𝐀 𝐒𝖾𝖼𝗋𝖾𝗍 𝐃𝗋𝖾αꭑ

Kerala, India

June 2022

There was something magical about being fourteen.

It was an age balanced between childhood and growing up, a season of life where dreams felt limitless, where every small success seemed like the beginning of a beautiful future, and where emotions were so deep that even a song could become a safe place to hide.

At fourteen, the world seemed full of endless possibilities.

For Neha, that world was music.

Not just any music.

It was the music of seven young men from South Korea whose voices somehow reached a quiet girl living in Kerala, India.

Every morning began the same way.

The alarm on her phone rang at six-thirty. Before opening any school books or checking her timetable, Neha reached for her earphones resting beside her pillow.

The moment they slipped into her ears, the outside world faded.

The familiar melodies of BTS filled the silence of her small bedroom. Their songs became the soundtrack to her mornings as she folded her blanket, combed her hair, buttoned her school uniform, and packed her backpack.

Some mornings she listened to upbeat songs that made her dance quietly while no one was watching.

Other mornings she chose songs whose lyrics comforted her without saying a single word directly to her.

She didn't understand Korean perfectly, but she searched for translations whenever she could. Every lyric seemed to carry hope, encouragement, and the reminder that it was okay to struggle.

Those songs became more than music.

They became company.

Whenever school felt overwhelming, whenever homework piled up, whenever she doubted herself, their voices reminded her to keep going.

Neha wasn't just someone who casually listened to BTS.

She was an ARMY.

And that tiny word meant everything to her.

Unfortunately...

No one around her truly understood.

Her parents didn't dislike music.

They simply couldn't understand why their daughter admired a Korean group so much.

Whenever BTS appeared on her phone screen, her mother would shake her head with a confused smile.

"What language is this?"

"Why don't you listen to Malayalam songs instead?"

Her father never said much, but he often reminded her not to spend too much time on her phone.

To them, BTS was simply another music group.

To Neha...

They were comfort on difficult days.

They were motivation before exams.

They were the reason she smiled after crying.

Since nobody seemed to understand, Neha slowly learned to keep that part of herself hidden.

She laughed with her family during dinner.

She completed every homework assignment on time.

She helped her mother wash dishes and fold clothes.

She played with her younger sister whenever she had free time.

She looked like every ordinary fourteen-year-old girl.

But inside her heart existed another world.

A quiet world filled with music videos, concert clips, fan edits, translated lyrics, and dreams she was too afraid to speak aloud.

It was a world that belonged only to her.

Monday mornings were never exciting.

The classrooms buzzed with sleepy students complaining about unfinished homework and surprise tests.

Teachers hurried through attendance while ceiling fans spun lazily above their heads.

By lunchtime, everyone finally relaxed.

The classroom transformed into a noisy gathering of laughter and conversation.

Lunch boxes opened.

Friends exchanged snacks.

Someone argued about cricket.

Another group discussed the latest movie.

Neha quietly sat beside her closest friend, Ayana.

Unlike the others, they preferred peaceful conversations over loud gossip.

Ayana noticed Neha smiling at something on her phone before quickly locking the screen.

"BTS again?" she whispered playfully.

Neha laughed.

"You already know me."

"I do," Ayana grinned.

She leaned closer.

"Have you noticed something?"

"What?"

"BTS edits are everywhere on YouTube these days."

Neha nodded enthusiastically.

"I watch them almost every evening."

"Some of them are amazing."

"They really are."

"And honestly..." Ayana paused dramatically.

"I think yours would be better."

Neha blinked.

"What?"

"You make beautiful edits for your gallery. I've seen the videos you make just for fun."

"They're not that good."

"They're actually really good."

Neha shook her head immediately.

"No way."

Ayana wasn't convinced.

"Why not create your own YouTube channel?"

Neha stared at her.

"A real channel?"

"Yes!"

"I don't know..."

"People upload edits every day. Some get thousands of views."

"I don't think anyone would watch mine."

"They will."

"But what if nobody likes them?"

"So what?"

Neha looked down at her lunch.

"I'll feel embarrassed."

Ayana smiled softly.

"Neha."

"Hm?"

"Every creator starts with zero subscribers."

Neha stayed silent.

"You won't know unless you try."

Those simple words stayed in Neha's mind long after school ended.

That evening, rain tapped gently against the windows of her house.

The smell of freshly made tea drifted from the kitchen while her mother prepared dinner.

Neha sat at the dining table, solving mathematics problems.

But instead of concentrating on numbers...

Her mind wandered back to Ayana's words.

"Why don't you create your own channel?"

Could she really do it?

She already knew basic editing.

She spent hours watching fan edits and trying to recreate them.

She loved matching scenes perfectly with music.

She enjoyed choosing fonts and transitions.

Maybe...

Just maybe...

She wasn't as bad as she thought.

The idea made her heart race.

After dinner, she finished her homework, helped clean the kitchen, wished everyone good night, and finally returned to her room.

The house slowly became silent.

Her parents switched off the living room lights.

Her younger sister fell asleep.

Only the ticking wall clock remained awake.

Neha carefully picked up her phone.

She lowered the brightness until it was barely visible.

She glanced nervously toward the bedroom door.

Everything was quiet.

Slowly, she opened YouTube.

For several minutes, she simply stared at the screen.

Her thumb hovered over one button.

She hesitated.

What if this was a mistake?

What if nobody cared?

What if she failed?

