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.119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1N4DLQ6QAG
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.119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyOJqBacsJV
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 495.119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl26zNNDIVd
And sat by the window.
Cold.119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKcTEsuip7n
Yet somehow warm.119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6bors3WeF8
Bittersweet, like holding hands in a dream just before waking up.
That evening —119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCdiaqdWahK
she messaged me:119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcfvOt08HzT
“It’s been a while since we talked like this…”
And my heart quietly broke.119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLkQZXtmIsf
Not from pain.119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeWFLknh404
But from the gentle ache of knowing that this — this fleeting, shared moment —119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH8ngvnMQi4
was all I’d ever asked for.
The silences. The rain.119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxRVjWqKbVu
The way we forgot the world together.119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7RW1fdCG4M
Just for a little while.
And so, once again, I gave her a name.
Forevermore.
Not some name I pulled from the air.119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyyMs5BFaFY
Not just for the poetry of it.119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHeScM6n4sm
But because I’ve been naming all the versions of her I’ve seen.
Not her, exactly.119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlPnrCdO1Zw
But the her I’ve met at different crossroads.119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡue7Yvz9kOT
The her who felt like home in passing moments.
Each one of them…119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzYyD9jdP5M
so very different.119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJlBgnliVB6
And yet, so unmistakably her.
Days passed.119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNoVBNgWT7p
The storm that was my heart calmed too.119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu01fVnNwPw
Life didn’t stop — it never does.
Semester 2 had begun.119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0CKe59o6JP
We were already halfway through our first year.119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6PbpTgLKdd
Funny. Five months vanished like mist in morning sunlight.
Thub remained the constant — our place to learn and forget ourselves.119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW9gIHjkCr2
This time, they were teaching DSA.119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAzt3A5ecj8
Classes now held at Ratan Tata Bhavan, a little more formal, a little less raw.
It felt the same as the first semester…119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUzExjRxC85
Except now, Ren was often with us.119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKBFGCZHjDR
Or rather, with her.119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIeaQj4TKRE
And I?119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZJk7oztUer
I floated somewhere in between.
Still, I shared my world with her.
I introduced her to my seniors — people who meant something to me.119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWuzefspxJK
And among them, she grew fond of Ariel.119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnf3cXBHwxf
A not-so-innocent senior, playful and sharp,119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPusEa5vdTq
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.119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHjeoUjWbOk
People who walked up to me not for who I was,119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsO98FefgAr
but for what I could do.
They saw the coder.119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC7mOmpYNh2
The guy who wins contests.119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ54TGSImLFk
The guy who can explain recursion in five minutes.
But never me.119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsOmIB8q2Nu
Not the full picture.
I didn’t mind.119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmCabhcgR7l
I had grown used to it.119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvu6scj7FU5
People don’t really care —119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEAGho98T94
they care about what’s useful.119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdRCwfR02An
What they can gain.
And honestly,119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkQS5qvGslu
I never really cared about them either.
Because I had her.119Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWYku93zUwC
Forevermore.
And the name itself said everything I couldn’t.
ns216.73.216.6da2
