After that day, the externals began. Then the semester-end exams arrived like an avalanche.41Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVAuwOkWR5n
January became a blur of tension and ticking clocks — PDFs flooding WhatsApp, people panicking over units they hadn’t touched, doubt circling like vultures.41Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL6RNS4VVzf
It was the busiest I’d ever seen our campus.
And in that chaos, I tried. I gave it what I could.41Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4nbZbnDfbb
Some nights I stared blankly at notes, hoping something would stick. Some days, I simply trusted intuition, muscle memory, or fate.41Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7tvSgWWtJc
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.41Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3Bu0ZtIhME
That’s how long the first semester lasted.41Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLBYBieO485
Five months — that's what the calendar says. But to me, it didn’t feel like months.41Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLbECMoRwym
It felt like moments — raw, unfinished, incomplete. Like scribbles in a notebook I never meant to show anyone.
And then… something shifted.41Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpKPVmFk024
Something in the air.41Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoChiuDx94P
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.41Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡilIFFE5FKO
Our evening talks behind the buses — stopped.41Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfnehHRrCgl
Her presence, once familiar like a hum at the back of my mind — faded.41Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQAjTG0OP4D
I kept telling myself it was nothing. Just timing. Just routine.41Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb8TQdfGmmr
But the truth has a way of finding you… when you least want it.
One day, I was with Simon. Just a regular day.41Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCMIctqelmE
And that’s when I saw them.
Her.41Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZYLhnXxtqF
Smiling. Laughing. Walking.41Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1EMZvh7PJP
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.41Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL9F99UD9QF
I smiled, because what else could I do?41Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXbfxLg5wnP
But deep inside, I was quiet. Frozen. Trying to act okay, because that’s what we do, right?
Later that day, I asked her.41Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFvzjDBVCqF
“How do you know Ren?”
She said — that,41Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKeBrv6QhTe
“Oh… we met online,”.
Simple. Innocent. Coincidence.
That word hit harder than I expected.41Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfI9W6KKiYt
Coincidence.
It echoed in my mind, looping like a cruel joke.41Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKIQGmMJD6A
Because that’s how she and I started too.41Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsmuxbQ22Kj
A coincidence.
Only this time, it wasn’t mine.
And in that moment, I realized something no one prepares you for —41Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWFUoTKvUF4
Sometimes, people slip away. Not because they mean to. Not because of a fight. But because fate hands them a different coincidence.41Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcFNnalVZAX
A different thread.41Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCyjzomHCm6
And you’re left holding the memory of what could’ve been.
