After that day, the externals began. Then the semester-end exams arrived like an avalanche.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmgl5Nwi62s
January became a blur of tension and ticking clocks — PDFs flooding WhatsApp, people panicking over units they hadn’t touched, doubt circling like vultures.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1JrptUggEE
It was the busiest I’d ever seen our campus.
And in that chaos, I tried. I gave it what I could.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB0UcPuD5MD
Some nights I stared blankly at notes, hoping something would stick. Some days, I simply trusted intuition, muscle memory, or fate.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ46K5L9wc4Z
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.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV9I82Mf7qm
That’s how long the first semester lasted.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxi9owuJN8i
Five months — that's what the calendar says. But to me, it didn’t feel like months.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6pCoXrzSxq
It felt like moments — raw, unfinished, incomplete. Like scribbles in a notebook I never meant to show anyone.
And then… something shifted.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTmvEVMWBkS
Something in the air.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjZLB6tkwD6
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.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTeycEpBaiC
Our evening talks behind the buses — stopped.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeH0b7IReo9
Her presence, once familiar like a hum at the back of my mind — faded.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD3FdaGirhv
I kept telling myself it was nothing. Just timing. Just routine.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7xYKW64n1u
But the truth has a way of finding you… when you least want it.
One day, I was with Simon. Just a regular day.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsDVwWJPOyH
And that’s when I saw them.
Her.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ9MQ8OThCa
Smiling. Laughing. Walking.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpJc0DVkH7e
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.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUCAi224Hyc
I smiled, because what else could I do?39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7gGYxIUB7s
But deep inside, I was quiet. Frozen. Trying to act okay, because that’s what we do, right?
Later that day, I asked her.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRodGZOIuly
“How do you know Ren?”
She said — that,39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ10eJA9cAW7
“Oh… we met online,”.
Simple. Innocent. Coincidence.
That word hit harder than I expected.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZIv6d8JNqH
Coincidence.
It echoed in my mind, looping like a cruel joke.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKyzVFBRbLf
Because that’s how she and I started too.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtnTfqqOpRs
A coincidence.
Only this time, it wasn’t mine.
And in that moment, I realized something no one prepares you for —39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBRsWuGF9c7
Sometimes, people slip away. Not because they mean to. Not because of a fight. But because fate hands them a different coincidence.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5lvQiXgjwK
A different thread.39Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡivHyfEWBYy
And you’re left holding the memory of what could’ve been.
