[art by: nikita_nishiprava on IG]

"O. M. G" Alya gleamed "Babe! You really did it!"
"Pleased to meet you, Alya, Nino has told me so much about you" the model smiled handsomely

Marinette stared at the young model from across the room. Gosh, Alya was right, he was literally perfect. His nose was perfectly pointed, his skin looked as if it was never touched by a human before, his hair seemed to be made of thousands of silk strands. His lips were perfectly moist. Teeth were perfectly white and aligned. But his eyes, they were nothing she's seen before. Emeralds reflecting off the light of the room. It was a bedazzling sight for the young barista.

The model caught the bluenette staring and smirked as he walked towards the bewildered girl
"Hello there miss" he winked
Marinette couldn't get any words to slip out of her mouth, was this model even talking to her? Quick say something clever!
"H-hello there..." Marinette stuttered, yeah that was totally uncool.

The model laughed "I know I'm handsome, but having a cute girl stare at me like this might make my heart skip a beat." He flirted once more

Being honest, something Marinette hated the most were other guys flirting with her. Admittedly it's flattering, but somewhat degrading on her part. She realised something, psychologically this guy's whole life has revolved around "being handsome" so obviously he'd believe that he could get any girl at once. Marinette suddenly forgot about this model's attractiveness and social status and retorted.

"Careful though, this girl may be cute but she's not afraid to bite"
The model's eyes widened. And the bluenette suddenly realised what she said. She wanted to bury herself 10 feet underground and wait for some maggots to eat her up so that she can disappear forever

The model burst into laughter "Miss, your comebacks are gold! I apologise for my snide remark(s)" he kindly apologised "May I ask for your name?"

Marinette let out a breath of relief "Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Pleased to meet you Mr. Agreste."

"Please call me Adrien, judging by your looks you seem to be as old as me." Adrien politely

Marinette giggled "Yes I am, it's wonderful to meet you, Adrien."
"Woah there dude!" Nino tapped the back of his model friend "Stop flirting with every girl you come across! It's annoying!"
"Hey Marinette!" Nino greeted "it's great to see you again"
"Ninoooo!" Marinette greeted back as she hugged her longtime friend "it seems like you're enjoying your job now eh?"
"Definitely!" Nino laughed "Anyways, I apologise for my friend Adrien here, he's quite a flirt. But he's a good friend."

Adrien laughed "Thanks Nino, but I already apologised to her!"
"I don't care!" Nino sighed "Don't underestimate Marinette!" he said before he whispered: "-if you mess her up Alya's gonna KILL me"
Adrien laughed at his friend's dismay.

Marinette watched the 2 boys bicker and giggled.
"They seem to be close friends" Marinette teased
"Clearly" Alya shook her head "Listen, Marinette, you need to come back out there. It looks like Nathaniel is having a hard time handling the situation."
Marinette sighed "Alright, I'll head back to my shift. Remind me to buy Nathaniel some coffee later, I feel bad throwing all of the garbage customers onto him."
"Aye aye!" Alya winked

Marinette headed outside and saw Nathaniel blushing profusely as Chloe Bourgeois flirted with the young redheaded barista

"Chloe, stop flirting with the baristas! First it was Marc and now Nathaniel?"
"Got a problem with that?" Chloe sneered "I just feel awfully bad that the male baristas here cant work with any pretty girls around here, it's shaming to the business actually."

Marinette wanted to burst into a fit of rage but attempted to keep her composure "Miss Bourgeois I can have you removed from the premises if you keep harassing the staff."
"Puh-lease! My daddy is the mayor of Paris! If you kick me out of here my daddy will kick your business out of Paris!"

Marinette got even more pissed before a familiar model stepped in to control the situation

"Hey Chloe" Adrien greeted in a way that didn't seem so friendly
"OMG!! ADRIKINS!" Chloe jumped up in joy before proceeding to jump onto the counter in attempts to hug her childhood best friend
"Chloe, stop harassing the baristas." Adrien said as he backed off the counter to get away from Chloe
"W-what?! Adrikins! How could you take their side?!" Chloe pouted
"Chloe. Stop it." Adrien demanded

Chloe stopped as he said, but looked at Marinette who was astonished by the whole situation. Chloe immediately went up to Marinette and yelled
"Because of you, adrikins is mad at me! Hurry up and apologise Dupain-Cheng!" Chloe demanded
"Uh, I'm sorry?" Marinette looked at Chloe in annoyance
"Marinette Dupain-Cheng, I demand you to apologise! Or else-...or...else-" Chloe tried to think of the best way to get back to the young barista till an idea (a horrible one at that) popped up in her head "-or else I'll get daddy to fire you from this job!"

Marinette's eyes widened "W-what?! That's abuse of power!"
"Daddy won't care, he'll just pay the people to vote for him again anyways!" Chloe laughed maniacally
Marinette stomped her feet "Chloe I won't do that! I didn't do anything!"
Adrien jumped into the scenario "Chloe, calm down. Don't do this."
"Hmph!" Chloe sneered "I guess you truly do want to get fired Dupain-Cheng!"

Chloe immediately stomped off and got into her limo.

Marinette was dumbfounded, she quickly went back inside the storage area and cried her eyes out.
"Gee, today was great!" Marinette thought "I'll be jobless starting tomorrow!"

Adrien promptly followed Marinette into the storage room and saw her bawling her eyes out. It broke Adrien's heart to see a young barista crying like this, especially since he consider it his fault

""Because of you, adrikins is mad at me! Hurry up and apologise Dupain-Cheng!"" Chloe's voice echoed inside of Adrien's head louder than ever

Adrien sat beside the distraught barista. Her tears falling faster and faster each breath, he pat her softly which made her notice that he was beside her.

"Oh gosh!" Marinette promptly stopped crying as she wiped her tears "I'm so sorry!"
"N-no!" Adrien apologised "I should be the one who's sorry. I'm the reason why the situation escalated"
"W-what?" Marinette sniffled "Of course not! Chloe's always been like this, it's...not your fault"

Adrien sighed, she didn't care about what the bluenette was saying. He was definitely sure that it was his fault, and he had the intent of fixing it.

"Marinette...." Adrien said her name which caught Marinette off guard "Have you ever tried modelling?"

Marinette looked at the blonde boy confusedly and replied "W-well...when I was younger my grandmother used to make me model in a small company which had since shut down. But it's been 10 years since then..."

"Listen..." Adrien sighed softly "........

[word count: 1173 words]