A coincidence that still crosses my mind sometimes

I (19M) study at a university, and we have a student affairs club that organizes events around campus. I always wanted to be part of the team that shoots reels for these events because I enjoy coming up with creative shots and ideas.

This happened during my first year (I'm in second year now).

One day, a friend called me and asked me to come to a place on campus that we call GOLZAA. They were shooting a promotional reel for an upcoming DJ night, and it was my first time helping out, so I was honestly pretty nervous. Luckily, one of my female friends was already there, and since we're comfortable around each other, I relaxed a bit.

A few actors were waiting inside the GOLZAA van, including four girls. Once everyone arrived, we finally started shooting. It took us almost half an hour just to record a 20-second reel.During the shoot, I noticed one of the girls. Let's call her Anisha. She wasn't the kind of person who stood out because of looks alone. What caught my attention was how simple she seemed, and her curly hair definitely added to it. At first, I thought I was imagining it, but I felt like she kept looking at me. The first couple of times I ignored it, thinking it was accidental. But after three or four eye contacts, I started getting those little butterflies. Then, one time we looked at each other for around two or three seconds. I smiled. She smiled back That was it.

I didn't know her name, branch, year, or whether she was a hosteller or a day scholar. After the shoot ended, I asked the friend who had invited me if he knew her name. Once I found out, I did what almost everyone does these days—I looked up her Instagram. Nothing happened after that. Two days later, I was scrolling through Instagram Reels. I like reading shayari and poetry, and I came across a reel with a caption that I genuinely liked, so I left a comment. About an hour later, I got a notification saying two people had liked my comment. The first was the page admin. The second... was Anisha. That confused me for a second because the page had only around 50 followers. I checked her profile and noticed that the poetry page was linked in her bio. Turns out, she herself was the admin of that page. Without thinking much, I sent her a follow request. Five hours passed.

No response.

So, overthinking as usual, I withdrew the request.

That's pretty much where the story ends . We're in the same branch and the same year, but we have completely different friend groups. I still see her around campus every now and then, but we've never spoken after that day.

Sometimes I randomly remember this whole thing and wonder...

Did she even notice my follow request before I cancelled it? Was she planning to accept it later? Or did she intentionally leave it pending?

Maybe it was all just a coincidence. I'll probably never know.