After that day, the externals began. Then the semester-end exams arrived like an avalanche.145Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtXDT54LY2L
January became a blur of tension and ticking clocks — PDFs flooding WhatsApp, people panicking over units they hadn’t touched, doubt circling like vultures.145Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKDuhbQRUMJ
It was the busiest I’d ever seen our campus.
And in that chaos, I tried. I gave it what I could.145Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZccah3IHik
Some nights I stared blankly at notes, hoping something would stick. Some days, I simply trusted intuition, muscle memory, or fate.145Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdFqQoM90ct
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.145Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJwDOmad63r
That’s how long the first semester lasted.145Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVIBCFFj938
Five months — that's what the calendar says. But to me, it didn’t feel like months.145Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwkSpBvMZ25
It felt like moments — raw, unfinished, incomplete. Like scribbles in a notebook I never meant to show anyone.
And then… something shifted.145Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIyXWBDLs40
Something in the air.145Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8JkunBfgrv
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.145Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGlWv7tg1rI
Our evening talks behind the buses — stopped.145Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4oNtqZYJzx
Her presence, once familiar like a hum at the back of my mind — faded.145Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyuODkwrLnp
I kept telling myself it was nothing. Just timing. Just routine.145Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYGQO7r4tw9
But the truth has a way of finding you… when you least want it.
One day, I was with Simon. Just a regular day.145Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ61vHWDqMbu
And that’s when I saw them.
Her.145Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡysWU7iuWYv
Smiling. Laughing. Walking.145Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFsMuVzr3tn
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.145Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2KAHW7iXc3
I smiled, because what else could I do?145Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe1Z6QeKodb
But deep inside, I was quiet. Frozen. Trying to act okay, because that’s what we do, right?
Later that day, I asked her.145Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡARj047Gr7R
“How do you know Ren?”
She said — that,145Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9VzHxzxTGJ
“Oh… we met online,”.
Simple. Innocent. Coincidence.
That word hit harder than I expected.145Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa29FbsE8Kv
Coincidence.
It echoed in my mind, looping like a cruel joke.145Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAOEMrild5z
Because that’s how she and I started too.145Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1YlXeTRUS5
A coincidence.
Only this time, it wasn’t mine.
And in that moment, I realized something no one prepares you for —145Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrybEhFO8Ul
Sometimes, people slip away. Not because they mean to. Not because of a fight. But because fate hands them a different coincidence.145Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe4GyRSeudF
A different thread.145Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoZDfkvdaYW
And you’re left holding the memory of what could’ve been.
