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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeCL6G30u1X
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡThB0k4vj5N
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 495.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGZE0Gzz4OQ
And sat by the window.
Cold.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAdtSqd7yN2
Yet somehow warm.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ66gIkNuqjm
Bittersweet, like holding hands in a dream just before waking up.
That evening —21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj7yS9mRMYA
she messaged me:21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHXcQMWhENz
“It’s been a while since we talked like this…”
And my heart quietly broke.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnGQAfDbTnm
Not from pain.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4DG82uwgs8
But from the gentle ache of knowing that this — this fleeting, shared moment —21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOhuaODayag
was all I’d ever asked for.
The silences. The rain.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbx2dArykKX
The way we forgot the world together.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWrBUxzw89L
Just for a little while.
And so, once again, I gave her a name.
Forevermore.
Not some name I pulled from the air.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLzsFOfsaNY
Not just for the poetry of it.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxNEDCHFsBn
But because I’ve been naming all the versions of her I’ve seen.
Not her, exactly.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4vO5QKEzbP
But the her I’ve met at different crossroads.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK5QZbo2lAf
The her who felt like home in passing moments.
Each one of them…21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ54apACKlZj
so very different.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhI6XA01kcV
And yet, so unmistakably her.
Days passed.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡne7ijMsfPa
The storm that was my heart calmed too.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN3ABZe8C2u
Life didn’t stop — it never does.
Semester 2 had begun.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqLErc7hMsB
We were already halfway through our first year.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyzajCHRDcH
Funny. Five months vanished like mist in morning sunlight.
Thub remained the constant — our place to learn and forget ourselves.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡedC7s7wOid
This time, they were teaching DSA.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu5NssqTADm
Classes now held at Ratan Tata Bhavan, a little more formal, a little less raw.
It felt the same as the first semester…21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW1vsWaaf9Q
Except now, Ren was often with us.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ903vrLs2dK
Or rather, with her.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsQ6tNILsyl
And I?21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVqN8cWhICp
I floated somewhere in between.
Still, I shared my world with her.
I introduced her to my seniors — people who meant something to me.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVEMEkrMGjG
And among them, she grew fond of Ariel.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMq2wjdgMqz
A not-so-innocent senior, playful and sharp,21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA4hhFZkm7h
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ76yMcLDrUW
People who walked up to me not for who I was,21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOVBY5YLbQs
but for what I could do.
They saw the coder.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtIBDw1H4XV
The guy who wins contests.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS406VPmDmU
The guy who can explain recursion in five minutes.
But never me.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjvUiWxdcIL
Not the full picture.
I didn’t mind.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1iWN8nGHGC
I had grown used to it.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhOaEtFAbsi
People don’t really care —21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFLsts4qYjB
they care about what’s useful.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrVweDRmU6M
What they can gain.
And honestly,21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLpfpdOEyPC
I never really cared about them either.
Because I had her.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsMg4bMeU1r
Forevermore.
And the name itself said everything I couldn’t.
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