November faded.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSgeL3pHjXF
December froze.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3Bon8kE1Ot
January drifted by in silence.
Three months passed, and with every day, I kept asking myself the same questions.
What happened?32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgaMqxG97kn
Why the sudden change?32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyckX8c3AEd
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCfl5QDUNiO
At the end of January.
Still no response from her.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2sIFEYNJA6
No message.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAhh5rN2gzv
No eye contact.
I told myself — maybe she’s just thinking about her future.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeIWVLEhSw3
Maybe it’s a phase.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqg07uJya00
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcoZO4VrQsG
It was meant for the third years.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsCK1N8fYi5
But I got in — in my second year.
It should’ve felt like a crown.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFg6Gvkqq2j
But all I felt was the hollow absence of someone to place it on my head.
She wasn’t there to hear the news.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwVbxJg4OuN
To congratulate me.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIPL4HscrXp
To tease me.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdBE472e7lK
To be proud.
And that silence made the success… feel like ash.
The Owl Coder program was intense.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzhRQVn8mJ3
It started at 5 PM and ended at midnight — with just a dinner break in between.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsvTwlxvT4N
We were expected to stay in the hostel throughout.
No sunlight.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxsygCY5hRg
No sleep.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxO34D6FGpa
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…32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN3uSp0QsvH
I slept.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN3QCCoMgDq
An excuse disguised as exhaustion.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpy9RyiwJr4
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkWSCYuMuiR
Three days a week in Thub, threee days in regular classes.
There went my attendance…32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7LeWSC9R8m
Flying out the window like a bird that no longer cared to return.
Inside Owl Coder, I got to know how selections happened.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVD7EOe8hGI
How people were noticed.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLgFQlnlboh
How chances bloomed and vanished in a blink.
All I wanted to do was explain it all to her.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIzsDAuERdl
To help her — even if I could no longer be near her.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDAfzRLQRBu
Even if I was just a background character now.
I texted her.
Asked if she could meet in the library — just for a moment.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmNl4qfMdYW
I waited.
She replied:
“I’ll be late. I have class.”
That was it.
A sentence.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk7Kcl27hTI
A dagger.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtrVeQJRZGW
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFp0Pb8o8MZ
From the buses, through the mango gardens — one of the quietest, most serene places in our campus.
I saw her.
Sitting under the trees.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoFxmtEFXnu
With Ren.
Talking.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuz9SheS34O
Smiling.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2BUFcuVV8A
Laughing.
I couldn’t stop.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTzkVyCTjgw
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?”32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7YHD3PTtiR
“What did I do… that made me forgettable?”32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYzAa5ZCdzG
Or its just maybe me, who is overthinking.
The following days blurred.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ554BE7XZpH
I wasn’t myself.
A haunted version of who I once was —32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvoXYpEauqG
Lost in old texts, lost in memories.
I texted her again.
This time, everything I had.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZq3DWKFJl1
Every unspoken word.
She replied.
It was reassuring.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPE1qEgCqri
Warm, maybe.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoICcXobpW9
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 —32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUl8vS4DQOp
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡctRIThwQIB
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2yBUZdCvSR
Reminding her of how much potential she had.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjlmiUvJqkv
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvcNOBJ78YQ
We just get moments like this —32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN4ZBKLR3ac
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.
ns216.73.216.0da2
