The first few days after their 'breakup' had been hard. Maybe the whole thing might have been easier to pull had they actually broken up, but that wasn't the case, now was it? So, then they had to go about lying and deflecting and holding themselves in, when all they really wanted was to let go and hold hands, a kiss or two wouldn't be so bad.
But they had to make it seem like they were over, done. Otherwise, Adrien's father would really make sure that it was over.
Alya and Nino, frankly, had been the hardest to fool. The rest of the class; sure, they had been disappointed, but they had respected their decisions. For them Adrien and Marinette had just gone through something they all knew was difficult; a break up. Especially seeing how happy they had been when they were together. They knew that it was because of Adrien's father that their favourite couple wasn't a couple anymore, but what could they do? Adrien had overheard Rose's exclamation about how tragic it all was, but she'd never say something like that in front of Adrien or Marinette.
Yeah, Adrien's whole life at this point was one big tragedy.
At least he didn't really have to let go of Marinette. At least he didn't have to watch some other guy sweep her off her feet while he could do nothing but watch. At least that hadn't been the outcome. Because Marinette still had the option of lying and saying she was interested in someone else. She could still say she had a crush on some other guy, I met him online, you probably don't know him.
Adrien wished he could say the same without it getting back to his father. His father was pretty foreboding at times but this was a new low, one where Adrien was now afraid of even the prospect of crushing on someone.
That should have been a major red flag for him, but he'd grown up with his father so it didn't seem like anything out of the ordinary.
Not being able to immediately turn down admirers though, he'd soon realise that it might not have been anything big for him, he'd done it his whole life, but for Marinette, his girlfriend, it was a different story.
They'd managed to get Alya and Nino off their back after the first few days. They'd still suspected something was up but the thing was: no one could know. They didn't know just who had tattled on them and they couldn't afford to slip up a second time. Even if it meant lying directly to their best friends. Yes, it was just as painful for Adrien to lie to Nino as it was for Marinette to lie to Alya, but what could they do? Nino was horrible at keeping a secret and Alya- well, if Marinette's suspicions were justified regarding the identity of their spy, then even Alya couldn't be trusted. Besides, Marinette remembered what happened the last time she's entrusted Alya to keep a secret (even from Nino), much to boyfriend's utter amusement.
Eventually, after many hardships and too many close calls, they managed to discover more than one way of sneaking out separately to meet up without the knowledge of their friends and families. Adrien found that Marinette was just as good at keeping a secret and sneaking around as he was, to the point where he was actually quite impressed. The familiarity and controlled ease with which she commanded their situation sometimes was something to admire, and it almost made it seem like she had been doing this a lot longer than she let on. Of course, whenever he said something of the like to her, she'd simply flounder and deny everything, but Adrien could respect the fact that some secrets aren't meant to be shared.
All in all, it was going slightly better than Adrien had feared and if he didn't focus to much on it, it was almost like everything was normal again. He had Marinette and Marinette had him, and it was fine.
Until it wasn't.
The first strike was when Adrien was heading home for the day. It had been almost a month since their whole 'dating-not dating (but secretly dating)' thing started and by this point they'd become quite skilled at it. It wasn't the first time he had had to keep a big part of his life a secret and while it had taken a bit adjusting to, things were going quite well (save for the occasional slip up). But then, as he walked past his classroom and towards the front gates where the Gorilla was waiting for him, he heard hushed voices whispering furiously from somewhere inside. It was well after school had ended and most of the place was empty and of course, his first instinct was to ignore it. It was none of his business and eavesdropping would be very rude. The closer he drew to the room though, the clearer the conversations became. It became evident that there were more than two people in that room, but what really caught Adrien's attention was that he heard his name being thrown around more than a few times. He stopped short of the doorway and contemplated on listening in before deciding, why not? If these people wanted privacy, they should've gone somewhere private.
