
Met about 16 months ago
Has to know cheese language
Might know flower language?
Possibly has/had a kwami
Interested in me (single)
Under the list of possible senders, he wrote out every member of Mme. Bustier's class and Ladybug.
From there, he started narrowing out options. Lila was the first to be crossed out, thankfully. He had only known her for 12 months instead of 16 and he knew that the Fromagerie sold 12 month aged cheddar if it was her. He even made that note as the reason she was crossed off of the list.
By that logic, he could also take Chloe off of the list, which he was secretly thankful about. He had known her for far longer than 16 months. They met when they were about 16 months old, but that wasn't what the note said, and that's not something Chloé would have messed up if she were confessing to someone.
He felt a little bit weird about the fact that one of the clues he listed was 'Single,' but he really didn't want to discover his admirer's identity if they were dating someone already. He wasn't interested in being a homewrecker to anyone that he knew and he wouldn't want to be in a relationship with someone who would flirt with someone else while they were in a relationship.
He crossed Mylène off the list with the note (w/ IB). He also crossed Ivan off the list with the note (w/ MH). He crossed Nino off (w/ AC), followed by Alya (w/ NL).
Ladybug
Chloe - Known for 14 years
Ivan - w/ MH
Alya - w/ NL
Juleka
Marinette
Mylène - w/IB
Max
Alix
Nathaniel
Nino - w/ AC
Rose
Kim
Sabrina
Lila - Only 12 months
There were a few people still on the list he thought were in relationships, but he didn't want to take them off the list until he could confirm that he was right. He knew he wasn't always the best at reading social interactions so it was definitely possible that Juleka and Rose were just very good friends, even better than himself and Marinette!
The morning passed slowly and he was just wishing he could get the answer to his remaining question marks right now, but he knew Nino needed to focus in class and he didn't want to ask anyone else about the relationship statuses. Nino was already used to him being clueless about things sometimes.
"Hey, Nino," he said a second after they were dismissed for lunch, "can I talk to you about some 'learning to be a normal teenager' stuff?" That was the really not at all secret code phrase that Nino suggested Adrien use if he needed to talk about something without Alya present.
Nino was allowed to talk to Alya about it after, but he knew Adrien could be more honest about whatever was bothering him if it was just the two boys. Nino nodded and Alya smiled in acknowledgement. "I'll go with Mari for lunch," she told Nino. "See you back in class." She gave Nino a short kiss on his cheek before she and Marinette left for lunch at the bakery.
"What's up, mec," Nino asked when it was just him and Adrien in the classroom. They figured it would be the easiest place for the two of them to get privacy once Mme. Bustier was in her office and Adrien took a nervous breath.
"I'm bad at social cues," Adrien said. Nino nodded in a mixture of agreement and acknowledgement. "I know you're dating Alya and I know Mylène and Ivan are dating, but who else is in a relationship out of the students in our class?"
"Oh." That wasn't the answer Nino expected, but he was happy to provide an response. "Uh, Juleka and Rose are together. They just don't really say it outright unless they're asked. Kim is still dating Ondine, and Nathaniel and Marc have been seeing each other. They're more subtle than Juleka and Rose, but they're happy together."
"Is there anyone else," Adrien asked.
"Not that I've heard about. If anyone else is in a relationship, they've done really well at keeping it a secret. The only one left who I'm certain isn't in a relationship is Marinette. Alya would have definitely told me if Marinette was seeing someone, but she hasn't been on a date since she and Luka broke up."
"Cool," Adrien responded, "cool, cool, cool. Do you want to get lunch?" Nino led the way out of the classroom and the two walked to a small café a few streets away to get lunch. Adrien committed all the information Nino told him to memory, not wanting to break out the list in front of his best friend who would probably tell his girlfriend.
By the end of the school day, Adrien made the necessary edits to his list.
Ladybug
Chloe - Known for 14 years
Ivan - w/ MH
Alya - w/ NL
Juleka - w/ RL
Marinette
Mylène - w/ IB
Max
Alix
Nathaniel - w/ MA
Nino - w/ AC
Rose w/ JC
Kim - w/ OP
Sabrina
Lila - Only 12 months
He was surprised that there were only 5 people left on the list by the end of the day. He didn't see anyone specifically looking at his shoes, except for Marinette. She commented on them this morning, so obviously she had to have looked at him. He didn't even remember seeing Sabrina that day, but he supposed he'd just keep an extra eye on her tomorrow.
