Adrien no longer answers. Neither to panicked emails, nor angry text messages, nor phone calls at any time of the day or night.
A week goes by, then a second, then a third, and Nino feels like he's dying of panic.
He bombards his friend with messages, threatening him to notify the local authorities and to declare him missing. In desperation, he goes as far as calling his hotel directly, but to no avail. Across the ocean, he is told in a kind but firm tone that his friend has expressly requested not to be disturbed and that his plea cannot be granted.
Nino doesn't know what to do.
He has never been so afraid for Adrien.
He no longer sleeps, no longer eats. Every second that passes without news of his friend consumes him with anguish.
One day, after an umpteenth sleepless night spent worrying sick about Adrien's, Nino is surprised to see Chloé suddenly bursting in his room. She crosses the room as confidently as if she were at home and stands in front of him, hands resting firmly on her hips.
"Okay, that's enough", she says in a peremptory tone. "I'm going to see Adrien, and you come with me. "
Nino blinks, wondering if he has really understood what she is implying.
"To see Adrien?" He repeats in an incredulous voice. "You mean... in the United States?"
"No, in Peru", replies Chloé with an annoyed snort. "Of course we're going to the United States. You told me you have a passport, right? So there's no problem. "
Still in shock, Nino slowly passes his hand over his face.
"Okay..." he whispers absently. "Okay, okay, okay..."
Under his skull, his brain is working at full speed. Nino tries to make a mental inventory of the concerts for which he has already committed in the coming days, of the contracts he has signed, of the state of his bank account.
He wants to see Adrien, with all his heart. If his friend wasn't this far, he would have joined him a long time ago.
But he has rent to pay, commitments to fulfil. Chloé may afford to go around the world on a whim, but harsh reality nails Nino to the ground.
"Okay...", he continues, taking his phone out of his pocket. "Just give me time to check how much money I have left. And I have to make a few phone calls to see when I can leave exactly, I don't know yet which parties I can afford to... "
"Don't bother," Chloé cuts him off, waving her hand as if she were dismissing an unwelcome insect. "Cancel everything, we're leaving this week. "
"Chloé", sighs Nino with a hint of exasperation. "I have a job. It's not that simple. "
"It's extremely simple", she replies immediately. "I hire you. Full time, for double your current pay and for an indefinite period. I'll pay for your plane ticket and your accommodation, and I promise you that when you come back you will host all the events organized by my father. "
Mouth agape, Nino stares at her with eyes so wide in surprise that they seem to be ready to spring out of their sockets.
It's absurd.
Definitely, incredibly, utterly absurd.
"You know my family," Chloé continues with a haughty sigh. "Money is far from being a problem. On the other hand, I intend to do everything I can do to help Adrien, and for that, I need you," she continues, extending her finger to Nino to give a little pat on his chest. "Of course, I am THE best friend of Adrien, I could very well go there alone," she says in a pompous tone, "but I prefer to maximize my chances. So, you're coming ? "
Nino's response is instantaneous. It bursts out, instinctively, the very second Chloé finishes her sentence.
"I'm coming."
Barely a few days later, Nino sets foot on the other side of the Atlantic. As he slowly walks over the airport tarmac, his legs still numbed by long hours of flying, he looks up at the sky. The sunlight is bright, almost blinding, while in Paris the night has fallen for a long time already.
The situation is so unreal that Nino feels like he is trapped in a strange dream.
He takes a deep breath, inhales this oxygen from another continent. The air is more humid than in the streets of his hometown and unfamiliar smells assail him, reinforcing the feeling of lag that refuses to leave him since he flew from Paris.
But Nino hardly has time to dwell on these curious sensations. Chloé grabs him by the elbow with an authoritative gesture to encourage him to speed up the pace and quickly, the two young people move away from their plane to go into the arrival hall.
Thanks to Chloé's almost military organization and persuasive skills, every formality is rushed in record time. The mayor's daughter skips the queue without the slightest embarrassment, ignores the acid remarks of the other passengers with a disconcerting aplomb and requisitions a luxurious taxi out of the airport. She harasses the driver to speed up the pace and once arrived at his destination, scolds the reception staff to obtain the exact number of the suite occupied by Adrien.
