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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