After that day, the externals began. Then the semester-end exams arrived like an avalanche.47Please respect copyright.PENANAvXa2Si6HvT
January became a blur of tension and ticking clocks — PDFs flooding WhatsApp, people panicking over units they hadn’t touched, doubt circling like vultures.47Please respect copyright.PENANAojNb4aI9m8
It was the busiest I’d ever seen our campus.
And in that chaos, I tried. I gave it what I could.47Please respect copyright.PENANA1RsqXVgvRP
Some nights I stared blankly at notes, hoping something would stick. Some days, I simply trusted intuition, muscle memory, or fate.47Please respect copyright.PENANAXrlLtIRW3l
I did what I could — the rest, I left to whatever force governs unfair results and late realizations.
Then February breezed in, bringing a short, scattered week of holidays. A blink. A breath. And just like that, the second semester began.
Five months.47Please respect copyright.PENANAEGIdrjFiV9
That’s how long the first semester lasted.47Please respect copyright.PENANA0W7osgnlKH
Five months — that's what the calendar says. But to me, it didn’t feel like months.47Please respect copyright.PENANAMd7C5reIFy
It felt like moments — raw, unfinished, incomplete. Like scribbles in a notebook I never meant to show anyone.
And then… something shifted.47Please respect copyright.PENANAWjPe2mFFtU
Something in the air.47Please respect copyright.PENANArmyY7LBlpt
Something in her.
Seren.
I don’t remember the exact moment I realized it. Maybe it wasn’t a moment — maybe it was a slow unraveling.47Please respect copyright.PENANAggg2MBf47r
Our evening talks behind the buses — stopped.47Please respect copyright.PENANASRXPdJ0c1B
Her presence, once familiar like a hum at the back of my mind — faded.47Please respect copyright.PENANAWli6y1ZAdk
I kept telling myself it was nothing. Just timing. Just routine.47Please respect copyright.PENANAWlB0qKsMPg
But the truth has a way of finding you… when you least want it.
One day, I was with Simon. Just a regular day.47Please respect copyright.PENANAEk1UgMXqHM
And that’s when I saw them.
Her.47Please respect copyright.PENANAL2F6FKdPV2
Smiling. Laughing. Walking.47Please respect copyright.PENANA5E7umCRfdA
And Ren.
He walked beside her — like he belonged there.
Time slowed.
She approached like everything was normal. Like my world hadn’t cracked open a little.47Please respect copyright.PENANAp3hIEtqkyb
I smiled, because what else could I do?47Please respect copyright.PENANAlj6d2mHj9E
But deep inside, I was quiet. Frozen. Trying to act okay, because that’s what we do, right?
Later that day, I asked her.47Please respect copyright.PENANAsL0bytnUZq
“How do you know Ren?”
She said — that,47Please respect copyright.PENANAo714UHhLs1
“Oh… we met online,”.
Simple. Innocent. Coincidence.
That word hit harder than I expected.47Please respect copyright.PENANAOLJbXghaNC
Coincidence.
It echoed in my mind, looping like a cruel joke.47Please respect copyright.PENANAp75dNVWMP9
Because that’s how she and I started too.47Please respect copyright.PENANAhtjhqwbgNg
A coincidence.
Only this time, it wasn’t mine.
And in that moment, I realized something no one prepares you for —47Please respect copyright.PENANANGnnNyt0SK
Sometimes, people slip away. Not because they mean to. Not because of a fight. But because fate hands them a different coincidence.47Please respect copyright.PENANA7Un1izpOpe
A different thread.47Please respect copyright.PENANAMR1GMgrk3N
And you’re left holding the memory of what could’ve been.