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Messy, grey hair and piercing teal eyes accompanied by a heavy pair of eyebags underneath. That’s his signature look that got him so many fans. A language that’s too vulgar for most audiences, the piercings that glinted due to his bright light and a tired look that’s basically permanent on his face. Despite his unfriendly, cold and a little rude demeanour, he did well enough to fund the lifestyle he wanted.
Unknown. The name might be a little cringe because Till was anything but mysterious but he liked it. The meaning behind him held some nostalgic feeling behind it that he didn’t bother to change it even after he gained fame.
He had a humble start. Streaming was just something he did as a hobby, playing games was stress-relieving and he wanted to share it with someone whenever his apartment became too quiet, his mind too loud. The money he gained was a plus but it wasn’t the main goal.
The apartment he lived in was modest, small and enough for two people. It was a studio apartment that he claimed he shared with a roommate, an old friend that he knew since childhood. However, said roommate was nowhere to be seen even when Till streamed all day. The apartment was so small that you would think you would hear even a sigh from someone else even if they were out of the camera’s view, the creaking of the floorboards when someone walked by and even a strand of hair even if Till’s camera setup made sure that all you could see were him and the wall. However, Till’s roommate remained unseen despite how much the man talked about him. At one point, it became an inside joke among his community to treat his roommate as an imaginary friend instead. It was amusing to see Till bristled whenever someone casually mentioned his lack of a companion but the man didn’t care enough to do anything about it.
Like that one time when someone asked if he ate and Till answered that his roommate cooked something for them, his viewers assumed he didn’t eat, berating him to find something to fill his stomach. The man would shake his head before he promised he'd do something about it. He’d play into it when the fans didn’t drop it even when Till insisted it was a real person.
As long as the money rolled in and he was having fun, he didn’t mind entertaining his audience even if they saw him as a lone wallflower. Sometimes, it did get on his nerves on the days when his patience was a little shorter but he was lucky his short temper and sassy attitude was a part of his charm that the people liked. It was easy to rile him up, to see what expression they could pull from him and what new curses he could come up with.
Then one night, he just blew up. Till didn’t even know how. He was playing a random game he saw online as he normally did but a clip of his went viral and he gained almost half a million overnight.
People actually liked him, tuned in and donated.
Till put the money he gained—donations, sponsors, ad revenues, he was doing great!— to good use as he moved into a new apartment. Rather than the small, cramped space where Till was pushed up against the wall, he now had his own room for streaming. A nice sofa in the background and a few of his beloved instruments that he kept. He was living in comfort.
But weirdly enough, once he moved into a bigger space, there were suddenly traces of another person. Sometimes it was something as small as a hoodie left behind on the sofa. Maybe it was Till’s and he liked it oversized so it wasn’t that weird. Other times, a cup of steaming coffee magically appeared on his desk when it wasn’t there a minute ago. And very few times, a voice could be heard. Sometimes muffled. Sometimes quiet like it was whispered. Till would either yell back a response or he’ll mute himself before replying.
But it would always pique the interest of his viewers.
‘whos that’
‘did he make a new friend?’
‘no way maybe hes just haunted’
People became curious about this seemingly new person in his life but no matter the amount of questions he got, Till barely spared it glance, brushing it off without a thought. It was a well-kept secret. The streamer would be so quick to mute himself before speaking and sometimes he would even push his camera away whenever the person got too close. He’ll even act dumb, playing into the old ‘imaginary friend’ joke as if he wasn’t the one to hate it in the first place.
One day, the rising streamer decided to do a special stream marathon for almost reaching one million subscribers. He was somewhere above 900K when he started and the goal was to only end it when he reached 1 million.
Till had been streaming nonstop, playing recommended games, strumming some tunes on his guitar and singing songs his viewers asked for before getting back into grinding games he neglected. He streamed for days. Being so sleep deprived, he gave himself respite, laying down on his couch and making himself comfortable with a pillow and his fluffy blanket before promising he’ll be up when he reached his goal. It was a slow night, low in views and the people that were tuning in most likely had him on as their background noise.
The subscriber count on his monitor slowly moved, increasing before it reached the number; 1,000,000. It pinged, confetti popping as it celebrated his new milestone.
Unfortunately, Till was still deep in his slumber, unable to witness it. His viewers began to spam his chat, donating as an attempt to rouse him up by the sound of all the notifications, congratulating him and urging him to wake up.