Sabrina wasn't at school the rest of the week. Apparently she was out of class with the flu, so she hadn't been in school all week and she wasn't expected to be back until Wednesday of the following week. He figured that if he got another box on Tuesday, it would be pretty solid evidence that the admirer wasn't Sabrina.
On Saturday, Adrien made his weekly round to the Rivoli Fromagerie and was surprised to see a familiar set of pigtails on a girl speaking with the cheesemonger. "This cheese will change your life," he told her with a smile on his face. He held out a sample for her.
She took the sample and put it into her mouth. It was smooth and creamy, but it felt like there were little crystals within the cheese itself that gave the cheese a fascinating texture that she had never experienced before. There was a fruity flavor that accompanied the texture of the crystals. "That's amazing," she responded excitedly, "what is it?"
"Sartori raspberry," he informed her. She thought through what she knew about cheese language and realized she needed to do a little bit more research and ask Tikki a few more questions before she landed on the one she just tasted.
"Marinette," he greeted, "I didn't know you liked cheese." Marinette practically jumped at the sound of his voice right behind her.
"Adrien," she exclaimed in a quiet yell. "You can't just sneak up on someone like that. What are you, a cat? You nearly gave me a heart attack." She reached out to playfully swat at his arm. "What are you doing here?" She didn't expect him to be getting cheese when she had been sending it to him, but she supposed it wasn't unreasonable to find him there.
Afterall, she was there in the first place because she had found out that he likes cheese. She was really hopeful that the cheesemonger behind her wouldn't mention the name of the cheese in front of him, or else she wouldn't be able to send him this cheese and it was definitely one that she wanted him to try.
"I'm just picking up some cheese," he told her. "Well, I was sent out to run some errands and Nathalie said that if I placed an order for her while I was out, I could have an extra 30 minutes out of the house this afternoon. I'm never going to turn that down."
He picked up one of the delivery sheets from the counter and filled out his account number. He checked off that he wanted to charge the card on file for the account, specified for it to be delivered on Wednesday and marked a 3 under the section 'Camembert'. He handed the slip to the cheesemonger who put it onto the 'deliveries' pile.
"I'll think about what I want to get and I'll be back as soon as I make the final decision," Marinette said to the cheesemonger. The man behind the counter recognized the familiar address on the orders and he wasn't about to mention this girl's Secret Admirer packages in front of the recipient.
"Sounds fine. Give us a call when the bakery figures out what to order. We look forward to hearing from you over there." Marinette smiled at the man and waved as she walked out the door of the Fromagerie. Adrien trailed a few steps after her.
"Do you want to join me on my errands," he offered. He didn't know why he did. He didn't even have errands to actually do. He was just trying to come up with a reason to be in the cheese shop that didn't involve buying cheese for a 13 cm magical god of destruction who ate copious amounts of it.
"I would love to," she said, "but I really have to figure out this order with my parents before we get the pre-dinner rush."
"Can I walk you home, then?" He rubbed the back of his neck and she smiled. She nodded up at him and gestured in the direction toward the bakery. They walked side by side and neither of them said much. Adrien wanted to ask her questions to find out if she was the admirer, but didn't know what he could ask without being suspicious.
She had been pretty clear about the fact that the cheese she was ordering was for bakery reasons, but what if she was going to place two orders, one for the bakery and one to send to him. Instead of trying to ask about the Fromagerie, the two spent the walk just talking about video games and classes.
When they arrived, Marinette packed up a few treats for him to take with him. She smiled at him and handed him the box on the house with his name written in a messy scrawl across the lid. He smiled at the box and left the bakery.
Marinette ran upstairs to write her next note to him with her next cheese already in her head. Adrien, on the other hand, was standing outside the bakery with a frown on his face at Marinette's messy scrawl of 'Adrien' on the top of the box.
She went out later that afternoon to return to the Fromagerie. She went up and picked up one of the forms. She filled out Adrien's information and ordered a 100g block of cheese to be delivered to his house on Tuesday.
