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.
ns216.73.216.0da2
and then Add to home screen.