Nineties, the age of innocence and love, the days of floral midi skirts and double ponytails. As she sat dwelling over how some of the best days of her life would never return, Naina Aggarwal watched the sky turn a beautiful shade of pink.
It was one such evening back when she was eighteen, that she had learned one of the biggest lessons in love. A nave college girl, just out of school, it had taken her an entire day of undergoing the pains and hassles associated with waxing and threading to impress her beloved boyfriend. And now, she chuckles as she sips her cup of tea, wishing she could go back and slap her own teenaged self on the forehead. Because indeed what had ensued as a bid to impress him had ended in a way that she can still vividly imagine memories of that beautiful evening.
"Naina kya hua! Itni gussa kyun ho! Sameer, not unlike any other hassled boyfriend was utterly baffled. Naina had escaped home and asked him to meet her in the park that evening. He knew his Naina in some ways was just like any other girlfriend, getting angry and jealous at the slightest out of the way remark which he probably hadn't even cared to notice.
Oh no she wasn't. He smiled to himself. He adored the way she was jealous and angry, because he knew that what Naina and he had together was enough to transcend all these boundaries. He knew his Naina and she just wasn't any other girlfriend. The Naina who had the guts of a tiger, to have loved him despite all odds, to have written to him, to have cried for him, cried because of him and yet had the courage and the innocence to love him like none of that had happened. His Naina, who geared up courage to go on a bike ride with him and yet embarrassed on him seeing her bare and unwaxed legs.
So he was at his wit's end as to what had troubled her so much today!
Naina scowled, not knowing what to tell her buddhu boyfriend. Yahi ki maine itni mehnat se tumhaare liye wax kiya aur tum dekh hi nahi rahe ho Sameer!
"Naina batao na please His eyes, resembling that of a troubled puppy looked down at her, genuinally concerned.
"Sameer! Maine itni mehnat se apne pair... She bit her tongue, his Naina, uncontrollably and undoubtedly truthful before him. Naina! Ye kya bol rahi hai tu.
Sameer, still clueless, saw his dear girlfriend's face scrunched up in embarrassment as to what she had uttered. Legs? What about them? Is she hurt or...
Sameer looked down and stilled. Oh.
Naina blushed a deep shade of red, unable to understand why she was feeling so mortified when in fact she had been dying to see him notice her legs all morning!
Sameer looked up at her, his blushing and surprisingly still embarrassed girlfriend.
"Naina
"Sameer vo main... She blurted out but couldn't say anything more.
"Kya Naina? his voice softened, it had finally dawned on him the reason why Naina had been so embarrassed that day. She had done this for him!
"Vo mujhe laga..
"Ki tum beauty parlour nahi jaogi to main tumse kam pyaar karunga?
She looked up in his eyes, his straightforward remark startling her for a moment. And she noticed the way he looked almost... hurt?
Hey Bhagwaan, maine kuch galat kar diya kya.
"Nahi Sameer vo..
"Miss Naina Aggarwal His hands, moving of their own accord held hers and she let him hold them.
"Tum jaisi ho, mujhe waisi hi pasand ho. Jhalli si, pagal si, chinta karne wali aur sherni jaisi. Aur tum jitni hi mehnat kar lo, tumhaare ye eyebrows aur ye pair kabhi meri Naina ke dil se zyada khoobsurat lag hi nahi sakte!
Her hand shivered in his hold and Naina, for the first time in her life realized that in love it just didn't matter. She looked up at him and smiled sheepishly.
"Par haan tum beauty parlour jana chaho, zaroor jao, aur Naina mujhe achcha laga ki tumne mere liye itnii mehnat ki...par please itna samajh lo ki tum jaisi bhi ho, mere liye is duniya ki sabse khoobsurat ladki ho!
**
A/N- I just felt that though Naina and Sameer are at that stage of feeling judged or compared or 'not good enough', I really would love to see them realise that what they have indeed transcends superficial boundaries. That kind of love is far more difficult to find :)
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