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.117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE8g2b7WLKo
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.117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTT3pVOSfQG
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 495.117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG3uNud3YOh
And sat by the window.
Cold.117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWQpsEgMHfp
Yet somehow warm.117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAVqwBBPcor
Bittersweet, like holding hands in a dream just before waking up.
That evening —117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY5QChosL7W
she messaged me:117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcz2YC5Ea1X
“It’s been a while since we talked like this…”
And my heart quietly broke.117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWNVO8yWsWU
Not from pain.117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcObP8eID7w
But from the gentle ache of knowing that this — this fleeting, shared moment —117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC1b12dkE4a
was all I’d ever asked for.
The silences. The rain.117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxsDt68kniy
The way we forgot the world together.117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWrf63wYd9C
Just for a little while.
And so, once again, I gave her a name.
Forevermore.
Not some name I pulled from the air.117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbPcrT8SawQ
Not just for the poetry of it.117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbBHkYalcgK
But because I’ve been naming all the versions of her I’ve seen.
Not her, exactly.117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKYIczjY2Iy
But the her I’ve met at different crossroads.117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9f8L8XNzzX
The her who felt like home in passing moments.
Each one of them…117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4zemQue3Ri
so very different.117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLDJ4bTRj0v
And yet, so unmistakably her.
Days passed.117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIvBK99YDiP
The storm that was my heart calmed too.117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8gosS4Q0e8
Life didn’t stop — it never does.
Semester 2 had begun.117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJlT4yrOlx5
We were already halfway through our first year.117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu1ndvtJoMe
Funny. Five months vanished like mist in morning sunlight.
Thub remained the constant — our place to learn and forget ourselves.117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBt4lYjv6d2
This time, they were teaching DSA.117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnTXmXNWlBO
Classes now held at Ratan Tata Bhavan, a little more formal, a little less raw.
It felt the same as the first semester…117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU3oL1nKx6y
Except now, Ren was often with us.117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGETBOqGBWJ
Or rather, with her.117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5Zxt7p6vbg
And I?117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtMTmydjaq1
I floated somewhere in between.
Still, I shared my world with her.
I introduced her to my seniors — people who meant something to me.117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP20poOV2Ve
And among them, she grew fond of Ariel.117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHhp3U5wbVi
A not-so-innocent senior, playful and sharp,117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjFyhovJYwj
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.117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV8KppUXLwN
People who walked up to me not for who I was,117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJelT0BjTxj
but for what I could do.
They saw the coder.117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz918E6uvqn
The guy who wins contests.117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgxtgbFvfQP
The guy who can explain recursion in five minutes.
But never me.117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ11gIXGVW0E
Not the full picture.
I didn’t mind.117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCn9xJTdRbX
I had grown used to it.117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFCMdsjV2A2
People don’t really care —117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqIqRdoUJ64
they care about what’s useful.117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2Qq7E8h8vI
What they can gain.
And honestly,117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu4DqsLXxCm
I never really cared about them either.
Because I had her.117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ454cpYjxRv
Forevermore.
And the name itself said everything I couldn’t.
ns216.73.216.6da2
