After that day, the externals began. Then the semester-end exams arrived like an avalanche.165Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeZFec755qm
January became a blur of tension and ticking clocks — PDFs flooding WhatsApp, people panicking over units they hadn’t touched, doubt circling like vultures.165Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTpBtq3oGuz
It was the busiest I’d ever seen our campus.
And in that chaos, I tried. I gave it what I could.165Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmzNkytfA5Q
Some nights I stared blankly at notes, hoping something would stick. Some days, I simply trusted intuition, muscle memory, or fate.165Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKVwM9grQPd
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.165Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFh5AM4nMel
That’s how long the first semester lasted.165Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡASudckXvye
Five months — that's what the calendar says. But to me, it didn’t feel like months.165Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1ztPqeu8qR
It felt like moments — raw, unfinished, incomplete. Like scribbles in a notebook I never meant to show anyone.
And then… something shifted.165Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡszFIfPHT57
Something in the air.165Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ41LGP5iNAE
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.165Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8pZ3XCeygP
Our evening talks behind the buses — stopped.165Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkMkp4tsr7f
Her presence, once familiar like a hum at the back of my mind — faded.165Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7m2dxCZH8o
I kept telling myself it was nothing. Just timing. Just routine.165Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2Gfe6fXxpW
But the truth has a way of finding you… when you least want it.
One day, I was with Simon. Just a regular day.165Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvMnsKrDGJW
And that’s when I saw them.
Her.165Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4b0L9xGw30
Smiling. Laughing. Walking.165Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCslYbHtNXB
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.165Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuZz1srTc4K
I smiled, because what else could I do?165Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjOKCkMgOZ2
But deep inside, I was quiet. Frozen. Trying to act okay, because that’s what we do, right?
Later that day, I asked her.165Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0m7cX8g7kF
“How do you know Ren?”
She said — that,165Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGuTBP3ZEfT
“Oh… we met online,”.
Simple. Innocent. Coincidence.
That word hit harder than I expected.165Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡciETNeueo4
Coincidence.
It echoed in my mind, looping like a cruel joke.165Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyoS00panTG
Because that’s how she and I started too.165Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUOTjX6Auwn
A coincidence.
Only this time, it wasn’t mine.
And in that moment, I realized something no one prepares you for —165Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh1FFKsTAjN
Sometimes, people slip away. Not because they mean to. Not because of a fight. But because fate hands them a different coincidence.165Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl2bif4vNA7
A different thread.165Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡublfJrt4jY
And you’re left holding the memory of what could’ve been.
