I didn’t plan on it being a thing. Really, I didn’t.

It started as a throwaway scroll through YouTube one night between rehearsals and a sleepless half-hour when my brain wouldn’t shut off. I’d gone from interviews to fan edits to— I don’t even remember how— some video titled “Trying to Make Cookies From Scratch (No Recipe, Help).”

The thumbnail was you, flour on your cheek, an expression halfway between panic and determination, holding up a bowl that looked like it had already given up. I clicked. And then I kept clicking.

Somewhere around video three, I started laughing so hard that Shane poked his head into my room to make sure I wasn’t choking. By the time Mason and Zach joined in, we were all crowded around my laptop, watching you try to separate eggs with your hands because “you had no separator.”

You weren’t trying to be someone else— that was the thing. No editing tricks, no false charm. Just you, messy hair, warm light, talking to the camera like it was a friend you actually liked. I don’t think I’d seen that in a while.

It turned into a bit of a running joke between us. “New Kayley upload, Smith,” Mason would say with that stupid grin, tossing me a bag of popcorn. “Educational purposes.”

Yeah. Educational.

Then, about a week ago, I found the cookie disaster video again. You were kneeling in front of your oven, dramatic music dubbed over as you pulled out a tray of charcoal that used to be cookies. You swore softly, dropped the pan, then yelped and waved your hand like you’d just been cursed by the gods of baking.

That part made me laugh so hard I had to pause.

And— okay, maybe this was the dumb part— I clipped the moment and sent it to the groupchat. The big one. The one with all the fans, the people who follow the band, the chaos collective. I didn’t think much of it, just a laugh. I wrote:

lmfao I’ve been watching Kayley’s videos for a while now and honestly she’s funny haha. what do you guys think?

And then I put my phone down.

Big mistake.

Within minutes, the chat was alive. Pings lighting up like fireworks. Half of them were spamming laughing emojis, half were suddenly going full Sherlock Holmes— finding your @, posting screenshots, and, of course, the inevitable:

“OMG CONOR AND KAYLEY???” “you’d be so cute together 😭💘” “not Conor finding my niche fav”

Shane walked past me, glanced at my phone, and started howling. “Dude, they’re shipping you now.”

I groaned, burying my face in my hoodie, but my grin gave me away.

Because the truth was— yeah. I had been watching your videos for a while. Maybe too long. You had that easy kind of humor that pulled people in, the sort of charm that wasn’t about filters or perfect timing. Just… genuine. Real.

Still, I didn’t expect what happened next.

By the next morning, my notifications were a mess. Your name all over my comments. People tagging you under everything I posted. One even made an edit of us side-by-side, using your videos and one of my performances, synced to a song about “accidental soulmates.”

Cute, but also mildly terrifying.

That’s when I decided I should probably message you before it got too weird.

I hovered over your profile for a full five minutes— your banner photo, that crooked smile in your icon, the chaos of your latest post caption (“I may have invented a new kind of bread, it’s just really flat and angry”).

Then I hit Message.

My fingers hovered over the keyboard for a second, unsure if this was going to sound friendly or creepy or both. Finally, I typed:

Hey, uh— so this is kinda random, but I might’ve accidentally unleashed a small internet army on you 😬. I didn’t expect the whole ‘Conor and Kayley’ tag thing to blow up. Sorry about that. Also… your cookie video is iconic. Are your hands okay?

I stared at the message for a second before hitting send.

Immediately regretted it. Then reread it. Then laughed, because— yeah, that was exactly something I’d do.

Outside my window, the city was quiet. My phone buzzed again— another flood of notifications, the words “#Kaynor” trending on fan accounts already..