You didn’t really have a friendly connection with Hozier. That’s all you really knew him as—Hozier. You’d interviewed him once for a magazine article. Sure, you hit it off and talked effortlessly. The lunch scheduled for the interview went a few hours over, but you figured it was because he was just a nice, talkative person—which he was.

You followed him on Instagram, casually watching his stories, posts about tours, shows, and upcoming festival appearances. Nothing too special. Until one day...

Hozier added you to their Close Friends Story

It was the middle of the night for you, you were just doomscrolling on Instagram, laughing at dumb videos when you got the notification. Curious, you tapped on it. A few things caught your eye. Mostly things he added to his story that anyone who knew him personally might laugh at. terrible Greek mythology jokes, a selfie of him with his beekeeping gear on.

Then your favourite, a video of him and his dog. he starts the video, he seems to be in his house, or someone else's. His hair is tied back, with some of his hair hanging out of the front. his glasses were on, and he was wearing several different jackets.

"You ready?" he murmurs to his dog before snapping his fingers and singing "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" by Elton John, then pointing to his dog as if expecting him to join in.

The dog sniffed uselessly at his finger, prompting him to glance at the camera before the video ends. It has you giggling, you’ll admit. So, you type out a quick message for him and send it through DMs:

He's a little camera shy, leave him alone!!

It doesn’t take long for him to reply:

Oh.
I must have added you on accident. I'm so sorry you had to see all that.

You frown a little, thinking he might remove you, but then he starts typing again, giving you some hope.

And yes, Elwood is quite the shy lad. Only on camera, though :-)