Falling in love after Marriage

Chapter 22

Janaki's POV

Finally... FINALLY, our exams were over... Yaaawoooooo... Me and Vidhu planned to spend this night in our hostel terrace. It's a little bit cold as it is November end but we love to look at the twinkling stars and the half moon without any concerns. Like a mother carrying a baby for nine months, we have lived with books. And FINALLY, our nine months 'thavam' (penance) had come to an end.

Our stargazing got interrupted by my amma's phone call. I turned on the speaker so we both can talk.

"Hi amma" "Hi athai"

We sang as we are in a very great mood.

"Hey Vidhu! Janu! Eppa kelambringa? Nalaiku packing mudichitingana appa maru naal ungala kootitu vandirvar ma. Okay thane?"

(Hey Vidhu! Janu! When are you starting? I will send your appa day after tomorrow if you guys finish packing by tomorrow. Is it okay?)

"NO Banu! Nanga udane varartha ila. Nanga knjm relax pana porom. Anga vandha neraiya velai iruku. Purijiko amma! At least month end varikum. Inum six day thane iruku. Hostel rent um adhu indha month end varai pay panirkome. Please Banu. Six days tha please."

(No Banu! We are not leaving immediately. We are gonna relax for a bit. If we come there, there would be a lot of works to be done. Understand us amma! At least let us stay till the month end. We hardly have six days. Also, we have paid the room rent for the whole month. Please, Banu. Just six more days.)

She would not mind me calling her name as I will do that only at some exceptionally happy moments. I am not sure whether she will accept this or not. But it is worth to try. I didn't ask Vidhu's opinion earlier yet she had an appreciative look and also had an eager look to know her reply.

"Velaiyadatha Janu. Olunga kelambi vaa. Ena idhu pudhu pazhakam? Inga vandhu elvo vena relax panikonga"

(Don't joke around Janu. Get ready and come. What's this a new habit? You can relax here as much as you want. "

Haha... If she has accepted at first instance, it won't be my mom. Let's give a little push. Anyways I am not losing anything in trying!

"Amma, please... Please... Allow us this one time... Please... "

We both pleaded her. I heard her sigh. What! OMG! It's gonna be the greatest miracle in history.

"Okay. This is the first and last time. I will not give permission for any other ideas like this. I know you guys worked hard all these months. So I allow this one time."

"Yessss! You are the best mom. Tell athai about this amma. Now we are going back to star gaze. Tata. See you soon."

We heard her chuckle.

"Okay. Don't stay longer on the terrace. You guys might be caught cold. Take care. Bye."

"Okay ma byeeee" "Okay athai take care"

We both did our little victory dance and resumed our star gaze.

After spending a good amount of time on the terrace we descended to our room like around 3 AM because we couldn't bear the chillness. I stirred in my bed because some i***t is murmuring something, thinking I couldn't hear. But I can.

Vidhu is talking to her boyfriend. She paused a moment to check on me before resuming as I remained still. They are planning to meet at some place today evening. Very Good. I begged my mom to give permission but here she is taking advantage over it. I mentally sighed before continuing my darling sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We woke up at 10 and slowly did our routine. It feels nice to relaaaxx without any hard commitments. We decided to watch 'back to back' movies in our laptop and chill with some ice-creams. It's been long since we had a movie day. So we decided to watch 'Charlie' [A Malayalam movie] and 'OK Kanmani' [A Tamil movie]. We settled without any argument over the selection of both the movies as they are our all-time favourites.

After spending almost the whole day in movies, I decided to do something useful. So I decided to wash my clothes. After drying up the clothes in the terrace, I found Vidhu in blue jeans and a white kurti top fully got ready to go somewhere. I already knew who she is going to meet

"Are you going out somewhere?"

"Haan... Yes, Janu. I have to return this costing reference book to Shruthy before we leave. So I thought, it is better to return her the book while we have time. If you want.. you can come."

She avoided my eyes and almost whispered the last sentence. Whenever she brings the name 'Shruthy', it actually means Ajay. And I knew it over the period of time.

"Hey, I don't feel like going out. You shall return the book as you said. We may not have time afterwards. Is it okay if I stay back?"

