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.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdcK80WAWtO
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.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJAJ2z6yUzp
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 495.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHUKCIQTD2H
And sat by the window.
Cold.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhvPOTzbuqB
Yet somehow warm.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRtXDnrDBEZ
Bittersweet, like holding hands in a dream just before waking up.
That evening —81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsXOijnvZJL
she messaged me:81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoivp1cUXws
“It’s been a while since we talked like this…”
And my heart quietly broke.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW6A424ZRNJ
Not from pain.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqmHVgFSvki
But from the gentle ache of knowing that this — this fleeting, shared moment —81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8rr6jvzKOe
was all I’d ever asked for.
The silences. The rain.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpVl3dulczf
The way we forgot the world together.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuUCLUGlFTJ
Just for a little while.
And so, once again, I gave her a name.
Forevermore.
Not some name I pulled from the air.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5lyMlPIal2
Not just for the poetry of it.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNDT9ua8O5B
But because I’ve been naming all the versions of her I’ve seen.
Not her, exactly.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrLPRifyXNn
But the her I’ve met at different crossroads.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjCSodS3RGO
The her who felt like home in passing moments.
Each one of them…81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh5YJthmoUb
so very different.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhKEks1xMzR
And yet, so unmistakably her.
Days passed.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxFRKFxLkIJ
The storm that was my heart calmed too.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcMckN4PayV
Life didn’t stop — it never does.
Semester 2 had begun.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYtTNixuADx
We were already halfway through our first year.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCGiPicjSWG
Funny. Five months vanished like mist in morning sunlight.
Thub remained the constant — our place to learn and forget ourselves.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwYIEbiNvkg
This time, they were teaching DSA.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhxXvNzf0Mv
Classes now held at Ratan Tata Bhavan, a little more formal, a little less raw.
It felt the same as the first semester…81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ0BAWxM9BE
Except now, Ren was often with us.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCTdSwGI6SG
Or rather, with her.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFVbwFRJige
And I?81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7sm9Hp7soO
I floated somewhere in between.
Still, I shared my world with her.
I introduced her to my seniors — people who meant something to me.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFlufxkkuQx
And among them, she grew fond of Ariel.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjlZ2UnMxBq
A not-so-innocent senior, playful and sharp,81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhGH20Q2nh2
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.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyVsXSJQhwK
People who walked up to me not for who I was,81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQUU10SyV2R
but for what I could do.
They saw the coder.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡraNhtXokkA
The guy who wins contests.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3eXpSgQv50
The guy who can explain recursion in five minutes.
But never me.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDK0ZGA9SZd
Not the full picture.
I didn’t mind.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAxQTN4XMFJ
I had grown used to it.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXtUn90NmU9
People don’t really care —81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPDjB3tZsXe
they care about what’s useful.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEgyWAmWyWg
What they can gain.
And honestly,81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGWKlUot5CP
I never really cared about them either.
Because I had her.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwqv7beN6IP
Forevermore.
And the name itself said everything I couldn’t.
ns216.73.216.167da2
and then Add to home screen.