But the man was a deep sleeper as he remained unmoving, snoring away in dreamland.
Suddenly, the door to his room creaked open as a tall man in baby blue silk pyjamas walked in. His back was facing the camera but his dark messy hair could be seen as proof of his own fatigue and drowsiness as he brought a hand up to rub at his eyes.
It seemed all the notifications managed to wake them up instead, despite being in another room.
“Till…” The man’s deep baritone voice called out, hoarse due to sleep. “Your computer is making too much noise…” he complained, shaking the sleeping man but the grey haired only groaned, grumbling under his breath before he slapped the hand away and turned around.
The mysterious man finally turned towards the computer with a frown on his face, reading whatever was on the screen.
“Till.” He called out again, louder this time as he squinted his eyes from the bright monitor. “Your computer might explode.”
And explode it might when a barrage of notifications flooded in. His viewers spammed his chat, their excitement and shock obvious from the amount of caplocks there was. People were freaking out. Not only because Till’s roommate was very real and very hot but also because of who he was.
Ivan. The model and idol who recently retired and vanished from the public eye. Not only was it him in the flesh after deleting all his socials, the man was also looking very soft, a huge difference to his idol persona with his messy curly hair and bare face.
He was frowning at the monitor as an influx of messages came in.
Ivan’s eyes widened in shock and terror. “Uh—Till! Why is your stream still on?” He exclaimed, obviously not expecting the man to be streaming at 3 in the morning. He panicked once he realised he had accidentally exposed himself to the internet when he had swore off fame the moment he retired.
In an attempt to wake him up, Ivan pulled at the pillow Till was resting on, making his head drop to the sofa as he groaned.
“What the fuck, Ivan?” He grumbled, obviously annoyed and disoriented at the harsh treatment.
“Till.” Ivan’s voice was strained as he called out to him. “Your stream is still on.” He said. He was fidgety, unsure whether to hide himself or not as he pulled on his sleeves. The world had seen him anyway so it was futile but he still had the urge to hide his face behind his hand, watching from the corner of his eyes as the view count was starting to rise.
“Yeah, dumbass. I’m doing a marathon?” He asked in confusion as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“Till. I’m in it.” The ravenette stated, slowly this time as if he was talking to a child.
A few moments passed in silence as Till frowned, barely registering Ivan’s words but once his slow mind caught up to him, he was up on his feet by the next second, pushing the retired idol out of frame as Ivan collapsed onto the floor when he tripped, legs tangled in Till’s blanket.
“Ow! What the fuck?” He yelped as his ass hit the floor.
“Why are you in my stream?!” Till exclaimed, rushing up to his computer.
“Because your computer was making so much noise! I thought it was going to explode!”
”You fucking idiot! Of course, it’s going to make some noises!”
The two bickered, yelling out curses and throwing profanities around before Till finally scrambled to end his stream.
“How much were you in it?”
“A lot.”
“You dumb fuck. I told you not to come into my room when I’m streaming.”
“How would I know you were streaming? Normal people would be asleep at this time, Till!”
The last bit of their conversation could be heard before it was finally cut off.
Till was quick to delete the whole stream from his page but it was too late. Social media blew up with clips from the stream, some of them highlighting Ivan’s moment but most were focused on how rude and vulgar the streamer was with the beloved idol. He was casually cursing him out, pushing him around as if he was some toy and people weren’t okay with that.
Ivan was still loved by his fans as they were quick to come to his defence, playing heroes as they threw hate and insults to Till’s few social media accounts. But another part of his fandom, the one that had always admired the princely idol loved this new side of him. Most of the time during Ivan’s idol days, he was closer to a doll than he was human, flashing a perfect smile and standing with perfect posture. Even his vlogs were obviously staged and monitored.
What was shown on the stream was like a breath of new air. Ivan never cursed but he did with the streamer. The amount of facial expressions he showed was greater than the whole duration of his days when he was an idol and an actor. It was saying a lot. It must have meant that Ivan was much more comfortable with Till rather than back then during his famous era. So much more, more than they could ever know.
It wasn’t long until Till reached two million subscribers. Even though most of Ivan’s fans followed Till because of the idol, they simply wanted to show him their support. Never once did Till mention Ivan in his stream. Till must be the few genuine friends that Ivan had if he never even thought of using him for clout and just for that, they respected him.
Till might have missed it when he reached 1 million but at least he got to celebrate 2 million instead.