"No problem de. I will be back in an hour. Call me if you want anything"

"Okay Vidhu. Take care. And return before it gets late. I know you like to hang out with her. But don't make me worry. Bye."

She nodded and waved her hand. I sighed. Now I have to spend the evening alone. When will she tell me about.. whatever between her and Ajay? God. It's frustrating to know the truth as I knew whenever she lies. And I hate it.

I turned on 'Radio Mirchi' FM station on my mobile. What shall we do? Idea! jQuery21408600138173654839_1557224562067

I took my small bowl and started mixing the green dhal flour with rose water. Yep! I am going to put some face pack. I will do it once in a while. The last few weeks had been a lot of studying and now I got time to take care of my skin. After getting a perfect consistency, I applied it over my face and neck and massaged it while applying.

Now I have to set the timer for 20 mins. Yep! Done!

Within a few minutes, I heard my phone ringing. I might have slept that's how 30 minutes went in a jiffy. But I didn't feel like sleeping. What is the problem with my mobile? God! I am so stupid to keep the same music for my ringtone and alarm tone.

2 missed calls from Akash! Great!

I called him and turned on the loudspeaker as I don't want to wash my face pack earlier.

"Hey, Jaans! How are you? Have you forgotten me already? It hurts you know."

I could mentally imagine how he would be wiping his fake tears now. He is such a drama queen. During the exam time, we got closer as he helped me over my hard time. I even cried to him about how frustrating to read my Information technology subject. He motivated me over the phone and will call me daily to check about my progression. Sometimes I wondered how he didn't get through the first time as he helped me over all subjects and he solved most of the problems without doing twice. Brilliant i***t!

"Hey super senior. Didn't we speak last night? What's up, man? Grow up a little for your own goodness."

I love to tease him by calling 'super senior'. I don't know why but he will get irritated easily at mentioning the 'name'.

"For the millionth time, I am telling Ms.Janaki. I am not 'super-senior'. Call me by my name."

He gritted his teeth while telling that and also muttered 'God! She knew how to annoy me'

"I heard what you said. And you are always my super senior"

I giggled at imagining his frown.

"God! Leave it, woman. Hmm... What are you guys doing?"

"Vidhu went out to return some reference book to her friend and I am.. Hmm simply sitting"

I am not at all ready to give him a chance to tease me by telling about my face pack.

"Oh! Have Vidhu mentioned her friend name?"

I got alarmed. He never asked something like that. Also, he is using his serious tone. God! Don't make him aware of Vidhu. He might tell Prabhu mama. And there would be colourful consequences. I paused to think for a minute.

"Hey there Jaans?"

"Yep! She told me that she is going to meet Shruthy. Why are you asking Akash? Anything serious?"

The line went silent increasing my BP.

"Can you come to CCD, T-Nagar? Now? I wanna talk to you. Call me after reaching here. I will come and get you inside"

God! Why are you always putting me in some kind of tests? What shall I do? Has he spotted them together? Or he is asking for some casual hangout? But he has never been so serious! Or he might be playing with me? I am hoping for the later.

"Will be there in 10 minutes Akash. See you there. Bye"

"Bye. Come safely"

In spite of the knife hanging over my head, I felt so happy for his care. He fills in the place of my brother whom I'm missing more.

"Sure Akash."

Nice timing with my face pack. I quickly washed my face and got ready in my black jeans and a blue shirt. That's what I could grab first.

I reached there in auto and called him to come outside. He came out with his signature smile and lead me inside to the last corner table.

He didn't speak for a minute while I just stared at his face and realized that something is not right. He sighed and signalled me to look back over the opposite side. I stiffened as I already aware of what it could be. I slowly looked at the direction he showed. 'I am shocked' is an understatement. No doubt it's Vidhu and Ajay. But she was leaning on his shoulder with intertwined fingers and lost in their own world. How can she display herself like this in public? God! If my athai or amma would have seen her like this, they might have taken 'Kaali' avatar (the most aggressive form of Goddess Durga).

I couldn't look at them anymore. I weakly smiled at Akash who had a blank face.

"Do you knew this?"

I shifted uncomfortably in my table. He sighed and got up to get the order. He came with two cold coffees. I smiled at him for remembering the cold coffee is my favourite.

