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.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK4jnUl2DoA
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.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ18vZ7XfJHX
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 495.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkzS5ENqqEB
And sat by the window.
Cold.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlY1OkXg5iI
Yet somehow warm.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXVWhXjSBPo
Bittersweet, like holding hands in a dream just before waking up.
That evening —39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4sdCLR8QlJ
she messaged me:39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ4v40DrXnv
“It’s been a while since we talked like this…”
And my heart quietly broke.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKluijHDNNU
Not from pain.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE3olZ7Zi47
But from the gentle ache of knowing that this — this fleeting, shared moment —39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl6EqFvBmhT
was all I’d ever asked for.
The silences. The rain.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl7vdZpFPdk
The way we forgot the world together.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqmgDRke5DO
Just for a little while.
And so, once again, I gave her a name.
Forevermore.
Not some name I pulled from the air.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2OiMCrvMei
Not just for the poetry of it.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT95gKLMbxH
But because I’ve been naming all the versions of her I’ve seen.
Not her, exactly.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUxFaQzdGNS
But the her I’ve met at different crossroads.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtrbj07OGtk
The her who felt like home in passing moments.
Each one of them…39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwOL5DWx8Lg
so very different.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJYQ1CNannO
And yet, so unmistakably her.
Days passed.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4j2RTEHn2I
The storm that was my heart calmed too.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy42OrYMw15
Life didn’t stop — it never does.
Semester 2 had begun.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5bmsHnokGi
We were already halfway through our first year.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡetwyaV4Lif
Funny. Five months vanished like mist in morning sunlight.
Thub remained the constant — our place to learn and forget ourselves.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlVNMk7JQ38
This time, they were teaching DSA.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1gMaTVXtZk
Classes now held at Ratan Tata Bhavan, a little more formal, a little less raw.
It felt the same as the first semester…39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrYghzse3SA
Except now, Ren was often with us.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuJtBTTHhFn
Or rather, with her.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbggIBdo1CZ
And I?39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdFwTQlj7Ow
I floated somewhere in between.
Still, I shared my world with her.
I introduced her to my seniors — people who meant something to me.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcujYwqFR1L
And among them, she grew fond of Ariel.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvVLfvk1QBJ
A not-so-innocent senior, playful and sharp,39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmSycPMll8o
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.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh7SD4XSpK5
People who walked up to me not for who I was,39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo2yVlG0Hsh
but for what I could do.
They saw the coder.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOG3JLJsZ3Y
The guy who wins contests.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqWbkeNFQSJ
The guy who can explain recursion in five minutes.
But never me.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaI6UUPCsVN
Not the full picture.
I didn’t mind.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgwPUx11Ko8
I had grown used to it.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnjD9egYRfC
People don’t really care —39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyStONzUv1C
they care about what’s useful.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpoM7Ia4vRP
What they can gain.
And honestly,39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA6KGVZwDGc
I never really cared about them either.
Because I had her.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvSluLtcNhf
Forevermore.
And the name itself said everything I couldn’t.
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