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.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLdG98mUpJm
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.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt647RuDVKF
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 495.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8o4SPMx7ow
And sat by the window.
Cold.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEZOMnTmnAa
Yet somehow warm.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZebel2f770
Bittersweet, like holding hands in a dream just before waking up.
That evening —38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQIiTPJzIYH
she messaged me:38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRHvIYFVQRg
“It’s been a while since we talked like this…”
And my heart quietly broke.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCgxuBP5ohF
Not from pain.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZdxnOD4Z5h
But from the gentle ache of knowing that this — this fleeting, shared moment —38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNEE0j91RIh
was all I’d ever asked for.
The silences. The rain.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZU7WkjLbuk
The way we forgot the world together.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK883lyodA1
Just for a little while.
And so, once again, I gave her a name.
Forevermore.
Not some name I pulled from the air.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqLQkDrbws1
Not just for the poetry of it.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWTPUcErJsy
But because I’ve been naming all the versions of her I’ve seen.
Not her, exactly.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGImspABcfr
But the her I’ve met at different crossroads.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRWpC0UuHhX
The her who felt like home in passing moments.
Each one of them…38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxqf8bp8yPJ
so very different.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9llhPpIScI
And yet, so unmistakably her.
Days passed.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH5FHv7lr87
The storm that was my heart calmed too.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYldqoTiUmQ
Life didn’t stop — it never does.
Semester 2 had begun.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAMRPNyB6AR
We were already halfway through our first year.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBiGxVcem2u
Funny. Five months vanished like mist in morning sunlight.
Thub remained the constant — our place to learn and forget ourselves.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAG29dtQapw
This time, they were teaching DSA.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBFWQlWhe2P
Classes now held at Ratan Tata Bhavan, a little more formal, a little less raw.
It felt the same as the first semester…38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtq0nSaKlHI
Except now, Ren was often with us.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgMvA0tTB9B
Or rather, with her.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfhlEjxRuum
And I?38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnc2CqOF46T
I floated somewhere in between.
Still, I shared my world with her.
I introduced her to my seniors — people who meant something to me.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPzC9kCIgtq
And among them, she grew fond of Ariel.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFaBPQDzTdV
A not-so-innocent senior, playful and sharp,38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvAxLhRlnJk
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.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3BQbgRcIIj
People who walked up to me not for who I was,38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡak80nB9Fcl
but for what I could do.
They saw the coder.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsiwVfmrnF5
The guy who wins contests.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3ffcmonziv
The guy who can explain recursion in five minutes.
But never me.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5MEyQSikOn
Not the full picture.
I didn’t mind.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdJ4h8GZlaJ
I had grown used to it.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrbSIgFGvzG
People don’t really care —38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWn6OjdBRxN
they care about what’s useful.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4GwQIyyWe4
What they can gain.
And honestly,38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmNqYsNI8S8
I never really cared about them either.
Because I had her.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2LtSglV6IW
Forevermore.
And the name itself said everything I couldn’t.
ns216.73.216.0da2
