And then, quietly, I turned around.
Returned the umbrella to Krish with a soft thank-you, still half-soaked and half-lost in the moment.153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnD2Z5TxvMd
After that, I didn’t rush. I didn’t need to.
I just wandered around the campus as the rain calmed, the sky grey but not cruel anymore.153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk8tngQWejb
The kind of grey that feels… numb.
Eventually, the buses roared back to life — ready to take us back to our homes and our silences.
I climbed onto mine. Bus 495.153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtxLtBHtfKv
And sat by the window.
Cold.153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1ToYMTzQPH
Yet somehow warm.153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK0bXSc6vMC
Bittersweet, like holding hands in a dream just before waking up.
That evening —153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMvc3h76wrh
she messaged me:153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT3qKHrSTp1
“It’s been a while since we talked like this…”
And my heart quietly broke.153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ4evsMPfXa
Not from pain.153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPRlzD7MHSP
But from the gentle ache of knowing that this — this fleeting, shared moment —153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFG7Q7gRAZ7
was all I’d ever asked for.
The silences. The rain.153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ60n3L82usZ
The way we forgot the world together.153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhZa27dBhez
Just for a little while.
And so, once again, I gave her a name.
Forevermore.
Not some name I pulled from the air.153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7RmrLH4qeC
Not just for the poetry of it.153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtVY57KeKZR
But because I’ve been naming all the versions of her I’ve seen.
Not her, exactly.153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVZRPBRRd2R
But the her I’ve met at different crossroads.153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVL1roIJp5B
The her who felt like home in passing moments.
Each one of them…153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7gg8F4cM22
so very different.153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2f0Qwb2foI
And yet, so unmistakably her.
Days passed.153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpXramtNMyz
The storm that was my heart calmed too.153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsZXI6dLVuk
Life didn’t stop — it never does.
Semester 2 had begun.153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM5AC3qLvTt
We were already halfway through our first year.153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz1FODLI0nx
Funny. Five months vanished like mist in morning sunlight.
Thub remained the constant — our place to learn and forget ourselves.153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsekHdaHkxx
This time, they were teaching DSA.153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaSYQNUXfct
Classes now held at Ratan Tata Bhavan, a little more formal, a little less raw.
It felt the same as the first semester…153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdgoIht78FQ
Except now, Ren was often with us.153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDHk5laxoU6
Or rather, with her.153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkraTnm3RQm
And I?153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAJSIYHFhcx
I floated somewhere in between.
Still, I shared my world with her.
I introduced her to my seniors — people who meant something to me.153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMRsBno5Hs4
And among them, she grew fond of Ariel.153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9uLBb5zymB
A not-so-innocent senior, playful and sharp,153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0ZKDnhOY6I
but with a charm that made her laugh in ways I hadn’t seen in a while.
And maybe that was okay.
As the semester unfolded, I met others too.153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡba3a5PqZGV
People who walked up to me not for who I was,153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHn0osN017I
but for what I could do.
They saw the coder.153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa3vHI08eI5
The guy who wins contests.153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVCbMBHSkpD
The guy who can explain recursion in five minutes.
But never me.153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDCEYW5keV2
Not the full picture.
I didn’t mind.153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFFe2f1lHFJ
I had grown used to it.153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuh6C9KKq8R
People don’t really care —153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRTHyFP6iqk
they care about what’s useful.153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiLZRSe57FW
What they can gain.
And honestly,153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8yFhjcsyE9
I never really cared about them either.
Because I had her.153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDGRSXZEJ4V
Forevermore.
And the name itself said everything I couldn’t.
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