Angel and Armani are a real TikTok love story. They became mutuals on the app and then, years later, matched on Tinder. “I reached out to him, but he didn’t respond to me,” says Angel. Armani chimes in: “That’s because he saw me in person, but at that time, we didn’t even text; we would just comment under videos.” The comments, according to them both, were only lightly flirtatious. A “lol” here and there, or an emoji. Then, they added to the same group TikTok account, along with around 20 other TikTokers. Armani did end up responding to a DM from Angel on Instagram, and they shared their Zodiac signs. (Angel is a Scorpio and Armani is a Leo.) “I gave him my number because I love Leo so much,” says Angel. Now, they are the favourite couple and unofficial TikTok “parents” to hundreds of thousands of their combined followers. 

To the fans of their openly PDA and sincere love online, Angel and Armani are a couple in almost always coordinated and highly fashionable fits. They dance and joke with each other, kissing on camera, call each other “pookie”, and share snippets of funny moments together in New Jersey, where they are both based. And being a couple online isn’t their only gig: Angel is also a photographer and works full-time as a barber, and Armani is an illustrator who has worked as a classroom assistant and dance instructor. They say they spend the moments they aren’t together (or working) on the phone, even if it’s just in silence.

Before TikTok brought them together, Angel was posting his photography and outfit videos. Armani says he was “doing his own thing” and posting “whatever”. “You were a thirst trap,” says Angel. They both laugh. “He was much more popular than I was at the time,” says Armani. I’m sitting with the couple on Angel’s birthday – something neither Angel, who is now 26, nor Armani, who is 23, had mentioned before organising the interview. Later, hands interlocked, they told me they were going shopping and bowling together. When I asked what their love languages were, they both said physical touch. It wasn’t a surprise. “We are always just together, hooked to each other and attached by the hip,” says Armani. 

As they approach their fourth anniversary, Angel and Armani recall their first date at a mall in New Jersey. “We literally just went to Shake Shack, got a burger and started chatting,” says Armani. Angel adds: “We parked my car on the roof of the garage, listened to music and then we had our first kiss.” They both recount sharing their favourite songs, from the likes of PinkPantheress and Kelela, in the car that evening. Having the same taste in music was one similarity that brought Angel and Armani closer together. Another was video games. “We would play Grand Theft Auto and make our characters look just like us,” says Angel. He then pulled up a photo of the two of them in the game.

Angel and Armani fell in love with each other in between the minutiae of everyday life and even errands. When speaking with them, it’s clear their romance would have blossomed anywhere and anyhow. “I remember our second date was that he had to pick up a costume for his mum for a costume party,” says Armani. “I went along with him.” One of their early dates even included Armani waiting in the car while Angel donated blood at a hospital where he was working at the time. They were meant to play volleyball, which they both say they love, but the doctors told Angel not to engage in any physical activity for the next 24 hours. “I got back to the car, and I was like, ‘OK, let’s go,’” says Angel. 

The blood bank to volleyball story was actually a turning point in Angel and Armani’s relationship. When Angel inevitably got dizzy and went to sit down, Armani couldn’t focus. “Usually when I play volleyball, it’s all I think about, but I was so worried about him,” Armani says. “I knew this was something serious.” Later that night, on the way home, Armani brought up the “what are we?” question. “I said, ‘Well, we’re boyfriends,’” says Angel. Posting each other and sharing outfits came shortly after. “We usually get dressed based on each other’s vibes,” says Angel. “We share literally everything.” With that, they both looked down and pointed at the matching tracksuits they were wearing.

Before posting each other, Armani says he was “very intimidated” by Angel. “He had 400k followers at the time and I had 30k,” he says. “I was obviously into him, but I didn’t know if I was 100 per cent ready to be in that space with all his followers.” Then, one day, Angel simply said, “Let’s just do it”. He encouraged Armani to join cute couple’s outfit videos, and then Armani encouraged Angel to start dancing online, in return. He’s often the one pulling Angel, who swears he’s not a dancer but dances effortlessly, out of his shell and onto the dance floor. “He overthinks it, but he’s definitely a dancer,” says Armani.

In an era marked by situationships and nonchalant dating culture, Angel and Armani’s obvious appeal online is that they are unabashedly smitten with each other. There are no games or ego trips from the pair – they appear to be competing in a two-person contest of who can be the sweetest and most supportive. “One time, he got a Build-A-Bear for me with my mum’s voice in it,” says Armani. “She passed away two years ago, and I sleep with it every day now.” Angel then shared a thoughtful story of Armani gifting him a book filled with memories of Angel’s old car. It was the same car where they shared their first kiss in the mall garage, and where Angel went to lie down during their first (dizzy) volleyball game. “We had so many memories in that car, and I named it Leo, after him,” he says.

Angel and Armani weren’t expecting to become a beloved internet couple when sharing their lives on the platform that brought them together, and their day-to-day lives still resemble the mall hangouts, activities and Shake Shack dates they first started with. For their upcoming anniversary, for example, they say they plan on going roller skating. Still, online, they are enjoying being the representation of a relationship they didn’t grow up seeing. “I can see us being a guiding couple for young LGBTQ kids, for the gays who don’t have many people to look up to and follow,” says Armani. To that, Angel adds, “I just love showing my man love.”