Hello everyone, I am back with a new story. Thanks to all for voting and commenting on the previous story.

Just a warning, I have learned Physics only in my 9th and 10th standard, after that my only connection to Quantum Physics was when Sheldon Cooper used to do complicated formulas, and I didn't understand a thing, so please forgive me for all the blunders.

I wanted to write a college romance, but I wanted it to have a Professor. At first I thought of having romance between two Professors and I couldn't come up with a single scene, so I decided to go with Professor and student, but I didn't want the Professor to fall in love with a student, so this is the story I came up with.

Omkara sat with his grandmother as he listened to her talk to her old friend about old times. He turns to look at Gauri and sees her sitting with her head down but he knew she was listening to their grandmothers' talk because he had seen her chuckle couple of times. As if sensing him looking at her, she looks up at him and the moment their eyes locked, he smiles at her and she smiles back.

"Kalyani, we have been talking all this while and the people that should be talking are simply sitting here silently." Gauri's dadi says laughing.

Omkara's dadi turns to look at him and smiling she tells him, "Why don't you and Gauri, go out for a walk?"

Omkara nods and looks at Gauri, and sees her looking at him.

"Go, Gauri." Gauri's grandmother gently pushes her.

They were walking out wondering what to talk. Finally, Omkara decides to initiate the conversation.

"I was surprised when Dadi told me about this proposal." Omkara tells her.

"Why?" Gauri asks as she turned to look at him.

Omkara chuckles, "Actually, not like that. Out of the blue, she asked me about marriage and I told her that I feel I am ready, and she just whips out her mobile and shows me your photo. And two days later, I am here."

Gauri smiles hearing that.

"It's just you and dadi, right?" Gauri asks him.

"Yeah. I lost my parents when I was small. I don't really remember them. Dadi raised me. I am what I am is because of her. Dadi is my world."

"Is that why you decided to see Dadi's old friend's granddaughter?" Gauri asks curiously.

Omkara gives her a side glance and tells her, "I told you, I saw your photo."

Gauri blushes hearing that. Omkara smiles seeing her blush.

They were silent for a few minutes, then Omkara tells her. "I am a middle class man. I love my grandmother. I love my job. That is me."

"Even for me, it is only dadi." Gauri tells him.

"But I thought your mother was still..." Omkara stops in confusion.

Gauri hesitantly looks at him for a few seconds then looking away she whispers "I am not on talking terms with her."

Om was shocked hearing that but he simply nods as he thought about it.

Seeing that he didn't ask anything on that, Gauri curiously asks him, "You didn't ask anything about that."

"I thought you would tell me if you want me to know." Omkara tells her.

Gauri looks away and tells him, "I am not comfortable talking about it."

"Okay."

"Okay? that's it?" Gauri asks surprised.

"I trust my dadi, Gauri. if your issue with your mother was even the slightest fault of yours, then she would have never suggested you to me."

Gauri smiles hearing that.

"I was studying. I was having my holidays after the first year and Papa passed away. I had to discontinue my studies. Ma doesn't care for my studies. she would rather I find a rich guy and marry him. I don't want that. I want to finish my studies and make a name for myself. And Dadi can't afford my education now."

Omkara frowns hearing that, "You want me to sponsor your education?"

"Dadi showed me your photo and told me that you are a Professor. I feel a Professor knows the value of education."

"So, you are thinking of marrying me, because I value education and not for me?" Omkara asks feeling a little offended.

Gauri turns slightly pink and asks him, "Did you forget? I told you she showed me your photo."

Omkara smiles softly hearing that. they remained silent for a while. Finally, Omkara turns to her and tells her, "I like your honesty, Gauri."

"Honesty is all I have." Gauri whispers.

"I believe you have more than that."

**********

"Have you gone mad?" Omkara asks his dadi in exasperation. "Get married tomorrow?"

"Gauri already lost three months, if we delay the marriage then she would lose the entire semester." Dadi explains.

"So?" Om asks in shock. "Dadi, we don't know anything about each other. All we know is that we like each other's face."

"You only said you want to marry her."

"Yes. I still want to marry her. But not so suddenly. After a couple of months once we got to know each other better and have a good understanding of each other."

"You can get to know each other after marriage too, right? I saw your dadu on our wedding day."

"I will not jump into marriage blindly." Omkara tells her stubbornly.

"Gauri can't stay here for long. Her mother is trying to take her with her." Dadi tells her gently.

"She is an adult, dadi. She can decide where she wants to stay."

