November faded.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAOkjTP6wUl
December froze.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs59YV9pP6j
January drifted by in silence.
Three months passed, and with every day, I kept asking myself the same questions.
What happened?152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu9Y9qU9NCl
Why the sudden change?152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkGgK1SZhy7
What about everything we planned for — the little things, the big things, the quiet promises, the late-night talks, the classes?
Had it all meant nothing?
While I kept overthinking and pretending to be okay, the third semester slipped by.
And the fourth began.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIympv867Ma
At the end of January.
Still no response from her.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLmoum6lC68
No message.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXMh2UmK1sV
No eye contact.
I told myself — maybe she’s just thinking about her future.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQE9ACaksuP
Maybe it’s a phase.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgMyuwrKRMF
Maybe she’ll return when she's ready.
That’s when I got selected into Owl Coder. along with some other second years.
One of the most prestigious training programs our college had.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrZCF59fotC
It was meant for the third years.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh69zZlG64a
But I got in — in my second year.
It should’ve felt like a crown.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvzYBpJSHWz
But all I felt was the hollow absence of someone to place it on my head.
She wasn’t there to hear the news.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ46kXxibaYu
To congratulate me.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnW3YvqEzQB
To tease me.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyUBQOau0OG
To be proud.
And that silence made the success… feel like ash.
The Owl Coder program was intense.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiBDPyBnWOS
It started at 5 PM and ended at midnight — with just a dinner break in between.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡArZptmMrCy
We were expected to stay in the hostel throughout.
No sunlight.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrWp6ofQJoI
No sleep.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgxMbXdNBYr
No time.
I was running on caffeine, coping with cold metal bunk beds and the constant hum of exhausted ambition.
So during the day’s technical hub sessions…152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDr64EwdTN7
I slept.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXuefHCyMOc
An excuse disguised as exhaustion.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpxyIzckg4u
A mask for what I couldn’t confess — that I just didn’t have it in me anymore.
This semester's subjects were Operating Systems and DBMS.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX8R8To8dfD
Three days a week in Thub, threee days in regular classes.
There went my attendance…152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ253ogtA7XG
Flying out the window like a bird that no longer cared to return.
Inside Owl Coder, I got to know how selections happened.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuAHRLzyLjW
How people were noticed.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3z7Ikz5VSk
How chances bloomed and vanished in a blink.
All I wanted to do was explain it all to her.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLpDxMQX0Le
To help her — even if I could no longer be near her.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡycwFzlxfax
Even if I was just a background character now.
I texted her.
Asked if she could meet in the library — just for a moment.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCBf2kLnnvw
I waited.
She replied:
“I’ll be late. I have class.”
That was it.
A sentence.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcFBjMfC7ZP
A dagger.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQkhwgrt72W
A quiet way of saying, You’re not important enough to wait for.
And yet I still hoped.
Then one evening, everything cracked.
I was walking toward the hostel.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDksWAvTO42
From the buses, through the mango gardens — one of the quietest, most serene places in our campus.
I saw her.
Sitting under the trees.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpka85aBoqU
With Ren.
Talking.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdDhRCqFFk4
Smiling.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI6dr6TEZb4
Laughing.
I couldn’t stop.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4UlcwRmc6n
I couldn’t go back.
I ran past them — like a ghost of someone who once mattered.
My heart screamed:
“Why… can you talk to him, but not to me?”152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhxzyGJ7k12
“What did I do… that made me forgettable?”152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0na12vbmQ0
Or its just maybe me, who is overthinking.
The following days blurred.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmEaAxagT7q
I wasn’t myself.
A haunted version of who I once was —152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡojnBD1wGgA
Lost in old texts, lost in memories.
I texted her again.
This time, everything I had.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa6MvLyXYRA
Every unspoken word.
She replied.
It was reassuring.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7Sm0Gc4OYJ
Warm, maybe.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9eM0RQPSq2
But it felt forced — like something written more out of duty than care.
And that’s when it happened.
She became a stranger.
The third name I gave her.
She said:
“I have a lot going on. I don’t want to get involved. I care for you…”
Then why did I feel like I only existed in her joy?
Was I meant to only be her comfort, her tutor, her support —152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡchcDWaoMK1
and when the storms came, someone to lock away?
Was I disposable when I hurt, but valuable when she smiled?
Then the final blow.
I heard she wouldn’t be continuing in Technical Hub anymore.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKXAgiXugHN
That she was stepping away from the journey we once shared.
My chest sank.
It was true.
She was walking a road I would never again walk beside her.
Still… I wrote to her.
One heartfelt message.
Encouraging her.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsLhPlAbqPE
Reminding her of how much potential she had.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG31bHEIwUE
That the world still waited for her — even if I no longer did.
She replied:
“That made my day…”
And maybe that was enough.
Maybe, sometimes, we don't get closure.152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeCYwoN7GCk
We just get moments like this —152Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrnIWMMMzGY
A soft echo that reminds us it was real… once.
Even if now, all that remains is a ghost, a third name, and a message.
ns216.73.216.82da2
