Sorry, Papa. We cannot leave Korea. Korea is our life.

“Sorry, Papa. We cannot leave Korea. Korea is our life.”

Three sisters wrote that in their final note. They were 12, 14, and 16 years old. But the shocking part is that they had never been to Korea. They lived in Ghaziabad.

Nishika, Prachi, and Pakhi died by suicide. Police found handwritten notes, a diary full of apologies, and drawings of crying faces.

The girls called each other by Korean names. They believed they were Korean princesses. They were completely consumed by a task-based gaming app.

Here’s something most people don’t think about: every human being lives in 3 separate realms simultaneously.

📌 The waking realm, where we work, eat, and interact with the physical world around us.

📌 The sleep realm, where we rest, dream, and restore.

📌 And then there is the third realm, the digital realm, which is brand new in the history of humanity. A space where you express a different version of yourself. Where judgment feels absent. Where you can be anyone you want.

Where a 12-year-old girl from Ghaziabad can become a Korean princess.

For these three sisters, the digital realm didn’t just compete with their waking reality. It replaced it entirely.

Their father, Chetan Kumar, told police his daughters hadn’t attended school since COVID-19. The eldest was still at a Class 4 level academically. The addiction started during lockdown and swallowed their entire waking world.

When their parents restricted phone access recently, the girls became deeply distressed. Days later, they carried out what they believed was part of the game’s 50 tasks.

Assistant Commissioner Atul Kumar Singh said the girls were so immersed in the game that they no longer identified as Indian.

This is what happens when the digital realm becomes more real than the waking one.

When a child’s entire identity, relationships, and sense of self exist only online, any threat to that world feels like a threat to their existence.

For these 3 girls, losing access to their digital realm wasn’t losing a game. It was losing themselves.

This should terrify every parent, educator, and policymaker. Childhood digital addiction is not a behavioural quirk. It is a mental health emergency with life-and-death consequences.

The 3 realms are meant to complement each other. When the digital realm consumes the other 2, something breaks in ways we don’t fully understand yet.

Do you know which realm the children around you are living in most?