And then, quietly, I turned around.
Returned the umbrella to Krish with a soft thank-you, still half-soaked and half-lost in the moment.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1tHbDfeZ6Y
After that, I didn’t rush. I didn’t need to.
I just wandered around the campus as the rain calmed, the sky grey but not cruel anymore.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPN6zQgJs1j
The kind of grey that feels… numb.
Eventually, the buses roared back to life — ready to take us back to our homes and our silences.
I climbed onto mine. Bus 495.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr7oIZb0Ygq
And sat by the window.
Cold.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqg9ZvRZMup
Yet somehow warm.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaAxzQO7E6l
Bittersweet, like holding hands in a dream just before waking up.
That evening —142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAVpNt1bioY
she messaged me:142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwIlQ1HqzSr
“It’s been a while since we talked like this…”
And my heart quietly broke.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn0o9oDMAIw
Not from pain.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBzjO9CmDuz
But from the gentle ache of knowing that this — this fleeting, shared moment —142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqxvucFeocj
was all I’d ever asked for.
The silences. The rain.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBci09TNeMc
The way we forgot the world together.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeAeKHfXHga
Just for a little while.
And so, once again, I gave her a name.
Forevermore.
Not some name I pulled from the air.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ56yhItfFp6
Not just for the poetry of it.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7ZpXreBmG6
But because I’ve been naming all the versions of her I’ve seen.
Not her, exactly.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1FofGtxenN
But the her I’ve met at different crossroads.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBhC2satttX
The her who felt like home in passing moments.
Each one of them…142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLQCqmPoCFo
so very different.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiSb44Rko2Z
And yet, so unmistakably her.
Days passed.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIZ6HYsjw8Z
The storm that was my heart calmed too.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiUp9suI7ij
Life didn’t stop — it never does.
Semester 2 had begun.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIHlBsZJZFL
We were already halfway through our first year.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡezoFsJoa8R
Funny. Five months vanished like mist in morning sunlight.
Thub remained the constant — our place to learn and forget ourselves.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPoUD36GEDN
This time, they were teaching DSA.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd63XmhSJrJ
Classes now held at Ratan Tata Bhavan, a little more formal, a little less raw.
It felt the same as the first semester…142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFxFTIlHKok
Except now, Ren was often with us.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2DhUYhmXrQ
Or rather, with her.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQQ8On7fsdk
And I?142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi6EIPOcvBu
I floated somewhere in between.
Still, I shared my world with her.
I introduced her to my seniors — people who meant something to me.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1GCG0E5xDW
And among them, she grew fond of Ariel.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUc4enOVkwI
A not-so-innocent senior, playful and sharp,142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡci5w33ZwVj
but with a charm that made her laugh in ways I hadn’t seen in a while.
And maybe that was okay.
As the semester unfolded, I met others too.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnr1hM6EerC
People who walked up to me not for who I was,142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhAsOdKE1kD
but for what I could do.
They saw the coder.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTb8QVBtLlB
The guy who wins contests.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl1GlfJAP0I
The guy who can explain recursion in five minutes.
But never me.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaKtpc8ZmQ4
Not the full picture.
I didn’t mind.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnpdw2FSffq
I had grown used to it.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUByQap0zNK
People don’t really care —142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡETchI9Zo1N
they care about what’s useful.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFLaFQHZ7Pp
What they can gain.
And honestly,142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpLMJzmu0s7
I never really cared about them either.
Because I had her.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmgnnrfG77W
Forevermore.
And the name itself said everything I couldn’t.
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