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.128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzdZMYYyUYr
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.128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnHEsBkYy60
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 495.128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡntfblouaAH
And sat by the window.
Cold.128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt2VSciGZgH
Yet somehow warm.128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZzgyWOcFNh
Bittersweet, like holding hands in a dream just before waking up.
That evening —128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmuTbSR74ra
she messaged me:128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqQb62Mc5YT
“It’s been a while since we talked like this…”
And my heart quietly broke.128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWVC5IFFnj1
Not from pain.128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVVrbu9mRj9
But from the gentle ache of knowing that this — this fleeting, shared moment —128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcgXZQGQ41D
was all I’d ever asked for.
The silences. The rain.128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlh2Vl1whNj
The way we forgot the world together.128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkHC8w8Qh3X
Just for a little while.
And so, once again, I gave her a name.
Forevermore.
Not some name I pulled from the air.128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVh73gQ4BRc
Not just for the poetry of it.128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdPfKfMfE5S
But because I’ve been naming all the versions of her I’ve seen.
Not her, exactly.128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjBzbcjOfNI
But the her I’ve met at different crossroads.128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBSQROh2r0T
The her who felt like home in passing moments.
Each one of them…128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWTtFO810SM
so very different.128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjAl4OUMILA
And yet, so unmistakably her.
Days passed.128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6cD6KUP9M9
The storm that was my heart calmed too.128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbCvCqNiw9H
Life didn’t stop — it never does.
Semester 2 had begun.128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZJW5JKY5Al
We were already halfway through our first year.128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdELEnSHjFP
Funny. Five months vanished like mist in morning sunlight.
Thub remained the constant — our place to learn and forget ourselves.128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡggSr5aX2AF
This time, they were teaching DSA.128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1bdYYFKwSO
Classes now held at Ratan Tata Bhavan, a little more formal, a little less raw.
It felt the same as the first semester…128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq8mVr6soOS
Except now, Ren was often with us.128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyQCobbzFUF
Or rather, with her.128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFB2VFJMzbR
And I?128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf8ZslL91xP
I floated somewhere in between.
Still, I shared my world with her.
I introduced her to my seniors — people who meant something to me.128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJiCxUxB7Ml
And among them, she grew fond of Ariel.128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEClsFOJBlt
A not-so-innocent senior, playful and sharp,128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr8dCtboKXl
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.128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4IcQUKjS2M
People who walked up to me not for who I was,128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8PuCF133yK
but for what I could do.
They saw the coder.128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJMGUmaji6R
The guy who wins contests.128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5mhTDqMikL
The guy who can explain recursion in five minutes.
But never me.128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFRLJPkVNbT
Not the full picture.
I didn’t mind.128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFSAolWO3Xq
I had grown used to it.128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsZuHIPPn3X
People don’t really care —128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoODIrxl81j
they care about what’s useful.128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7D5Z3jVP3s
What they can gain.
And honestly,128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbwocb5mDHT
I never really cared about them either.
Because I had her.128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzCcZp8d1pC
Forevermore.
And the name itself said everything I couldn’t.
ns216.73.216.141da2
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