November faded.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBiSx2vVmSM
December froze.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG76CVsCg8w
January drifted by in silence.
Three months passed, and with every day, I kept asking myself the same questions.
What happened?37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ35MHpTvQ3e
Why the sudden change?37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9wPgKXChTV
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.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHeUn8Sd3LR
At the end of January.
Still no response from her.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjyHALicT3U
No message.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRuP6VCc5pw
No eye contact.
I told myself — maybe she’s just thinking about her future.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJFU7rEGFMV
Maybe it’s a phase.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrbD4h3Memt
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.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjMsdMd1zY9
It was meant for the third years.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm5uvbKyiQO
But I got in — in my second year.
It should’ve felt like a crown.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6eabaGk5sT
But all I felt was the hollow absence of someone to place it on my head.
She wasn’t there to hear the news.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6hOmsZx037
To congratulate me.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLr2IgIq2iM
To tease me.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCJzQIfQBU2
To be proud.
And that silence made the success… feel like ash.
The Owl Coder program was intense.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBTBh5CEWu4
It started at 5 PM and ended at midnight — with just a dinner break in between.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1bwn3TRZm7
We were expected to stay in the hostel throughout.
No sunlight.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf0pOyXJe6G
No sleep.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoy2lA8JkvX
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…37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbPcTg71ti5
I slept.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ71Ms1CdDbB
An excuse disguised as exhaustion.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIm6CJ6BuNS
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.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8N77IW9rvI
Three days a week in Thub, threee days in regular classes.
There went my attendance…37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSly3Ke95ne
Flying out the window like a bird that no longer cared to return.
Inside Owl Coder, I got to know how selections happened.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg6adBTpZfj
How people were noticed.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT5m2apmUq6
How chances bloomed and vanished in a blink.
All I wanted to do was explain it all to her.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQiZL4C3VBn
To help her — even if I could no longer be near her.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVHnmF6RgGU
Even if I was just a background character now.
I texted her.
Asked if she could meet in the library — just for a moment.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGqUlZDRc0o
I waited.
She replied:
“I’ll be late. I have class.”
That was it.
A sentence.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXFRaDy5993
A dagger.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkyJqGVHnJN
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.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAAGv2CPmfg
From the buses, through the mango gardens — one of the quietest, most serene places in our campus.
I saw her.
Sitting under the trees.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡosglIUSIQ2
With Ren.
Talking.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVwiHwekM6H
Smiling.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡict0p3W9Nz
Laughing.
I couldn’t stop.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTLWPPd0Cpi
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?”37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRxLHeBuxSR
“What did I do… that made me forgettable?”37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa4oRQhVCe1
Or its just maybe me, who is overthinking.
The following days blurred.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ917YoclmiR
I wasn’t myself.
A haunted version of who I once was —37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRx2HqbG9lc
Lost in old texts, lost in memories.
I texted her again.
This time, everything I had.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaruXsKi3sN
Every unspoken word.
She replied.
It was reassuring.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcDnh3p0EPw
Warm, maybe.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhlNWIQJQfx
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 —37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYm4lu5xmHF
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.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsKFFKXdn2X
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.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZcLJT6bbvV
Reminding her of how much potential she had.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzcZomppZfH
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.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb38hxAVp8i
We just get moments like this —37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgViJUck5ln
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.
ns216.73.216.30da2
