November faded.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn6J8JAptNo
December froze.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzukbDFaItk
January drifted by in silence.
Three months passed, and with every day, I kept asking myself the same questions.
What happened?108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlZ3oGWqQLf
Why the sudden change?108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXXdLQwaZ9N
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.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkkYq96vmsG
At the end of January.
Still no response from her.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBADrzL48NT
No message.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡajndSetONx
No eye contact.
I told myself — maybe she’s just thinking about her future.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBcelVZjGeZ
Maybe it’s a phase.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsvoGMtsfgw
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.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoi6Z5rdMph
It was meant for the third years.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy2YTujhQix
But I got in — in my second year.
It should’ve felt like a crown.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6ixAWhOXRC
But all I felt was the hollow absence of someone to place it on my head.
She wasn’t there to hear the news.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSsiD8Lfxv3
To congratulate me.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpbJWtVZmm2
To tease me.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKaGAi8KU1b
To be proud.
And that silence made the success… feel like ash.
The Owl Coder program was intense.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGY5ITAAdi8
It started at 5 PM and ended at midnight — with just a dinner break in between.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ48dPgm67wD
We were expected to stay in the hostel throughout.
No sunlight.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvB3Qi9FPbo
No sleep.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8ToLkrBVwM
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…108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtOxTIyqwrF
I slept.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1QvjllKFoN
An excuse disguised as exhaustion.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFMOFpTY0NU
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.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAveyeJHEIq
Three days a week in Thub, threee days in regular classes.
There went my attendance…108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdyTE1a0cwx
Flying out the window like a bird that no longer cared to return.
Inside Owl Coder, I got to know how selections happened.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtDddF8JXPQ
How people were noticed.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfHowWgdxin
How chances bloomed and vanished in a blink.
All I wanted to do was explain it all to her.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY2NDbPMDvW
To help her — even if I could no longer be near her.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMwGOtp7GHx
Even if I was just a background character now.
I texted her.
Asked if she could meet in the library — just for a moment.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5PtyBcqrHt
I waited.
She replied:
“I’ll be late. I have class.”
That was it.
A sentence.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhpMf8KXB1C
A dagger.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKGxzTpStuR
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.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU0SQF7QzHq
From the buses, through the mango gardens — one of the quietest, most serene places in our campus.
I saw her.
Sitting under the trees.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡckHIlphqG5
With Ren.
Talking.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYgC33YxBCY
Smiling.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2Ctkj7fCMB
Laughing.
I couldn’t stop.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5558fPouBt
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?”108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtfTQFpeDiR
“What did I do… that made me forgettable?”108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡALBe4Z34Zd
Or its just maybe me, who is overthinking.
The following days blurred.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSjjypsihOI
I wasn’t myself.
A haunted version of who I once was —108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6ncyPLZSSC
Lost in old texts, lost in memories.
I texted her again.
This time, everything I had.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw4O6NGT1Bp
Every unspoken word.
She replied.
It was reassuring.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7xue7EFhzO
Warm, maybe.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡibXYVJICNH
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 —108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfuFl7K6Qui
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.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8sfYm2rsxA
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.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUzqh1GMxps
Reminding her of how much potential she had.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfU9CS70XTZ
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.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGRkx1QIVeK
We just get moments like this —108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfSWq608asV
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