"Even she wants to get married as soon as possible."

"Why?" Omkara asks shocked.

"She has her reasons."

"What reasons?"

"I can't tell you. I promised them."

"What?" Omkara asks shocked and outrage.

"It's not anything serious. It is a silly reason. It won't make any difference to you, I know that." Dadi says in a dismissing tone.

"Then why can't you tell me?" Omkara asks exasperated.

"I can't tell you. when she is ready, she herself will tell you."

Omkara stares at his grandmother for a while then he asks her, "Do you realize that you are painting her a little shady?"

"It's a worry that Gauri has. You can say, a lack of self-confidence type. I told you it is not anything serious."

"Then why can't you just spell it out so I can clear that worry for once and all?"

"For that you need to gain her trust, Om."

Om looks at his grandmother in shock. "You expect me to marry a girl that has some issue that you won't even tell me about?"

"You can say no to the marriage. I am sure Devki will find another boy for her granddaughter." Dadi says with a shrug.

"WHAT?"

"I told you, Om. it is your decision who you want to marry. You can say no and it is not going to affect Devki's and my friendship. So, you have nothing to worry about." Dadi says and turns to walk off. "I'll tell her that you changed your mind?"

Om quickly holds her hand and turns her around to face him. Then he asks her as he frowns at her, "You knew that would freak me out, didn't you?"

His Dadi cheekily grins at him, "I knew that you liked more than that beautiful face of hers."

Om glares at her for having trapped him.

**********

"Dadi was saying that you have some concerns or issues because of which you want to get married fast." Om tells her as they again took a walk.

"Yes."

"What are they?"

"I am not comfortable talking about it." Gauri tells him.

"Dadi is pretty sure that it is not going to make any difference to me."

"I am not that sure." Gauri whispers.

"So, don't you think you should tell me that?" Om asks her frowning.

Gauri stops walking as she worriedly looks at him.

Seeing the worry in her eyes, Om sighs in exasperation.

"Is it something to do with your mother?" Om asks her.

"Yes." Gauri whispers.

"Why would something regarding your mother matter to me?"

"Because she is my mother." Gauri whispers to him as she looked down.

Om sighs and tells her, "I don't think it would matter to me."

Gauri doesn't say anything.

"Dadi was saying that you want to get married fast."

"Yes."

"I don't want to get married so soon." Om tells her. "I like you but I want to get to know you more."

"I understand." Gauri nods.

"I don't want us to jump into marriage without knowing anything about each other. We should get to know each other. Form a bond. Have an understanding. We should know what we want from each other and what to expect from each other."

When Gauri remains silent, Om asks her, "What are you thinking?"

Gauri looks up at him and tells him, "I like you. and I do want to marry you but I don't want to rush you into anything."

Om smiles hearing that. "How about we get engaged? Tomorrow is fine with me. then you come with Dadi and me."

"What?" Gauri asks as she looked at him in shock.

"Stay with us. join college. Continue your studies and once we know each other well, we get married."

**********

Om was lying on the sofa as he looked at his engagement ring. He still couldn't believe that he got engaged. Gauri was a stranger to him but he had still bound his life to hers. Sighing softly, he thought of Gauri.

He liked her. He liked her honesty. Her thirst for education. The way she treated his and her grandmothers. The way she smiles at him. The way she was brave enough to show her worries. And he trusted Dadi enough to have trust in Gauri. and he realized that Dadi was right, Gauri needs to learn to trust him to share her insecurities with him. He wasn't worried about whatever her issue was because he knew Dadi wouldn't brush it off as silly if it was not. All he was worried about was building that trust in him. That trust was more important to him that the concern she had.

Hearing someone clearing their throat, Om curiously looks up and sees Gauri.

Om smiles and sits up.

"Aren't you sleepy?" Gauri asks him.

"I sleep late." Om tells her. "What about you?"

"Late." Gauri tells him smiling.

"Sit." Om tells her as he patted the empty space next to him.

Gauri walks to him and sits next to him.

"Have you done with your packing?" Om asks her.

"Almost. I wanted to ask you something."

"Yeah?"

"The college... is there any dress code?"

"Dress code?"

"Yes, like restrictions. Not to wear jeans, leggings, sleeveless or dupattas are a must... like that."

Om curiously looks at her.

"Taayi... who comes to clean the house... her daughter is starting college. So she asked me to give her my clothes that I am not taking with me. so, I just wanted to make sure what I can give her."

"Oh... dress should be below knee and I have seen students wear sleeveless. So I think that is fine."

