Altan offered to take over my next shift, which I was grateful for, especially seeing how everyone's focus was now on that photo of Llewellyn and me.
However, I should have guessed it would not have died down in a day.
While I tried not to be on social media in the meantime, I still found everything waiting for me when my next shift rolled around.
Altan's DM wasn't reassuring either.
[Altan]: People are betting on whether you and Llewellyn are dating. 50/50 odds. Thought you should know.
Well, fuck.
I typed back quickly.
[Ryo]: I hate this.
[Altan]: Welcome to the world of online fame, buddy.
I braced myself, made coffee, and let Penguin snuggle close on the couch as I clocked in.
Yeah, Altan wasn't lying.
[zerohero]: who tf is that guy with Llewellyn???
[mothmemes]: bro just took him and left
[glitchlocked]: nobody knows who he is??
[ceruleansalt]: he's probably just some guy he rescued idk
[mothmemes]: man doesn't LOOK injured
[snapbacked]: i can't tell if this is sus or if ppl are just wildin again
[tinybitchaos]: ok but deadass WHO is he?? does anyone recognize him??
[crackedmirror]: can we chill. it's prob just a one time thing
[lionman]: dude's just standing next to llewellyn like he belongs there though. like huh?
[nostalgiajpg]: something about this feels off but idk what
[sunvortex]: nah but fr, Llewellyn has never walked off with a rando like that
[bitcrash32]: highkey looks like a grab and go situation
[lionman]: it's just weird seeing Llewellyn with someone. dude's always alone
[snapbacked]: watch it be some random person he saved and everyone's overthinking lol
[tapedeck404]: or a new partner. this is how it starts
[nostalgiajpg]: everyone's arguing but no one knows shit
[clutchgrind]: wait till someone zooms in on the pic and claims they're dating 💀
[cloudscraper]: feels sus tho. why leave with him instead of waiting for medics???
[ghostknotter]: ngl the fact that he just dipped with him is kinda 👀
Looks like this was going to be as bad as I expected.
I was on shift, so… no choice but to deal with this.
I hid some profanity, and kept scrolling.
[soupbones]: idk man this is weird. who is he. where did he come from
[foldingspice]: it's just one photo and everyone's losing their minds lmaoooo
[bitcrash32]: guys it's literally a rando, can we calm down
[cloudscraper]: no but really. why did Llewellyn leave with him??
[tinybitchaos]: it's giving "i'll save you babe" energy lol
[badapple]: llewellyn can't even walk off a knot site without internet shipping his life 💀
[zerohero]: he doesn't even look injured, why take him???
[ventstack]: can't believe we're out here writing lore over one pic
[driftfix]: calling it now, his PR girl's gonna say nothing
[crashlog]: if this is a new partner reveal it's the weirdest one I've seen lmao
[inknot]: there's no way this isn't intentional. no way
[highpinged]: there's no way this isn't a PR stunt u mean
[lockfile]: new headcanon: secret agent boyfriend
No, what??? How was I both a secret agent and Llewellyn's boyfriend???
[traceloop]: okay i tried reverse image search and got nothing
[bitdepth]: there's like zero footprint on this guy. nada
[cryptoclaw]: someone check the background in the pic. maybe there's a hint?
They were already trying to find me???
[stackless]: no tags, no mentions—whoever he is, he's invisible online
[linklocked]: searched all known vids of Llewellyn, this guy's not in any of them
[pixelnoise]: how does he have no socials? sus af
[brokencompile]: looked at old knot footage. no match
[fibreoptic]: somebody's hiding him for sure
[phantomping]: there's no record of him anywhere i swear
[softknot]: idc who he is, i'm shipping it. hard.
[loudloop]: new otp just dropped y'all
[knotbent]: can we NOT with the shipping already? please.
[thirstbitten]: so we're all calling him #LlewRando right?
[ghosttag]: not gonna lie, the way Llewellyn's holding him… it's a whole mood
[speculativeeels]: honestly? I'm here for the chaos #LlewRando4Life
[spintopple]: this is classic hero/oblivious civilian trope and i'm eating it up
[wreckingball]: WAIT. what if it's a secret relationship and they got caught??
[ctrlz]: y'all need to log off and touch grass
[overlol]: someone's gonna write 10k of enemies to lovers on this in like, an hour
[loworbit]: okay but where's the slow burn fic where they meet in secret and only got spotted now
[shipblocker]: imagine writing fic over a blurry pic. embarrassing
[freefail]: saw someone on another thread calling them "Knotmates" help 😭
My face was on fire.
[peachwired]: okay we need a good name. LlewRando for the guy is funny but we can do better
[bluecrash]: LlewCrush? LlewHeart?
