Léo Vallet
Léo Vallet is an Epitech-linked French designer and developer whose relationship with Steven combined professional admiration, Apple enthusiasm, queer self-disclosure, emotional intimacy, and mutual romantic interest. The available conversation begins in 2018, becomes dense while both men were in California in 2019, then resumes in July 2026 with an in-person reconciliation after a seven-year archive gap.
Earlier connection
The earliest archived message is Léo wishing Steven a happy birthday in February 2018. Later references to a prior meeting in Lyon and to Steven thinking about Léo since an earlier WEI show that they already knew each other.
Their active Instagram conversation began while Léo was traveling in Asia and preparing for a part-time role at Louis Vuitton in Paris. Steven was preparing for his Epitech exchange in California. They discussed freelance design, travel, WWDC, professional contacts, and the possibility of seeing each other in the United States.
Léo became an aspirational peer for Steven rather than only a friend in the same field. After Léo described a Louis Vuitton visit to an Apple Store, Steven told him, “Tu m’inspire beaucoup tu sais.” Léo said it was the first time anyone had told him that and returned the encouragement.
California and Apple
From January through June 2019, iMessage and Instagram carried one conversation across two channels. Léo began an Apple internship in the Bay Area while Steven was living in Southern California. Their parallel lives connected the California 2018 aspiration to a practical professional path.
Léo provided sustained technical help during Steven’s attempted WWDC Scholarship project. He shared prior application material, explained Playground constraints, debugged implementation choices, and continued encouraging Steven after the attempt failed. Steven followed Léo’s Apple work closely and treated his progress as evidence that their shared ambitions were attainable.
Apple was therefore more than a recurring topic. It was the professional language through which both men recognized competence, ambition, and possibility in the other.
Intimacy and romantic possibility
The relationship also became a place for queer and emotional disclosure. Léo discussed coming out, social withdrawal, body confidence, fear of judgment, and difficulty meeting men. Steven responded from identification and repeatedly anticipated a deeper conversation when they next met.
In May 2019, while discussing Léo’s new relationship with Drake, both acknowledged an unrealized possibility between them. Léo had imagined a relationship but interpreted Steven’s ambiguity as insufficient interest. Steven admitted that the ambiguity was partly deliberate because he did not want a formal relationship before becoming professionally stable and feared losing Léo through it.
The relationship was consequently neither an ordinary friendship nor an attempted couple. It held mutual attraction, affection, and imagined compatibility without a shared commitment.
Pride and rupture
Steven missed an opportunity to see Léo during a late-May visit to Los Angeles because of a work deadline. They met when Léo returned with Drake for LA Pride in June and coordinated another meeting the following day. Both described the reunion positively.
The final 2019 exchanges returned to Swift development and technical advice. The iMessage thread then ends with Steven asking whether Léo was ignoring him. Neither iMessage nor Instagram contains another message until July 2026. The surviving text does not record the original dispute or Léo’s full explanation because the repair conversation happened in person. It does establish that Léo had cut contact, that Steven experienced the disappearance as violent, and that Léo later apologized for how he had done it.
Reconnection and repair
Léo reinitiated contact in July 2026 and said that he was still living in Los Angeles and still working at Apple. During a short visit to Paris, he asked to see Steven. They arranged lunch at Steven’s home for July 15 and confirmed it through a Calendar invitation.
Before the lunch, Steven made clear that he wanted an explanation for the rupture. Léo answered that his priority was to put the history on the table and, if possible, rebuild something on healthier foundations. The lunch took place at Steven’s home on July 15 and was followed by an extended exchange that confirmed both repair and continued attraction.
Steven told Léo that he was still handsome. Léo replied that Drake’s jealousy had not come from nowhere and that he had been attracted to Steven since they met in 2015. After reading the earlier version of this profile, Léo said it had unlocked memories and apologized for how he had cut contact. He linked gaps in his memory of the period to trauma surrounding his relationship with Drake and later disclosed that Drake had died by suicide, after which Léo experienced a concealed but severe depression.
The repair became reciprocal life disclosure rather than a simple retrospective apology. Steven described his autism diagnosis, the difficult years after returning from California, his reconstruction, and his use of generative AI as a cognitive aid. Léo responded with care, offered practical help with a future Mac purchase, and discussed seeing Steven again on a later visit to Paris. The renewed relationship therefore has explicit goodwill and future orientation, although its eventual form remains open.
Sources and limits
This article is based on 1,933 messages from the L_o_Vallet iMessage thread and Instagram Direct thread 586823052719283, covering February 2018 through July 16, 2026.
Five Instagram voice notes are unavailable, and several media messages preserve only attachment metadata.
The archive begins after the relationship had already started and contains no messages between June 2019 and July 2026.
Because the central repair conversation occurred during lunch, the written archive preserves its framing and aftermath but not Léo’s complete account of the original rupture.