"Oh okay."

"But that is the case with my college. If you don't get admission in my college then we will have to look for another college. So, just keep something as backup."

"Okay."

They remained silent for a few seconds then Gauri worriedly asks him, "Do you think I am using you?"

"For your studies?" Om asks her.

"Yes."

"Hmmm." Om looks at her. "Are you?"

"If it was someone else in your place, I might not have agreed for the wedding." Gauri tells him.

"I guess that is all that matters." Om tells her smiling.

Gauri smiles hearing that.

"Why do you like me?" Om asks her.

"You didn't ask me about my mother. You are very respectful. I like the way you care for your grandmother. The way you treat my grandmother with respect. The way you..." Gauri blushes as she looks down.

"The way I what?" Om asks smiling happily seeing her blush.

"Look at me... smile at me... talk to me." Gauri shyly whispers.

"I guess it is the same way, you look at me, smile at me and talk to me." Om tells her as he leaned a little close to her.

Gauri smiles happily hearing that.

"I didn't think marrying to complete my education was the right thing." Gauri tells him. "Dadi insisted. Dadi had brought other proposal before but I had said no. then she showed me your photo and told me that you were a professor. I couldn't say no, I just couldn't.... then when I met you..." Gauri shyly stops.

Om smiles hearing that.

"When do we leave tomorrow?"

"11. Are you sad about leaving your grandmother?"

"I came here after Papa passed away. I am used to living away from her. but I'll miss her."

Om nods then he asks curiously, "I forgot to ask you, what stream are you in?"

"B.Sc Physics."

"Oh." Om thoughtfully says.

"What happened?"

"I am the head of Physics department. I teach Physics."

"You do?" Gauri asks smiling.

"Yeah." Om smiles seeing her smile. "The thing is, I don't know if the college management will agree to have my fiancé in my class."

"Oh." Gauri says disappointed.

"Let's see. If not, we will fix another college." Om tells her.

"What would you rather have? Me in your college or some other college?"

"It doesn't matter." Om shrugs. "If you are in my college, you will be my student only. You won't get any special consideration."

Gauri nods with a gentle smile.

"Ah, if you are in my college, we might get concession on fees. The staff's family gets concession."

"that would be nice." Gauri says smiling.

"Let's see. Even without the concession it is okay."

"Thank you."

"We are going to spend our life together; we don't have to say thank you to each other."

Gauri smiles. "I'm happy I am marrying you."

"Even I am happy; I am marrying you."

**********

Gauri reached Om's flat. It was a two-bedroom flat. Gauri quickly got settled in Dadi's room. the day after they reached, Om had gone to college as his long-weekend was over. That day, Gauri got acquainted with Dadi and the house.

Evening, hearing the doorbell Gauri curiously turns to Dadi.

"It will be Om, go open." Dadi tells her smiling.

Gauri felt an excitement rush through her, it was the strangest thing, she had missed him the whole day and she had no idea why.

Gauri opens the door and smiles happily seeing Om.

"How come you are so fast, today?" Om asks as he looked up and stops seeing Gauri. he smiles happily seeing her, "Hey." Om whispers as he leaned on the doorframe looking at her.

"Hi... How was your day?" Gauri asks him smiling.

"Good... and yours?"

"Good." Gauri says smiling.

"Are you just going to stand there? You are not coming in?" Dadi asks him.

Om rolls his eyes and walks in. "And it is good to see you too, Dadi."

"Strange, I didn't even see you look at me." Dadi replies as she went back to watch TV.

Om looks at Gauri and sees her blushing happily.

"Your admission is ready." Om tells her.

"Is it?" Gauri asks excitedly.

"Yeah." Om smiles seeing her excitement.

"So fast?"

"I spoke to the Principal early in the morning. By afternoon he had spoken to the management. I have submitted all your certificates. Tomorrow I will finish all the admission formalities. Day after you can start."

"Oh Thank you." Gauri says happily jumping.

Om smiles. "You don't have to thank me."

"Congratulations, Gauri." Dadi tells her smiling.

"Thank you, Dadi." Gauri says as she ran to her and hugged her.

Om frowns seeing that. What the hell did Dadi do to get a hug? It was him who had ran around the whole day for admission.

"I will call Dadi and tell her." Gauri says excitedly as she ran to her room which she now shared with Dadi.

"And Gauri, get ready. We will get your books and all today itself." Om calls out to her.

"Okay."

**********

Om had booked an uber to take them. After they had bought the necessary books and stationary, since Gauri still had her backpack from the previous year, she decided not to buy a new one. Om took Gauri to a helmet store.

