I Found My First Real Community in a Random Group Chat | by Krat | Sep, 2025

One reel. That’s all it took.

Scrolling mindlessly on my original account, I stumbled on something different—a reel about cinema, raw and beautiful, like it had been made for me.

The comments felt like a revelation.
People wrote, “I found my people.”
One person said, “We should make a group chat.”

On impulse, I typed: Add me too.

I forgot about it almost instantly. But a few days later, I received an invitation.
A group chat called Crossover of Interests.

My first ever GC.

The people there were… quiet. Mostly introverts, like me. They spoke about books, anime, manga rarely about cinema. I felt like a ghost drifting through their conversations.

Still, I listened. Observed. Collected little fragments of their personalities. Not in a creepy way more like trying to understand them.

One name stood out: just_soull.
“Soul.” Probably the only boy in the group; the rest were girls.

One day I messaged him privately, asking for book recommendations. We started talking first about books, then movies, then life.

But the group itself? It wasn’t enough. Too quiet. Too far from the fire of cinema I was craving.

So I left.

But leaving didn’t mean letting go.

A few days later, I saw the same reel again the one that had first led me to them.
This time, I reached out from my second account. The one where I posted posters.

To them, I was someone new.
But to me, I was returning with experience.
I knew them now. They didn’t know me.

Except Soul. To him, I confessed the truth: I was “old krat.”

I didn’t know it then, but those days would become memories I’d carry like scars—half joy, half regret.