November faded.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa5OfQ45FNu
December froze.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7HhEqLKeBF
January drifted by in silence.
Three months passed, and with every day, I kept asking myself the same questions.
What happened?122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6Y4JVMaVlH
Why the sudden change?122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaSXIp3yHa1
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.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUoOzjUltdZ
At the end of January.
Still no response from her.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR3jdtGvTtP
No message.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOBLd4I0S0m
No eye contact.
I told myself — maybe she’s just thinking about her future.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgrU6QmDdte
Maybe it’s a phase.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡekFU1DRN8g
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.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr3z0y4E9Ya
It was meant for the third years.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRPcNl9cy2H
But I got in — in my second year.
It should’ve felt like a crown.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo0TTaZey12
But all I felt was the hollow absence of someone to place it on my head.
She wasn’t there to hear the news.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxKdHVQFpg8
To congratulate me.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSpTkUTsVca
To tease me.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3IRrigIn0B
To be proud.
And that silence made the success… feel like ash.
The Owl Coder program was intense.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa3xH6ZmpXr
It started at 5 PM and ended at midnight — with just a dinner break in between.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuDlC3v43yb
We were expected to stay in the hostel throughout.
No sunlight.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF7LJqFdBEg
No sleep.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGV2ta5ux6Y
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…122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM7Q4TjO4IE
I slept.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY0jfQfdnVq
An excuse disguised as exhaustion.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7b5zlmtAR1
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.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtnM6JmvP5G
Three days a week in Thub, threee days in regular classes.
There went my attendance…122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM8XiXsGukG
Flying out the window like a bird that no longer cared to return.
Inside Owl Coder, I got to know how selections happened.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv9Hfe6BJAp
How people were noticed.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX3e7DYF5rA
How chances bloomed and vanished in a blink.
All I wanted to do was explain it all to her.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkyInxPjtiK
To help her — even if I could no longer be near her.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbX8HgP9DIp
Even if I was just a background character now.
I texted her.
Asked if she could meet in the library — just for a moment.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDQDVFLELGT
I waited.
She replied:
“I’ll be late. I have class.”
That was it.
A sentence.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOuTyFgGWDi
A dagger.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxEpTda3X6O
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.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡin7XTqyDUt
From the buses, through the mango gardens — one of the quietest, most serene places in our campus.
I saw her.
Sitting under the trees.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYoZYYlQRPC
With Ren.
Talking.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ41KZWho1fr
Smiling.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW8ojkWbZtu
Laughing.
I couldn’t stop.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQJrrynewRD
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?”122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEVri7fFTZ4
“What did I do… that made me forgettable?”122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4KCBnSgusg
Or its just maybe me, who is overthinking.
The following days blurred.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpj6h0gxH8e
I wasn’t myself.
A haunted version of who I once was —122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIWbNvXbI1R
Lost in old texts, lost in memories.
I texted her again.
This time, everything I had.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8gTBksAZLP
Every unspoken word.
She replied.
It was reassuring.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbCRPN2Uisk
Warm, maybe.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjl0I6hJEmK
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 —122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTNzm96oHaf
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.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNyPr0xOkPR
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.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrozO8MS0VO
Reminding her of how much potential she had.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqCiiu0JFVJ
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.122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXFM5kNd8d3
We just get moments like this —122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFoKQovYd1u
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.
ns216.73.216.6da2
