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.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiZCr9yYR14
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.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwqwHiXjURc
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 495.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ631Zxrzck
And sat by the window.
Cold.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ73SK9yTE62
Yet somehow warm.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpoiI1y06xc
Bittersweet, like holding hands in a dream just before waking up.
That evening —106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFYiGmPUco8
she messaged me:106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtLvofCTzg6
“It’s been a while since we talked like this…”
And my heart quietly broke.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtvxo8bR0qm
Not from pain.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuLkZ5HFUQG
But from the gentle ache of knowing that this — this fleeting, shared moment —106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtrLcyyjLzC
was all I’d ever asked for.
The silences. The rain.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4GxPmRR0j1
The way we forgot the world together.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyhSsPEvR1P
Just for a little while.
And so, once again, I gave her a name.
Forevermore.
Not some name I pulled from the air.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVuqPbaU6XJ
Not just for the poetry of it.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPB5BBd9kHX
But because I’ve been naming all the versions of her I’ve seen.
Not her, exactly.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMXo8ouJWAV
But the her I’ve met at different crossroads.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvMnU2iXhmD
The her who felt like home in passing moments.
Each one of them…106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4fNEo9rxu3
so very different.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8lYZTDjBU2
And yet, so unmistakably her.
Days passed.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPw9dqxbILj
The storm that was my heart calmed too.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBVm86xSVFj
Life didn’t stop — it never does.
Semester 2 had begun.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzfyJNuzu6w
We were already halfway through our first year.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIqHjq1ws71
Funny. Five months vanished like mist in morning sunlight.
Thub remained the constant — our place to learn and forget ourselves.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmgeUKMuCd1
This time, they were teaching DSA.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9PHz0ugJyL
Classes now held at Ratan Tata Bhavan, a little more formal, a little less raw.
It felt the same as the first semester…106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeDQ8lH28LZ
Except now, Ren was often with us.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaRy48fYgXv
Or rather, with her.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGsOIkWS3TR
And I?106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGvUuc1qzNa
I floated somewhere in between.
Still, I shared my world with her.
I introduced her to my seniors — people who meant something to me.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqF4ctMGV48
And among them, she grew fond of Ariel.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOnajdlAbFD
A not-so-innocent senior, playful and sharp,106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEiUxwguzP4
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.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0xyK9dKDoA
People who walked up to me not for who I was,106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzYKRCJk3Ce
but for what I could do.
They saw the coder.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgKMx1fPiek
The guy who wins contests.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSrAKzLZkx8
The guy who can explain recursion in five minutes.
But never me.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkoqE8p2hBf
Not the full picture.
I didn’t mind.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI1dNJDBb2m
I had grown used to it.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkRzeDXt6hT
People don’t really care —106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ53p3CeCVwJ
they care about what’s useful.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqApkQvhJtF
What they can gain.
And honestly,106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMpHN98UNPo
I never really cared about them either.
Because I had her.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaqTHYQECKH
Forevermore.
And the name itself said everything I couldn’t.
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