After that day, the externals began. Then the semester-end exams arrived like an avalanche.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuv31QDAKEh
January became a blur of tension and ticking clocks — PDFs flooding WhatsApp, people panicking over units they hadn’t touched, doubt circling like vultures.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLCt2k1JOWG
It was the busiest I’d ever seen our campus.
And in that chaos, I tried. I gave it what I could.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZhlq36WICN
Some nights I stared blankly at notes, hoping something would stick. Some days, I simply trusted intuition, muscle memory, or fate.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡshDh6iVhSS
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.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJtvvgtl4O1
That’s how long the first semester lasted.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyES7duJL8h
Five months — that's what the calendar says. But to me, it didn’t feel like months.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgCn3L4XKGd
It felt like moments — raw, unfinished, incomplete. Like scribbles in a notebook I never meant to show anyone.
And then… something shifted.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt95lfEK8ih
Something in the air.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa96pk7YURK
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.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1rY5RtTMxU
Our evening talks behind the buses — stopped.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5JPloFJsIt
Her presence, once familiar like a hum at the back of my mind — faded.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjP2QaphN8w
I kept telling myself it was nothing. Just timing. Just routine.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP25MXZFZqr
But the truth has a way of finding you… when you least want it.
One day, I was with Simon. Just a regular day.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeO4LmpVB1n
And that’s when I saw them.
Her.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA2xZH0dad1
Smiling. Laughing. Walking.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpy0XO54wsK
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.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡikNAgiGLmy
I smiled, because what else could I do?139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkSMod5gQFJ
But deep inside, I was quiet. Frozen. Trying to act okay, because that’s what we do, right?
Later that day, I asked her.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMr7CoSDOZP
“How do you know Ren?”
She said — that,139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwVtBtz607n
“Oh… we met online,”.
Simple. Innocent. Coincidence.
That word hit harder than I expected.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ424If2SimW
Coincidence.
It echoed in my mind, looping like a cruel joke.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡguLq9Atf9y
Because that’s how she and I started too.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI5oJ1gRkWq
A coincidence.
Only this time, it wasn’t mine.
And in that moment, I realized something no one prepares you for —139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlGEQApXOo1
Sometimes, people slip away. Not because they mean to. Not because of a fight. But because fate hands them a different coincidence.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡETcKUp8JI1
A different thread.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡebykKqcqso
And you’re left holding the memory of what could’ve been.
