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.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡETxsPvt7nC
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.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyLPA1zN0V6
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 495.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuIIpzZhpnr
And sat by the window.
Cold.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrNWhBAt6hN
Yet somehow warm.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5upxOb5VGU
Bittersweet, like holding hands in a dream just before waking up.
That evening —57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK70vBLVeQk
she messaged me:57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY7dE2Xdpz0
“It’s been a while since we talked like this…”
And my heart quietly broke.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUpEwe6oYkV
Not from pain.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbZZGKhXpBv
But from the gentle ache of knowing that this — this fleeting, shared moment —57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqu0UzuqA4R
was all I’d ever asked for.
The silences. The rain.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBEKgwL5VBz
The way we forgot the world together.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7QzLczicJc
Just for a little while.
And so, once again, I gave her a name.
Forevermore.
Not some name I pulled from the air.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjIG0XscrMb
Not just for the poetry of it.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIsmPwByANM
But because I’ve been naming all the versions of her I’ve seen.
Not her, exactly.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzsAjyFpxoH
But the her I’ve met at different crossroads.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡorfMpOAaG8
The her who felt like home in passing moments.
Each one of them…57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2EfMLeMZ2F
so very different.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeFXdEaeah7
And yet, so unmistakably her.
Days passed.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4ydHU1g9by
The storm that was my heart calmed too.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8kN2mNCumV
Life didn’t stop — it never does.
Semester 2 had begun.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTNCQFRCteL
We were already halfway through our first year.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzToj4f5LV1
Funny. Five months vanished like mist in morning sunlight.
Thub remained the constant — our place to learn and forget ourselves.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKyoeuXFdld
This time, they were teaching DSA.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW5ijWBnUw5
Classes now held at Ratan Tata Bhavan, a little more formal, a little less raw.
It felt the same as the first semester…57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8iM6SxG0Gx
Except now, Ren was often with us.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXxrMdlqscl
Or rather, with her.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1HrqyRSSXN
And I?57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnsdLGiyZhx
I floated somewhere in between.
Still, I shared my world with her.
I introduced her to my seniors — people who meant something to me.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEDTiMlnXIh
And among them, she grew fond of Ariel.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlIMV5K0CLq
A not-so-innocent senior, playful and sharp,57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbKYaBfGbRW
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.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ89dtLWUph4
People who walked up to me not for who I was,57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdbA6a71FFx
but for what I could do.
They saw the coder.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWcPbokJHrv
The guy who wins contests.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWRlI4VIiAY
The guy who can explain recursion in five minutes.
But never me.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD1Jwg0KtEu
Not the full picture.
I didn’t mind.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjhiCh8C0Pd
I had grown used to it.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9sktByZaO1
People don’t really care —57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOg1JyxXhFT
they care about what’s useful.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAQDc3wAfQc
What they can gain.
And honestly,57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ81EOnPDbQC
I never really cared about them either.
Because I had her.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡudigobFNbK
Forevermore.
And the name itself said everything I couldn’t.
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