November faded.54Please respect copyright.PENANAQ3yS2oPnBq
December froze.54Please respect copyright.PENANAD36Kyu27EN
January drifted by in silence.
Three months passed, and with every day, I kept asking myself the same questions.
What happened?54Please respect copyright.PENANAiEOKZBLUg8
Why the sudden change?54Please respect copyright.PENANAtHvtdAD3xC
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.54Please respect copyright.PENANA5RqEeCZndD
At the end of January.
Still no response from her.54Please respect copyright.PENANAQ2kM8lZO5P
No message.54Please respect copyright.PENANAvDeARedsLT
No eye contact.
I told myself — maybe she’s just thinking about her future.54Please respect copyright.PENANABLT7oxQecM
Maybe it’s a phase.54Please respect copyright.PENANAbocQvNXQAM
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.54Please respect copyright.PENANA2gacLhWOf0
It was meant for the third years.54Please respect copyright.PENANARjH4nytYOQ
But I got in — in my second year.
It should’ve felt like a crown.54Please respect copyright.PENANAkmCYGkPcyS
But all I felt was the hollow absence of someone to place it on my head.
She wasn’t there to hear the news.54Please respect copyright.PENANAKUOYsILrLU
To congratulate me.54Please respect copyright.PENANAGzfYZtChMl
To tease me.54Please respect copyright.PENANAh4mMQxvB8q
To be proud.
And that silence made the success… feel like ash.
The Owl Coder program was intense.54Please respect copyright.PENANAC6s3bMIeTH
It started at 5 PM and ended at midnight — with just a dinner break in between.54Please respect copyright.PENANAFxszKfXdjz
We were expected to stay in the hostel throughout.
No sunlight.54Please respect copyright.PENANAKJdIK9r5z0
No sleep.54Please respect copyright.PENANA02LgYcnhIq
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…54Please respect copyright.PENANA5Kfv8Zt2tD
I slept.54Please respect copyright.PENANAXrn6HUUVlJ
An excuse disguised as exhaustion.54Please respect copyright.PENANADtVUIv5kDs
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.54Please respect copyright.PENANAM47xkOLRUR
Three days a week in Thub, threee days in regular classes.
There went my attendance…54Please respect copyright.PENANArcSEK8vEUg
Flying out the window like a bird that no longer cared to return.
Inside Owl Coder, I got to know how selections happened.54Please respect copyright.PENANAaPRbF2NYqV
How people were noticed.54Please respect copyright.PENANAvwIfk18o43
How chances bloomed and vanished in a blink.
All I wanted to do was explain it all to her.54Please respect copyright.PENANAxZto54idxk
To help her — even if I could no longer be near her.54Please respect copyright.PENANAPyv24UPpC3
Even if I was just a background character now.
I texted her.
Asked if she could meet in the library — just for a moment.54Please respect copyright.PENANAEhBhYxGvuU
I waited.
She replied:
“I’ll be late. I have class.”
That was it.
A sentence.54Please respect copyright.PENANAXw8gFSze0m
A dagger.54Please respect copyright.PENANA4k2tnWXJT5
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.54Please respect copyright.PENANAm5B0GWZHRi
From the buses, through the mango gardens — one of the quietest, most serene places in our campus.
I saw her.
Sitting under the trees.54Please respect copyright.PENANAvIEGzDaJAU
With Ren.
Talking.54Please respect copyright.PENANApqt111uSza
Smiling.54Please respect copyright.PENANAqcB7TXrvpJ
Laughing.
I couldn’t stop.54Please respect copyright.PENANAibYwtmWBR3
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?”54Please respect copyright.PENANAPhWIAQNOZg
“What did I do… that made me forgettable?”54Please respect copyright.PENANAYkXmy7OYJv
Or its just maybe me, who is overthinking.
The following days blurred.54Please respect copyright.PENANAC870dHNi13
I wasn’t myself.
A haunted version of who I once was —54Please respect copyright.PENANA0haRW6BWQh
Lost in old texts, lost in memories.
I texted her again.
This time, everything I had.54Please respect copyright.PENANAlASIYN42lX
Every unspoken word.
She replied.
It was reassuring.54Please respect copyright.PENANAbKeCYEXf0t
Warm, maybe.54Please respect copyright.PENANAsfQaRS9wQR
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 —54Please respect copyright.PENANAj2ibSqM1wA
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.54Please respect copyright.PENANATgenYsybOB
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.54Please respect copyright.PENANA0IStIoEqaa
Reminding her of how much potential she had.54Please respect copyright.PENANAaaeu4w0PS5
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.54Please respect copyright.PENANA7EmueyvlhE
We just get moments like this —54Please respect copyright.PENANAK6LqdU0WwH
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.
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