And then, quietly, I turned around.
Returned the umbrella to Krish with a soft thank-you, still half-soaked and half-lost in the moment.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD9Cn5JfRfK
After that, I didn’t rush. I didn’t need to.
I just wandered around the campus as the rain calmed, the sky grey but not cruel anymore.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfy4x5kBkNK
The kind of grey that feels… numb.
Eventually, the buses roared back to life — ready to take us back to our homes and our silences.
I climbed onto mine. Bus 495.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR6JxVnwlJn
And sat by the window.
Cold.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYU19v9HaO9
Yet somehow warm.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzPHKwgPiRo
Bittersweet, like holding hands in a dream just before waking up.
That evening —68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdC5HQT1kN7
she messaged me:68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN5ahsl8iM6
“It’s been a while since we talked like this…”
And my heart quietly broke.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVeaYEt5W9Q
Not from pain.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuKlCsLLibX
But from the gentle ache of knowing that this — this fleeting, shared moment —68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzNZXXMyajR
was all I’d ever asked for.
The silences. The rain.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjqBmKyZUSq
The way we forgot the world together.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn3YTzG3v7Z
Just for a little while.
And so, once again, I gave her a name.
Forevermore.
Not some name I pulled from the air.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOngYk83SRq
Not just for the poetry of it.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlm9DdK0tuN
But because I’ve been naming all the versions of her I’ve seen.
Not her, exactly.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmSgNC06gHe
But the her I’ve met at different crossroads.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaISXGoZP0q
The her who felt like home in passing moments.
Each one of them…68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf8t9kiMNzG
so very different.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKSXZQ4B5PX
And yet, so unmistakably her.
Days passed.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxXrXkjcZtN
The storm that was my heart calmed too.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkRfw8uC42l
Life didn’t stop — it never does.
Semester 2 had begun.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvXCozFLVb4
We were already halfway through our first year.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZYHpNeJ9Lx
Funny. Five months vanished like mist in morning sunlight.
Thub remained the constant — our place to learn and forget ourselves.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFdhqOgOQoi
This time, they were teaching DSA.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfQYunvBuZB
Classes now held at Ratan Tata Bhavan, a little more formal, a little less raw.
It felt the same as the first semester…68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5gaGTr4ttp
Except now, Ren was often with us.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJC6PkQvAyC
Or rather, with her.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU1JYXjeyQz
And I?68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL9rg1cYnOc
I floated somewhere in between.
Still, I shared my world with her.
I introduced her to my seniors — people who meant something to me.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiwgLIAwD9s
And among them, she grew fond of Ariel.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiomNzXBRod
A not-so-innocent senior, playful and sharp,68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7pIH2Myr6f
but with a charm that made her laugh in ways I hadn’t seen in a while.
And maybe that was okay.
As the semester unfolded, I met others too.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLmeZ9Fxgv4
People who walked up to me not for who I was,68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8x3NbhLzmq
but for what I could do.
They saw the coder.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiP0xPy9pHi
The guy who wins contests.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8t80iPkCrP
The guy who can explain recursion in five minutes.
But never me.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDE4RsJFs9y
Not the full picture.
I didn’t mind.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCuHC50Ttb8
I had grown used to it.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfj0K1Smkiz
People don’t really care —68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDmQd7S9FYh
they care about what’s useful.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzFDmVsodrt
What they can gain.
And honestly,68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4O0tqeR1h7
I never really cared about them either.
Because I had her.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOBKL9AvJZh
Forevermore.
And the name itself said everything I couldn’t.
ns216.73.216.190da2
and then Add to home screen.