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.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtYO1GVPTtJ
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.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVzQX4Q3fjv
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 495.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAivXyFlZqN
And sat by the window.
Cold.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0cCwzEi79y
Yet somehow warm.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH5FvBISn2b
Bittersweet, like holding hands in a dream just before waking up.
That evening —141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbijWDPW1xr
she messaged me:141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJLAIHo4YyF
“It’s been a while since we talked like this…”
And my heart quietly broke.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnBLnSV3xLT
Not from pain.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG1TQYYMP3S
But from the gentle ache of knowing that this — this fleeting, shared moment —141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1fAhPFLp32
was all I’d ever asked for.
The silences. The rain.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEiYSuycU2k
The way we forgot the world together.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOqLLcgu9pw
Just for a little while.
And so, once again, I gave her a name.
Forevermore.
Not some name I pulled from the air.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP0aYj2IqJs
Not just for the poetry of it.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCUQtZv8HRq
But because I’ve been naming all the versions of her I’ve seen.
Not her, exactly.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjbfIm5Hg0R
But the her I’ve met at different crossroads.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5bSY2YwG8A
The her who felt like home in passing moments.
Each one of them…141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZqOO8xGPMt
so very different.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvxjSeynjwB
And yet, so unmistakably her.
Days passed.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNqbvFg0kPN
The storm that was my heart calmed too.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfs03yW7tSm
Life didn’t stop — it never does.
Semester 2 had begun.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ5XHdo8VY4
We were already halfway through our first year.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCFW0Goa7oP
Funny. Five months vanished like mist in morning sunlight.
Thub remained the constant — our place to learn and forget ourselves.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCGkPZXEE0b
This time, they were teaching DSA.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvzkIVhLHcX
Classes now held at Ratan Tata Bhavan, a little more formal, a little less raw.
It felt the same as the first semester…141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA04C31IkoW
Except now, Ren was often with us.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc2dICQuy3C
Or rather, with her.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiy5l6p5Xqw
And I?141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLOYzWXrxlm
I floated somewhere in between.
Still, I shared my world with her.
I introduced her to my seniors — people who meant something to me.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV0P0YtjO59
And among them, she grew fond of Ariel.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUV0rKyH72Q
A not-so-innocent senior, playful and sharp,141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUdUloQCEL1
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.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWA8JIP99kx
People who walked up to me not for who I was,141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrYKtsQ1bOS
but for what I could do.
They saw the coder.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSfjOD9JCGu
The guy who wins contests.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcbjvzhs8mu
The guy who can explain recursion in five minutes.
But never me.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh6wvFloIsO
Not the full picture.
I didn’t mind.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlQcxAhVmfG
I had grown used to it.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1Sb1Z1MVc5
People don’t really care —141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoBXO3J2fIV
they care about what’s useful.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnTi0oIouFu
What they can gain.
And honestly,141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFhZ09eH3iX
I never really cared about them either.
Because I had her.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡog0sdSHlx3
Forevermore.
And the name itself said everything I couldn’t.
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