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.
ns216.73.216.187da2