When Tuesday came around, Adrien enjoyed another day of wearing his black sneakers. He went through the school day just like always, but the entire second half of the day, his leg was bouncing. He was eager to leave and see what his secret admirer had sent him that day.
At 16h30, Nathalie knocked on his door and he practically sprinted to get the package from her. He opened the box and found a package of crackers. They weren't particularly interesting, so he didn't pay attention to them. He put them on the table, carefully enough that they wouldn't break, but not by much.
He pulled out a small block of Swiss cheese and he didn't know how to feel about the fact that it wasn't the Sartori Raspberry he heard Marinette talk to the cheesemonger about. He grabbed a plate and knife, then cut off a small piece to eat while he read the note he'd removed from the block.
'Adrien,
I'm happy to see that you've been wearing your black sneakers this week. I hope that means you enjoy getting these notes. I'm also hopeful that means you're still interested in continuing to play along.
Today's cheese is Swiss, probably not new. The Swiss has a more important meaning than the last few, it means 'I see your faults and they make me love you more.' I fell in love with you the day we met, you were so sweet to me, even though we got off to a rough start.
If you want to know more, I want to see one of your faults (fault is a strong word in this case). I heard that you prefer to wear your glasses than your contacts. If you wear them, I'll send you something as soon as I can, but if you don't I'll be done.
-Your Secret Admirer
P.S. I liked the heart on your sneakers'
The concept of Adrien starting off on the wrong foot with them would have matched up with Marinette, but the handwriting was totally wrong. She wasn't crossed off because there was nothing solidly contrary to the clues that the secret admirer had told him. He added 'Bad start' to the list of clues.
He served some of the cheese to Plagg. Adrien was just staring at the list of names in his notebook, trying to remember his first experience with the five of them who were left. He was pretty sure that his first experience as Adrien with Ladybug was him tackling her out of the way of an akuma.
The knowledge that the admirer had seen his sneakers made him confident in crossing Sabrina off of his list. That limited the options to Ladybug, Alix, and Max. Marinette was still on his list, but he was trying not to focus on her as a suspect because of her writing. Aside from her writing, she matched up with the admirer at least as well as the others.
They met when she was yelling at him. When he met Alix, he was pretty sure that she crashed into him going almost full speed on her skates in the courtyard at the school. When Adrien met Max, Adrien remembered being shocked by the robot and he didn't know if Max found that a negative response to call a 'bad start' or not.
He had lied to Nathalie, saying his contacts were drying out his eyes and he needed a break from them in order to get approval to wear his glasses for the week. Thankfully, Nathalie just accepted his excuse and didn't ask him follow-up questions.
He couldn't reasonably put a heart on his glasses, which made him a little bit sad. When he arrived at school on Wednesday, he saw Marinette holding a book of stickers in the courtyard, talking to most of their class. She was giving a pink star shaped sticker to Rose. Adrien approached the group.
"Hey, Mari," he greeted, "do you happen to have any little heart stickers?" She smiled and opened to the page of little hearts. He took a green one to match his eyes and placed it on the outer corner of one of his glasses frames.
"I think you look nice in glasses," she told him shyly. He smiled appreciatively.
"Dope glasses, man," Alix told him a second later. She left soon after to get to class and he smiled at the interaction.
Most of the rest of the class complimented him before Max mentioned them. "Your glasses increase overall attraction to you by 50% to someone who is generally attracted to males," he said, pausing in front of Adrien's desk to hold up the calculator and show off the math he had done to come to the conclusion.
Adrien was flattered by the compliments of all of his classmates, including but not limited to the three that were still on his list. He hadn't seen Ladybug while he was Adrien since he'd gotten the first note, but that didn't actually bother him like he had expected it to.
On Wednesday, she left a wheel of Babybel on his lunch when he had gone to the restroom. In his locker there was a note 'Adrien,
I hope you saw the cheese I left with your lunch today. It's Edam. I think you have a pretty good idea of who I am by now. The Edam comes with a simple request 'Be Mine?' I look forward to getting a response from you.
