The people who liked you before the glow-up are the ones who actually liked you.

People arrive in your life at different points, and the timing tells you something. Anyone who was around before you got good at anything liked whatever was already there, underneath the changes. That part does not depend on having a strong month. Newer attention can be real too, it just has not been tested yet.

Keep the early ones close and treat them the way you did before anything shifted. Reply to the group chat you have been leaving on read. Nothing about a better season should cost you the people who stayed through a worse one.