The two high school students who documented their ‘gay romance’ on TikTok are straight
The 5.7 million Twitter users who viewed an adorable video series have come together to mourn their loss. (TikTok)
In something that absolutely feels like it can only happen in 2019, a viral TikTok video of an adorable high school gay couple has turned out to be two straight students.
Friends and classmates of Vu Nguyen, 16, have decried him for posting a series of videos on the content-sharing app showing him and a male student called Ben exchanging scrunchies, waiting for one another outside class and swooning from afar.
In a series of plot twists, the four videos were “exposed’ by classmates after some Twitter users brought to light that Nguyen is “straight”, according to a screenshot from his Instagram.
Nguyen reportedly clarified that he and Ben in the video are not a couple – Ben in fact has a girlfriend “who is camera shy” and that he substituted at times for her.
What on earth is going on?
Nguyen posted at least four videos on his since-deleted TikTok account showing an unknown person and a male classmate holding hands and having fun.
https://twitter.com/koalatreat/status/1182383111264333824?s=20
It later blew up on LGBT+ Twitter, with dozens of users speaking about how “cute” the videos are and how it captures the “high school experience” some wanted.
this whole thread… i’m… breaking down pic.twitter.com/bUpOgELRov
— ?bone daddy? (@thelovewitchh) October 11, 2019
As someone smoothly summed up: “I just went from crotchety to heart-warmed to misty eyed and squishy to crushed and kerfluffled at such a bamboozle I CAN’T HANDLE ALL THESE EMOTIONS, I USUALLY ONLY DO ONE AT A TIME.”
Nguyen was never shown in the first three videos, but the apparent final and fourth video ends with him popping up in a grand reveal.
But storms began to brew. Hundreds of fans took to Nguyen’s Instagram supporting his openness, prompting him to clarify that he’s straight.
According to screenshots of a since-deleted comment, Nguyen was asked “Bro, r u gay or u just joshing?”
man pic.twitter.com/c5x1kprUEF— alyssa (@awstensrare) October 10, 2019
“Straight,” he said in reply.
Vu Nguyen: ‘We made the videos as wholesome clips for our friends and wasn’t expecting them to blow up.’
Soon, the reply was deleted and hundreds of broken-hearted Instagram users began jumping into his comment sections denouncing the 16-year-old and accusing him of “queer-baiting”.
According to one screenshot, Nguyen clarified that he’s the “editor/director of the videos”.
Moreover, Ben has a girlfriend who “is camera shy, so we just used my face at the end”. This being a reference to the fourth video, that shows Ben and catching a movie screening with Nguyen.
What about THIS plot twist? https://t.co/tDmNpo8p3N pic.twitter.com/5YLuaRQdxT
— the Art of Spooky ? ?? (@APinSFran) October 11, 2019
This was the first time in the TikTok videos that Nguyen’s face was visible.
Moreover, according to another screenshot, Nguyen allegedly clarified that: “I edit and direct the videos of them, but she [the girlfriend] didn’t want to show her face. Sorry for the misunderstanding.
“We made the videos as wholesome clips for our friends and wasn’t expecting them to blow up.”
In the unfolding scandal, classmates stressed that harassing Nguyen regardless is in no way a valid response to it all.
And as others pointed out that if “it’s not like if he’s LGBTQ+, he’s gonna out himself just for the sake of some stranger(s).
“And if he really is het, it still was a cute video.”
Nevertheless, LGBT+ Twitter seriously needs some super glue right now because about a thousand hearts just tore.
PinkNews has contacted Nguyen for comment.
