After that day, the externals began. Then the semester-end exams arrived like an avalanche.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOtVf5Ib2tS
January became a blur of tension and ticking clocks — PDFs flooding WhatsApp, people panicking over units they hadn’t touched, doubt circling like vultures.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0Y1T3B2dWN
It was the busiest I’d ever seen our campus.
And in that chaos, I tried. I gave it what I could.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3dNPaKPQUE
Some nights I stared blankly at notes, hoping something would stick. Some days, I simply trusted intuition, muscle memory, or fate.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR5jk2NdjaJ
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.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuOevJdFBIM
That’s how long the first semester lasted.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8sKdiD3prW
Five months — that's what the calendar says. But to me, it didn’t feel like months.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ75IAPYfUTa
It felt like moments — raw, unfinished, incomplete. Like scribbles in a notebook I never meant to show anyone.
And then… something shifted.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡenKhkI3dTY
Something in the air.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE5y0zJSwC7
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.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKdTUnYEImX
Our evening talks behind the buses — stopped.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjsbIEaQ1MG
Her presence, once familiar like a hum at the back of my mind — faded.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6AYcBm4VkE
I kept telling myself it was nothing. Just timing. Just routine.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYRrWm7j4nc
But the truth has a way of finding you… when you least want it.
One day, I was with Simon. Just a regular day.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5kg2TRVtlS
And that’s when I saw them.
Her.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrfoc3jvh2E
Smiling. Laughing. Walking.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡma5XD53GoV
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.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNWvaBgMYws
I smiled, because what else could I do?36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIsUVexLohm
But deep inside, I was quiet. Frozen. Trying to act okay, because that’s what we do, right?
Later that day, I asked her.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxG2KDHvdlY
“How do you know Ren?”
She said — that,36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5013kbtwe2
“Oh… we met online,”.
Simple. Innocent. Coincidence.
That word hit harder than I expected.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVNGKwla8zS
Coincidence.
It echoed in my mind, looping like a cruel joke.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSRRst65uxO
Because that’s how she and I started too.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG7s7P6hV3f
A coincidence.
Only this time, it wasn’t mine.
And in that moment, I realized something no one prepares you for —36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpByMryEpCU
Sometimes, people slip away. Not because they mean to. Not because of a fight. But because fate hands them a different coincidence.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3rO1vMMhR1
A different thread.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN91SJl7bCy
And you’re left holding the memory of what could’ve been.
