November faded.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK45fZ1MPNP
December froze.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwU8h3a0Vwk
January drifted by in silence.
Three months passed, and with every day, I kept asking myself the same questions.
What happened?37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdXlY1rVMMH
Why the sudden change?37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi4yYVQEhQE
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.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHnJHNJ2Zbq
At the end of January.
Still no response from her.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ16who0nI5C
No message.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE8y5SHIiaB
No eye contact.
I told myself — maybe she’s just thinking about her future.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxBMhi5T0q9
Maybe it’s a phase.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8palHwfRlh
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.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3yBu2hd1WV
It was meant for the third years.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ4eFRC9Hj9
But I got in — in my second year.
It should’ve felt like a crown.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMy0vsBBYdD
But all I felt was the hollow absence of someone to place it on my head.
She wasn’t there to hear the news.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtzmWsL9z8U
To congratulate me.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlvw4dHbYTc
To tease me.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlgvSPprJnD
To be proud.
And that silence made the success… feel like ash.
The Owl Coder program was intense.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwtdNvoJVNi
It started at 5 PM and ended at midnight — with just a dinner break in between.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQjgG6emnEN
We were expected to stay in the hostel throughout.
No sunlight.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKsi3AlXVVC
No sleep.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7aLtxfmp5k
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…37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0mhmIxSdP3
I slept.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRq4Z26TKnH
An excuse disguised as exhaustion.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5cCNniyvwu
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.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXhSlzqz6I1
Three days a week in Thub, threee days in regular classes.
There went my attendance…37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp6xPrkAi4S
Flying out the window like a bird that no longer cared to return.
Inside Owl Coder, I got to know how selections happened.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNSDUjZ9oxS
How people were noticed.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRHvcrHyaML
How chances bloomed and vanished in a blink.
All I wanted to do was explain it all to her.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0Yd6X4vhvO
To help her — even if I could no longer be near her.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7AC08dYFC4
Even if I was just a background character now.
I texted her.
Asked if she could meet in the library — just for a moment.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2gyHIAKj1q
I waited.
She replied:
“I’ll be late. I have class.”
That was it.
A sentence.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY1EIzIGXep
A dagger.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1W9nAPXncQ
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.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWNouEWcVWI
From the buses, through the mango gardens — one of the quietest, most serene places in our campus.
I saw her.
Sitting under the trees.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4R9H3pnm6S
With Ren.
Talking.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt7WtvHcxGg
Smiling.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkITgUhdGCg
Laughing.
I couldn’t stop.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNae44AgGnb
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?”37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4BMSCSx71R
“What did I do… that made me forgettable?”37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy3hoHyJW2U
Or its just maybe me, who is overthinking.
The following days blurred.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYsz2HsHGox
I wasn’t myself.
A haunted version of who I once was —37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDgkmBUYLEx
Lost in old texts, lost in memories.
I texted her again.
This time, everything I had.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaasoNKyEJD
Every unspoken word.
She replied.
It was reassuring.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsRepM7PEZY
Warm, maybe.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiDiIKY7OP3
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 —37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOnhy5OxEC1
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.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3IkaPl5JlA
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.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7C4KZQc13g
Reminding her of how much potential she had.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSlrKDedAdX
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.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb0NhzVhD1w
We just get moments like this —37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8aTE55DfsL
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.
ns216.73.216.0da2