"Tomorrow, I'll bring all your text books from college." Om tells her as they walked together.

"I never thought, I would find someone who would support me like this." Gauri tells Om as she felt her eyes fill up.

Om smiles hearing that. "It is no longer your dream or my dream, it's our dream."

Gauri smiles hearing that. "Our dream."

"But in college, I'm Professor Oberoi, okay?"

"Okay, Professor Oberoi." Gauri says saluting him making Om chuckle.

Om turns to look at the helmets.

"What about outside?" Gauri asks him softly.

"Outside I am your fiancé."

"What do I call my fiancé?"

"Hmmm... what do you want to call him?" Om asks as he picked a helmet and gently placed it on her head.

Gauri giggles, suddenly feeling funny for wearing the helmet.

"Is it correct? Comfortable?" Om asks her.

"No. Tight" Gauri replies. "Why do I need a helmet?"

"Because I go to college by Bike." Om replies as he removed the helmet and looked for another one.

"We are going to go together?" Gauri asks.

"Yeah. But I need to go early and stay back an hour after college hours as my work time is that. So, you will have to wait in college then."

"Okay." Gauri tells him.

Om places another helmet on Gauri's head. "How about this?"

"Good."

"So what are you planning to call your future husband?"

"Can I call him Omki?"

Om smiles as he pulled down the glass shield on the helmet. "Yes, I think he would like that."

"What would he call his fiancé?"

"He likes the name Gauri a little too much. So, he'll stick with that."

Gauri smiles hearing that.

**********

Soon it was the day for Gauri to join college. She excitedly got ready in the morning. The previous night itself, she had packed her college bag, then set out a top and jeans to wear and her helmet along with it.

Gauri comes out of her bedroom ready and stops seeing Om come out of his room. Om stops to look at her and smiles seeing her.

"Ready?"

"Yes." Gauri says smiling happily.

"Let's go then." Om says smiling.

Om gets on the bike. Gauri wears her backpack then her helmet. Once Om had settled on the bike, Gauri straddles his bike, and then sitting up straight, she keeps her hands on her thighs to balance herself.

"Okay, go." Gauri tells him.

After finishing the final formalities, Om takes Gauri to her class.

"I'll just introduce you to the class." Om tells her.

"You go, I'll manage."

"Normally one of the staff introduces the new admission." Om explains.

"Oh okay."

"I think I have the third period with you today." Om tells her.

"Okay, Professor Oberoi." Gauri says smiling at him.

Om grins hearing that.

"Excuse me, Professor Sinha." Om says as he stood at the door.

"Yes, Professor Oberoi?" he stops and he starts to walk to the door.

Om enters the class and gestures Gauri to follow him. Seeing Omkara enter, the students stands up. Om gestures them to sit.

"I just came to introduce her." Om tells the professor and then turning to the class, he says "This is the new admission, Gauri Kumari Sharma."

"Oh okay. Middle of third semester?" Professor Sinha asks.

"Family issues." Om vaguely replies then turning to scan the students, his gaze stops at one girl. "Anika, please help her with the notes."

"Yes." Anika replies as she smiled at Gauri.

Gauri smiles back at her.

"You can sit there." Om tells Gauri as he pointed at an empty chair on the second row end. Each student was sitting on individual chairs.

Gauri nods. "Thank you, Professor Oberoi." Gauri says and walks to take her place.

A small smile slip through Om's lips hearing her. then he quickly leaves the class.

"So, Gauri, why don't you introduce yourself to the class?" Professor Sinha asks her.

**********

"Bhavya, exchange seats with me." Anika tells her as she stood up.

Bhavya moves to Anika's seat and Anika takes Bhavya's seat next to Gauri.

"Hi, I am Anika." Anika says smiling at her.

"Hi, I am Gauri."

"That is Bhavya." Anika introduces her.

Gauri smiles at her.

"Professor Oberoi, asked me to help you with the notes." Anika reminds her.

"Yes, that would be really helpful." Gauri tells her smiling.

"I can give you my notes, so how do you plan to take it? Are you going to copy them or take photocopy?"

"I'll take photocopy." Gauri tells her as copying three months' worth of notes would take her forever. "If you could give one subject a day then I can photocopy it and return it the next day."

"Yeah sure, I can do that." Anika tells her.

"Thank you so much."

"No worries. So, where did you study before this?"

**********

"What period is it now?" Gauri asks as it was the third period and she was dying to see Omki. She was also excited to see how he taught.