"Thanks, Akash. I had some doubts about her. That's why I often checked on her in our coaching centre's parking lot. But I never thought their relationship would have grown this much. "

He nodded his head understandingly.

"So you didn't confront her to avoid her going this way? I could tell by looking at their closeness, this is going on for the past few months. If you have taken any steps, she might not be here..like this. I knew your parents Jaans, and I am sure they will never permit this behaviour."

I sighed. He is absolutely correct.

"You are right Akash but I and Vidhu shared almost our whole life till now together. She never hid things to me. But when I realized something is off, I wanted her to open up about her relationship to me. She might be my cousin. But she has her own life and I just don't want to invade in her privacy. "

"But Vidhu should not take you for granted. Don't support her. I'm going to tell Prabhu about this. It may be her decision to be in a relationship. But it will surely affect her studies and her future. I am not going to permit that."

No! Already I have enough problems to deal in the name of Nandhini. No more!

"Akash. Please listen to me. I don't want to affect her emotions. Prabhu mama will surely do ask her to leave him. It might affect her emotionally. I... I will speak to her. I will ask her to hold this until she completes her studies. Is that okay? Please don't tell him. He is under the bad influence now. He might not make the right decision "

My voice sounded like a whisper while I convey my thought about Nandhini. I saw his expression getting softer. I got relaxed at his thinking composure.

OMG! THIS DAY COULD NOT GET MORE WORST!

"Akash whatever your decision is. I want a favour from you. We need to cover up Vidhu."

I turned back and saw Vidhu and Ajay standing but still speaking but they are about to leave. Akash looked confused.

"I don't understand you. What's the problem? Why we need to cover up her?"

I signalled him to look through the glass walls to point out my one and only Prabhu mama with Nandhini coming this way. His eyes widened and I could see him having an internal war in his mind. I saw them almost reached the door. He noticed them. I'm done today. Wait! I can try!

I almost dragged Akash towards them. He abruptly standing near the door and he is too doing his own mental battle. I pushed Akash before me to manage the situation.

"What a pleasant surprise man? Wow. How are you Nandhini? Nice to see you after a long time."

He shouted enough to grab the couple's attention and I saw Vidhu having a little heart attack. Then she noticed me. I signalled her to come here.

"I'm fine Akash. How have you been?" Nandhini replied with her fake smile while looking at us. Prabhu mama looked confused. Vidhu and Ajay came near us.

"Hmm... What are you guys doing here? Hmm, Vidhu, who is this?"

Prabhu mama questioned while mirroring confusion all over his face. Before she could answer, Akash replied.

"Meet Ajay. He is also a Final student and my friend. He helped Vidhu and Janu in studies. Now they came to return the reference book back to him. Coincidentally I got to meet them. I suggested having some coffee. That's why we are here."

Mama's face cleared as a smile crept it's way in his face and shook his hand with Ajay. And Ajay passed a smile towards Nandhini. He is keeping cool but my idiotic cousin is still in shock. She obviously needs some time to get back to normal as she almost got caught. She took small-small steps and stood next to me.

Now the actual problem almost got over, I am getting an awkward feel, after all, such dramas, this is the first time I am meeting Prabhu mama and Nandhini even though we have some phone conversations during exams. I understood Prabhu mama is also feeling the same while we locked our gaze for a moment and looked away immediately. I just need to get out of here. My all-time saviour paved a way for that also.

"Hey Prabhu, you would have come here to spend some time with sister. So I think we should leave and give you some space and it's been an hour already we got here. I think it's time to say bye"

The old Prabhu mama would have insisted us to stay and he would like to spend some time with us. But guess what he said.

"Okay, guys. Will see you later."

Great change man!

My rage reached its peak but I don't know why. We waved bye and got out. Vidhu tried to speak but I motioned her to stop.

"We will speak about it after reaching the hostel."

She nodded looked at Ajay and waved bye. I saw Akash having some unreadable expression on his face.

"I will call you after reaching there Akash. Sorry and Thanks. What you did means a lot to me."

He nodded and waved bye with a small smile before getting onto his FZ.

I stopped an auto and hopped into it and told him our address. Vidhu sat silently next to me. We have a BIG night ahead.