After that day, the externals began. Then the semester-end exams arrived like an avalanche.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXkJLeuI9M1
January became a blur of tension and ticking clocks — PDFs flooding WhatsApp, people panicking over units they hadn’t touched, doubt circling like vultures.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9t2qWfJnXk
It was the busiest I’d ever seen our campus.
And in that chaos, I tried. I gave it what I could.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjKnpAORtLm
Some nights I stared blankly at notes, hoping something would stick. Some days, I simply trusted intuition, muscle memory, or fate.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUDO8cFp3v7
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.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzhpUSGQbyg
That’s how long the first semester lasted.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7ZEIcNXhtH
Five months — that's what the calendar says. But to me, it didn’t feel like months.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJncuXgf9fr
It felt like moments — raw, unfinished, incomplete. Like scribbles in a notebook I never meant to show anyone.
And then… something shifted.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnsAj1bDeTH
Something in the air.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6JgM3RYeDT
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.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡre5ZhbZObA
Our evening talks behind the buses — stopped.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfEmZSbRIXv
Her presence, once familiar like a hum at the back of my mind — faded.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN1YaUUUJ4i
I kept telling myself it was nothing. Just timing. Just routine.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoUfHGhoCpv
But the truth has a way of finding you… when you least want it.
One day, I was with Simon. Just a regular day.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSp8T2tPtd7
And that’s when I saw them.
Her.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUftWAIezcP
Smiling. Laughing. Walking.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSZ2vfv1f5r
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.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu5wTz6BC6P
I smiled, because what else could I do?121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1SoYgGPSmw
But deep inside, I was quiet. Frozen. Trying to act okay, because that’s what we do, right?
Later that day, I asked her.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT30FBYKq1U
“How do you know Ren?”
She said — that,121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdLgVmgwYsJ
“Oh… we met online,”.
Simple. Innocent. Coincidence.
That word hit harder than I expected.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6Q3YGifqCP
Coincidence.
It echoed in my mind, looping like a cruel joke.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkutiXSJM4L
Because that’s how she and I started too.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaODLGuRsXg
A coincidence.
Only this time, it wasn’t mine.
And in that moment, I realized something no one prepares you for —121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHEBfnSwgfF
Sometimes, people slip away. Not because they mean to. Not because of a fight. But because fate hands them a different coincidence.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtqv5ym2lKv
A different thread.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9C91K1is71
And you’re left holding the memory of what could’ve been.
