My birthday came again.
The same day my favorite character had once died in a story I held close —59Please respect copyright.PENANAeHM2wTAG24
and in a strange way, I always felt like a part of me dies a little on this day too.59Please respect copyright.PENANAAzXC3FlT1A
But this time, I chose to go to college.
Alice wasn't there, though.59Please respect copyright.PENANAJZReEOQzKZ
She had gone to meet some friends — people she hadn’t seen in a long time.59Please respect copyright.PENANAXOpQrcj9JT
I understood. I really did.
Still, I had the whole chocolate store in my bag.59Please respect copyright.PENANA7x2xkE9Bu4
Literally.59Please respect copyright.PENANA3EsDJupGVG
It was one of those small, sweet joys.59Please respect copyright.PENANAkeS4B9nwBk
Enough to carry the weight of the day.
That evening, I decided to do something special.59Please respect copyright.PENANAxpWjFj1Ljh
Not for me.59Please respect copyright.PENANAwkZzIiMwl7
But for the ones I held dear.
I woke up early.59Please respect copyright.PENANAG5qZul7VoM
Cooked with all my heart.59Please respect copyright.PENANA13CPFcGCgN
Packed everything carefully — biryani and chicken curry.59Please respect copyright.PENANAsFEWlUMaSP
Each grain of rice, every spice measured not by recipes but by intent.
It was my second time cooking for my friends.59Please respect copyright.PENANAzaBLzTD4Hb
The first time… she didn’t eat.59Please respect copyright.PENANAmi7WH9VUhG
Even though I had packed a box just for her.
But this time, I was determined.59Please respect copyright.PENANApptuJfr035
This time, she did.59Please respect copyright.PENANAj8bfZjVpa6
And not only that — she smiled and said:
“It tastes like my mother’s…”
I could’ve cried.
We sat under the same big tree where it all began.59Please respect copyright.PENANAlX8b7vlryx
The same one where I met her.59Please respect copyright.PENANAaLPRKaV5k5
Just five of us — Forevermore, Leona, Richard, Harry, and me.
We ate.59Please respect copyright.PENANAEVUB5dVY9L
We laughed.59Please respect copyright.PENANA7V56fU7MvC
And for once, the world paused.
Later that evening, Richard gifted me a sleek clock —59Please respect copyright.PENANAp2DIehRWNz
and Seren handed me something else…59Please respect copyright.PENANABi5IixlMYL
a lamp.59Please respect copyright.PENANAu2Tjn1OLxg
Not just a lamp,59Please respect copyright.PENANAQKb8t1uY5A
a galaxy trapped in glass —59Please respect copyright.PENANAriIxeeeHyE
a swirl of stars and dreams I once saw only in the skies.
Those were the first real gifts I ever got.59Please respect copyright.PENANAZUaOGcuDV8
The kind that whisper of futures still unwritten.
Time passed.
Forevermore and I were learning together again — night calls, evening talks.59Please respect copyright.PENANAyEIyoXX3Ui
I met her bus mates, her senior friend who knew Ravikanth.59Please respect copyright.PENANAb0EFFPIuNQ
It was all… steady.
Until one day.
A small moment. A misunderstanding.59Please respect copyright.PENANAZ1CeU2MDoS
And everything cracked like silence after thunder.
Ren doesn’t like chocolate.59Please respect copyright.PENANARlRnLGwDGa
Everyone knows that.59Please respect copyright.PENANA5aO5NDMN9I
Including me.
And yet —59Please respect copyright.PENANAfibnqKZPdr
that day, when we all stood by the buses,59Please respect copyright.PENANABvU3YMtP2g
I jokingly asked him for a big one.
He brought a small chocolate anyway.
I didn’t take it.59Please respect copyright.PENANAu5A0SsHYSZ
He handed it to Alice.59Please respect copyright.PENANAaR1kx3I8Sh
And then he left.
I watched it happen,59Please respect copyright.PENANAWtGkEOJH0h
not as someone who was jealous,59Please respect copyright.PENANAmskWbiZaZ7
but someone who noticed something off.
It wasn’t the chocolate.59Please respect copyright.PENANAgRWLNLylWp
It was why it was given.
Not because it was meant for her.59Please respect copyright.PENANAXZASgUG7XJ
But because it was just… there.59Please respect copyright.PENANAqJN7z1G2DB
Something to discard.59Please respect copyright.PENANASYC5NyHF9e
And she accepted it — unaware of how little thought it held.
When Richard called me to leave for another friend’s birthday, I turned back,59Please respect copyright.PENANAsD6HeVgDiF
looked at her one last time, and said —
“Some things are never meant to be taken.”
I didn’t explain.59Please respect copyright.PENANAuGSi2avI2N
Didn’t say goodbye.
I hoped she’d understand.59Please respect copyright.PENANATzVD9lr3kz
That she deserved more than secondhand gestures.59Please respect copyright.PENANAB5b2tb5MNT
That she was not someone who should accept leftovers from anyone — even friends.
But she didn’t see it that way.
After that day…59Please respect copyright.PENANAqLAATxa1Ym
she stopped speaking to me.
No more messages.59Please respect copyright.PENANAgxppYsP04V
No calls.59Please respect copyright.PENANAcRhPvAGB42
Not even eye contact.
It was as if nothing had ever happened between us.59Please respect copyright.PENANAE1huJQxe47
As if our late-night classes, shared songs, stories, dreams,59Please respect copyright.PENANABcdntzWQWn
as if I… never happened.
I tried to talk.59Please respect copyright.PENANAbBWrJFe3v0
To explain.59Please respect copyright.PENANAERh4Bfz7vp
To bridge the gap.
But how do you hold on to someone59Please respect copyright.PENANAzMjm7AqYSA
who already let go before you realized they were slipping?
Maybe it was just a small misunderstanding.
Maybe… it was the moment she was waiting for59Please respect copyright.PENANA9w4eFloEiK
to finally walk away.