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.140Please respect copyright.PENANA8eehxjK5oM
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.140Please respect copyright.PENANAw4Zn3LL5ld
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 495.140Please respect copyright.PENANA2ISNCeljjB
And sat by the window.
Cold.140Please respect copyright.PENANApsGtwEg5KG
Yet somehow warm.140Please respect copyright.PENANADF6jC6Fu3K
Bittersweet, like holding hands in a dream just before waking up.
That evening —140Please respect copyright.PENANAzvGtV9aNbd
she messaged me:140Please respect copyright.PENANAcXWBGvcX7O
“It’s been a while since we talked like this…”
And my heart quietly broke.140Please respect copyright.PENANAK7K3gcZAmY
Not from pain.140Please respect copyright.PENANAOtoETzsuNu
But from the gentle ache of knowing that this — this fleeting, shared moment —140Please respect copyright.PENANA8jrfNkCI6n
was all I’d ever asked for.
The silences. The rain.140Please respect copyright.PENANAeEqO5T6pxf
The way we forgot the world together.140Please respect copyright.PENANAAnA80cGB6c
Just for a little while.
And so, once again, I gave her a name.
Forevermore.
Not some name I pulled from the air.140Please respect copyright.PENANAc3bYSBn05t
Not just for the poetry of it.140Please respect copyright.PENANAfbkFGbVcy0
But because I’ve been naming all the versions of her I’ve seen.
Not her, exactly.140Please respect copyright.PENANA6BQ3PWEXre
But the her I’ve met at different crossroads.140Please respect copyright.PENANAiEfYbge35Z
The her who felt like home in passing moments.
Each one of them…140Please respect copyright.PENANAKWaPHonl0t
so very different.140Please respect copyright.PENANAyzpiws0Woq
And yet, so unmistakably her.
Days passed.140Please respect copyright.PENANACobN4gI91m
The storm that was my heart calmed too.140Please respect copyright.PENANAes6Jb37XJI
Life didn’t stop — it never does.
Semester 2 had begun.140Please respect copyright.PENANAFa9e9U8NeD
We were already halfway through our first year.140Please respect copyright.PENANAKI5LYH0WPA
Funny. Five months vanished like mist in morning sunlight.
Thub remained the constant — our place to learn and forget ourselves.140Please respect copyright.PENANAVftb3VaFlw
This time, they were teaching DSA.140Please respect copyright.PENANAH9mMh0MTcj
Classes now held at Ratan Tata Bhavan, a little more formal, a little less raw.
It felt the same as the first semester…140Please respect copyright.PENANABPvWXrUiIH
Except now, Ren was often with us.140Please respect copyright.PENANACOMb02alDF
Or rather, with her.140Please respect copyright.PENANAMLwVNVfjZX
And I?140Please respect copyright.PENANACOFoPtcKr7
I floated somewhere in between.
Still, I shared my world with her.
I introduced her to my seniors — people who meant something to me.140Please respect copyright.PENANArOuVC3r8Lu
And among them, she grew fond of Ariel.140Please respect copyright.PENANAmv4qbW8YYy
A not-so-innocent senior, playful and sharp,140Please respect copyright.PENANA2N1Hzy57rb
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.140Please respect copyright.PENANAf38AG9wS88
People who walked up to me not for who I was,140Please respect copyright.PENANAoAjbeoJEWe
but for what I could do.
They saw the coder.140Please respect copyright.PENANA3KozG0ZLNh
The guy who wins contests.140Please respect copyright.PENANAtt9g32N9Ec
The guy who can explain recursion in five minutes.
But never me.140Please respect copyright.PENANAAGdiCmrv2J
Not the full picture.
I didn’t mind.140Please respect copyright.PENANArLBRxc7iZm
I had grown used to it.140Please respect copyright.PENANANVyZnSSOBs
People don’t really care —140Please respect copyright.PENANAbi3PpDqDoG
they care about what’s useful.140Please respect copyright.PENANAHsrKBkvEln
What they can gain.
And honestly,140Please respect copyright.PENANAwb7o7iyQeg
I never really cared about them either.
Because I had her.140Please respect copyright.PENANAlBYdYMbQlI
Forevermore.
And the name itself said everything I couldn’t.
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