From a Night with '0' Followers to 7,000 Lights

Good evening, everyone🌙
I'm Yuki Tsuzuri, and I love note.

Thank you so much for always reading my note.
I truly appreciate it.

Featured Article [Commemorative Event Underway]

Magazine 'Writing Tonight, Today's 3 Lines'

'A magazine dedicated to 3-line diaries' has been created🌿
I will be collecting the small footprints I quietly write down at night.
I would be happy if you could follow it✨

An Announcement

The other day, my note followers
surpassed 7,000.

But tonight, what I want to write about
is not the number '7,000'.

To the 7,000 of you who are there beyond that number,to you.
Please let me make that announcement tonight.

My followers have exceeded 7,000✨

Even looking at the number '7,000' lined up on the screen,
I still feel like it's not quite about me.
I feel happy, and I feel disbelief.

And I also feel a quiet tension
that makes me straighten my back a little.

Commemorative 4-panel manga (original work)

It's a bit embarrassing,
so I entrusted my commemorative feelings to a 4-panel manga.

Views are 'passing by,' follows are 'see you again'

The other day, I reported that my total note views
had exceeded 500,000.

At that time, too,
I was so happy my heart was full.

But I feel that 500,000 views and 7,000 people
have slightly different meanings.

To me, views are
like 'passing by'.

Like catching eyes in the middle of a timeline,
or having someone notice the light in my window as they pass by.

It means we shared the same moment
for just an instant.

But, the follows.

'I will come back to read your words again.'

Saying that,
you remember the location of my window.

7,000 people
remember the location of this small window.

When I think of that,
my fingertips still tremble just a little.

Imagining 7,000 lights

7,000 people.
Even if I look at the number as it is,
it is hard to truly grasp.

So, I imagine it sometimes.
A single small town.
When night falls, in every window in that town,
lights are lit one by one.

I am in a corner of that town,
sitting at my desk alone again tonight.

I don't know your faces.
I don't know your voices.

Even so, on the other side of the screen,
there is surely someone's life.

Those who read before they sleep.
Those who quietly stop by between work or chores.
Those who watch over me from far away.

The nights of each and every one of you overlap,
becoming the number '7,000'.

Not just a number,
7,000 lights lit in 7,000 windows.

Even as I write this,
I still cannot quite believe it.

The nights from 5,000 to 7,000 followers

Around Valentine's Day,
I reported that
my followers had exceeded 5,000.

The 2,000 more people I have met since then.
I wonder what kind of nights
existed within that '2,000'.

There were nights when I couldn't write as I wanted.

Nights when not a single word would come out,
and while I stared at the white screen,
the tea I had poured went completely cold.

In the room, only the sound of
Mii-kun taking a sand bath echoed.

'Maybe that's enough for today.'

Thinking that, I almost closed the post screen.

Even so, after a little time passed,
I would open it again.

When morning came after such nights,
in the notification column,
'You have a new follower'
the words
would be quietly placed there.

Somewhere in last night,
someone had found my window.

That small notification
became the reason I felt
I could write again the next night.

It began on a night when I had '0' followers.

When I first started on note,
there was a night
when I had zero followers, too.

The number on my profile was '0'.
No matter how much I wrote,
that number just wouldn't budge.

Even though I was in such a vast place,
I was the only one who hadn't been found by anyone.

There were nights
when I felt lonely like that.

Still, one day, while I kept writing,
a single notification arrived.

'You have a new follower'
Just one person.

But because of that one person,
the world that was '0' changed completely.

Now I realize:

the distance between 0 and 1 was much greater
than the distance between 1 and 7,000.

To the person who first
lit a lamp in my window.

I am still connected to that person today.

Even now, standing in a landscape of 7,000 people,
I will never forget that first light from that day.

Holding 7,000 'see you laters'

To me, the number of followers is
more like a 'promise' than an 'evaluation'.

The follow button
is not a loud round of applause saying 'that's amazing',
'I'll come back to read again'
but a small promise.

That is why, every time I see the number 7,000, I think:
This is not something I collected.

It is something I am carefully entrusted with.
I am now holding 7,000 'see you laters'
in my hands.

So I don't spill a single one.
So I don't take them for granted.
Gently, with care.

Whenever I am asked 'how to increase followers'

Sometimes, I receive this question:

'Is there a way to increase followers?'

Of course, I think there are ways to craft titles
and efforts to get articles delivered.

But what I want to forget the least is
not turning the people behind the numbers into numbers.

At the very least, I feel that
the moment I start seeing followers only as 'numbers',
I will lose the warmth of my words.

Instead of shouting in a loud voice
to reach 7,000 people.

To the one person who happened to come
to this windowsill tonight.

From here on out, too,
I want to continue writing words that reach that person's night.

Beyond the first year

On August 31st,
it will be one year since I started note.

It has almost been a year
since that night when my followers were '0'.

Even so, from here on out,
I will not chase only numbers.

Instead of just looking forward and running,
I will stop sometimes to look out the window.

As if to confirm, one by one,
the lights that have been lit for me along the way.

To those who have been by my side since that first night,
and to those who followed me for the first time today.

Thank you so much
for being right beside my words🌿

To you, whose number is currently '0'

And finally,
to you who are spending nights
where the number on your profile
stays at '0' or '1'.

That number is not your worth.

It is just that the light in your window
has not yet been found by someone's night.

I, too,
certainly had nights like that.

It doesn't have to be every day.
It doesn't have to be a loud voice.

At your own pace,
please keep that light lit in your window.

Someday, when a night comes where someone stops
and finds your words.

That 'first person' will
no matter how much the scenery expands from here on,
surely be someone you can never forget.

If you'd like,
please quietly tell me about your 'first follower'
in the comments section.

Again tonight, from the window at night.
In this world, I weave lights.

Yukitsuzuri Yuki

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