November faded.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg2A7DYJNgk
December froze.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0sIUUMOMnP
January drifted by in silence.
Three months passed, and with every day, I kept asking myself the same questions.
What happened?380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWdPWMAAhdb
Why the sudden change?380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFsNI6bPqHA
What about everything we planned for — the little things, the big things, the quiet promises, the late-night talks, the classes?
Had it all meant nothing?
While I kept overthinking and pretending to be okay, the third semester slipped by.
And the fourth began.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMMunPoceUt
At the end of January.
Still no response from her.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLE7gI8IRHn
No message.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsPhmRbmsc4
No eye contact.
I told myself — maybe she’s just thinking about her future.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOYK5dJhEJJ
Maybe it’s a phase.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPdW5V7ICc4
Maybe she’ll return when she's ready.
That’s when I got selected into Owl Coder. along with some other second years.
One of the most prestigious training programs our college had.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKkJhB6cUEV
It was meant for the third years.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ21JYeBsOHp
But I got in — in my second year.
It should’ve felt like a crown.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTJkkSDNEZp
But all I felt was the hollow absence of someone to place it on my head.
She wasn’t there to hear the news.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUbAVhoecbz
To congratulate me.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA591F9Zujq
To tease me.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ31NS37LqDQ
To be proud.
And that silence made the success… feel like ash.
The Owl Coder program was intense.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFzcIWOVq5F
It started at 5 PM and ended at midnight — with just a dinner break in between.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeiWcviU3pr
We were expected to stay in the hostel throughout.
No sunlight.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRMqnHZ2Ud9
No sleep.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXsMiS102bQ
No time.
I was running on caffeine, coping with cold metal bunk beds and the constant hum of exhausted ambition.
So during the day’s technical hub sessions…380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGukuTwVWpc
I slept.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtDN2Ce91SL
An excuse disguised as exhaustion.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj5OB7UNC37
A mask for what I couldn’t confess — that I just didn’t have it in me anymore.
This semester's subjects were Operating Systems and DBMS.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO0R669WZoC
Three days a week in Thub, threee days in regular classes.
There went my attendance…380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKlNfcpee6n
Flying out the window like a bird that no longer cared to return.
Inside Owl Coder, I got to know how selections happened.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvq2iQQjrpQ
How people were noticed.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡriMA37H529
How chances bloomed and vanished in a blink.
All I wanted to do was explain it all to her.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJmdZVpDP8s
To help her — even if I could no longer be near her.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz49HcaoEMW
Even if I was just a background character now.
I texted her.
Asked if she could meet in the library — just for a moment.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd9JTtoBS0y
I waited.
She replied:
“I’ll be late. I have class.”
That was it.
A sentence.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡguTozd115D
A dagger.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXiOzMFGsxv
A quiet way of saying, You’re not important enough to wait for.
And yet I still hoped.
Then one evening, everything cracked.
I was walking toward the hostel.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHye0tlVQ5u
From the buses, through the mango gardens — one of the quietest, most serene places in our campus.
I saw her.
Sitting under the trees.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9MPWnM0NaI
With Ren.
Talking.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0IyyOhY0B5
Smiling.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvtCaBiFvt0
Laughing.
I couldn’t stop.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs63A1yzbl5
I couldn’t go back.
I ran past them — like a ghost of someone who once mattered.
My heart screamed:
“Why… can you talk to him, but not to me?”380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHH8ciELqPp
“What did I do… that made me forgettable?”380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqAEImCuyaJ
Or its just maybe me, who is overthinking.
The following days blurred.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCcIzyud93e
I wasn’t myself.
A haunted version of who I once was —380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLfqJLyAp3s
Lost in old texts, lost in memories.
I texted her again.
This time, everything I had.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVSVpIY2J7c
Every unspoken word.
She replied.
It was reassuring.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWdSqLsMddC
Warm, maybe.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvXy4TYUQ8o
But it felt forced — like something written more out of duty than care.
And that’s when it happened.
She became a stranger.
The third name I gave her.
She said:
“I have a lot going on. I don’t want to get involved. I care for you…”
Then why did I feel like I only existed in her joy?
Was I meant to only be her comfort, her tutor, her support —380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfa8KMdi1i3
and when the storms came, someone to lock away?
Was I disposable when I hurt, but valuable when she smiled?
Then the final blow.
I heard she wouldn’t be continuing in Technical Hub anymore.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBvU7YqNzln
That she was stepping away from the journey we once shared.
My chest sank.
It was true.
She was walking a road I would never again walk beside her.
Still… I wrote to her.
One heartfelt message.
Encouraging her.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl96qimB1hE
Reminding her of how much potential she had.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbC8Qrjk6YJ
That the world still waited for her — even if I no longer did.
She replied:
“That made my day…”
And maybe that was enough.
Maybe, sometimes, we don't get closure.380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv3kOiwPcwf
We just get moments like this —380Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy20XMyHPa5
A soft echo that reminds us it was real… once.
Even if now, all that remains is a ghost, a third name, and a message.
ns216.73.216.152da2
and then Add to home screen.