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.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqaPByqsOJx
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.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPJCtzmDdKn
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 495.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFKeZwcSzxz
And sat by the window.
Cold.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5cDU0kimwC
Yet somehow warm.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYFiqrCl1qj
Bittersweet, like holding hands in a dream just before waking up.
That evening —63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFTSdZqzL70
she messaged me:63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjGNn9yeW4r
“It’s been a while since we talked like this…”
And my heart quietly broke.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5X1lubrTrA
Not from pain.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbFRWlvDvhS
But from the gentle ache of knowing that this — this fleeting, shared moment —63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLx66nGnU32
was all I’d ever asked for.
The silences. The rain.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmOIVUijydK
The way we forgot the world together.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCHWXffSvqc
Just for a little while.
And so, once again, I gave her a name.
Forevermore.
Not some name I pulled from the air.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt8fkjLuJRA
Not just for the poetry of it.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo1oDj7gqk6
But because I’ve been naming all the versions of her I’ve seen.
Not her, exactly.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3cq7E1hlZ7
But the her I’ve met at different crossroads.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNZ0Zv2IXiv
The her who felt like home in passing moments.
Each one of them…63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2XVUMXviJI
so very different.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQPV1DH1MOp
And yet, so unmistakably her.
Days passed.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg6K4RGndH3
The storm that was my heart calmed too.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9AA4zfd4Ms
Life didn’t stop — it never does.
Semester 2 had begun.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡevbBI9y1N5
We were already halfway through our first year.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡio9HMULRiR
Funny. Five months vanished like mist in morning sunlight.
Thub remained the constant — our place to learn and forget ourselves.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO0E2sErqsQ
This time, they were teaching DSA.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwtm8Nu9Q6R
Classes now held at Ratan Tata Bhavan, a little more formal, a little less raw.
It felt the same as the first semester…63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIAYrQkVCfR
Except now, Ren was often with us.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgKjbgBfWf5
Or rather, with her.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIM3burGIha
And I?63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8un5c2b3Ab
I floated somewhere in between.
Still, I shared my world with her.
I introduced her to my seniors — people who meant something to me.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxLdyCvSsV5
And among them, she grew fond of Ariel.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzMJiH8xh9I
A not-so-innocent senior, playful and sharp,63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaje3nTT547
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.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtmQb36WyO1
People who walked up to me not for who I was,63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhkjLQtEhm6
but for what I could do.
They saw the coder.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfgHEheAN34
The guy who wins contests.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBvEQ3ZwGn5
The guy who can explain recursion in five minutes.
But never me.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyoGzntZ3Op
Not the full picture.
I didn’t mind.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3OaH0fbnQT
I had grown used to it.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡznv6UKAycc
People don’t really care —63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkkNNooGwxx
they care about what’s useful.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjI0KjMhjud
What they can gain.
And honestly,63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxWmAHZ61Sj
I never really cared about them either.
Because I had her.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTL3KTckm7G
Forevermore.
And the name itself said everything I couldn’t.
ns216.73.216.10da2
