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