"Physics. Professor Oberoi, you met him in the morning. The hot teacher." Bhavya tells her.

"Oh yeah." Gauri replies as she couldn't help the smile.

"He is the best teacher. Very friendly and teaches also well. We all love him. He is actually the students' favorite teacher." Anika tells her. "He is the head of our department."

Gauri felt pride fill her seeing the obvious love they had for her Omki. Every teacher gets love and respect from students, but to be the favorite teacher of many students, is not easy.

Hearing the class falling silent and students standing up, Gauri looks up to see Om walk in. she also stands up as she looked at him. He gestures everyone to sit. For a second, he looked at her then he looks away as he leaned on the teacher's desk.

"So, how was your long weekend?" Om asks them smiling.

There were varied answers in varied volumes. They all spoke for some time, some sharing their weekend trip and some sharing some funny incident that happened. Om listened to all, joking and teasing.

"What happened to you last two days, Professor Oberoi?" a boy asks curiously. "You didn't come to class."

"I had some work, Adit. But I did sent assignments. Did you do them?"

"Yeah."

Om chuckles. "I don't believe that."

"Almost done." Adit confesses.

"That I believe. Anyway, I am giving you all an extension. you need to submit only day after."

"Yes!" Some students say in relief.

"That way new admission can also submit her assignment." Om says as he looked at Gauri.

Gauri's heart skipped a beat when he directly looked at her. Sensing everyone's eyes on her, she nods her head.

"Anika please give her the details regarding the assignments." Om tells her.

"Sure."

"And you'll give her the notes, right? Physics I'll give. Rest of the subjects you can give, right?" Om asks her.

"Yes, I'll give." Anika replies smiling.

"Okay, let's start then?" Om asks as he walked to the white board grabbing a marker.

Gauri watched as Om wrote a problem on the board.

"I explained this in the last class. Let's see who can solve it." Om says as he kept the marker on the table.

Gauri sees 2-3 students raise their hands including Anika. She looks at Om and sees him looking at all the students with their hands raised. His gaze ends on Anika.

"Anika." Om says her name.

Anika quickly gets up and walks to the board. Gauri was curiously watching Anika take the marker and walk to the board. Once Anika started writing, Om walks towards the students.

Gauri curiously looks up feeling Om stop near her. Om gestures her to sit on Anika's chair. Gauri gets up and sits on Anika's chair. Om sits on her chair. Gauri curiously looks at him and sees him watch what Anika was writing.

"All okay?" Om softly asks her as he continued to stare at the board.

Gauri nods as she smiled. Then she sees him smiling.

"Professor Oberoi." The boy sitting behind calls him in a whisper as he leaned forward.

"Yeah?" Om asks as he leaned back, making the chair lean on just the back legs as he continued to watch what Anika was writing.

"Professor Sinha is not letting me go for football tournament."

"Why?" Om asks as he continued to read what Anika was writing.

"Attendance shortage."

"But you get grace attendance from sports."

"Still short."

"How come?"

"His class is boring."

Om turns and gives him a look. The boy makes pleading face.

"First and last time I am doing this for you, Dandi." Om warns him.

"Yes, I promise."

"Okay, I'll talk to him. And you better bring the cup."

"I'll." Dandi says. "And you are the best, Professor Oberoi."

"I know." Om smugly replies making Gauri smile.

"You can sit here." Om tells Gauri as he stood up as Anika finished solving the problem on the board. Then he loudly says, "It's correct. Everyone please note it down."

Gauri quickly notes it down. Once done, she looks up and sees Om leaning by the window as he waited for everyone to finish copying the answer. He was just watching everyone write.

"You're staring." Anika whispers to her.

Gauri quickly looks down blushing.

"Don't waste your time. He doesn't date students." Anika whispers to her.

Gauri nods as she looked down.

"So many girls have proposed him and he has turned them all down."

Gauri tried her best to control the smile that was threatening to spread across her face, because she knew, he was hers.

"Oh okay. I was just looking." Gauri tells her.

"Yeah, right!" Anika chuckles.

"What are you guys talking?" Bhavya asks curiously as she leaned towards them.

"Gauri is smitten." Anika cheekily tells her.

"No." Gauri quickly whispers.

"Smitten?" Bhavya asks curiously. "Professor Oberoi?"

"Yeah." Anika says grinning.

"Aren't we all?" Bhavya asks dramatically sighing.

Anika giggles hearing that making Gauri also giggle.

