After that day, the externals began. Then the semester-end exams arrived like an avalanche.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQqesnqZwbC
January became a blur of tension and ticking clocks — PDFs flooding WhatsApp, people panicking over units they hadn’t touched, doubt circling like vultures.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8H7s613HP3
It was the busiest I’d ever seen our campus.
And in that chaos, I tried. I gave it what I could.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHJ8u0eZ3fZ
Some nights I stared blankly at notes, hoping something would stick. Some days, I simply trusted intuition, muscle memory, or fate.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgU058QZr99
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.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgaR5Uh4Ibf
That’s how long the first semester lasted.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvSOEEiP6MR
Five months — that's what the calendar says. But to me, it didn’t feel like months.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvWQlkmryrY
It felt like moments — raw, unfinished, incomplete. Like scribbles in a notebook I never meant to show anyone.
And then… something shifted.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPlBAtCzAfp
Something in the air.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ93QOyeaJE2
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.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL2vWgQzSNO
Our evening talks behind the buses — stopped.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUHNL65FWd6
Her presence, once familiar like a hum at the back of my mind — faded.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1O9DilAFrd
I kept telling myself it was nothing. Just timing. Just routine.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡADko234Hj1
But the truth has a way of finding you… when you least want it.
One day, I was with Simon. Just a regular day.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiqLQFlBFqv
And that’s when I saw them.
Her.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX3jOaEfwTr
Smiling. Laughing. Walking.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMlkqz1brLO
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.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRWeGI4KfBL
I smiled, because what else could I do?141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSQL607zthb
But deep inside, I was quiet. Frozen. Trying to act okay, because that’s what we do, right?
Later that day, I asked her.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3YI9J3wOLb
“How do you know Ren?”
She said — that,141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEl9ES8wHcc
“Oh… we met online,”.
Simple. Innocent. Coincidence.
That word hit harder than I expected.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlbsgVGDei0
Coincidence.
It echoed in my mind, looping like a cruel joke.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuCM3oqpL0J
Because that’s how she and I started too.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRGZAv8GCVu
A coincidence.
Only this time, it wasn’t mine.
And in that moment, I realized something no one prepares you for —141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhM3mE3cAYt
Sometimes, people slip away. Not because they mean to. Not because of a fight. But because fate hands them a different coincidence.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrfYYiyBsVb
A different thread.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7aXTAM1df7
And you’re left holding the memory of what could’ve been.
