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.149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgYgAffQT1K
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.149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfEhU6oIRgg
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 495.149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtXWWqoDYSx
And sat by the window.
Cold.149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcQFNDETf6m
Yet somehow warm.149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyeiXViVPRD
Bittersweet, like holding hands in a dream just before waking up.
That evening —149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvFMYW6YRCZ
she messaged me:149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLxnrne0niK
“It’s been a while since we talked like this…”
And my heart quietly broke.149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG6AWeLmxqp
Not from pain.149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlcODRs2hB9
But from the gentle ache of knowing that this — this fleeting, shared moment —149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQwz7Tw4nyr
was all I’d ever asked for.
The silences. The rain.149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2CDWpYTKWy
The way we forgot the world together.149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXQ11TjIecr
Just for a little while.
And so, once again, I gave her a name.
Forevermore.
Not some name I pulled from the air.149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrqCQdex6R6
Not just for the poetry of it.149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqHD0EWkkrP
But because I’ve been naming all the versions of her I’ve seen.
Not her, exactly.149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLebZbtoa51
But the her I’ve met at different crossroads.149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKMlFC6GZq7
The her who felt like home in passing moments.
Each one of them…149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxQlh1EN9nx
so very different.149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡByWHvJPRJ8
And yet, so unmistakably her.
Days passed.149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE1RxDoXGON
The storm that was my heart calmed too.149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBIHp7ORVGK
Life didn’t stop — it never does.
Semester 2 had begun.149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiBHQ2sAXKk
We were already halfway through our first year.149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoU1jEMW5xo
Funny. Five months vanished like mist in morning sunlight.
Thub remained the constant — our place to learn and forget ourselves.149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF7X1DeR1KA
This time, they were teaching DSA.149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOxKz4Q6Q9g
Classes now held at Ratan Tata Bhavan, a little more formal, a little less raw.
It felt the same as the first semester…149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSUklcTr6qz
Except now, Ren was often with us.149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvbxxYe3rz9
Or rather, with her.149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoYkHqakxfY
And I?149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJSvv6IabH1
I floated somewhere in between.
Still, I shared my world with her.
I introduced her to my seniors — people who meant something to me.149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVS2kw4Rxu2
And among them, she grew fond of Ariel.149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKhJJK68ycM
A not-so-innocent senior, playful and sharp,149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIYPM5V27vW
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.149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDyxU3JyZIP
People who walked up to me not for who I was,149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7ty2JcqLDC
but for what I could do.
They saw the coder.149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGGNYANdJDv
The guy who wins contests.149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpYN2KSWpCp
The guy who can explain recursion in five minutes.
But never me.149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZwAGoGTS0l
Not the full picture.
I didn’t mind.149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPfECCa5Xpf
I had grown used to it.149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnWX1rUyrGB
People don’t really care —149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxbkxual3Kg
they care about what’s useful.149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJeVpip8kst
What they can gain.
And honestly,149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXr76lBZMii
I never really cared about them either.
Because I had her.149Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ67ondHvgNZ
Forevermore.
And the name itself said everything I couldn’t.
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