November faded.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVQklYhBvUw
December froze.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIl7sFENZOy
January drifted by in silence.
Three months passed, and with every day, I kept asking myself the same questions.
What happened?121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi0qRmPByr4
Why the sudden change?121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡocPvSmc8dJ
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.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7IlAi8HAIU
At the end of January.
Still no response from her.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT4Wls0PRAM
No message.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyT2gl65Ofw
No eye contact.
I told myself — maybe she’s just thinking about her future.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPdSDYQPauj
Maybe it’s a phase.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6bRxPuZg67
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.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ360kwje7Db
It was meant for the third years.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxAj0V0arIY
But I got in — in my second year.
It should’ve felt like a crown.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7oD1rYTrgN
But all I felt was the hollow absence of someone to place it on my head.
She wasn’t there to hear the news.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRO44pfpFg2
To congratulate me.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6AzZMuffRI
To tease me.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTm5giLovLR
To be proud.
And that silence made the success… feel like ash.
The Owl Coder program was intense.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5BdfL8FRqS
It started at 5 PM and ended at midnight — with just a dinner break in between.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXNPmxW9W79
We were expected to stay in the hostel throughout.
No sunlight.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7dQSLiyqK3
No sleep.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrKgnhAPVK0
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…121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMHaQSnFCUD
I slept.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsPVJLRpqKA
An excuse disguised as exhaustion.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6NNC6aY2GH
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.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcJbg1qUqmR
Three days a week in Thub, threee days in regular classes.
There went my attendance…121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8baqSg2OyU
Flying out the window like a bird that no longer cared to return.
Inside Owl Coder, I got to know how selections happened.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXtD93zYWDx
How people were noticed.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5JT9XHuUJu
How chances bloomed and vanished in a blink.
All I wanted to do was explain it all to her.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDvPtEkhN4K
To help her — even if I could no longer be near her.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ314b7fauPn
Even if I was just a background character now.
I texted her.
Asked if she could meet in the library — just for a moment.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIX72U9in2r
I waited.
She replied:
“I’ll be late. I have class.”
That was it.
A sentence.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrTwzxUZD4k
A dagger.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjc6pkGkPAS
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.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdvG5GGNatW
From the buses, through the mango gardens — one of the quietest, most serene places in our campus.
I saw her.
Sitting under the trees.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIl7yPp6l0S
With Ren.
Talking.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmoSwJqT5Oi
Smiling.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHuS9xJEEP5
Laughing.
I couldn’t stop.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCYAJqUPUU3
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?”121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmdc8t70XT1
“What did I do… that made me forgettable?”121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdfbE4PVjDw
Or its just maybe me, who is overthinking.
The following days blurred.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ34KwtWwjxs
I wasn’t myself.
A haunted version of who I once was —121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4ON98rNMvZ
Lost in old texts, lost in memories.
I texted her again.
This time, everything I had.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq2UCJmXz4x
Every unspoken word.
She replied.
It was reassuring.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3samUrjVev
Warm, maybe.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAeaUJ6GNQq
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 —121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7Hw8VNqzXF
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.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡecbDzGWCsc
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.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0PZn9WCGwL
Reminding her of how much potential she had.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzAh0FcMG1S
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.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7vo8EAcS7g
We just get moments like this —121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ7Cxt2ODab
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.
ns216.73.216.6da2
