November faded.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8ejCD2szme
December froze.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJmXbmFMWR2
January drifted by in silence.
Three months passed, and with every day, I kept asking myself the same questions.
What happened?20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmw9L8nJkrm
Why the sudden change?20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDWGV9JUi6b
What about everything we planned for — the little things, the big things, the quiet promises, the late-night talks, the classes?
Had it all meant nothing?
While I kept overthinking and pretending to be okay, the third semester slipped by.
And the fourth began.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNneUufSN7L
At the end of January.
Still no response from her.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjzfdpau1ok
No message.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd0RsvLYkTk
No eye contact.
I told myself — maybe she’s just thinking about her future.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYpIaT3BBin
Maybe it’s a phase.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtGeh8XrI6L
Maybe she’ll return when she's ready.
That’s when I got selected into Owl Coder. along with some other second years.
One of the most prestigious training programs our college had.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0O0T2UCEwv
It was meant for the third years.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKMjem5ZEHL
But I got in — in my second year.
It should’ve felt like a crown.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfJFARkVq6C
But all I felt was the hollow absence of someone to place it on my head.
She wasn’t there to hear the news.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkpmoIPZXZ0
To congratulate me.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4t6J7T5KLi
To tease me.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyLAwF6aZF5
To be proud.
And that silence made the success… feel like ash.
The Owl Coder program was intense.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoi6hIOfZLf
It started at 5 PM and ended at midnight — with just a dinner break in between.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMIWtpnMyjI
We were expected to stay in the hostel throughout.
No sunlight.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYENlAf8sYr
No sleep.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgab3uxP0UO
No time.
I was running on caffeine, coping with cold metal bunk beds and the constant hum of exhausted ambition.
So during the day’s technical hub sessions…20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWjSpTKS6VE
I slept.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfDEkfYYEzq
An excuse disguised as exhaustion.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYXp5PYs9oW
A mask for what I couldn’t confess — that I just didn’t have it in me anymore.
This semester's subjects were Operating Systems and DBMS.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2et9sM8qfn
Three days a week in Thub, threee days in regular classes.
There went my attendance…20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2eYPFzQvVx
Flying out the window like a bird that no longer cared to return.
Inside Owl Coder, I got to know how selections happened.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9lkJeuZWTQ
How people were noticed.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKC0l2fP7uq
How chances bloomed and vanished in a blink.
All I wanted to do was explain it all to her.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt9hQrU3HeH
To help her — even if I could no longer be near her.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN35Okz94Tg
Even if I was just a background character now.
I texted her.
Asked if she could meet in the library — just for a moment.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtZILIwzdse
I waited.
She replied:
“I’ll be late. I have class.”
That was it.
A sentence.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpCqUzpxGQr
A dagger.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlLZHk36L0i
A quiet way of saying, You’re not important enough to wait for.
And yet I still hoped.
Then one evening, everything cracked.
I was walking toward the hostel.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSWaWMwi62L
From the buses, through the mango gardens — one of the quietest, most serene places in our campus.
I saw her.
Sitting under the trees.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ73X6TdRJGY
With Ren.
Talking.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyktvODTevy
Smiling.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ94GMkrtylI
Laughing.
I couldn’t stop.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXhEOqYo5W9
I couldn’t go back.
I ran past them — like a ghost of someone who once mattered.
My heart screamed:
“Why… can you talk to him, but not to me?”20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKRZTaYUejP
“What did I do… that made me forgettable?”20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb4SE7tquyT
Or its just maybe me, who is overthinking.
The following days blurred.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIm0o31o9dW
I wasn’t myself.
A haunted version of who I once was —20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNhMOIiFBTn
Lost in old texts, lost in memories.
I texted her again.
This time, everything I had.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKdwekkYnNp
Every unspoken word.
She replied.
It was reassuring.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUDB5Wm8xLG
Warm, maybe.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7ZNHtzVORV
But it felt forced — like something written more out of duty than care.
And that’s when it happened.
She became a stranger.
The third name I gave her.
She said:
“I have a lot going on. I don’t want to get involved. I care for you…”
Then why did I feel like I only existed in her joy?
Was I meant to only be her comfort, her tutor, her support —20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0fgzP3cc8r
and when the storms came, someone to lock away?
Was I disposable when I hurt, but valuable when she smiled?
Then the final blow.
I heard she wouldn’t be continuing in Technical Hub anymore.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7CUuI8ywcF
That she was stepping away from the journey we once shared.
My chest sank.
It was true.
She was walking a road I would never again walk beside her.
Still… I wrote to her.
One heartfelt message.
Encouraging her.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo6pAQJP1Gw
Reminding her of how much potential she had.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1K6tFfmpLQ
That the world still waited for her — even if I no longer did.
She replied:
“That made my day…”
And maybe that was enough.
Maybe, sometimes, we don't get closure.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCkyyl0jTwf
We just get moments like this —20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3UsL0GCZFt
A soft echo that reminds us it was real… once.
Even if now, all that remains is a ghost, a third name, and a message.
ns216.73.216.255da2
