After that day, the externals began. Then the semester-end exams arrived like an avalanche.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCvk9WpUIl0
January became a blur of tension and ticking clocks — PDFs flooding WhatsApp, people panicking over units they hadn’t touched, doubt circling like vultures.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4tXYrGuOQB
It was the busiest I’d ever seen our campus.
And in that chaos, I tried. I gave it what I could.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSimwxxZV23
Some nights I stared blankly at notes, hoping something would stick. Some days, I simply trusted intuition, muscle memory, or fate.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ06VSTzW0o2
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.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnB3dxBkZMY
That’s how long the first semester lasted.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhkgKoT3i8p
Five months — that's what the calendar says. But to me, it didn’t feel like months.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOP8etoaNZv
It felt like moments — raw, unfinished, incomplete. Like scribbles in a notebook I never meant to show anyone.
And then… something shifted.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZKgatjMBZK
Something in the air.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTRZdCOb5pe
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.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ34J35KvTdg
Our evening talks behind the buses — stopped.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs23gWCeckV
Her presence, once familiar like a hum at the back of my mind — faded.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtZtQzQybrL
I kept telling myself it was nothing. Just timing. Just routine.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB1DATxIIJu
But the truth has a way of finding you… when you least want it.
One day, I was with Simon. Just a regular day.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4eMhlib4XQ
And that’s when I saw them.
Her.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9iHAsIVQPP
Smiling. Laughing. Walking.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8gxnNOwG7I
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.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfclVFx7vFc
I smiled, because what else could I do?57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhKvZAUOCGA
But deep inside, I was quiet. Frozen. Trying to act okay, because that’s what we do, right?
Later that day, I asked her.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGMceZhNfY8
“How do you know Ren?”
She said — that,57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAfXW8qMjRK
“Oh… we met online,”.
Simple. Innocent. Coincidence.
That word hit harder than I expected.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSCs0jAZ06w
Coincidence.
It echoed in my mind, looping like a cruel joke.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiKYkiknUjb
Because that’s how she and I started too.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmCSNPtEimJ
A coincidence.
Only this time, it wasn’t mine.
And in that moment, I realized something no one prepares you for —57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5lXJ89nuwN
Sometimes, people slip away. Not because they mean to. Not because of a fight. But because fate hands them a different coincidence.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWv4wR1JHMY
A different thread.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1sQd60WJyA
And you’re left holding the memory of what could’ve been.
