November faded.63Please respect copyright.PENANAIept2yfA4x
December froze.63Please respect copyright.PENANAr1ffwUPPbp
January drifted by in silence.
Three months passed, and with every day, I kept asking myself the same questions.
What happened?63Please respect copyright.PENANAcPrBVa0QXp
Why the sudden change?63Please respect copyright.PENANAGjgYafaykm
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.63Please respect copyright.PENANAYxA21JrDyQ
At the end of January.
Still no response from her.63Please respect copyright.PENANAWAigBI6AGl
No message.63Please respect copyright.PENANAHnW8KidVjn
No eye contact.
I told myself — maybe she’s just thinking about her future.63Please respect copyright.PENANAaAagy4EVbU
Maybe it’s a phase.63Please respect copyright.PENANAuH1p9ndhPy
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.63Please respect copyright.PENANAYFDzxzouuE
It was meant for the third years.63Please respect copyright.PENANAmdznGLHQZr
But I got in — in my second year.
It should’ve felt like a crown.63Please respect copyright.PENANAaT8N1qVQtH
But all I felt was the hollow absence of someone to place it on my head.
She wasn’t there to hear the news.63Please respect copyright.PENANAQacklIwqaB
To congratulate me.63Please respect copyright.PENANAJla9ODNfuq
To tease me.63Please respect copyright.PENANA6zsZhmGHy6
To be proud.
And that silence made the success… feel like ash.
The Owl Coder program was intense.63Please respect copyright.PENANAK4Q6PpytwE
It started at 5 PM and ended at midnight — with just a dinner break in between.63Please respect copyright.PENANAuIEjdccNDN
We were expected to stay in the hostel throughout.
No sunlight.63Please respect copyright.PENANAz0chFKP98b
No sleep.63Please respect copyright.PENANAfIQZz3Qin8
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…63Please respect copyright.PENANAytVcrZAFSg
I slept.63Please respect copyright.PENANADaiMOnZjKS
An excuse disguised as exhaustion.63Please respect copyright.PENANA8Q5UMQ5rEa
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.63Please respect copyright.PENANAbuutmVWoNd
Three days a week in Thub, threee days in regular classes.
There went my attendance…63Please respect copyright.PENANAAGED0CPmar
Flying out the window like a bird that no longer cared to return.
Inside Owl Coder, I got to know how selections happened.63Please respect copyright.PENANAYVaAONNILg
How people were noticed.63Please respect copyright.PENANAvuSR4n8YeV
How chances bloomed and vanished in a blink.
All I wanted to do was explain it all to her.63Please respect copyright.PENANAS53UjN7qOZ
To help her — even if I could no longer be near her.63Please respect copyright.PENANAXoTCGsz7n3
Even if I was just a background character now.
I texted her.
Asked if she could meet in the library — just for a moment.63Please respect copyright.PENANAbUs9b7Gr28
I waited.
She replied:
“I’ll be late. I have class.”
That was it.
A sentence.63Please respect copyright.PENANA6ndG1R3OwT
A dagger.63Please respect copyright.PENANAhuhwqC5ZLa
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.63Please respect copyright.PENANAOojhKeuMjk
From the buses, through the mango gardens — one of the quietest, most serene places in our campus.
I saw her.
Sitting under the trees.63Please respect copyright.PENANAjDehYhvoMi
With Ren.
Talking.63Please respect copyright.PENANAeTXku0ZXqY
Smiling.63Please respect copyright.PENANAOvX1LZU9dD
Laughing.
I couldn’t stop.63Please respect copyright.PENANA6ateW0C5iJ
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?”63Please respect copyright.PENANANoqE6RwPtn
“What did I do… that made me forgettable?”63Please respect copyright.PENANAdsWpede148
Or its just maybe me, who is overthinking.
The following days blurred.63Please respect copyright.PENANAN8K9tMokfy
I wasn’t myself.
A haunted version of who I once was —63Please respect copyright.PENANAVrptbIdZFK
Lost in old texts, lost in memories.
I texted her again.
This time, everything I had.63Please respect copyright.PENANAF6mQnIjltW
Every unspoken word.
She replied.
It was reassuring.63Please respect copyright.PENANA1a3Hb9Xt1i
Warm, maybe.63Please respect copyright.PENANAKGbfdGG4oG
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 —63Please respect copyright.PENANA04ZJMtdL29
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.63Please respect copyright.PENANAaIQ4YhY3AK
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.63Please respect copyright.PENANAfcBVzgiW9B
Reminding her of how much potential she had.63Please respect copyright.PENANAQc1UsdFvDU
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.63Please respect copyright.PENANAfNWp6Sqt6Z
We just get moments like this —63Please respect copyright.PENANAkQ9BOIHE0o
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.
ns216.73.216.187da2