Hearing them, Om curiously looks at them. Seeing him looking at them, they quickly stop and sits up straight.

"Finished?" Om asks them.

All three girls nods.

Shaking his head, he walks to the teacher's table. "Done?" he asks loudly. When everyone confirms, he says as he walked to the board. "Let's move on to the next topic."

Gauri watched as Omkara started explaining. She was amazed at how beautifully and in the simplest way he had explained the complicated topic. He repeats the explanation twice more, and Gauri just didn't understand why he had to do that because she had understood it clearly the first time he had explained. Then he had patiently clarified the doubts that some students asked.

Towards the end of class, he checked the time. when it was three minutes to the bell, he started taking attendance. The moment he finished with the attendance, the bell rang. Without looking at her, he had walked out.

**********

After class was over, Anika hands her one of her notebooks.

"Thank you. I'll return it tomorrow." Gauri tells her smiling.

"No problem. Do you know the photocopy place? Do you want me to show you?"

"If you don't mind." Gauri tells her smiling.

"Sure. Come." Anika says as they grabbed their bags.

Anika and Bhavya takes her to the photocopy store in the campus. Even shows her the internet café if she wanted to kill time while the photocopies were made.

"We've to go now. Our bus is in 10 minutes. How are you going?" Anika asks her.

"Er... I've pick and drop." Gauri tells her.

"Ah okay. see you tomorrow, Gauri."

"Bye, Gauri." Bhavya also says.

"Bye girls." Gauri says.

Gauri hands the book for photocopying then she went to the internet café to start working on her Physics assignment.

After the hour was up, Gauri quickly grabbing her things goes to collect the photocopies. She was paying for the photocopies when Om calls her.

"Hi." Smiling happily Gauri answers the call as she kept everything in her bag and started walking out.

"Hi Gauri." Om says smiling. "Where are you?"

"I was just getting the photocopies."

"Okay, I'll come there."

"No, I am done. I'll meet you at the parking?"

"Okay."

Gauri reaches the parking area and sees Om leaning on his bike waiting for her. Since the students had left, the parking area was deserted. Gauri hurries to him seeing him smile at her.

Om stands up when Gauri reaches him. Then surprising her, he holds her waist, lifting her up, he turns around and makes her sit on the bike. Gauri giggles happily. Om continues to smile at her as he held her waist.

"How was your first day?"

"Awesome. You have no idea how much I missed college."

"I can understand from your smile." Om tells her smiling.

Gauri smiles even more hearing that.

"And thank you for getting me my first friend here." Gauri tells him happily.

"Anika is a nice girl. Class topper and her notes are also good." Om tells her.

Gauri quickly holds his collar and pulls him to her a little. "How dare you praise other girls in front of me?"

Om chuckles seeing the way she was grinning. "I see you girls have bonded well."

Gauri grins as she let go off his collar. "Why didn't you tell me that you were a stud here?"

Om chuckles hearing that.

"That girls are going gaga over you."

"Ah... I did wonder what you were giggling about." Om tells her chuckling.

"They were saying you don't date students."

"Well they are my students."

"And what about teachers? I saw a beautiful teacher."

"Who was that?" Om asks curiously.

"Don't know her name." Gauri says feeling a little jealous.

"I don't know who you are talking about. I never looked at them like that. They are my colleagues and students."

"And me?" Gauri asks shyly.

"You are..." Om thinks as he moved closer to her as he gently wrapped his hand around her waist. "You... hmmm.... I don't know."

Gauri nods as she looked down. Then she nervously plays on the button on his shirt, "I think... I am falli..." Gauri stops.

"You what?" Om asks eagerly and surprised.

Gauri looks up and couldn't help smile happily seeing his smile and the eagerness. "I'll tell you when you tell me."

Om's smile drop and he gently asks her, "You know I am not there yet, right?"

Gauri nods then she looks down and worriedly asks him, "You will get there, right?"

Om lovingly holds her chin and gently lifts her face to look at him. "I never thought of these people like that because I never felt that connection or pull towards them. All my life, I have felt that connection and pull towards only one person. And there were some red flags but I decided to marry her because this connection and pull was something that I couldn't and didn't want to ignore."

Gauri's face breaks out into a big smile. "Even I felt it. Only with you."

Om smiles happily.

"Thank you for coming into my life." Gauri says as she hugged him happily.

Om was surprised at the hug and was about to hug her when she quickly moves back.

"Sorry..." Gauri says as she moved back nervously. "I am big into hugs." Gauri confesses softly, feeling too embarrassed.