-Your Secret Admirer'
Adrien didn't know who they were. He still had four choices and was so unsure. He knew who he wanted the admirer to be, but what if he was wrong. He took a deep breath and decided it would be worth it to follow his heart, even though he was almost certain he was wrong. He asked Plagg a few questions about the Language of Cheese.
After school, he stopped by Monoprix on his way home. He bought one of the cheeses there, then on the way to the Fromagerie. At the Fromagerie, he bought a 100 gram block of cheese and then went home.
He put the cheeses into his minifridge, then tried to figure out how he should deal with the situation at hand. He bit his lip and suddenly saw Ladybug swinging past his window on her yo-yo. He transformed and grabbed one piece of cheese from the fridge. As Chat Noir, he leapt out his window and went as fast as he could to catch up with her.
"Hey, bug," he said when he landed next to her on a rooftop. "I saw Adrien Agreste on my way here and he asked me to give something to you."
"Adrien Agreste asked you to give something to me, Ladybug?" Chat Noir nodded as though this wasn't one of the craziest things he'd ever done, including fighting a sentient lollipop boy and a man who was villainized over 70 times on behalf of pigeons.
Chat Noir held up the square in his hand. It was a plastic wrapped piece of plastic cheese. Orange American cheese. Rejection. Ladybug didn't know why Adrien would give this to her, especially as Ladybug instead of Marinette.
"He asked me to tell you that he's sorry he can't return your affections. He's in love with someone else. He wishes he didn't have to hurt you, but he can't lose the person he's in love with." Ladybug nodded, solemnly. She didn't want Chat to see her crying over Adrien, especially since Ladybug wasn't even involved in the Secret Admirer situation.
Adrien was overwhelmed when he got home. His heart was pounding in his chest at the fact that
he had just rejected Ladybug, for the first time in his life. He went to sleep, proud of himself, but pained by the fact that he knew he needed to break two hearts tomorrow.
Max was the first of the rejections that he saw when he arrived in the school, so that was who he approached first. He took a deep breath and was a little more at ease when he saw that Max was hanging out with just Markov instead of several others in their class.
Adrien approached Max and sat down on the bench, facing him. "Max," he greeted. Max looked up toward Adrien and pushed his glasses back to their correct position on his face. Adrien held up a slice of American cheese and placed it out in offering to Max. "I'm flattered that you like me."
"I-" Max began, but he was politely cut off by Adrien before he could say anything of substance.
"If it was you these past few weeks, I want you to know that I'm incredibly happy to know how well you think of me, but I'm in love with someone else. I have to reject your advances and I feel bad, but I hope for the best for you, Max."
Max stared at Adrien and Markov's face became a loading screen as both of them tried to process exactly what Adrien had just told them.
The next person Adrien saw was his final rejection. He grabbed her hand and pulled her to the side of the courtyard. "I'm sorry if you like me," he said quickly. "I really think you're a great girl and you deserve all of the happiness in the world, but I can't be that for you. I'm in love with someone else. I didn't want to hurt you, but I can't lose the girl I'm in love with."
She tried to speak up, but he placed the slice of American cheese firmly within her hand and walked away while she was stunned in a state of stupefaction. She looked down at her palm, trying to examine the cheese as though it had an explanation.
Adrien went to the classroom. He was one of the first to arrive, so he took the chance to set up his answer on the girl's desk. He took out the note that he wrote to her and placed it onto the block of Sartori Raspberry at her seat.
When she arrived at her desk, she lifted the note.
'Sartori Raspberry, it's similar to a parmesan. Parmesan means 'You mean so much to me,' but I think that the cheesemonger was right when he told you 'This cheese will change your life.' I want to be yours and I'm desperately hoping you want to be mine, too.
-Adrien'
Marinette's eyes filled with tears as she read through the letter at her seat. "Yes," she whispered.
No one was paying attention to her joy because as she was reacting, Alix came into the classroom, yelling toward anyone who would listen about the fact that Adrien freaking Agreste gave her a piece of cheese that morning and didn't even explain himself fully.
Max came in a few minutes later, practically shut down, trying to assess what in the world would have caused Adrien to have handed him a single slice of poor quality cheese. His face was practically blank and he had a notebook open at his desk while he wrote down the chances of this happening.