November faded.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOHAD38Psws
December froze.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡluLHenOc97
January drifted by in silence.
Three months passed, and with every day, I kept asking myself the same questions.
What happened?52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgHMtf8OgeT
Why the sudden change?52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3teMGKSPac
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.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3szRsQsVl7
At the end of January.
Still no response from her.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6Z0xJkcxyx
No message.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJoJFPH74TU
No eye contact.
I told myself — maybe she’s just thinking about her future.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdAhIlC4G3U
Maybe it’s a phase.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQRHYynJEci
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.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnxXbjtpySc
It was meant for the third years.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIMCAc7KidC
But I got in — in my second year.
It should’ve felt like a crown.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡURZYXqfO55
But all I felt was the hollow absence of someone to place it on my head.
She wasn’t there to hear the news.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2DFVBLoHlx
To congratulate me.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡptVgORPb79
To tease me.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF9vJ0MZgq0
To be proud.
And that silence made the success… feel like ash.
The Owl Coder program was intense.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNUjTKdKeFB
It started at 5 PM and ended at midnight — with just a dinner break in between.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡod3bD1G5Ku
We were expected to stay in the hostel throughout.
No sunlight.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo1HcSF7rkr
No sleep.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLgbkTw6dmg
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…52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXYfxZ8DuKJ
I slept.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHXUlnKuE6j
An excuse disguised as exhaustion.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqmgbSj4bR0
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.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNOOml4vGFf
Three days a week in Thub, threee days in regular classes.
There went my attendance…52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzND9qsxV9b
Flying out the window like a bird that no longer cared to return.
Inside Owl Coder, I got to know how selections happened.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1G7vX8NwXb
How people were noticed.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn6sBMtZdxb
How chances bloomed and vanished in a blink.
All I wanted to do was explain it all to her.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC82PZQ22St
To help her — even if I could no longer be near her.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlLlu1uVi9E
Even if I was just a background character now.
I texted her.
Asked if she could meet in the library — just for a moment.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI6o5oeV25B
I waited.
She replied:
“I’ll be late. I have class.”
That was it.
A sentence.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgQvBsz4HRL
A dagger.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxl2uvYNcaE
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.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT5T5i5Ws56
From the buses, through the mango gardens — one of the quietest, most serene places in our campus.
I saw her.
Sitting under the trees.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvYXysqy55U
With Ren.
Talking.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLpV2boz7vd
Smiling.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6XrYG9gO6V
Laughing.
I couldn’t stop.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9nvG144PKO
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?”52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGmxD2ubp9D
“What did I do… that made me forgettable?”52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGyfsB1GBsH
Or its just maybe me, who is overthinking.
The following days blurred.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt2q1NaLO9K
I wasn’t myself.
A haunted version of who I once was —52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuoY3RYVSlV
Lost in old texts, lost in memories.
I texted her again.
This time, everything I had.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkHl8Fofl7H
Every unspoken word.
She replied.
It was reassuring.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWFdn0Es0Lo
Warm, maybe.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWIfNuQf871
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 —52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlp4i4twrth
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.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIXPttGDJQZ
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.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJnna61c7c9
Reminding her of how much potential she had.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPaJZEJ9cpJ
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.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkwlBYv1j0T
We just get moments like this —52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEL33Tt95SD
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.
ns216.73.216.156da2