Normally, Nino wouldn't necessarily approve of Chloé's cavalier attitude. But today, fear knots his stomach and the urgency of the situation makes him want to scream with rage and frustration. So, for once, he silently thanks Chloé for showing so little scruples to achieve her goal.
In front of him, Chloé abruptly dismisses a hotel employee and walks into the corridors of the establishment. Nino speed up the pace, struggling to keep up with the young woman. Then, finally, both stop in front of their friend's room.
They exchange a brief glance, knock sharply on his door, and wait.
Again.
And again and again and again.
Heart beating wildly, Nino mechanically grabs Chloé by the hand. He is afraid. Afraid for Adrien. Afraid of what he will discover behind this wooden panel which still separates him from his friend. Nino feels Chloé flinch, but to his surprise, the young woman does not make the slightest gesture of recoil. On the contrary, she in turn squeezes his fingers in hers, also drawing scant comfort from his presence.
They stand still, desperately waiting for a sign of life from their friend.
But the door remains closed and the seconds continue to pass by with terrifying slowness.
Nino squeezes Chloé's hand harder. The anguish compresses his chest, prevents him from breathing to the point that his lungs burn him. His whole body is shaking, his pulse is speeding dangerously and his worry is now so strong that he wants to scream. It's too much. Too much tension, too much fear, too many feelings of helplessness.
Nino has never been so tense. Staring at the handle, he feels that time is slowing down. That it freezes. It's like being trapped in a space where every second would last for hours, where every lost moment would be an additional torture to his terrified mind.
"Open," he whispers like a prayer. "Open. "
Then, finally, finally, the door opens.
Slowly, almost imperceptibly.
But it opens.
More and more, until a silhouette appears in its frame.
And after weeks of anxiety that nearly drove him crazy, Nino finally sees a familiar face.
Adrien.
In front of him, his friend stares at him in a stupefaction that might have been comical if the circumstances hadn't been so dire. Adrien staggers, clings to the doorframe, tightens his fingers around the wood with such force that his knuckles turn white. His gaze is feverish, almost haggard. His eyes go from Nino to Chloé and back again, as if he could hardly believe that his friends are standing in front of him.
Nino himself has trouble realizing that he has finally found Adrien.
But his friend is there. Indeed there.
Finally.
"Adrien!" Nino instinctively exclaims, while moving towards his best friend to hug him with all his strength.
He should be mad at him for his silences. Hate him for the fright he gave him. Yell at him in anger, hold a grudge against him for all the worry that has plagued him the last few days.
But the deep relief that sweeps over Nino carries with it rage and anguish, leaving behind only the sincere joy of having found Adrien. Perhaps, later, the grudge will return. But for now, Nino relishes the simple fact of knowing that his friend is in one piece.
As he hugs Adrien, Nino cannot help but notice how he can distinctly feel his friend's shoulder blades under the fabric of his shirt. He pulls away from him slightly, puts his hands on his shoulders.
Despite his modelling career, Adrien has never had that unhealthy thinness that unfortunately often affects those who work in the world of fashion. But today, he has lost weight, it's obvious. His clothes are clearly too large for him, his cheekbones too angular and the shape of is collarbones is more prominent than ever.
And he's pale, so pale his skin seems almost translucent.
Adrien is no longer the young man full of life he once was, but a being with a diaphanous beauty who seems ready to evaporate at any moment.
In his face, only his feverish eyes still stand out. They shine with an unhealthy gleam, while the circles that surround them are so dark they appear almost black.
Adrien is doing badly.
But he's alive, and at this point, that's all Nino was hoping for.
At his side, Chloé bursts into tears. She pushes him aside with a sudden gesture and grasps Adrien by the collar.
"Idiot," she yells at him between two sobs, giving the young man a violent shock with each insult. "Idiot, idiot, idiot! "
After this tearful reunion, Chloé quickly regains composure.
