After that day, the externals began. Then the semester-end exams arrived like an avalanche.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVVvJgTVzGa
January became a blur of tension and ticking clocks — PDFs flooding WhatsApp, people panicking over units they hadn’t touched, doubt circling like vultures.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEYkZlTVhth
It was the busiest I’d ever seen our campus.
And in that chaos, I tried. I gave it what I could.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwEsBk8yfjl
Some nights I stared blankly at notes, hoping something would stick. Some days, I simply trusted intuition, muscle memory, or fate.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡugekDFIiOw
I did what I could — the rest, I left to whatever force governs unfair results and late realizations.
Then February breezed in, bringing a short, scattered week of holidays. A blink. A breath. And just like that, the second semester began.
Five months.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLLUJu7Mp1X
That’s how long the first semester lasted.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwzGb2gXGgZ
Five months — that's what the calendar says. But to me, it didn’t feel like months.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuPeYDBCCaM
It felt like moments — raw, unfinished, incomplete. Like scribbles in a notebook I never meant to show anyone.
And then… something shifted.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡikVDJ4yr05
Something in the air.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpqAo2hCerf
Something in her.
Seren.
I don’t remember the exact moment I realized it. Maybe it wasn’t a moment — maybe it was a slow unraveling.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTWcB0qxUQk
Our evening talks behind the buses — stopped.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNKaZBTqB2e
Her presence, once familiar like a hum at the back of my mind — faded.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1ze6pqLkxn
I kept telling myself it was nothing. Just timing. Just routine.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQhJO27aEnD
But the truth has a way of finding you… when you least want it.
One day, I was with Simon. Just a regular day.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJwbB2Qjh6v
And that’s when I saw them.
Her.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRaWvChYiyM
Smiling. Laughing. Walking.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4jQyhrzPYH
And Ren.
He walked beside her — like he belonged there.
Time slowed.
She approached like everything was normal. Like my world hadn’t cracked open a little.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZGckDKiL9Q
I smiled, because what else could I do?96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQRR2n8KgaW
But deep inside, I was quiet. Frozen. Trying to act okay, because that’s what we do, right?
Later that day, I asked her.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJUt008QkPh
“How do you know Ren?”
She said — that,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡusXsziVwAN
“Oh… we met online,”.
Simple. Innocent. Coincidence.
That word hit harder than I expected.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt4LqXnUBNx
Coincidence.
It echoed in my mind, looping like a cruel joke.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6vuq73mVpD
Because that’s how she and I started too.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjsVdBU1vhW
A coincidence.
Only this time, it wasn’t mine.
And in that moment, I realized something no one prepares you for —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdZDOrULIjZ
Sometimes, people slip away. Not because they mean to. Not because of a fight. But because fate hands them a different coincidence.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCqQ3N1eVfK
A different thread.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8XX2TI9zkV
And you’re left holding the memory of what could’ve been.
