After that day, the externals began. Then the semester-end exams arrived like an avalanche.59Please respect copyright.PENANALhZIlTPlG7
January became a blur of tension and ticking clocks — PDFs flooding WhatsApp, people panicking over units they hadn’t touched, doubt circling like vultures.59Please respect copyright.PENANACMobwleupz
It was the busiest I’d ever seen our campus.
And in that chaos, I tried. I gave it what I could.59Please respect copyright.PENANAgcmJbUo1QG
Some nights I stared blankly at notes, hoping something would stick. Some days, I simply trusted intuition, muscle memory, or fate.59Please respect copyright.PENANA33RgFlaM1r
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.59Please respect copyright.PENANAoj6wZEuMWn
That’s how long the first semester lasted.59Please respect copyright.PENANAbMJPlwRxA8
Five months — that's what the calendar says. But to me, it didn’t feel like months.59Please respect copyright.PENANAVQYsNwEuHK
It felt like moments — raw, unfinished, incomplete. Like scribbles in a notebook I never meant to show anyone.
And then… something shifted.59Please respect copyright.PENANAMIJWm8Y81X
Something in the air.59Please respect copyright.PENANA7Jz4HaRoiZ
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.59Please respect copyright.PENANAJWTCHnS6qY
Our evening talks behind the buses — stopped.59Please respect copyright.PENANAeNrKsKNp8S
Her presence, once familiar like a hum at the back of my mind — faded.59Please respect copyright.PENANAr2j2uWHcnI
I kept telling myself it was nothing. Just timing. Just routine.59Please respect copyright.PENANAnrRZuyQcrW
But the truth has a way of finding you… when you least want it.
One day, I was with Simon. Just a regular day.59Please respect copyright.PENANALjw6GII6QE
And that’s when I saw them.
Her.59Please respect copyright.PENANAonwYtmZNWG
Smiling. Laughing. Walking.59Please respect copyright.PENANADjmcrMQOkD
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.59Please respect copyright.PENANASoU8YD10rA
I smiled, because what else could I do?59Please respect copyright.PENANAc1RKPjlhu5
But deep inside, I was quiet. Frozen. Trying to act okay, because that’s what we do, right?
Later that day, I asked her.59Please respect copyright.PENANALYyxfgIOfU
“How do you know Ren?”
She said — that,59Please respect copyright.PENANAzjqryIQrxM
“Oh… we met online,”.
Simple. Innocent. Coincidence.
That word hit harder than I expected.59Please respect copyright.PENANAlCbXFOPW1g
Coincidence.
It echoed in my mind, looping like a cruel joke.59Please respect copyright.PENANAfA9s4Ugv7x
Because that’s how she and I started too.59Please respect copyright.PENANA2li1QJxXUU
A coincidence.
Only this time, it wasn’t mine.
And in that moment, I realized something no one prepares you for —59Please respect copyright.PENANANZziM7rAPU
Sometimes, people slip away. Not because they mean to. Not because of a fight. But because fate hands them a different coincidence.59Please respect copyright.PENANA4S6p1LQKtd
A different thread.59Please respect copyright.PENANAfnrfijKEma
And you’re left holding the memory of what could’ve been.