[bytebeat]: i like LlewellHim for now tbh, until we know more
[glowmaze]: nah i'm sticking with LlewBae 😭
[llewellingUP] @glowmaze that sounds so wrong 😂😂😂
[antisink]: u ppl seriously need to stop reading into this. it's one blurry pic
[knotcut]: I just wanted info about the incident and now this. why.
[commonfork]: stop trying to make this a romance!!! it's cringe!!!
[nopebutton]: i swear, if i see one more ship reply i'm muting this thread
[crashwavez]: LMFAO at everyone getting so pressed about this. just let the shippers have fun
[realitybytes]: not everything needs to be a ship. this is reaching
[logicloader]: it's literally just a guy standing there. stop being weird!!!
[tanglefish]: saw a poll on another thread. top three were LlewCrush, LlewBae and LlewBoy
[hyperlint]: add me to the LlewCrush squad. adorable.
[twitchkyte]: ur all missing the chance for some #Llewd jokes in there lol
[streamknot] nahh, how about romantic? llewdate? llewdarling?
How did this escalate so quickly???
Oh no. Kill me now. There were comments about me too.
[softbeet]: ngl the guy's kinda hot tho. lowkey
I need to bleach my eyes. I need to turn off the Internet. Like… globally.
[ghosttag]: he's got that whole "in over his head but hot" look
[bitdepth]: okay but let's be real, that coat looks expensive af. who is he?
[clipdust]: i don't even care about the coat, it's the face for me
[fraypixel]: sorry but his whole "lost puppy" vibe? lethal
[dripcore]: eh he's mid at best, y'all are just shipping because he's next to Llewellyn
[flarestack]: no but for real, that white coat is nice. where do i get one
[dungeonpull]: honestly his expression in the pic is killing me. he's just like "how did i get here?" i'm invested
[clickbaited]: his face is fine I guess, but the way he's standing next to Llewellyn like it's normal??? hot
[linkleak]: dude's got main character energy and he doesn't even know it
[floatcrash]: okay I'm adding him to the list of guys i simp for. sorry.
[deadsun]: y'all need to chill, he's fine but not that fine
[smashblink]: idk i'd let him wreck me
This was too much. I was dying.
Llewellyn was right, I really needed to quit.
How could I be expected to work like this??? Seriously, is hazard pay a thing for this kind of trauma? I need hazard pay for this.
[fivesquirrels]: he's giving off "accidental hot guy" energy and i'm not mad
[llewespill]: he's not even trying but I bet he's actually deadly hot irl
[crashlanes]: he looks so unbothered
[blipfeed]: this man's standing like he's in line at the bank. it's killing me
[velvetbuffer]: he looks like he wandered onto a kdrama set by accident and still managed to outshine everyone???
[flyingsyntax]: this man has no idea what he's doing and it's working for him
[ramdumped]: tell me how he looks confused but also main character coded
[blurryframes]: lost puppy eyes but also giving off hero energy. I'm conflicted
[liveupdate]: new poll up: his face vs his coat vs his cluelessness. vote now.
I checked the poll. It already had 9250 votes. What!!!
Honestly, this was unbearable.
How did I end up in the middle of this?!! I didn't even look that good in the photo.
[smashblink]: ok but the body language??? don't tell me I'm the only one seeing it
[loopjuice]: he's literally leaning into Llewellyn's space. i'm losing it
[bookflick]: they're standing too close for this to be casual 😭
Please, no one mention this in real life.
[knotbare]: this is so dumb. people will ship anything these days 🙄
[cocochill]: everyone needs to touch grass. seriously.
[guitarvault]: why are we even talking about this. can we move on?
[searless]: it's literally just a guy in a coat
[getboat]: can't believe y'all made a whole ship out of one photo
[chairvan]: this is why fandoms get roasted. y'all are doing too much
[flexed]: can we get back to the plot or is this a BL novel now
[snaptether]: why is Llewellyn looking at him like that tho
[twitchstack]: bro, this is the "I got you" pose
[glowte]: i feel like i'm interrupting something just looking at this pic
[memequill]: look at their height difference too
[cacheglitch]: tell me why it looks like Llewellyn's shielding him from the crowd
[snippethook]: power couple in the making, don't @ me
The more I read, the more I wanted to die. I hated that I was oddly invested in what they were saying.
[finelady]: if they're not dating then explain the HAND. PLACEMENT.
[harshmellow]: someone zoom in. enhance. enhance again
[pixelpeel]: someone already made a fanvid. to a sad ballad. help
[bitroot]: why does this photo have more chemistry than my last three relationships
[spicyfloat]: i showed this to my roommate and she thought it was a drama still
[voidvine]: no because look at their SPACING. there isn't any 😭
[ghosttag]: i want what they have. whatever it is
[qwifi] they both look so cool
[llewin]: i swear if they don't kiss in the next update I'm rioting
Honestly, I wanted to crawl under my desk.
And I was supposed to keep this up for eight hours straight?!!