She took a deep breath.

Then...

She tapped.

Create Channel.

The screen asked her to choose a name.

She thought carefully.

She didn't want anyone from school or her family to recognize her.

She chose a simple username connected only to her love for BTS.

No real name.

No profile photo.

No personal information.

Just a quiet identity hidden behind a screen.

When everything was finished, she looked at the homepage.

It was completely empty.

No subscribers.

No videos.

No banner.

No profile picture.

Nothing.

And yet...

She couldn't stop smiling.

To anyone else, it looked like an ordinary empty YouTube channel.

To Neha...

It looked like the beginning of something beautiful.

It already felt like home.

The following weeks became a routine of learning.

Every afternoon after homework, Neha secretly practiced editing.

Whenever the house became quiet, she opened free editing apps and experimented with different styles.

She watched tutorials explaining transitions.

She learned how to synchronize clips with music.

She practiced adding subtitles.

She adjusted colors.

She cropped videos.

She spent nearly an hour choosing fonts for captions that lasted only a few seconds.

Sometimes the videos looked terrible.

The timing was wrong.

The music didn't match.

The clips felt awkward.

She sighed, deleted everything, and started over.

Again.

And again.

And again.

There were nights when she questioned whether she was wasting her time.

But every failed edit taught her something new.

Little by little...

She improved.

Finally, after countless drafts, she created one that made her smile.

It wasn't perfect.

But it was hers.

She watched it one last time.

Then another.

And one more time.

Her finger hovered above the upload button.

Her heartbeat became louder than the music.

"This is it," she whispered to herself.

She closed her eyes.

Tapped.

Upload.

Her very first BTS edit was now online.

She refreshed the page.

Nothing.

Zero views.

She refreshed again.

Still zero.

Five minutes later...

Zero.

Ten minutes later...

Zero.

She sighed.

Maybe Ayana had been wrong.

Maybe nobody would ever find it.

But before sleeping, she reminded herself of something she had once heard from another creator.

"Every successful channel once had zero subscribers."

Holding onto that thought, she placed her phone beside her pillow and fell asleep.

The next morning, before getting ready for school, she quickly checked YouTube.

Her eyes widened.

Three views.

One like.

For a moment, she simply stared at the screen.

Someone...

Somewhere...

Had watched her edit.

A complete stranger.

Someone who didn't know her.

Someone who had chosen to spend a few seconds watching something she had created.

A smile spread across her face.

It felt unreal.

She reached school happier than usual.

Throughout mathematics class, she secretly wondered whether the number had increased.

During lunch, she resisted the urge to check.

The moment she returned home, she unlocked her phone.

Twenty-three views.

Her heart practically leaped.

To many people, twenty-three views meant almost nothing.

To fourteen-year-old Neha...

It felt like the entire world had noticed her.

Days quietly turned into weeks.

Weeks slowly became months.

Her editing improved with every upload.

She discovered smoother transitions.

Better color grading.

Creative subtitles.

More emotional storytelling.

Each video reflected how much she had learned.

Soon, comments began appearing beneath her uploads.

"Beautiful edit!"

"This made my day."

"You're so talented!"

"Please make more videos!"

Neha read every single comment.

Sometimes more than once.

Whenever someone subscribed, she smiled so brightly that her cheeks hurt.

One subscriber became five.

Five became twenty.

Twenty slowly became fifty.

Each new number felt like a tiny celebration.

But every celebration happened silently.

She couldn't tell anyone.

Not her parents.

Not her relatives.

Not even most of her classmates.

Her YouTube channel remained her secret.

Protecting that secret wasn't always easy.

Whenever her mother entered the room unexpectedly, Neha immediately locked her phone.

If her younger sister tried grabbing it, she quickly changed the screen to her homework.

Sometimes she pretended to be solving science questions while secretly rendering videos in the background.

She often wondered if hiding this part of herself was wrong.

She loved her family deeply.

She hated lying.

But she also feared losing the only place where she truly felt free.

She knew that if her parents discovered the channel, they might ask her to delete it.

Not because they wanted to hurt her.

Because they believed studies should always come first.

And maybe they wouldn't understand why thousands of strangers watching BTS edits meant so much to their daughter.

So Neha chose silence.

She guarded her little dream carefully.

Like protecting a tiny flame from the wind.

One peaceful evening, after uploading another edit, Neha placed her phone on the bed and began revising her science notes.

A notification sound interrupted her.

She reached for her phone casually.

Another comment.

She expected the usual short compliment.

Instead, she found something different.

The comment was longer.

Kinder.

It praised the editing.

Mentioned specific transitions she had used.

Encouraged her to keep creating.

It felt sincere.

As if someone had genuinely understood the effort behind the video.

She looked at the username.

Jiya.

A small smile appeared on her face.

Without thinking too much, Neha typed a simple reply.

"Thank you so much. I'm really happy you liked it."

She pressed send.

Then returned to her homework, believing it was just another ordinary interaction between two strangers on the internet.

She had no idea...

That a single reply beneath a BTS edit was quietly changing the course of her life.

Neither Neha nor Jiya could have imagined that this tiny conversation would grow into a friendship filled with laughter, secrets, dreams, misunderstandings, and memories neither of them would ever forget.

Life rarely announces its biggest moments.

Sometimes, everything changes because of one unexpected decision.

Sometimes, it changes because of a single message.

And sometimes...

The people who leave the deepest marks on our hearts are the ones we've never even met.