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.169Please respect copyright.PENANAN67j8PIijk
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.169Please respect copyright.PENANAzWiiuJyR1P
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 495.169Please respect copyright.PENANAxIRbJdYzcA
And sat by the window.
Cold.169Please respect copyright.PENANAzezPqaNHjF
Yet somehow warm.169Please respect copyright.PENANAmO8SaBZcLc
Bittersweet, like holding hands in a dream just before waking up.
That evening —169Please respect copyright.PENANAaZR85weoTq
she messaged me:169Please respect copyright.PENANANBgodsuIKD
“It’s been a while since we talked like this…”
And my heart quietly broke.169Please respect copyright.PENANA2OLUs52TLz
Not from pain.169Please respect copyright.PENANAnO6k8TTySP
But from the gentle ache of knowing that this — this fleeting, shared moment —169Please respect copyright.PENANAD4QsBonzUs
was all I’d ever asked for.
The silences. The rain.169Please respect copyright.PENANAvDiCzIIH0m
The way we forgot the world together.169Please respect copyright.PENANACxMhMyFWTy
Just for a little while.
And so, once again, I gave her a name.
Forevermore.
Not some name I pulled from the air.169Please respect copyright.PENANAkWIovQklci
Not just for the poetry of it.169Please respect copyright.PENANAMkr3SW17u7
But because I’ve been naming all the versions of her I’ve seen.
Not her, exactly.169Please respect copyright.PENANAQ7MFojSYNa
But the her I’ve met at different crossroads.169Please respect copyright.PENANAldNg5c6H3z
The her who felt like home in passing moments.
Each one of them…169Please respect copyright.PENANAEuUEBEoW1g
so very different.169Please respect copyright.PENANAnTs4HmKrdb
And yet, so unmistakably her.
Days passed.169Please respect copyright.PENANAYKw7Z2T13T
The storm that was my heart calmed too.169Please respect copyright.PENANAHDe1hZmw5f
Life didn’t stop — it never does.
Semester 2 had begun.169Please respect copyright.PENANAmcPNNTgZL3
We were already halfway through our first year.169Please respect copyright.PENANAyd30oi3Eaf
Funny. Five months vanished like mist in morning sunlight.
Thub remained the constant — our place to learn and forget ourselves.169Please respect copyright.PENANAzaf9H1UZPm
This time, they were teaching DSA.169Please respect copyright.PENANAVLOEOoUdA7
Classes now held at Ratan Tata Bhavan, a little more formal, a little less raw.
It felt the same as the first semester…169Please respect copyright.PENANAytJemM0bPY
Except now, Ren was often with us.169Please respect copyright.PENANAW0VUXzGlS6
Or rather, with her.169Please respect copyright.PENANAMyzcAZ7ITE
And I?169Please respect copyright.PENANAF2J9qmyM7b
I floated somewhere in between.
Still, I shared my world with her.
I introduced her to my seniors — people who meant something to me.169Please respect copyright.PENANAaaHuKhKIft
And among them, she grew fond of Ariel.169Please respect copyright.PENANA3W1KLZ1SfK
A not-so-innocent senior, playful and sharp,169Please respect copyright.PENANAyEAki65PTV
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.169Please respect copyright.PENANATkOXJFvBtr
People who walked up to me not for who I was,169Please respect copyright.PENANA8KiKqKYuyK
but for what I could do.
They saw the coder.169Please respect copyright.PENANA3iViiikrVc
The guy who wins contests.169Please respect copyright.PENANASyfizMtBbv
The guy who can explain recursion in five minutes.
But never me.169Please respect copyright.PENANAUKesgc5s3e
Not the full picture.
I didn’t mind.169Please respect copyright.PENANAr6ff3ThDEo
I had grown used to it.169Please respect copyright.PENANAUgPgirPMC9
People don’t really care —169Please respect copyright.PENANAE5gEfDBA8n
they care about what’s useful.169Please respect copyright.PENANAHHamWOZy9F
What they can gain.
And honestly,169Please respect copyright.PENANAz9ttExdtSE
I never really cared about them either.
Because I had her.169Please respect copyright.PENANAzVMwHYXyfQ
Forevermore.
And the name itself said everything I couldn’t.
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