Behind the Hype of a Viral Girl

Chapter 1

Everyone wants to go viral and earn fame and money. Just like that, this is a story about Priya, a young woman with long, dark brown hair and brown eyes, who was in her mid-twenties and crying in her bedroom. Her tears were reducing the beauty of her face.

"Why can't I live happily?" she wondered. "Why does my past always follow me, no matter how hard I try to move on? People say to forget the past and focus on the future, but they're wrong. The past follows you because it's your past, not someone else's."

"I dropped out of college just to lose everything—my future, my dreams—everything is gone now."

This all started when I met Maya. I wish I had never met her. We met in high school and lived together. Everything was going well until she introduced me to React, a social media app, and forced me to make videos. Initially, I didn't like it, but over time, I thought it wasn't that bad. I started making more and more videos, eventually going viral. Soon I started getting offers for music videos and advertisements that changed my life. People started to recognize me, and I did my first music video, which went viral, but I didn't get any more offers.

I called the music director, Bhuwan, who was in his 50s with a slim body, a mix of black and white hair, and often wore black glasses. He answered my call and invited me to his office. When I met him there, he told me to sit down and congratulated me, saying, "We are going to make another music video with you, so we need to leave tomorrow. I will give you the payments for both videos together."

"Okay, but tomorrow is my best friend's birthday, and she has invited me especially," I said.

"We need to leave tomorrow morning, so you better say sorry to your best friend or forget about this offer," he replied.

I thought for a while and accepted the offer, thinking I would talk to Maya and apologize to her after the shoot. Then I left the office and went home. At that time, Maya was visiting various places in Kathmandu with her parents who had come from Bhutan.

Accepting the offer for the music video without telling Maya about it was my biggest mistake. The happiness I had was just temporary. The next day, I left for Pokhara for the shoot, where I saw the Himalayas for the first time. We stayed in a hotel near the shooting location. Bhuwan introduced me to the hotel manager, who was a friend of his. The shoot lasted for one week. After the shoot was finished, Bhuwan offered me to stay one more day.

"Why?" I asked.

"You did well today, so you can explore Pokhara tomorrow and leave the day after tomorrow," he replied.

I thought it was a great opportunity as I didn't know when I would be able to visit Pokhara again. I spent the next day visiting various famous places in Pokhara. But when I returned to the hotel, I found that all my crewmates had already left. Even all the staff had been given a day off. It felt strange, but I thought the manager had given them a day off due to the success of our music video.

Then at night, the hotel manager invited me to dinner. Even though there was no staff, the dinner was already ready. There were only the three of us in the hotel. I started eating dinner, but I saw neither of them eating.

"Why aren't you guys eating?" I asked.

He replied that they had already eaten outside before. I continued to eat, but after that, I don't remember what happened to me.

When I woke up, I found myself in my room. I was confused about what was going on, I could not figure out what had happened to me, and my body was in pain. It felt like something had happened last night. While I was in confusion, someone knocked on my room. I slowly woke up. My body felt like I had carried more than 100 kg of bags last night. I somehow opened the door; it was a hotel staff member telling me that I should leave the hotel soon.

I was confused and asked why. The staff member said it was ordered by the manager because a new guest was arriving soon and they had to clean the room. The vehicle was ready to drop me at the bus stop. I asked where the manager was. The staff member said he had already left for an urgent meeting. I asked about the producer. The staff member said he had left in the morning. The staff member looked at me and said, "Please, ma'am, you have to leave this room early. The new guests are arriving soon."

I said nothing and asked for five minutes to leave the room. The staff member politely said, "Okay, ma'am." After five minutes I left the place. At that time, I was confused about what had happened. I didn't think and left the hotel.

After 30 minutes of driving, we arrived at the bus stop. The driver gave me something and said the manager had asked him to give it to me. It was a smartphone. I took it and thanked the driver. The driver said the manager had told him to ask me to call him first after receiving the mobile. I was surprised and said okay. Then the driver left. The bus stop was a quiet place. A bus would come every 40 minutes. I checked the time on my watch and saw that there were still 30 minutes left until the bus arrived. I thought I should call the manager and ask about the strange feelings and what had happened last night.

But suddenly, the phone rang. I answered it and heard the manager's voice, "Hello darling, I heard that the driver gave you the phone but you did not call me. Why?"

"Well, we had a nice fun last night."

I was confused at that time and asked, "Who is this?"

He got silent and said, "Suddenly he laughed and stopped, saying that it is a warning. I am going to send a video. Please pick up the phone after watching the video." Then he hung up.

I was confused. Suddenly, I received a video. I was shocked after seeing it. My whole world stopped. My surroundings seemed to turn black and white. I didn't know what was happening. Somehow, a tear dropped from my eye. I didn't know what to do.