After that day, the externals began. Then the semester-end exams arrived like an avalanche.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDzt0AgLyQ3
January became a blur of tension and ticking clocks — PDFs flooding WhatsApp, people panicking over units they hadn’t touched, doubt circling like vultures.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYeAtyjvuc3
It was the busiest I’d ever seen our campus.
And in that chaos, I tried. I gave it what I could.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPxf1Y46aG8
Some nights I stared blankly at notes, hoping something would stick. Some days, I simply trusted intuition, muscle memory, or fate.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡepUu4iLztw
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.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm6XhoLZFOG
That’s how long the first semester lasted.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxpRoUwryJk
Five months — that's what the calendar says. But to me, it didn’t feel like months.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzwebYbiZcU
It felt like moments — raw, unfinished, incomplete. Like scribbles in a notebook I never meant to show anyone.
And then… something shifted.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk9tOYBfUQP
Something in the air.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj9qosl8BkR
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.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKYhwWgqei2
Our evening talks behind the buses — stopped.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN6AbE5c9nY
Her presence, once familiar like a hum at the back of my mind — faded.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHm4fGHPUuu
I kept telling myself it was nothing. Just timing. Just routine.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN1bj6FxnEW
But the truth has a way of finding you… when you least want it.
One day, I was with Simon. Just a regular day.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSEzW64Dl1G
And that’s when I saw them.
Her.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuwJbEoRd49
Smiling. Laughing. Walking.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnhmTkmmm8L
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.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6GCYzjLUzo
I smiled, because what else could I do?139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnNITEoCIRR
But deep inside, I was quiet. Frozen. Trying to act okay, because that’s what we do, right?
Later that day, I asked her.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMnKIIcIlRL
“How do you know Ren?”
She said — that,139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGNxnBPIsgX
“Oh… we met online,”.
Simple. Innocent. Coincidence.
That word hit harder than I expected.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCkvIXz0ikR
Coincidence.
It echoed in my mind, looping like a cruel joke.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrSOtVrmJzi
Because that’s how she and I started too.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGVi8L6yFV7
A coincidence.
Only this time, it wasn’t mine.
And in that moment, I realized something no one prepares you for —139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKONdQ3klqF
Sometimes, people slip away. Not because they mean to. Not because of a fight. But because fate hands them a different coincidence.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡohlxYQzMtV
A different thread.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1HBa02Z79G
And you’re left holding the memory of what could’ve been.
