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.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwfNGxF8N30
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.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK8G96Vn7Rg
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 495.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC6tkhtnF1N
And sat by the window.
Cold.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn5UitZYeRq
Yet somehow warm.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhRdZAdPR1C
Bittersweet, like holding hands in a dream just before waking up.
That evening —78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdfiypVfbdh
she messaged me:78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0S0e8IvMLb
“It’s been a while since we talked like this…”
And my heart quietly broke.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4YannKXf9Q
Not from pain.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGDU1TlQqeh
But from the gentle ache of knowing that this — this fleeting, shared moment —78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVj34YWbEb7
was all I’d ever asked for.
The silences. The rain.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBBVXP2dZ8F
The way we forgot the world together.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFTcmOw4rrZ
Just for a little while.
And so, once again, I gave her a name.
Forevermore.
Not some name I pulled from the air.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5H9cCPf62j
Not just for the poetry of it.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGsTAD25bw4
But because I’ve been naming all the versions of her I’ve seen.
Not her, exactly.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhcdKZdoXWJ
But the her I’ve met at different crossroads.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdiK8GC1ZAM
The her who felt like home in passing moments.
Each one of them…78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXK2c4UQhzo
so very different.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF34tQBVZ8t
And yet, so unmistakably her.
Days passed.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYWwbGkO7lX
The storm that was my heart calmed too.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwqEfIgGo5l
Life didn’t stop — it never does.
Semester 2 had begun.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKIThe2tsAe
We were already halfway through our first year.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc7UqR4yXGq
Funny. Five months vanished like mist in morning sunlight.
Thub remained the constant — our place to learn and forget ourselves.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKp7ou1LXYj
This time, they were teaching DSA.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5NTlEOeWq8
Classes now held at Ratan Tata Bhavan, a little more formal, a little less raw.
It felt the same as the first semester…78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB8H9uSnpWM
Except now, Ren was often with us.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5VKqZSOg1u
Or rather, with her.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKE0aDevIDU
And I?78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3wnqbbfgtW
I floated somewhere in between.
Still, I shared my world with her.
I introduced her to my seniors — people who meant something to me.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtT44T5fYN3
And among them, she grew fond of Ariel.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHRGsphIKCR
A not-so-innocent senior, playful and sharp,78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBsdpDuLrKl
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.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkhDO2ZzNh5
People who walked up to me not for who I was,78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0nhSB4UbcC
but for what I could do.
They saw the coder.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKMWyd0F5ZZ
The guy who wins contests.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrgZ2zXLysB
The guy who can explain recursion in five minutes.
But never me.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJPblNjoY5D
Not the full picture.
I didn’t mind.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs68TA5YGbZ
I had grown used to it.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5XOxb2elos
People don’t really care —78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPjdnodkmdu
they care about what’s useful.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgJ7E5S2Wu5
What they can gain.
And honestly,78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjmw7K54Etg
I never really cared about them either.
Because I had her.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw6jN7NGB7m
Forevermore.
And the name itself said everything I couldn’t.
ns216.73.216.138da2
and then Add to home screen.