After that day, the externals began. Then the semester-end exams arrived like an avalanche.164Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAuSw5fPQZw
January became a blur of tension and ticking clocks — PDFs flooding WhatsApp, people panicking over units they hadn’t touched, doubt circling like vultures.164Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBrZXrB4RmP
It was the busiest I’d ever seen our campus.
And in that chaos, I tried. I gave it what I could.164Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHZa2oPObBg
Some nights I stared blankly at notes, hoping something would stick. Some days, I simply trusted intuition, muscle memory, or fate.164Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCL4bz1kWb3
I did what I could — the rest, I left to whatever force governs unfair results and late realizations.
Then February breezed in, bringing a short, scattered week of holidays. A blink. A breath. And just like that, the second semester began.
Five months.164Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMQzSG9euJu
That’s how long the first semester lasted.164Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2iZ9yYddf8
Five months — that's what the calendar says. But to me, it didn’t feel like months.164Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRNaO5FE3uZ
It felt like moments — raw, unfinished, incomplete. Like scribbles in a notebook I never meant to show anyone.
And then… something shifted.164Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsaFvxaa1Dj
Something in the air.164Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzmZg9bXCrH
Something in her.
Seren.
I don’t remember the exact moment I realized it. Maybe it wasn’t a moment — maybe it was a slow unraveling.164Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvJUYJw9foM
Our evening talks behind the buses — stopped.164Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0forHctmhc
Her presence, once familiar like a hum at the back of my mind — faded.164Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDzS7CRLiE6
I kept telling myself it was nothing. Just timing. Just routine.164Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4A8HPe7Xs2
But the truth has a way of finding you… when you least want it.
One day, I was with Simon. Just a regular day.164Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP1cFeZ4Tq3
And that’s when I saw them.
Her.164Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡettTncogTm
Smiling. Laughing. Walking.164Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSJrpAzD6Hn
And Ren.
He walked beside her — like he belonged there.
Time slowed.
She approached like everything was normal. Like my world hadn’t cracked open a little.164Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhXGcz8gDre
I smiled, because what else could I do?164Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxRiRqkUWUG
But deep inside, I was quiet. Frozen. Trying to act okay, because that’s what we do, right?
Later that day, I asked her.164Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0H5KgtXmGA
“How do you know Ren?”
She said — that,164Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4slGbPepud
“Oh… we met online,”.
Simple. Innocent. Coincidence.
That word hit harder than I expected.164Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMMAXmkynFW
Coincidence.
It echoed in my mind, looping like a cruel joke.164Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4lgFthBZ72
Because that’s how she and I started too.164Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEmx4OTBfKr
A coincidence.
Only this time, it wasn’t mine.
And in that moment, I realized something no one prepares you for —164Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLRBA5j3xyM
Sometimes, people slip away. Not because they mean to. Not because of a fight. But because fate hands them a different coincidence.164Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOGH7xi3Dsc
A different thread.164Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT4pfk2u8PE
And you’re left holding the memory of what could’ve been.
and then Add to home screen.