The next morning arrived quietly.
Sunlight slipped through the thin curtains of Arin's small room in Northeast India.
The air was cool, and the distant sound of birds echoed through the hills.
Arin woke up slowly, his sketchbook still lying beside him on the bed.
The drawing he made last night was unfinished.
The anime girl's eyes were complete, but her hair was only half-drawn.
Still, something about the drawing felt different from the others he had made before.
Without realizing it, he had drawn her smile a little like the girl he saw on Instagram.
Arin rubbed his eyes and sat up.
His phone was on the floor beside the bed.
For a moment, he hesitated.
Then he picked it up and opened Instagram again.
The same video appeared on his screen--
the girl from Japan.
Hina Aoyama.
The video now had thousands of comments.
Arin scrolled slowly through them.
People from many countries were writing things like:
"You're so beautiful!"
"Marry me!"
"You're my favorite creator!"
Arin felt a little embarrassed.
His comment from last night was still there, buried somewhere among thousands of others.
Of course… she would never see it.
He sighed softly and put the phone down.
Later that day at school, Arin stood on the dusty volleyball court.
The afternoon sun was bright, and the students were shouting loudly during practice.
Arin jumped and hit the ball.
Thump.
The ball barely crossed the net.
One of his teammates laughed.
"Arin, you need to practice more," the boy said.
Arin only smiled slightly.
"I know."
He wasn't angry.
He never really got angry.
After practice, while the others were talking and joking together, Arin sat under a tree with his sketchbook.
His pencil moved slowly across the page.
Again… he found himself drawing the same girl.
Soft eyes.
Gentle smile.
Wind moving through long hair.
He paused and looked at the drawing.
"Why do you look like her again?" he murmured quietly.
That evening, after dinner, Arin uploaded the sketch to his small Instagram page.
Only a few people followed him.
Most of them were just other artists.
But before closing the app, Arin visited Hina's page again.
He watched her newest reel.
She was laughing while walking under cherry blossom trees somewhere in Japan.
The video felt bright and full of life.
Arin smiled faintly.
Then he typed another small comment.
"This reminds me of spring in an anime."
He pressed send.
And just like the night before, his comment disappeared into a sea of thousands.
But Arin didn't mind.
For him, writing those small comments felt like sending quiet messages into the sky.
He never expected a reply.
Not today.
Not tomorrow.
Maybe not even in a year.
But still…
every night, he would open Instagram, watch her videos, and draw.
Because somewhere far away, in another country…
there was a girl whose smile had quietly become part of his world.