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.104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡluwheANWTr
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.104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU3KRD1jd8Q
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 495.104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzBslP6pE8R
And sat by the window.
Cold.104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdH7HC5WRBm
Yet somehow warm.104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQbio2uTcyX
Bittersweet, like holding hands in a dream just before waking up.
That evening —104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7uXkN14VwV
she messaged me:104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBL6ikpzHwK
“It’s been a while since we talked like this…”
And my heart quietly broke.104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡguPTe8zpIv
Not from pain.104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1an0PXBqzA
But from the gentle ache of knowing that this — this fleeting, shared moment —104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVxzYu95HUw
was all I’d ever asked for.
The silences. The rain.104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW6JasFQ5Cb
The way we forgot the world together.104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfR0XqU3nfT
Just for a little while.
And so, once again, I gave her a name.
Forevermore.
Not some name I pulled from the air.104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyjJunlCQlz
Not just for the poetry of it.104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFztxbJqbZ9
But because I’ve been naming all the versions of her I’ve seen.
Not her, exactly.104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgmMdnvtKkS
But the her I’ve met at different crossroads.104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGtBoVXKdSc
The her who felt like home in passing moments.
Each one of them…104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVxHd37HVxs
so very different.104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjqZceXQxYJ
And yet, so unmistakably her.
Days passed.104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKvGcPucx1E
The storm that was my heart calmed too.104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSfDEYEZznL
Life didn’t stop — it never does.
Semester 2 had begun.104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCosXaR16Kz
We were already halfway through our first year.104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtyGF3oPnSm
Funny. Five months vanished like mist in morning sunlight.
Thub remained the constant — our place to learn and forget ourselves.104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg92HsYTwz7
This time, they were teaching DSA.104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6fmHFiPwUm
Classes now held at Ratan Tata Bhavan, a little more formal, a little less raw.
It felt the same as the first semester…104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlUGrNBcNNS
Except now, Ren was often with us.104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVjwZgtD5js
Or rather, with her.104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrVtQFSbuYH
And I?104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1c0QS6hiOF
I floated somewhere in between.
Still, I shared my world with her.
I introduced her to my seniors — people who meant something to me.104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBy181lqvD7
And among them, she grew fond of Ariel.104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv07NCEkTWj
A not-so-innocent senior, playful and sharp,104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCNzXEIHxsx
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.104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzKHGWDULlG
People who walked up to me not for who I was,104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuVcWKXMD3U
but for what I could do.
They saw the coder.104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSx92A7kH68
The guy who wins contests.104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtlQWHtTTkx
The guy who can explain recursion in five minutes.
But never me.104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0aPSebyUKs
Not the full picture.
I didn’t mind.104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSG9Bi7M46q
I had grown used to it.104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlGGKUxV2z0
People don’t really care —104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0LhDQdLena
they care about what’s useful.104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXTB3cKJ2Hy
What they can gain.
And honestly,104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw5NlswlFwJ
I never really cared about them either.
Because I had her.104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFeRZuLWM2v
Forevermore.
And the name itself said everything I couldn’t.
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