The Tales from Urban Nights

Byul. That's her name. Growing up in a family that filled her soul with love, she was exceptional in whatever she put her mind into. She was an expressive kid with boundless dreams. But starting from a year ago, things had changed. She had started acting nervous around everyone-- everything. Any loud sound would make her body jolt and tremble. She didn't want to go to college, and she stopped doing everything that she used to love. When asked if something happened to her, she would whisper as her eyes darted across, "why do they keep looking at me? "

"Who? "

"Those people who are always watching me...can you ask them to leave me alone?"

Nobody knew who these people were because she was always alone and nobody else was there, but when confronted she would ask with a trembling voice, "..are you with them?"

Whether she was walking through crowded streets, sitting in her dimly lit apartment, or even standing alone in the park, she felt their unrelenting gaze.

It was just another night of despair. Her body trembled as she tried to suppress a whimper when suddenly she felt that gaze from behind her. She held her breath as she tried to pick her phone in an attempt to call someone- anyone but her palms covered in sweat couldn't take hold of a it. Maybe it was a good thing because a few failed attempts made her calm down for a second and she she got the courage to face 'them', with a "whoosh" she turned around, hoping to catch them, hoping to find those who were lurking behind her, but results were still the same. She still couldn't find anyone. 

This paranoia was getting out of control. All this started a around the time of her high-school graduation ceremony, it was when she had suddenly decided to opt for an university that was far away from her hometown, she doesn't remember why she didn't opt for a university nearby, but her parents readily said okay so she decided to move only to feel this constant inkling that she was being observed. It started when she was on her way to the city, she felt that people on the subways were intently looking at her. Their casual but frequent glances felt calculated, as if they knew something she didn't, so she stopped taking the subway since then. But it was just the beginning, those gaze would follow her everywhere, yes, even when she was taking a bath. Her daily functioning was affected and it became so bad that she didn't want to get out of her bed; she hadn't taken a shower in weeks and also stopped taking care of her hair and skin, even though as a teenager she loved to groom herself and was a constant visitor to spas, beauty salons and was someone who loved to style her outfits and keep up with trends. Well, all that was in the past now. She didn't want to do anything, if someone who knew her saw her like this they will be shocked just like her parents were when they came to visit her, looking are her like this, her mother couldn't stop her tears apologizing, saying something like she was sorry because she couldn't protect her. Byul felt some solace even though she couldn't understand what her monther was saying, but in the end she had to ask them to leave because she didn't want them to suffer, she had acted fine to reassure them. But things had become even worse since then, she really didn't know what to do. After she stopped taking the subways, next was in this popular cafe where she went for some brunch only to hear someone nearby say that the owner was super-polite and had a beautiful smile, Byul wanted to take a cursory glance only to feel that this guy was looking at her with a sinister smile, it wasn't pretty at all. Then it never stopped, she felt this nagging feeling when she was out for a walk, during her classes in university and even when she was out for groceries and lastly it followed her into her room and even further, eventually she just stopped doing anything altogether. 

Inside her room, she would sometimes scream at her laptop, her TV, even her phone. "Stop watching me!" she'd cry, clutching the devices and shaking them. She covered her webcam with tape and threw her TV remote into the trash. "I know you're there! Just stop!" Her parents worried about her erratic behavior, tried calling again and asked if she wanted to get into therapy, but she stopped answering to any of them, why did nobody believe her? She wasn't lying. She could still feel that there were people looking at her, some were smiling, some with a distressed look as if they felt sorry for her and some apathetic, like they were reading her life like a story, like they were watching her make spectacle of herself. 

One night, after weeks of isolation, Byul's heard the sound of a notification from somewhere. Maybe it was the insomnia or maybe she had finally lost it, but this time she seemed to see a screen, a virtual screen floating around her. Before she could pinch herself to check if it was a dream, the notification read: "You're Live! B. You have 4.4 million viewers watching you."

Her heart froze. She hadn't opened any apps, let alone started a live stream, and what was this screen? Her body was trembling as she tried to click on this notification in the virtual screen. Once she clicked on it, her face went pale. On the screen she could be seen from a God's perspective, as if, there were cameras everywhere around her. The screen was filled with thousands of comments scrolling by faster than she could read. 

"What's wrong with her? What is she looking at? "

"She's losing it, haha."

"Is this another of her performances? She is the best streamer ever!!"