She rushes into Adrien's suite like a blonde tornado, criticizes the decoration, complains of the lack of light, orders Nino to open the shutters that their friend has obstinately kept closed. When she discovers a second bedroom facing Adrien's, she arbitrarily installs Nino there, before heading to the reception to demand the accommodation located on the other side of the corridor.
Nino lets her do it, stunned, while Adrien drops heavily on the living room sofa. The former model mechanically rubs his eyes, obviously still struggling to realize that his two best friends have just crossed an entire ocean to come see him.
Then, after long seconds of silence, Adrien gently shakes his head. As if to try to put his mind back in order, as if to try to convince himself that he is not dreaming. He straightens up slightly, turns to Nino and points to the room with a vague wave of his hand.
"Well... Welcome," he finally whispers.
The days go by and a strange collocation takes place for the three friends.
Nino shares Adrien's suite, while Chloé only leaves the place to go to sleep in her own apartment. Every day, Nino and Chloé surround their best friend with all their affection. They talk to him, show him their support, refuse to let him continue to sink without doing anything.
Yet, despite all their good will, things are far from simple.
They want to help their friend, with all their heart. Chloé shows patience which she did not know existed, Nino tries endlessly to put a smile on the face of this young man who is wasting away before their eyes.
But Adrien is far from making it easy for them.
Nino has always known that his friend is reluctant to let his weaknesses show through, that he minimizes the importance of events that affect him to not let people worry about him. But he would never have believed that he could show such stubbornness.
Adrien refuses their help, purely and simply.
When Nino and Chloé tell him about their fears, he says he can manage on his own. Casually shrugs his shoulders when his friends implore him to take even a step outside the hotel. Certifies without blinking an eye that spending his days locked in the dark is in no way a sign of distress.
For Nino and Chloé, the finding is harsh.
Obviously, Adrien would rather drown in his own despair than accept their outstretched hands.
But despite everything, this stupid pride shown by his friend is not what worries Nino the most. Adrien has always been a calm boy. An introverted young man, modelled by his father to be reasonable in all circumstances. Except that now, the apathy he shows is truly chilling.
Nino no longer recognizes his best friend.
At times, while Chloé and Nino are desperately trying to communicate with him, Adrien shut himself in stubborn silences that can last for hours.
At other, he prefers to talk about the weather, his bedroom wallpaper, everything rather than his father and the reasons that pushed him to cross an entire ocean. He barely eats, sleeps for far too long, shows a detachment that worries his friends more than they dare say.
Sometimes, when Chloé's patience runs out and she screams at him all her pain and resentment, Adrien remains alarmingly calm. His stares at nothing and seems to be barely paying attention to the storm that is raging before him.
Nino has never been so afraid for his friend.
Some days, he wants to yell at him too, to shake him with all his might, to punch him hard in the face. Anything that could make him react. Anything that could make Nino feel like he is useful to his best friend.
He feels terribly helpless.
Adrien is in pain, that's obvious. His father's betrayal left a gaping wound in his heart. It injected a poison that gnaws at the young man to the depths of his bones, turning him into the shadow of who he once was.
Nino sees his friend turn away from the world, gradually wasting away.
And that terrifies him.
So, despite the rebuffs, he holds on. He keeps talking to Adrien, tries to get his attention, to help him regain taste for life. He fights, every minute, every second, with the dreadful fear that Adrien will disappear if he gives up even for a moment.
The days go by and Nino and Chloé persist in staying with their best friend no matter what he says. They will help him, with or without his consent.
And, little by little, Adrien agrees to open up.
Timidly at first, he talks about his pain.
He tells them how much his father's betrayal has hurt him. Puts words on this headlong rush which has been going on for too long. Then, over time, he lets them enter deeper and deeper into the hell that his world has become. He tells them about his most intimate weaknesses, describes to them his most terrifying nightmares.
And one day, he confesses his most precious secret to them.
This burden that prevents him from breathing, this final piece of the puzzle that Nino and Chloé lacked to understand the chaos that his life has become.
"Chat Noir," he blurts out under his breath. "I was Chat Noir. "