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.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4fsfjBm2eb
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.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8Ng1vY4dPj
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 495.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkv5JROcUpY
And sat by the window.
Cold.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR1oof25fwB
Yet somehow warm.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhn6wabfSKk
Bittersweet, like holding hands in a dream just before waking up.
That evening —40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTWodUet4dX
she messaged me:40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcGxiVewvZN
“It’s been a while since we talked like this…”
And my heart quietly broke.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNGan4ICk8R
Not from pain.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE19H0UCN35
But from the gentle ache of knowing that this — this fleeting, shared moment —40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNksEYZTdLu
was all I’d ever asked for.
The silences. The rain.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6W81lZmxid
The way we forgot the world together.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhySty8Q5KY
Just for a little while.
And so, once again, I gave her a name.
Forevermore.
Not some name I pulled from the air.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkHUkFiUiGJ
Not just for the poetry of it.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ459zdww5Dq
But because I’ve been naming all the versions of her I’ve seen.
Not her, exactly.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEY8YB6iQqp
But the her I’ve met at different crossroads.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGQ7Z1xKriC
The her who felt like home in passing moments.
Each one of them…40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡESJGynM5bL
so very different.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV5a0j0C6GS
And yet, so unmistakably her.
Days passed.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5dPkkAbmTY
The storm that was my heart calmed too.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtgSAVYhnVh
Life didn’t stop — it never does.
Semester 2 had begun.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdfQX8pp7l6
We were already halfway through our first year.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEr8spbCjez
Funny. Five months vanished like mist in morning sunlight.
Thub remained the constant — our place to learn and forget ourselves.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4w7OKZruZW
This time, they were teaching DSA.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2xvU3c36Pc
Classes now held at Ratan Tata Bhavan, a little more formal, a little less raw.
It felt the same as the first semester…40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTysm17ZrgT
Except now, Ren was often with us.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVy9GGSWWzW
Or rather, with her.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUdgjYkrZ0q
And I?40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc74HaqJbfJ
I floated somewhere in between.
Still, I shared my world with her.
I introduced her to my seniors — people who meant something to me.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOwbusn4bjd
And among them, she grew fond of Ariel.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVgq0ASZOGM
A not-so-innocent senior, playful and sharp,40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgyZF1j8mYB
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.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZeoRypMMdo
People who walked up to me not for who I was,40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8pUVjcxieD
but for what I could do.
They saw the coder.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1c4WtMvEQC
The guy who wins contests.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbAHDvrLGCB
The guy who can explain recursion in five minutes.
But never me.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb114EPzz6M
Not the full picture.
I didn’t mind.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡadDaM67ud2
I had grown used to it.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZbv4o1DF2c
People don’t really care —40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRK5kDxaUFa
they care about what’s useful.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6aFYAjVNpb
What they can gain.
And honestly,40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5uwSZXNWY2
I never really cared about them either.
Because I had her.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR3p3Zt4OSY
Forevermore.
And the name itself said everything I couldn’t.
ns216.73.216.0da2
