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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