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.
ns216.73.216.10da2
