After that day, the externals began. Then the semester-end exams arrived like an avalanche.378Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPSBbgg9ZYY
January became a blur of tension and ticking clocks — PDFs flooding WhatsApp, people panicking over units they hadn’t touched, doubt circling like vultures.378Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcnhBXt8bvg
It was the busiest I’d ever seen our campus.
And in that chaos, I tried. I gave it what I could.378Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuIIkCvmt78
Some nights I stared blankly at notes, hoping something would stick. Some days, I simply trusted intuition, muscle memory, or fate.378Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8nv1xXG7KC
I did what I could — the rest, I left to whatever force governs unfair results and late realizations.
Then February breezed in, bringing a short, scattered week of holidays. A blink. A breath. And just like that, the second semester began.
Five months.378Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkSyKNCTyk6
That’s how long the first semester lasted.378Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6aNdYmXV7A
Five months — that's what the calendar says. But to me, it didn’t feel like months.378Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4oDRZGjlBZ
It felt like moments — raw, unfinished, incomplete. Like scribbles in a notebook I never meant to show anyone.
And then… something shifted.378Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt4Pm2F5HYZ
Something in the air.378Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrQfYqAXWuw
Something in her.
Seren.
I don’t remember the exact moment I realized it. Maybe it wasn’t a moment — maybe it was a slow unraveling.378Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzJJ3bsAmun
Our evening talks behind the buses — stopped.378Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkQe3iKxwq8
Her presence, once familiar like a hum at the back of my mind — faded.378Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjJEI4M2zT1
I kept telling myself it was nothing. Just timing. Just routine.378Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEEojScm9Za
But the truth has a way of finding you… when you least want it.
One day, I was with Simon. Just a regular day.378Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEwhzo5zmza
And that’s when I saw them.
Her.378Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6dbjLFWTAC
Smiling. Laughing. Walking.378Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbHHpmZRHus
And Ren.
He walked beside her — like he belonged there.
Time slowed.
She approached like everything was normal. Like my world hadn’t cracked open a little.378Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSoh9VOUPhH
I smiled, because what else could I do?378Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpsv69wMnwG
But deep inside, I was quiet. Frozen. Trying to act okay, because that’s what we do, right?
Later that day, I asked her.378Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCNdqf2nhCl
“How do you know Ren?”
She said — that,378Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJo5ebqtq6T
“Oh… we met online,”.
Simple. Innocent. Coincidence.
That word hit harder than I expected.378Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJUixnlSJ4n
Coincidence.
It echoed in my mind, looping like a cruel joke.378Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFLODXZYaNy
Because that’s how she and I started too.378Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZrusXOaZ3o
A coincidence.
Only this time, it wasn’t mine.
And in that moment, I realized something no one prepares you for —378Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoQGJswMUzM
Sometimes, people slip away. Not because they mean to. Not because of a fight. But because fate hands them a different coincidence.378Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUqvvXHmYr2
A different thread.378Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6GajsxtLcF
And you’re left holding the memory of what could’ve been.
and then Add to home screen.