November faded.64Please respect copyright.PENANAHK6wmvyYsu
December froze.64Please respect copyright.PENANAQdOKYYbdlD
January drifted by in silence.
Three months passed, and with every day, I kept asking myself the same questions.
What happened?64Please respect copyright.PENANA0gNY7BHGeY
Why the sudden change?64Please respect copyright.PENANAKXzVmQ2l2y
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.64Please respect copyright.PENANAgrciu9HyR4
At the end of January.
Still no response from her.64Please respect copyright.PENANAFHqvCtU1Hj
No message.64Please respect copyright.PENANAjWFti7ut3t
No eye contact.
I told myself — maybe she’s just thinking about her future.64Please respect copyright.PENANAl6mCIfD2Il
Maybe it’s a phase.64Please respect copyright.PENANAsFcIx5Juy6
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.64Please respect copyright.PENANAKZjrOJXJlw
It was meant for the third years.64Please respect copyright.PENANAN7ejCf9yR4
But I got in — in my second year.
It should’ve felt like a crown.64Please respect copyright.PENANAmyKoiZdIlE
But all I felt was the hollow absence of someone to place it on my head.
She wasn’t there to hear the news.64Please respect copyright.PENANA62eftHnwC8
To congratulate me.64Please respect copyright.PENANAC6Sz3KeXYU
To tease me.64Please respect copyright.PENANAQbXscyNe8m
To be proud.
And that silence made the success… feel like ash.
The Owl Coder program was intense.64Please respect copyright.PENANAQSzHgnIXGE
It started at 5 PM and ended at midnight — with just a dinner break in between.64Please respect copyright.PENANAFXzXUiVShb
We were expected to stay in the hostel throughout.
No sunlight.64Please respect copyright.PENANA4u5z8HNf6Q
No sleep.64Please respect copyright.PENANAv3XbuYgSRV
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…64Please respect copyright.PENANA0hEzHIMscI
I slept.64Please respect copyright.PENANAxyZNE4Xl1f
An excuse disguised as exhaustion.64Please respect copyright.PENANAMi8Ta6NkoZ
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.64Please respect copyright.PENANA00yqNvJMqp
Three days a week in Thub, threee days in regular classes.
There went my attendance…64Please respect copyright.PENANAxO6h5QYrfk
Flying out the window like a bird that no longer cared to return.
Inside Owl Coder, I got to know how selections happened.64Please respect copyright.PENANAPHSXSPdlWy
How people were noticed.64Please respect copyright.PENANAegRURBVt3M
How chances bloomed and vanished in a blink.
All I wanted to do was explain it all to her.64Please respect copyright.PENANAAXuLvwDOkG
To help her — even if I could no longer be near her.64Please respect copyright.PENANAchZ8SV9IW3
Even if I was just a background character now.
I texted her.
Asked if she could meet in the library — just for a moment.64Please respect copyright.PENANAbSxQScjPvq
I waited.
She replied:
“I’ll be late. I have class.”
That was it.
A sentence.64Please respect copyright.PENANAWwid48vgts
A dagger.64Please respect copyright.PENANArFuGgVpeZR
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.64Please respect copyright.PENANAc7XvGbyV2E
From the buses, through the mango gardens — one of the quietest, most serene places in our campus.
I saw her.
Sitting under the trees.64Please respect copyright.PENANA1oNKlymlBp
With Ren.
Talking.64Please respect copyright.PENANACnsVY6OEdf
Smiling.64Please respect copyright.PENANAb0ia4e1cGs
Laughing.
I couldn’t stop.64Please respect copyright.PENANAiBNoyvs9mg
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?”64Please respect copyright.PENANABHZMMCxQv8
“What did I do… that made me forgettable?”64Please respect copyright.PENANAKAYsINAA7A
Or its just maybe me, who is overthinking.
The following days blurred.64Please respect copyright.PENANAmJnMhIx20t
I wasn’t myself.
A haunted version of who I once was —64Please respect copyright.PENANAZGUT6x4wzq
Lost in old texts, lost in memories.
I texted her again.
This time, everything I had.64Please respect copyright.PENANAoVAZUY7JLZ
Every unspoken word.
She replied.
It was reassuring.64Please respect copyright.PENANAwMRSEYJVCo
Warm, maybe.64Please respect copyright.PENANAbsRc5FNJEo
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 —64Please respect copyright.PENANA0OwEFDvPTZ
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.64Please respect copyright.PENANAzxlfdpKk22
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.64Please respect copyright.PENANANEMxo9KNN3
Reminding her of how much potential she had.64Please respect copyright.PENANA3tNRRSAiy4
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.64Please respect copyright.PENANAYkVzOopTGu
We just get moments like this —64Please respect copyright.PENANAyx1GSbIRfn
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.
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