After that day, the externals began. Then the semester-end exams arrived like an avalanche.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMHSn33W7UN
January became a blur of tension and ticking clocks — PDFs flooding WhatsApp, people panicking over units they hadn’t touched, doubt circling like vultures.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuvEF2xSIGx
It was the busiest I’d ever seen our campus.
And in that chaos, I tried. I gave it what I could.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhdH4SOCbqc
Some nights I stared blankly at notes, hoping something would stick. Some days, I simply trusted intuition, muscle memory, or fate.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTAUtPAFGIq
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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRLq87iUrmy
That’s how long the first semester lasted.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHYiOWsE1Ld
Five months — that's what the calendar says. But to me, it didn’t feel like months.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTEMQkjvq9d
It felt like moments — raw, unfinished, incomplete. Like scribbles in a notebook I never meant to show anyone.
And then… something shifted.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ435ru1w7f7
Something in the air.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNCRfihr6or
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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ949qmFASu1
Our evening talks behind the buses — stopped.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmTygStouh7
Her presence, once familiar like a hum at the back of my mind — faded.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡedxGoCeO7y
I kept telling myself it was nothing. Just timing. Just routine.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEqQMmEarNK
But the truth has a way of finding you… when you least want it.
One day, I was with Simon. Just a regular day.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkC3zWgUkpY
And that’s when I saw them.
Her.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGf7pGcaukK
Smiling. Laughing. Walking.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKqsmeg1TMn
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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2fm6qNnAMQ
I smiled, because what else could I do?22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYpEK63lL1D
But deep inside, I was quiet. Frozen. Trying to act okay, because that’s what we do, right?
Later that day, I asked her.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeG7sjOm31k
“How do you know Ren?”
She said — that,22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡixsr3DzWOC
“Oh… we met online,”.
Simple. Innocent. Coincidence.
That word hit harder than I expected.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmD3yU2e5KW
Coincidence.
It echoed in my mind, looping like a cruel joke.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3xObSSibNg
Because that’s how she and I started too.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMDRDwGzZLj
A coincidence.
Only this time, it wasn’t mine.
And in that moment, I realized something no one prepares you for —22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1xCYyFejqm
Sometimes, people slip away. Not because they mean to. Not because of a fight. But because fate hands them a different coincidence.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNUDFNBkFoi
A different thread.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6YNEiCzONw
And you’re left holding the memory of what could’ve been.
