November faded.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtEuFo1MSZf
December froze.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSucOyqDkyg
January drifted by in silence.
Three months passed, and with every day, I kept asking myself the same questions.
What happened?136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmMfWyaQjp4
Why the sudden change?136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡavmCp2IpBg
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.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYymU7umq9R
At the end of January.
Still no response from her.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPJhNVe6ajn
No message.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdrCPyAkI1U
No eye contact.
I told myself — maybe she’s just thinking about her future.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCQIQMQ2gZo
Maybe it’s a phase.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmFq7qMkJ5g
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.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnuuQsEfk1y
It was meant for the third years.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlxASGxNtWE
But I got in — in my second year.
It should’ve felt like a crown.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJGHfG69kD8
But all I felt was the hollow absence of someone to place it on my head.
She wasn’t there to hear the news.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQwf7xe36yu
To congratulate me.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ1vRm3RmeR
To tease me.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjbKh3pbpRm
To be proud.
And that silence made the success… feel like ash.
The Owl Coder program was intense.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ077DwWRHty
It started at 5 PM and ended at midnight — with just a dinner break in between.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxB7GjFafTV
We were expected to stay in the hostel throughout.
No sunlight.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFT2Qfj3gbR
No sleep.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIo8wNrkpDu
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…136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiCMtN2ENrm
I slept.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0xq4hYU2rp
An excuse disguised as exhaustion.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0dWfXnrC6q
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.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvpOI7TNeT8
Three days a week in Thub, threee days in regular classes.
There went my attendance…136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoGigImQzXq
Flying out the window like a bird that no longer cared to return.
Inside Owl Coder, I got to know how selections happened.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHPdJQYqCbM
How people were noticed.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDSJpsNZj9k
How chances bloomed and vanished in a blink.
All I wanted to do was explain it all to her.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtYjmD8iENe
To help her — even if I could no longer be near her.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡljNv74Syt6
Even if I was just a background character now.
I texted her.
Asked if she could meet in the library — just for a moment.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQTh4cWQCxw
I waited.
She replied:
“I’ll be late. I have class.”
That was it.
A sentence.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFuZWt1gFDv
A dagger.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf2Wp9Fs09B
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.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNZeAvNP0et
From the buses, through the mango gardens — one of the quietest, most serene places in our campus.
I saw her.
Sitting under the trees.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn7d31z9Blf
With Ren.
Talking.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZo5rd1DM9B
Smiling.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoWZZJd0ZH0
Laughing.
I couldn’t stop.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqSkJOmoChR
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?”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgL6qLBqI4J
“What did I do… that made me forgettable?”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBC3Z3aXGbf
Or its just maybe me, who is overthinking.
The following days blurred.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ1CUoSsYwT
I wasn’t myself.
A haunted version of who I once was —136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡanufTEqANK
Lost in old texts, lost in memories.
I texted her again.
This time, everything I had.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsQrjrZh8Hn
Every unspoken word.
She replied.
It was reassuring.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnvA6WYUuZp
Warm, maybe.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡop1fogYqWN
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 —136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6NScWCCHbJ
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.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3v02QcEcxj
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.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV47VmA6fur
Reminding her of how much potential she had.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhgc44AGzt9
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.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNpK081Z3dW
We just get moments like this —136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGWPTSOGRV3
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.
ns216.73.216.235da2
