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.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2l9mjB9Jdn
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.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx0ORgSFXBr
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 495.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI3SFkcq9Nk
And sat by the window.
Cold.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ17XVg6WkVc
Yet somehow warm.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBNnCxuRiQP
Bittersweet, like holding hands in a dream just before waking up.
That evening —55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKBEjlLS4bp
she messaged me:55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLwrcfsZpob
“It’s been a while since we talked like this…”
And my heart quietly broke.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFuCumpgQHq
Not from pain.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNzUYn2RcXq
But from the gentle ache of knowing that this — this fleeting, shared moment —55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXvBfELCkA4
was all I’d ever asked for.
The silences. The rain.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVYMI0CTv0H
The way we forgot the world together.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvqRrWM8uVI
Just for a little while.
And so, once again, I gave her a name.
Forevermore.
Not some name I pulled from the air.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4iMR2wooBV
Not just for the poetry of it.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAQI1qOnud7
But because I’ve been naming all the versions of her I’ve seen.
Not her, exactly.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1Sr7I5unX6
But the her I’ve met at different crossroads.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8oiOb4IV7O
The her who felt like home in passing moments.
Each one of them…55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIbfsMEGaks
so very different.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxrjsNCCphi
And yet, so unmistakably her.
Days passed.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpui8DmLkmW
The storm that was my heart calmed too.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMbNMSsIZRI
Life didn’t stop — it never does.
Semester 2 had begun.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmSaes8eBIE
We were already halfway through our first year.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAIbmY84RZj
Funny. Five months vanished like mist in morning sunlight.
Thub remained the constant — our place to learn and forget ourselves.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK7qQ0vlfi1
This time, they were teaching DSA.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbWQgipVxUF
Classes now held at Ratan Tata Bhavan, a little more formal, a little less raw.
It felt the same as the first semester…55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTOoCsGgJzT
Except now, Ren was often with us.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTIE0zFKJXH
Or rather, with her.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzHv1t2Siyi
And I?55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLMf6ZyYFpY
I floated somewhere in between.
Still, I shared my world with her.
I introduced her to my seniors — people who meant something to me.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH8BDlRU3kN
And among them, she grew fond of Ariel.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAs5RRhCR5o
A not-so-innocent senior, playful and sharp,55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkpQ4bZ6JO5
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.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLmlQNWfP1K
People who walked up to me not for who I was,55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIXa5QzkTAW
but for what I could do.
They saw the coder.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWVLNiWtlXe
The guy who wins contests.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLeLpn7Tl7j
The guy who can explain recursion in five minutes.
But never me.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0WuWc8GnAt
Not the full picture.
I didn’t mind.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyPE9fSEUSF
I had grown used to it.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS4HScWrXaN
People don’t really care —55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBsjxS8ZGFN
they care about what’s useful.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzmjOFFQNBO
What they can gain.
And honestly,55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRkPRJ9edBJ
I never really cared about them either.
Because I had her.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg3BVKLWufr
Forevermore.
And the name itself said everything I couldn’t.
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