November faded.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzWfN0uS40I
December froze.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNfjyWBM478
January drifted by in silence.
Three months passed, and with every day, I kept asking myself the same questions.
What happened?48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡviAkc5WOBJ
Why the sudden change?48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOhwitOYza7
What about everything we planned for — the little things, the big things, the quiet promises, the late-night talks, the classes?
Had it all meant nothing?
While I kept overthinking and pretending to be okay, the third semester slipped by.
And the fourth began.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4Cze74KqNW
At the end of January.
Still no response from her.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOsLSfPlpyD
No message.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBg7ugLT59N
No eye contact.
I told myself — maybe she’s just thinking about her future.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRhsaxi9owx
Maybe it’s a phase.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ97yTJs8IbE
Maybe she’ll return when she's ready.
That’s when I got selected into Owl Coder. along with some other second years.
One of the most prestigious training programs our college had.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnnv8RvJb0E
It was meant for the third years.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxJ8psNLhC6
But I got in — in my second year.
It should’ve felt like a crown.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUzEhRFc47u
But all I felt was the hollow absence of someone to place it on my head.
She wasn’t there to hear the news.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa6eq5JmR5O
To congratulate me.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHl17EyImr8
To tease me.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQCagJZu6nW
To be proud.
And that silence made the success… feel like ash.
The Owl Coder program was intense.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqQWCNHexNC
It started at 5 PM and ended at midnight — with just a dinner break in between.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk5VyGUlp4e
We were expected to stay in the hostel throughout.
No sunlight.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKHVNGd8erE
No sleep.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMSy7CGsxv2
No time.
I was running on caffeine, coping with cold metal bunk beds and the constant hum of exhausted ambition.
So during the day’s technical hub sessions…48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG2tZYlkPlp
I slept.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdp7U60Wnc1
An excuse disguised as exhaustion.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF5jI71EmLN
A mask for what I couldn’t confess — that I just didn’t have it in me anymore.
This semester's subjects were Operating Systems and DBMS.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtBtbFzkF5y
Three days a week in Thub, threee days in regular classes.
There went my attendance…48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6ZA6wajbAp
Flying out the window like a bird that no longer cared to return.
Inside Owl Coder, I got to know how selections happened.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ15uoeJuqm2
How people were noticed.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeDY1mfCvme
How chances bloomed and vanished in a blink.
All I wanted to do was explain it all to her.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS289CQDByQ
To help her — even if I could no longer be near her.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdVp4E3E17B
Even if I was just a background character now.
I texted her.
Asked if she could meet in the library — just for a moment.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3PzqI50oP3
I waited.
She replied:
“I’ll be late. I have class.”
That was it.
A sentence.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjZNk4za8vY
A dagger.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN7UZ6dwGpG
A quiet way of saying, You’re not important enough to wait for.
And yet I still hoped.
Then one evening, everything cracked.
I was walking toward the hostel.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM3VB6p8yvc
From the buses, through the mango gardens — one of the quietest, most serene places in our campus.
I saw her.
Sitting under the trees.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6RNjq5NP1o
With Ren.
Talking.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIif5ycOqVb
Smiling.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAvf87VYBmy
Laughing.
I couldn’t stop.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0XlxhDGcbP
I couldn’t go back.
I ran past them — like a ghost of someone who once mattered.
My heart screamed:
“Why… can you talk to him, but not to me?”48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfDkCqauvAS
“What did I do… that made me forgettable?”48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEHyOMpSlIE
Or its just maybe me, who is overthinking.
The following days blurred.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW8LqH5Kzbj
I wasn’t myself.
A haunted version of who I once was —48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD2LcDsnLxN
Lost in old texts, lost in memories.
I texted her again.
This time, everything I had.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfuuo395QQh
Every unspoken word.
She replied.
It was reassuring.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRDMd69pq4A
Warm, maybe.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDizUatLUT1
But it felt forced — like something written more out of duty than care.
And that’s when it happened.
She became a stranger.
The third name I gave her.
She said:
“I have a lot going on. I don’t want to get involved. I care for you…”
Then why did I feel like I only existed in her joy?
Was I meant to only be her comfort, her tutor, her support —48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvj0WnuTTfS
and when the storms came, someone to lock away?
Was I disposable when I hurt, but valuable when she smiled?
Then the final blow.
I heard she wouldn’t be continuing in Technical Hub anymore.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHaqcp1xtL9
That she was stepping away from the journey we once shared.
My chest sank.
It was true.
She was walking a road I would never again walk beside her.
Still… I wrote to her.
One heartfelt message.
Encouraging her.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHGyCX65O6T
Reminding her of how much potential she had.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSLwC2LqoRf
That the world still waited for her — even if I no longer did.
She replied:
“That made my day…”
And maybe that was enough.
Maybe, sometimes, we don't get closure.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqHeiDMUAN7
We just get moments like this —48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAPBHXZxrMF
A soft echo that reminds us it was real… once.
Even if now, all that remains is a ghost, a third name, and a message.
ns216.73.216.117da2
