November faded.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhZnT7J1T0L
December froze.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMgh5N3fRIV
January drifted by in silence.
Three months passed, and with every day, I kept asking myself the same questions.
What happened?110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrwZ6xUfn1G
Why the sudden change?110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtgxBhtWOs9
What about everything we planned for — the little things, the big things, the quiet promises, the late-night talks, the classes?
Had it all meant nothing?
While I kept overthinking and pretending to be okay, the third semester slipped by.
And the fourth began.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK86zB2Slni
At the end of January.
Still no response from her.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡanI1Jg6sUO
No message.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡevbjAyWmXH
No eye contact.
I told myself — maybe she’s just thinking about her future.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0oenIcQEVB
Maybe it’s a phase.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡplLI0XBQnd
Maybe she’ll return when she's ready.
That’s when I got selected into Owl Coder. along with some other second years.
One of the most prestigious training programs our college had.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe5zr3VI8zt
It was meant for the third years.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1I8vG2bAqX
But I got in — in my second year.
It should’ve felt like a crown.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKsKYlKK5fB
But all I felt was the hollow absence of someone to place it on my head.
She wasn’t there to hear the news.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRwKg1r3pyC
To congratulate me.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMeDxUHK70G
To tease me.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8FJaZEi1nv
To be proud.
And that silence made the success… feel like ash.
The Owl Coder program was intense.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfRQb6nHXo0
It started at 5 PM and ended at midnight — with just a dinner break in between.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRQokyHEkwv
We were expected to stay in the hostel throughout.
No sunlight.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1xxcVM0MtO
No sleep.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlPdBJ46DtW
No time.
I was running on caffeine, coping with cold metal bunk beds and the constant hum of exhausted ambition.
So during the day’s technical hub sessions…110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrCtpeArfjH
I slept.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiYUSKZohGn
An excuse disguised as exhaustion.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTY9bE1s369
A mask for what I couldn’t confess — that I just didn’t have it in me anymore.
This semester's subjects were Operating Systems and DBMS.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡad0OxturHa
Three days a week in Thub, threee days in regular classes.
There went my attendance…110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡecKFmblCrr
Flying out the window like a bird that no longer cared to return.
Inside Owl Coder, I got to know how selections happened.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4l7e5RWVuJ
How people were noticed.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiltZab7ybM
How chances bloomed and vanished in a blink.
All I wanted to do was explain it all to her.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi1FQnrnMRa
To help her — even if I could no longer be near her.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1KvibVXotb
Even if I was just a background character now.
I texted her.
Asked if she could meet in the library — just for a moment.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0oLGLA4tlg
I waited.
She replied:
“I’ll be late. I have class.”
That was it.
A sentence.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡijSw5ft7gG
A dagger.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtInNaWMYTv
A quiet way of saying, You’re not important enough to wait for.
And yet I still hoped.
Then one evening, everything cracked.
I was walking toward the hostel.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCAHmOeuC6x
From the buses, through the mango gardens — one of the quietest, most serene places in our campus.
I saw her.
Sitting under the trees.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcB1hQSYkkN
With Ren.
Talking.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXhzpo6YDTw
Smiling.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrKAyaxRNvt
Laughing.
I couldn’t stop.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUpleZSCqJh
I couldn’t go back.
I ran past them — like a ghost of someone who once mattered.
My heart screamed:
“Why… can you talk to him, but not to me?”110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXHtVl6TB3W
“What did I do… that made me forgettable?”110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCoEP9YveoN
Or its just maybe me, who is overthinking.
The following days blurred.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnaI6RCiU3g
I wasn’t myself.
A haunted version of who I once was —110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhQKTNfGMpK
Lost in old texts, lost in memories.
I texted her again.
This time, everything I had.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUXpCz0kPrm
Every unspoken word.
She replied.
It was reassuring.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡni9UV81UDi
Warm, maybe.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW0gy8I7W3t
But it felt forced — like something written more out of duty than care.
And that’s when it happened.
She became a stranger.
The third name I gave her.
She said:
“I have a lot going on. I don’t want to get involved. I care for you…”
Then why did I feel like I only existed in her joy?
Was I meant to only be her comfort, her tutor, her support —110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxdntGESAWq
and when the storms came, someone to lock away?
Was I disposable when I hurt, but valuable when she smiled?
Then the final blow.
I heard she wouldn’t be continuing in Technical Hub anymore.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpSuFO0hhxb
That she was stepping away from the journey we once shared.
My chest sank.
It was true.
She was walking a road I would never again walk beside her.
Still… I wrote to her.
One heartfelt message.
Encouraging her.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIpy6fHIcZU
Reminding her of how much potential she had.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhwi8BAOULn
That the world still waited for her — even if I no longer did.
She replied:
“That made my day…”
And maybe that was enough.
Maybe, sometimes, we don't get closure.110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ566oJBXfd9
We just get moments like this —110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNR6dpFZXyQ
A soft echo that reminds us it was real… once.
Even if now, all that remains is a ghost, a third name, and a message.
ns216.73.216.213da2
