And then, quietly, I turned around.
Returned the umbrella to Krish with a soft thank-you, still half-soaked and half-lost in the moment.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKrEDwXpTXz
After that, I didn’t rush. I didn’t need to.
I just wandered around the campus as the rain calmed, the sky grey but not cruel anymore.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyklMNZB2l2
The kind of grey that feels… numb.
Eventually, the buses roared back to life — ready to take us back to our homes and our silences.
I climbed onto mine. Bus 495.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRAYhF8ZyTv
And sat by the window.
Cold.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmKzj0BFBeQ
Yet somehow warm.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDR7vOkrPB6
Bittersweet, like holding hands in a dream just before waking up.
That evening —116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYjTrt9mEu2
she messaged me:116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMbvjVZq0NT
“It’s been a while since we talked like this…”
And my heart quietly broke.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEj60PyUpMn
Not from pain.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu1JgmUUTHL
But from the gentle ache of knowing that this — this fleeting, shared moment —116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD2srC6vSS2
was all I’d ever asked for.
The silences. The rain.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZPWV5ac17Z
The way we forgot the world together.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEQ1FGCS4ca
Just for a little while.
And so, once again, I gave her a name.
Forevermore.
Not some name I pulled from the air.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVop7XE6Y2u
Not just for the poetry of it.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcmGKnMgyU7
But because I’ve been naming all the versions of her I’ve seen.
Not her, exactly.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqL1pNY7Pxq
But the her I’ve met at different crossroads.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ2FjbhI1mS
The her who felt like home in passing moments.
Each one of them…116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFtFDZ2l1IY
so very different.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkH8hV2fj8p
And yet, so unmistakably her.
Days passed.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc9wXVsvTHR
The storm that was my heart calmed too.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8cPVGj9e4D
Life didn’t stop — it never does.
Semester 2 had begun.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOx6r99WwDP
We were already halfway through our first year.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA0Qm6xAq8G
Funny. Five months vanished like mist in morning sunlight.
Thub remained the constant — our place to learn and forget ourselves.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9HDZXasInM
This time, they were teaching DSA.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1aXBj49B7c
Classes now held at Ratan Tata Bhavan, a little more formal, a little less raw.
It felt the same as the first semester…116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhY3t6DKCmn
Except now, Ren was often with us.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡymYh987Gsv
Or rather, with her.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQIXOp9TNEz
And I?116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyGoyVWfujA
I floated somewhere in between.
Still, I shared my world with her.
I introduced her to my seniors — people who meant something to me.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjYyeKZ5xIz
And among them, she grew fond of Ariel.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWPZY5ZAhf5
A not-so-innocent senior, playful and sharp,116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu0jjeRezsH
but with a charm that made her laugh in ways I hadn’t seen in a while.
And maybe that was okay.
As the semester unfolded, I met others too.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9RzJNshQW8
People who walked up to me not for who I was,116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw4IGRoAfmM
but for what I could do.
They saw the coder.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWXXFq5D4E1
The guy who wins contests.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOqP2aug2yE
The guy who can explain recursion in five minutes.
But never me.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYhn5AsE1he
Not the full picture.
I didn’t mind.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzM1cHwWIgh
I had grown used to it.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf1waZ1Bxu9
People don’t really care —116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9JBqmDtnO2
they care about what’s useful.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFgqOb9rzq7
What they can gain.
And honestly,116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyqqzxuQThs
I never really cared about them either.
Because I had her.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEF5JUlwxwc
Forevermore.
And the name itself said everything I couldn’t.
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