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.75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyKucXU5fCx
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.75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGOdeRxBqXT
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 495.75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjciacE0spO
And sat by the window.
Cold.75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGMXoWN8cEI
Yet somehow warm.75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEt5ghJBUcj
Bittersweet, like holding hands in a dream just before waking up.
That evening —75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0ODFvLn21J
she messaged me:75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIwk4vJ0pL8
“It’s been a while since we talked like this…”
And my heart quietly broke.75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHs8upNNvPN
Not from pain.75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYewRioBXsp
But from the gentle ache of knowing that this — this fleeting, shared moment —75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPjcyy6dSFb
was all I’d ever asked for.
The silences. The rain.75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXpvl0wBUjL
The way we forgot the world together.75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcQ6V0Tnrc6
Just for a little while.
And so, once again, I gave her a name.
Forevermore.
Not some name I pulled from the air.75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMpN6qDtsN7
Not just for the poetry of it.75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTPLAHNVyks
But because I’ve been naming all the versions of her I’ve seen.
Not her, exactly.75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzYpTewVLKD
But the her I’ve met at different crossroads.75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq6sHGyUali
The her who felt like home in passing moments.
Each one of them…75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0M4kbOttsB
so very different.75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDYmY1XuNim
And yet, so unmistakably her.
Days passed.75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm5ymQXwvtR
The storm that was my heart calmed too.75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwsxyJFSe8m
Life didn’t stop — it never does.
Semester 2 had begun.75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaBRq5yjp6r
We were already halfway through our first year.75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuD1RE4MGuJ
Funny. Five months vanished like mist in morning sunlight.
Thub remained the constant — our place to learn and forget ourselves.75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkPHnjbEvQr
This time, they were teaching DSA.75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzuHHSWTrbn
Classes now held at Ratan Tata Bhavan, a little more formal, a little less raw.
It felt the same as the first semester…75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8fiJVEz1OI
Except now, Ren was often with us.75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBNN4lF1zUp
Or rather, with her.75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRstny8IVEF
And I?75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD1ZK2qpKDK
I floated somewhere in between.
Still, I shared my world with her.
I introduced her to my seniors — people who meant something to me.75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCnxan80i6h
And among them, she grew fond of Ariel.75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZY4vhgvGot
A not-so-innocent senior, playful and sharp,75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcrUMLiTTJe
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.75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrW00W4xKcF
People who walked up to me not for who I was,75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBxyTfpaWpz
but for what I could do.
They saw the coder.75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBqDOKbmws6
The guy who wins contests.75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTqOIqBYwj6
The guy who can explain recursion in five minutes.
But never me.75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmB1mPDWOPc
Not the full picture.
I didn’t mind.75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTNj1AK0XH3
I had grown used to it.75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡASiANKAsBO
People don’t really care —75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqWIhMO5e6M
they care about what’s useful.75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2sXqqJpnse
What they can gain.
And honestly,75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj6f4lIp5yJ
I never really cared about them either.
Because I had her.75Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlbxT4B9oT5
Forevermore.
And the name itself said everything I couldn’t.
ns216.73.216.146da2
