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.147Please respect copyright.PENANAfvIO5NBBzM
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.147Please respect copyright.PENANA089y3JA7Pz
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 495.147Please respect copyright.PENANAwbWVfEnXRu
And sat by the window.
Cold.147Please respect copyright.PENANAohkQPpLnrG
Yet somehow warm.147Please respect copyright.PENANA6qgU78HdDi
Bittersweet, like holding hands in a dream just before waking up.
That evening —147Please respect copyright.PENANAiB3qCwVp1V
she messaged me:147Please respect copyright.PENANAmAh8MmxVD1
“It’s been a while since we talked like this…”
And my heart quietly broke.147Please respect copyright.PENANAP7netK7y1k
Not from pain.147Please respect copyright.PENANA4tgv5WrYNi
But from the gentle ache of knowing that this — this fleeting, shared moment —147Please respect copyright.PENANAc7NcX1h3f2
was all I’d ever asked for.
The silences. The rain.147Please respect copyright.PENANA4yQpIUTQ5f
The way we forgot the world together.147Please respect copyright.PENANAKW5biox8a4
Just for a little while.
And so, once again, I gave her a name.
Forevermore.
Not some name I pulled from the air.147Please respect copyright.PENANA09fanKOovn
Not just for the poetry of it.147Please respect copyright.PENANAFoa2Wi4xim
But because I’ve been naming all the versions of her I’ve seen.
Not her, exactly.147Please respect copyright.PENANAdNs569urG8
But the her I’ve met at different crossroads.147Please respect copyright.PENANACAGh05RaF1
The her who felt like home in passing moments.
Each one of them…147Please respect copyright.PENANAzjcDhlcTGk
so very different.147Please respect copyright.PENANAAioQ9XCRfn
And yet, so unmistakably her.
Days passed.147Please respect copyright.PENANAj8t7W7WAaQ
The storm that was my heart calmed too.147Please respect copyright.PENANAWRFhOLIsnV
Life didn’t stop — it never does.
Semester 2 had begun.147Please respect copyright.PENANAvdoOOF2OkK
We were already halfway through our first year.147Please respect copyright.PENANAZNboL6nItU
Funny. Five months vanished like mist in morning sunlight.
Thub remained the constant — our place to learn and forget ourselves.147Please respect copyright.PENANAvCVJVAtaEp
This time, they were teaching DSA.147Please respect copyright.PENANATN0RYVbPDV
Classes now held at Ratan Tata Bhavan, a little more formal, a little less raw.
It felt the same as the first semester…147Please respect copyright.PENANAOAM2iJFVxu
Except now, Ren was often with us.147Please respect copyright.PENANAQEli8QT4Vd
Or rather, with her.147Please respect copyright.PENANAmDWxBpIFUP
And I?147Please respect copyright.PENANAjV0svwe0J2
I floated somewhere in between.
Still, I shared my world with her.
I introduced her to my seniors — people who meant something to me.147Please respect copyright.PENANAPW9Uou5WP1
And among them, she grew fond of Ariel.147Please respect copyright.PENANA8oPxeRGCDG
A not-so-innocent senior, playful and sharp,147Please respect copyright.PENANAVITLabrKPd
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.147Please respect copyright.PENANAFd7593epPT
People who walked up to me not for who I was,147Please respect copyright.PENANAJhfce3FJYs
but for what I could do.
They saw the coder.147Please respect copyright.PENANAFb0Vu1czf1
The guy who wins contests.147Please respect copyright.PENANAn8Grh6Or3r
The guy who can explain recursion in five minutes.
But never me.147Please respect copyright.PENANAzYqyQGIKKh
Not the full picture.
I didn’t mind.147Please respect copyright.PENANAaG8omI8UHT
I had grown used to it.147Please respect copyright.PENANAZeK4AUWvpJ
People don’t really care —147Please respect copyright.PENANAYQv7NB8Coz
they care about what’s useful.147Please respect copyright.PENANApoyzz2Netj
What they can gain.
And honestly,147Please respect copyright.PENANAxTYEhEYpHy
I never really cared about them either.
Because I had her.147Please respect copyright.PENANAxRTIgm20wf
Forevermore.
And the name itself said everything I couldn’t.
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