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.144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx4iM3Af8uo
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.144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlb3w8gOuPN
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 495.144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwA4uSPahC5
And sat by the window.
Cold.144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUa9DPS14Dn
Yet somehow warm.144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3P0enzgfEU
Bittersweet, like holding hands in a dream just before waking up.
That evening —144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmoRnuS391t
she messaged me:144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmpcdZXdEIz
“It’s been a while since we talked like this…”
And my heart quietly broke.144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA4oaS4x5jg
Not from pain.144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5FQl7aSpW1
But from the gentle ache of knowing that this — this fleeting, shared moment —144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk4cGuyptH2
was all I’d ever asked for.
The silences. The rain.144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡApgYBjVps8
The way we forgot the world together.144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQIlD1iHXee
Just for a little while.
And so, once again, I gave her a name.
Forevermore.
Not some name I pulled from the air.144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfGTEAD1dmP
Not just for the poetry of it.144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2qYBXUPjK2
But because I’ve been naming all the versions of her I’ve seen.
Not her, exactly.144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZJHhfTaEvw
But the her I’ve met at different crossroads.144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8SCV2VG2CV
The her who felt like home in passing moments.
Each one of them…144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHpoFeAVZ5c
so very different.144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnLH78hMVIl
And yet, so unmistakably her.
Days passed.144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNchQyz195W
The storm that was my heart calmed too.144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUBrY1s9RP2
Life didn’t stop — it never does.
Semester 2 had begun.144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8pfvlllre0
We were already halfway through our first year.144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡloOrxVGPEq
Funny. Five months vanished like mist in morning sunlight.
Thub remained the constant — our place to learn and forget ourselves.144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgcCwXxpID4
This time, they were teaching DSA.144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV6pqUucX7M
Classes now held at Ratan Tata Bhavan, a little more formal, a little less raw.
It felt the same as the first semester…144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI0WqWiNsbp
Except now, Ren was often with us.144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzoLnLGr3B7
Or rather, with her.144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe7Qy6gNFy8
And I?144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEaznFkWAYK
I floated somewhere in between.
Still, I shared my world with her.
I introduced her to my seniors — people who meant something to me.144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfT4bfRqAm1
And among them, she grew fond of Ariel.144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqxlfrtID3F
A not-so-innocent senior, playful and sharp,144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTFQ0t49lM5
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.144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD5uSkkZnIU
People who walked up to me not for who I was,144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4ntgeP41Kg
but for what I could do.
They saw the coder.144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjCu6ny1DZK
The guy who wins contests.144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQYNswPterq
The guy who can explain recursion in five minutes.
But never me.144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpGA5wRO1Eo
Not the full picture.
I didn’t mind.144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUDF90VwpgB
I had grown used to it.144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi9Trko0p2r
People don’t really care —144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpaMjseaCBN
they care about what’s useful.144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBb3EafoWSX
What they can gain.
And honestly,144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS4V314wCcu
I never really cared about them either.
Because I had her.144Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeP7K6yumTV
Forevermore.
And the name itself said everything I couldn’t.
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