After that day, the externals began. Then the semester-end exams arrived like an avalanche.140Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoIUrTSph8u
January became a blur of tension and ticking clocks — PDFs flooding WhatsApp, people panicking over units they hadn’t touched, doubt circling like vultures.140Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGMvLyVLLj7
It was the busiest I’d ever seen our campus.
And in that chaos, I tried. I gave it what I could.140Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWWHzteU4MK
Some nights I stared blankly at notes, hoping something would stick. Some days, I simply trusted intuition, muscle memory, or fate.140Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMulMrLKXH6
I did what I could — the rest, I left to whatever force governs unfair results and late realizations.
Then February breezed in, bringing a short, scattered week of holidays. A blink. A breath. And just like that, the second semester began.
Five months.140Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtTcYvHTx91
That’s how long the first semester lasted.140Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡregBnuMKvT
Five months — that's what the calendar says. But to me, it didn’t feel like months.140Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbd9hCOZB0O
It felt like moments — raw, unfinished, incomplete. Like scribbles in a notebook I never meant to show anyone.
And then… something shifted.140Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQrtEXdzj9Y
Something in the air.140Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdGFhhYhLsZ
Something in her.
Seren.
I don’t remember the exact moment I realized it. Maybe it wasn’t a moment — maybe it was a slow unraveling.140Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNyluOucOlS
Our evening talks behind the buses — stopped.140Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxm6U9mi4eb
Her presence, once familiar like a hum at the back of my mind — faded.140Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNUpOmUa6BP
I kept telling myself it was nothing. Just timing. Just routine.140Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSrM9Bg4KGD
But the truth has a way of finding you… when you least want it.
One day, I was with Simon. Just a regular day.140Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDV6oFC9L3R
And that’s when I saw them.
Her.140Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjwFtxTf47Z
Smiling. Laughing. Walking.140Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKIPKHEIZUO
And Ren.
He walked beside her — like he belonged there.
Time slowed.
She approached like everything was normal. Like my world hadn’t cracked open a little.140Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCLKNQyLoJF
I smiled, because what else could I do?140Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2Wt6xUNZCB
But deep inside, I was quiet. Frozen. Trying to act okay, because that’s what we do, right?
Later that day, I asked her.140Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXBCR8p5hPM
“How do you know Ren?”
She said — that,140Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvGhMrd87Vx
“Oh… we met online,”.
Simple. Innocent. Coincidence.
That word hit harder than I expected.140Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdLv9v6Ynwf
Coincidence.
It echoed in my mind, looping like a cruel joke.140Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqIp6turtv1
Because that’s how she and I started too.140Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4cV8rS3QKG
A coincidence.
Only this time, it wasn’t mine.
And in that moment, I realized something no one prepares you for —140Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDb6WItcNX8
Sometimes, people slip away. Not because they mean to. Not because of a fight. But because fate hands them a different coincidence.140Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfKyZyx5CzR
A different thread.140Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3QIO1N09rp
And you’re left holding the memory of what could’ve been.
