November faded.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsz6TH2tiZe
December froze.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEo5MwtoXEP
January drifted by in silence.
Three months passed, and with every day, I kept asking myself the same questions.
What happened?328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ44JjxO12ZG
Why the sudden change?328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2L6AOK37II
What about everything we planned for — the little things, the big things, the quiet promises, the late-night talks, the classes?
Had it all meant nothing?
While I kept overthinking and pretending to be okay, the third semester slipped by.
And the fourth began.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwxyE9MqN9A
At the end of January.
Still no response from her.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDPglUT6NVj
No message.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVpMVOJOndO
No eye contact.
I told myself — maybe she’s just thinking about her future.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡerQZnyqBpN
Maybe it’s a phase.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXyORG9zr8T
Maybe she’ll return when she's ready.
That’s when I got selected into Owl Coder. along with some other second years.
One of the most prestigious training programs our college had.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQcjIYTqfao
It was meant for the third years.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvSzOLinMfe
But I got in — in my second year.
It should’ve felt like a crown.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6Boe5u4DrJ
But all I felt was the hollow absence of someone to place it on my head.
She wasn’t there to hear the news.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK8i3IcXA49
To congratulate me.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcXLbMFPDoG
To tease me.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAW8Bxhhaaj
To be proud.
And that silence made the success… feel like ash.
The Owl Coder program was intense.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQywPiylQlf
It started at 5 PM and ended at midnight — with just a dinner break in between.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi3CTJ4ejoO
We were expected to stay in the hostel throughout.
No sunlight.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf1tG6h0TgF
No sleep.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJg2mwdw3qn
No time.
I was running on caffeine, coping with cold metal bunk beds and the constant hum of exhausted ambition.
So during the day’s technical hub sessions…328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7GWpSjA9E0
I slept.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSM4AThyzmM
An excuse disguised as exhaustion.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhGUwsQ30He
A mask for what I couldn’t confess — that I just didn’t have it in me anymore.
This semester's subjects were Operating Systems and DBMS.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnA2YjCGb1k
Three days a week in Thub, threee days in regular classes.
There went my attendance…328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBaW7ziPXSa
Flying out the window like a bird that no longer cared to return.
Inside Owl Coder, I got to know how selections happened.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUZltT3VggR
How people were noticed.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAcc5AhTWBS
How chances bloomed and vanished in a blink.
All I wanted to do was explain it all to her.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4QcgTdCCdd
To help her — even if I could no longer be near her.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuzyu1nBtfA
Even if I was just a background character now.
I texted her.
Asked if she could meet in the library — just for a moment.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEoTPsmxIyK
I waited.
She replied:
“I’ll be late. I have class.”
That was it.
A sentence.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ5RdbmnoK2
A dagger.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPVNGxkduWq
A quiet way of saying, You’re not important enough to wait for.
And yet I still hoped.
Then one evening, everything cracked.
I was walking toward the hostel.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOqjxy5aSnw
From the buses, through the mango gardens — one of the quietest, most serene places in our campus.
I saw her.
Sitting under the trees.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGMvFqjMSvX
With Ren.
Talking.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡymJwpxnjBI
Smiling.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnaHuOLvOdM
Laughing.
I couldn’t stop.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKhqKJH80sx
I couldn’t go back.
I ran past them — like a ghost of someone who once mattered.
My heart screamed:
“Why… can you talk to him, but not to me?”328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6RknU7TlcB
“What did I do… that made me forgettable?”328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxrZIbp9mlB
Or its just maybe me, who is overthinking.
The following days blurred.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2VlfjW9UWW
I wasn’t myself.
A haunted version of who I once was —328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZhEozBHVBk
Lost in old texts, lost in memories.
I texted her again.
This time, everything I had.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBIwQ5Qj4AW
Every unspoken word.
She replied.
It was reassuring.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj1jCAyHhL4
Warm, maybe.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhyNkJMtdcl
But it felt forced — like something written more out of duty than care.
And that’s when it happened.
She became a stranger.
The third name I gave her.
She said:
“I have a lot going on. I don’t want to get involved. I care for you…”
Then why did I feel like I only existed in her joy?
Was I meant to only be her comfort, her tutor, her support —328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdlyG6Ta2Rg
and when the storms came, someone to lock away?
Was I disposable when I hurt, but valuable when she smiled?
Then the final blow.
I heard she wouldn’t be continuing in Technical Hub anymore.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ36LGC4kkJx
That she was stepping away from the journey we once shared.
My chest sank.
It was true.
She was walking a road I would never again walk beside her.
Still… I wrote to her.
One heartfelt message.
Encouraging her.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9xbap4JFGw
Reminding her of how much potential she had.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5tQ92hzsgH
That the world still waited for her — even if I no longer did.
She replied:
“That made my day…”
And maybe that was enough.
Maybe, sometimes, we don't get closure.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEb9iq8YBHo
We just get moments like this —328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzU9Mn5jRRV
A soft echo that reminds us it was real… once.
Even if now, all that remains is a ghost, a third name, and a message.
ns216.73.217.139da2
and then Add to home screen.