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.54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj6JqqQd4E3
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.54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgmqvQGZ8fh
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 495.54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCuTKHyXoz4
And sat by the window.
Cold.54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ30eKvy8RjF
Yet somehow warm.54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPYsfgCaH4m
Bittersweet, like holding hands in a dream just before waking up.
That evening —54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTaoLPGgdXJ
she messaged me:54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtsyfl7DQv7
“It’s been a while since we talked like this…”
And my heart quietly broke.54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU9RrOHIw3U
Not from pain.54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc0q44Pmube
But from the gentle ache of knowing that this — this fleeting, shared moment —54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgBQhaiBJ1U
was all I’d ever asked for.
The silences. The rain.54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7z5d6x7P79
The way we forgot the world together.54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2nm0OE1MX6
Just for a little while.
And so, once again, I gave her a name.
Forevermore.
Not some name I pulled from the air.54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡriZtI2XNaa
Not just for the poetry of it.54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBMoidWIJqD
But because I’ve been naming all the versions of her I’ve seen.
Not her, exactly.54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqTi5QcmRCi
But the her I’ve met at different crossroads.54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWIZpDAjpSy
The her who felt like home in passing moments.
Each one of them…54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkg2XfaLV9Y
so very different.54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbie532qDU5
And yet, so unmistakably her.
Days passed.54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVSHgAPwGGU
The storm that was my heart calmed too.54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhUD7NJxhMP
Life didn’t stop — it never does.
Semester 2 had begun.54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxuU0YoI4Ky
We were already halfway through our first year.54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYNhq312NPN
Funny. Five months vanished like mist in morning sunlight.
Thub remained the constant — our place to learn and forget ourselves.54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9teTu0sxbI
This time, they were teaching DSA.54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4XYra5EBpy
Classes now held at Ratan Tata Bhavan, a little more formal, a little less raw.
It felt the same as the first semester…54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHGLCMUFmSy
Except now, Ren was often with us.54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4VKqnGDilL
Or rather, with her.54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8Mr1mWczOn
And I?54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJF6UapFYqy
I floated somewhere in between.
Still, I shared my world with her.
I introduced her to my seniors — people who meant something to me.54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR4MA29CeL1
And among them, she grew fond of Ariel.54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvgBL52Fq97
A not-so-innocent senior, playful and sharp,54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQYagvzA4ho
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.54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOu7bd4zVG0
People who walked up to me not for who I was,54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSfgso5pNiU
but for what I could do.
They saw the coder.54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCoulJ8Bwwz
The guy who wins contests.54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUeTtfnGpc5
The guy who can explain recursion in five minutes.
But never me.54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLxbA1BIsSd
Not the full picture.
I didn’t mind.54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuy7NKTmU5t
I had grown used to it.54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡme8C0DcfJa
People don’t really care —54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ0tJBpZvGI
they care about what’s useful.54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZQrE6EcY5p
What they can gain.
And honestly,54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIxvwYYEp6T
I never really cared about them either.
Because I had her.54Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9iMD5SCggF
Forevermore.
And the name itself said everything I couldn’t.
ns216.73.216.144da2
