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.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsK8GFUSVAn
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.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFX0LvUa1F5
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 495.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRZ5agJTz12
And sat by the window.
Cold.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyQRMWeT91a
Yet somehow warm.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2aaSthXyRf
Bittersweet, like holding hands in a dream just before waking up.
That evening —46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl5OweCM25y
she messaged me:46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0hfyLPS6AT
“It’s been a while since we talked like this…”
And my heart quietly broke.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl4W34x7jnF
Not from pain.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYYNHMSwFV0
But from the gentle ache of knowing that this — this fleeting, shared moment —46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZMsKRPJB9z
was all I’d ever asked for.
The silences. The rain.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxTH1qbdzUC
The way we forgot the world together.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKVs39iJCXn
Just for a little while.
And so, once again, I gave her a name.
Forevermore.
Not some name I pulled from the air.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUU7sNOUrvU
Not just for the poetry of it.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlYrBEGJPtS
But because I’ve been naming all the versions of her I’ve seen.
Not her, exactly.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhdYAu3Af3b
But the her I’ve met at different crossroads.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHSrh2OjKjM
The her who felt like home in passing moments.
Each one of them…46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgr7EU3Xcmm
so very different.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbqilm21QwO
And yet, so unmistakably her.
Days passed.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlsxkqz93H3
The storm that was my heart calmed too.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡob00lTagbG
Life didn’t stop — it never does.
Semester 2 had begun.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe0qBNxZtGG
We were already halfway through our first year.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK4ixQAMKgk
Funny. Five months vanished like mist in morning sunlight.
Thub remained the constant — our place to learn and forget ourselves.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOZAxn9WKB9
This time, they were teaching DSA.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX4j94yD7gp
Classes now held at Ratan Tata Bhavan, a little more formal, a little less raw.
It felt the same as the first semester…46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN963SIKh97
Except now, Ren was often with us.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWoyxAxRiZP
Or rather, with her.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnMWszwfc5B
And I?46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzwOTQxhIsN
I floated somewhere in between.
Still, I shared my world with her.
I introduced her to my seniors — people who meant something to me.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWLgrP4IjPN
And among them, she grew fond of Ariel.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm2KynDJT1x
A not-so-innocent senior, playful and sharp,46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSh3JApmXYI
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.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmnYvhDtS6b
People who walked up to me not for who I was,46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡja5tgY1tKD
but for what I could do.
They saw the coder.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsptfrkcCiZ
The guy who wins contests.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlU8JfQdY6k
The guy who can explain recursion in five minutes.
But never me.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbP8J2hRu5E
Not the full picture.
I didn’t mind.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgZ4JE1JTim
I had grown used to it.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcUhOl0eUGN
People don’t really care —46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡybFq5munLO
they care about what’s useful.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgFnSV3saJM
What they can gain.
And honestly,46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ70jCY02f91
I never really cared about them either.
Because I had her.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡczjx5GCLqB
Forevermore.
And the name itself said everything I couldn’t.
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