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.
ns216.73.216.54da2
and then Add to home screen.