"Yes! Never seen someone act this naturally. I almost believed her when she said that she felt that someone was looking at her while eating sushi! Scared the kittens out of me because I was actually eating sushi! "

Tears filled her eyes as she whispered, "What is this? Who's doing this to me? I am not performing! Why are you all looking at me like that? How do I close this? "

Only to feel that the comments turned darker. 

"Someone stop her before she ends the show. I am too invested in her life. Streamer don't end!! "

"We've been watching for months. Please don't leave."

A sudden realization washed over her like ice. Every outburst, every breakdown, every cry for help—she had been broadcasting all of it. Her life wasn't private; it was a spectacle. But who had set it up? How long had it been going on? She frantically scrolled through the screen but found no way to stop the stream.

She wanted to check her phone when without her doing anything, her front camera flickered on. Her own face stared back at her, pale and terrified, but there was something wrong. Her reflection wasn't mirroring her movements. It was smiling.

"Don't worry, Byul. It's going to be okay", her reflection said, tilting its head unnaturally. "They love watching you...and you wanted others to see you on screen, didn't you?"

Byul screamed and threw the phone across the room. It crashed into the wall but even as the screen went dark, the reflection's smile lingered in her mind and felt like she saw shadows around her, she felt like she saw red blinking lights beginning to appear—dozens of them. Cameras? 

That night was the beginning of another nightmare. When her eyes felt heavy she would see images which felt more like memories that she had forgotten. She was a child again, standing on a brightly lit stage in a school auditorium. She wore a glittery costume, and her classmates sat in neat rows, watching her perform. She wanted to be a star, to make them love her, to make them see her.

But suddenly she was in her high-school. She had just come up for her performance but instead of claps, all she heard was snickers. She felt uneasy, and terrified. A fear that she had never choked her and she tripped and fell forgetting her lines. The laughter grew louder, morphing into cruel, jeering echoes. 

"She's such a loser." 

"Who would want to watch her?" 

"Acting all high and mighty only to be this miserable."

She woke up from this nightmare, she was alone in her room. "Ah...How could I forget everything? Well...why does it matter....hahaha..", that night she cried a lot, hugging herself in this lonely place far away from her home, she cried. But something had shifted inside her. The tears dried, and a strange calmness settled over her. A voice whispered softly in her mind, promising her everything she ever wanted: attention, validation, admiration.

But the price was steep. 

When the morning lights found their way into her room, she was sitting in the middle of her room, staring at the shattered phone. A memory stirred, unbidden—a shadowy version of herself standing behind her mirror, smiling. It had whispered to her back then, convincing her that the only way to stop being invisible was to be seen always.

She hadn't realized how literally it meant. 

Now, she understood. That other part of her—the piece that split off when the laughter had broken her—had grown into something monstrous. It had been watching, recording, broadcasting every moment of her life, fulfilling its promise to make her unforgettable. 

But it had gone too far. 

Byul's head throbbed as a realization clawed its way to the surface. The cameras weren't just around her—they were her. Every step, every word, every glance had been meticulously captured by her other self, the shadow that had always been there, smiling in the dark. 

And the audience? They were true strangers. Maybe they were the same voices that had mocked her months ago, now immortalized in an endless stream of judgment towards her, or were people whom she really didn't know, some were reading and others looking at her life on some platform as they looked through the screen.

Byul stood up and stumbled to the window, her reflection barely recognizable. It was night again, the stars in the distant constellation looked like flashes of camera, and she knew they would never stop. 

There was no escape. She was no longer just Byul. She was now the show. 

. 

..

... 

.... 

..... 

... 

"Hey, I think I gained weight?" She said looking straight into the camera

"What are you saying again, Byul? Who are you talking to?"

"Who? There are so many people watching me, right?" She says as she points at the camera, "I am talking to them of course, they can see you as well!! Right?" She nods at the camera. 

"There is no one there, Byul... Please stop doing this and take your meds"

"No!! Those meds make me feel nauseous and sleepy. I don't like them. The doctor didn't even try to hear me out, asking weird questions and showed me some bizzare blots with weird creatures coming out of them! I won't take them! I won't go to a psychiatrist! I don't want anything to do with those weird people. "

"Byul...my baby, the meds are for your own good!"

"No!! If you... You force me, I will run away.. No I will ask these people to help me, they have been watching me and maybe will want to help me... You are a bad person!! You are really a bad person. Those people in white coats are also bad!! I don't like this... I want to go to those people's side and want to watch things! I am sick of this world"

Nobody was there then and nobody saw her again.