"I know." Om tells her with a teasing smile. "I have noticed you hug every other person in the room."

"I only hugged our dadis." Gauri tells him as she looked down.

"I know. Everyone else." Om repeats.

Gauri looks up and seeing the look on his face, she blushes. Grinning, Om holds her hand and pulls her towards him. Gauri slightly lifts off the bike and crashes on his chest. Om hugs her.

Gauri hugs him shyly.

"We should go. Dadi would be waiting." Gauri shyly whispers to him.

"Okay." Om says with a smile as he stepped back. Then he takes her hand and tells her, "I am so happy to see that you care for Dadi."

"She is my Dadi too."

"Yes." Om agrees smiling.

"And my Dadi is your Dadi now." Gauri tells him.

"Yes." Om agrees smiling.

"Let's go?" Om asks as he tried to leave her hand.

Gauri quickly holds his hand. Om curiously looks at her.

"When I was growing up, I got to see Dadi only very rarely." Gauri tells him.

"Why is that?" Om asks her curiously.

"Papa and Mama had a love marriage. Dadi never liked Mama." Gauri explains.

"Oh."

"So, we very rarely went to see Dadi. Then Papa was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis."

Om nods as he gently covered their hands with his other hand.

"Papa was an alcoholic." Gauri tells him. "And all our savings went into his treatment, still we couldn't save him."

Om nods his heart going out to Gauri, feeling her pain.

"That time I got close to Dadi." Gauri explains then looking into his eyes, she tells him, "Now our Dadis and you... you three are my family. I have no one else other than you three."

Om smiles at her. "Even I have no other family, Gauri. only you three."

Gauri smiles hearing that. Om leans down and gently kisses her forehead. Gauri blushes happily.

"Feel like sharing anything else?" Om asks her smiling.

Gauri shakes her head in negative. "Not now." Gauri smiles.

"Then let's go." Om tells her.

Gauri moves out of the way so he can get on the bike. Om passes her helmet before he wore his. Then he turns to start the bike.

"Omki." Gauri calls him.

"Yeah?" Om asks her as he turned to her.

Gauri shakes her head with a smile.

"What?" Om asks chuckling.

"I was dying to call you Omki the whole day, Professor Oberoi." Gauri tells him smiling.

Om laughs hearing that. "I know, new admission."

**********

Omkara rings the doorbell.

"Why don't you carry a key?" Gauri asks curiously as she took out her key and put it in the key hole.

Gauri tries to turn the key but it was stuck. Gauri curiously turns to Om and sees him cheekily grinning at her.

"I have my key with me but Dadi never removes her key from the key hole." Om tells her.

"Oh." Gauri says as she took off the key.

Dadi opens the door. Gauri happily hugs her while she started telling her how amazing the day was. Om watches them for a few seconds and then he walks to his room.

"Omki!" Gauri calls out to him.

"Yeah?" Om stops as he looked at her.

"I was trying to do the assignment that you gave but I had some doubts will you clear it for me?" Gauri asks him as she walked to him.

"Actually, I was thinking of teaching you all that that was taught in class so far." Om tells her.

"You would do that?" Gauri asks excitedly.

"Of course." Om says smiling. "We will rest for an hour then we will start."

"Thank you." Gauri says excitedly as she hugged him.

Om hugs her with a smile. Then noticing Dadi watching them in shock, Om tells her, "Dadi is looking at us."

"Oh." Gauri quickly moves back as she smiled at Dadi.

Dadi blushes as she looked away.

Om was teaching Gauri in the living room when Dadi comes and sits to watch TV.

"Om, you both go to your room and teach her. I am going to watch TV." Dadi tells them.

"Okay. Come, Gauri." Om says as he stood up. "You get your things; I'll get the chair."

Gauri gathers everything while Om took a chair from the dining table set and took his to his room.

He had a table and chair in the corner with books. Om keeps the chair next to his. Then he went out to help Gauri get her books.

They were walking to his room when Dadi calls out to them, "Keep the bedroom door open."

Om turns to her in outrage and asks her, "Seriously, Dadi?"

"You can close the door after marriage, Omki."

Gauri turns pink hearing her say the name she uses for Om.

"You are mad, Dadi." Om declares and he turns to walk then he stops and tells her, "And don't call me Omki."

"Why?" Dadi asks cheekily.

"Because you'll ruin it for me." Om says shuddering then he walks off.

Blushing happily, Gauri follows him.

Om was explaining to Gauri when he sees her watching him.

