At least one moment from Sunday’s Oscars festivities had fans of “The Office” rejoicing.
Mindy Kaling and B.J. Novak—aka on-again, off-again lovers Kelly and Ryan—were each other’s dates to the Vanity Fair Oscars Party. If you loved the pair on the TV show, then you’re going to love them even more when you see them together in real life (and all dressed up)!
The pair stepped out for what Kaling called “a night of fun,” wearing their best attire. Novak, 38, looked dapper in his tux, and Kaling, 38, couldn’t have looked more gorgeous in her sparkly gown.
The actress posted about heading to the Oscars party on Instagram saying in a video, “I’m headed out for a night of fun with my best friend,” perhaps to stop the dating rumors dead in their tracks.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bf66ycYlD9n/?taken-by=mindykaling
But, that didn’t stop fans from absolutely freaking out over the fact that these two showed up together. Apparently, at least one Twitter user was losing sleep over the mystery of whether or not these two are a couple.
Yeah sure I guess I could go to sleep OR I could fall down an internet black hole trying to piece together if Mindy Kaling and BJ Novak are dating again after their Oscar date 🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️
— bitvonhopscotch⚡️ (@bitvonhopscotch) March 5, 2018
People have even immortalized their appearance forever on their phones:
Why yes, my lock screen is a photo of @mindykaling and @bjnovak at the Oscars. And yes, I did wish at 11:11 to find friendship as precious as theirs. pic.twitter.com/vA0pkhrUIZ
— Shamaila Ashraf (@shamailaashraf) March 5, 2018
These two had an often toxic relationship on the show, but their real-life partnership has apparently been far healthier—if even more confusing.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bf7KNkBF8Uh/?taken-by=mindykaling
Kaling herself even had a hard time summing it up.
She attempted explaining their union back in 2015, telling InStyle, “I will freely admit: My relationship with B.J. Novak is weird as hell. He is not my boyfriend, but he is not my best friend. I guess you could describe our relationship as a ‘romantically charged camaraderie with loud arguments,’ but I don’t think Facebook would accept this as a new status.”
The couple did reportedly date when they were starring in “The Office” together, according to Us Weekly, but a lot has changed since then. Kaling gave birth to a baby girl in December 2017, but she’s kept quiet about the identity of the father, and really, about a lot of details of the pregnancy. In fact, it was Kaling’s “A Wrinkle in Time” co-star Oprah Winfrey who first announced she was expecting.
“If anyone is going to announce big news about your private life, Oprah Winfrey is the person,” Kaling said in an interview with Ellen DeGeneres. “You can’t complain that much about it … So if there’s one person I have to tell my daughter about that revealed her existence to the world, Oprah is pretty good.”
Whether they’re romantically together or not, it was so nice to see them together off-screen. In some small way, the characters of Kelly and Ryan live on—whether or not that rumored reboot of “The Office” actually happens.