The next several days were doused in barely concealed suspicion from both parties. Anything and everything would serve to feed the theory each teenager had put together in their heads as a compromise between confirmation bias and spotlight effect.

On one hand, they believed that the other was in possession of some kind of recording device and, wary of revealing too much information to the person on the other side of it, they were forced to act as if everything was business as usual. While trusting the other enough to try giving information through cryptic wording that they surely would understand (right?); each message accompanied with wild gesticulation that in fact did the opposite of clarifying what anything meant.

On the other hand, they were not quite certain about how much the other actually knew and as such the chase was on with as much stubbornness as before, doing everything in their power to catch the other in their half-baked mind game while only feeding the mounting anxiety

Everything came to a standstill when Adrien let out a comment about Ladybug which convinced Marinette that he knew about her alter ego. She of course, let him know she would not allow that information to be spread in a manner that convinced him that she knew his. He'd visited her on the same day, terrified about what could befall him if Ladybug found out he'd been discovered. Long story short, she assured him that there was nothing to worry about by acting like nothing ever happened, though her expression was clearly stating the opposite (he assumed she was also trying to convince her boss of that, Marinette's the greatest friend anyone could wish for, shady side job or not).

Chat still thought it'd be best to come clean to Ladybug in case Marinette was controlled by an akuma at some point and revealed what she knew. Imagine his surprise when Ladybug talked about his visits to Marinette as if it was yesterday's news before he could even get a word in! He shouldn't be surprised, though. She's always ten steps ahead of everything, just one of the many qualities of his lady.

Fortune allowed these ridiculous happenstances to unfold without too much trouble and to remain mostly unchanged for about two weeks, time in which Marinette stewed on her worries for Adrien's safety has a crime scapegoat while they both tried to act normally but let go of all pretenses when dealing with their alter egos. They were not sure why they did that but if anyone asked, they'd probably say that it was because of the bugs, which they haven't stopped believing were a thing - how else can you explain the insane amount of times they'd catch each other talking to "themselves"? -, listening in to their every conversation.

One Particularly hellish night, in which humidity and icky warmth could fog every thought ever coined by the collective human reason, causing bouts of insomnia that no one was safe from was when everything came crashing down by a single question, asked with the most pure of friendly concern by the best hero Paris has ever known. It was the night when Ladybug asked a very distracted Chat Noir:

"Hypothetically speaking, what would you do if I told you I think Adrien Agreste is being blackmailed by drug dealers and I need your help to help him?"