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.118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5uAuUM1LyU
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.118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzxkyGLFCAF
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 495.118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoJoGEax6Z6
And sat by the window.
Cold.118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqMDl9J0h9o
Yet somehow warm.118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdCknYmmdxT
Bittersweet, like holding hands in a dream just before waking up.
That evening —118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIXvzLGz35M
she messaged me:118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu6JL3lHRtE
“It’s been a while since we talked like this…”
And my heart quietly broke.118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBxj46fX1HT
Not from pain.118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm1MbV8coru
But from the gentle ache of knowing that this — this fleeting, shared moment —118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKage8YYrL6
was all I’d ever asked for.
The silences. The rain.118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs9P2lbaEPz
The way we forgot the world together.118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGMODgAd8hF
Just for a little while.
And so, once again, I gave her a name.
Forevermore.
Not some name I pulled from the air.118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeJtaRJ3A5l
Not just for the poetry of it.118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJBNmbcdrjB
But because I’ve been naming all the versions of her I’ve seen.
Not her, exactly.118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡakhP54eBOr
But the her I’ve met at different crossroads.118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaWFyzPCYmc
The her who felt like home in passing moments.
Each one of them…118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfm1gsTXTRi
so very different.118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdfUdLkn1NF
And yet, so unmistakably her.
Days passed.118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOWO4xIx1zj
The storm that was my heart calmed too.118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLC8kBZvjpy
Life didn’t stop — it never does.
Semester 2 had begun.118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCr9NiZIPNt
We were already halfway through our first year.118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQtDY9NQYcf
Funny. Five months vanished like mist in morning sunlight.
Thub remained the constant — our place to learn and forget ourselves.118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT9z3LcnhGx
This time, they were teaching DSA.118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdphJwlEPQn
Classes now held at Ratan Tata Bhavan, a little more formal, a little less raw.
It felt the same as the first semester…118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSd3Gkt4qvS
Except now, Ren was often with us.118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT5PPXWQz1F
Or rather, with her.118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRhWbO13onT
And I?118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmDTVbVSJSc
I floated somewhere in between.
Still, I shared my world with her.
I introduced her to my seniors — people who meant something to me.118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzlHA5HQOrT
And among them, she grew fond of Ariel.118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcWDl02fhuP
A not-so-innocent senior, playful and sharp,118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi1NEHBAu2V
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.118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIZhGxj08xN
People who walked up to me not for who I was,118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX2R8iGaycT
but for what I could do.
They saw the coder.118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIBh0iFnebC
The guy who wins contests.118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOaRB7kLEJm
The guy who can explain recursion in five minutes.
But never me.118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3tIlMZEWUP
Not the full picture.
I didn’t mind.118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPgfkoHID64
I had grown used to it.118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAXdwiIeByq
People don’t really care —118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHl1zREUp1B
they care about what’s useful.118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJDGUdwl1rV
What they can gain.
And honestly,118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIHv5ksnRy2
I never really cared about them either.
Because I had her.118Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnycUtGGYxC
Forevermore.
And the name itself said everything I couldn’t.
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