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.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD21ffcl3LH
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.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHSzq4bmBRi
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 495.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq6bfjExthP
And sat by the window.
Cold.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhDtPtPSPd0
Yet somehow warm.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZQm452EF53
Bittersweet, like holding hands in a dream just before waking up.
That evening —139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW1RfP3RqyN
she messaged me:139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡajUUYoo8JT
“It’s been a while since we talked like this…”
And my heart quietly broke.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeSFA8q4o76
Not from pain.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR8vsfsImDJ
But from the gentle ache of knowing that this — this fleeting, shared moment —139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm8eUxPw2Kq
was all I’d ever asked for.
The silences. The rain.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF5p2AT6fAz
The way we forgot the world together.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5FXmCnyJzj
Just for a little while.
And so, once again, I gave her a name.
Forevermore.
Not some name I pulled from the air.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDFTLkqcluM
Not just for the poetry of it.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkUtIHrCorp
But because I’ve been naming all the versions of her I’ve seen.
Not her, exactly.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGuzZaZpnYN
But the her I’ve met at different crossroads.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfjKS7j7Fz4
The her who felt like home in passing moments.
Each one of them…139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIGLdLcjT5r
so very different.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpPNsAsaSip
And yet, so unmistakably her.
Days passed.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3qS48AcVk7
The storm that was my heart calmed too.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOOMMysLXOP
Life didn’t stop — it never does.
Semester 2 had begun.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcaqqALqJEd
We were already halfway through our first year.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlRuQr6QnZF
Funny. Five months vanished like mist in morning sunlight.
Thub remained the constant — our place to learn and forget ourselves.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0le40nuzAu
This time, they were teaching DSA.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMyVr3sLXEb
Classes now held at Ratan Tata Bhavan, a little more formal, a little less raw.
It felt the same as the first semester…139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz77C37Y3Ac
Except now, Ren was often with us.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo7MNiDKPgU
Or rather, with her.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZmveYelsMU
And I?139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzrV9xdi2mH
I floated somewhere in between.
Still, I shared my world with her.
I introduced her to my seniors — people who meant something to me.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTvDvRJMlXh
And among them, she grew fond of Ariel.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXBx9RWAazM
A not-so-innocent senior, playful and sharp,139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡILwhXgQovh
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.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgaxgaDXa64
People who walked up to me not for who I was,139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt94agpayJs
but for what I could do.
They saw the coder.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzDagTDm4EJ
The guy who wins contests.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsH31dtl4tV
The guy who can explain recursion in five minutes.
But never me.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkCX5lZufQU
Not the full picture.
I didn’t mind.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx8cCgM6FFs
I had grown used to it.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuQpX7SjPPR
People don’t really care —139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpdzXW21kUr
they care about what’s useful.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfbrAIFupyw
What they can gain.
And honestly,139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvG9l0MC9y6
I never really cared about them either.
Because I had her.139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZOZ835HiZL
Forevermore.
And the name itself said everything I couldn’t.
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