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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