"What happened?" Om asks her.

Gauri smiles and says, "You are a very good teacher, Omki."

"Thank you." Om says smiling.

"I felt so proud when Anika and Bhavya were praising you. they all love you a lot." Gauri tells him.

Om holds her hand and squeezes it. They smile at each other.

They were happily looking at each other, holding hands when "ACHOOO"

Om lets go off her hand and closes his eyes in exasperation. Then without even turning to look at her, he shouts out, "We were just talking, DADI!"

"I was just sneezing, Omkara!"

"Yeah right!" Om says as he turns to look at her. "And you wanted us to get married just three days back."

"And you refused." She points out. "I don't know, what all I have to witness before you two are married."

Om gapes at her in shock then he turns to look at Gauri to see how she was taking it. Her face was beetroot red as she blushed. Om had the uncontrollable urge to kiss her. he quickly looks away.

"We should get back to this." Om whispers.

Gauri nods.

**********

Next day, in college, the first period was again Professor Sinha. He takes the attendance. Once his attendance was done, Dandi stands up.

"Can I leave, Professor?" Dandi asks him.

He looks at him and nods, "Yeah, Dandi go. Come back for your next period and give attendance."

"Okay. thank you, Professor." Dandi says and starts to walk out.

"Where are you going?" Bhavya asks him curiously as she turned to look at him.

"Football practice. Next month tournament is starting." Dandi explains.

Gauri couldn't hide the smile so she quickly looked down. Omki had kept his word.

After that Dandi came back for every class to just give his attendance and he would go for practice or football related meetings.

**********

Gauri quickly noticed a pattern in Om's class. He would come and first five minutes he would talk to the students. Then only he would start his class. If he makes someone solve a problem on the board then he would go sit in that person's chair, and if that person was sitting in the middle of the row then he will have students shift their seats, as he always sat at the end of a row or anywhere in the front row. He ignores her completely during the classes, only once or twice he would look at her but that too for a split second or so.

Gauri had finished getting all the notes from Anika. Now, when she waited for Om after classes, she utilized that time to study the old portions. Any doubts she had she checked with Anika, only those that Anika couldn't help her with that she would sort out with the Professor. Anika, Bhavya and her had become a gang now and they mostly hung out together.

One day to clear a doubt, Gauri goes to the staff room. she was about to open the door when she hears Om ask her from behind her.

"Are you here to see me?"

Gauri turns back and smiles seeing him. "No... I have maths doubt, I was here for Professor Malhotra."

"Okay... I'll check if he is here." Om says as he walked into the staff room. then he opens the door for her, "He is sitting there."

"Okay." Gauri replies and walks to the Professor's table.

She curiously turns to look at Om and sees him sitting on his table and he was watching her. he smiles at her then he starts working.

"Excuse me, Professor Malhotra." Gauri softly calls him.

He looks up and curiously looks at her. "Yes?"

Gauri realized that he didn't recognize her. she hated doing it as she knew not every teacher were alike and their strengths were different, but she couldn't help compare him to Omki. Omki knew each student by name and the way he talked to them it always felt that he knew that student and had a one on one vibe with them.

"I am Gauri Kumari Sharma, from second year B.Sc Physics."

"Ah... ah... the new admission." He says finally recognizing her.

"Yes, Professor. I had some doubts, I was hoping you could clear them for me."

"Sure... sure... what are those?" he asks as he closed the book he was writing.

*********

"happy birthday!" Gauri says hugging Bhavya.

"Thank you." Bhavya says as she hugged her.

"We were talking and she is taking us for lunch after college." Anika tells Gauri.

"Really?" Gauri asks smiling.

"Yes." Bhavya says excitedly. "After that we should go window shopping."

"Awesome!" Anika says excited.

Gauri smiles then she takes her mobile and messages Om.

Today is Bhavya's birthday and she is treating us for lunch. After that, we are planning to go for window shopping.

Few minutes later, Om replies.

Okay... so by what time will you be free? Should I wait here or come and pick you from where you are?

Gauri thinks for a few seconds and replies to him.

You go home. I will either take an auto or bus. Just tell me the details so I can get home.

I can wait, Gauri.

No, Omki... I want to get familiar with the routes and the city, so I can travel around.

Okay then. Then he gives her the details on how to get home.

**********

Om walks into the class later that day. He smiles at everyone then he turns and looks at Bhavya.

"Happy birthday, Bhavya." Om tells her smiling.

"Thank you, Professor. How did you know?" Bhavya asks smiling excitedly.

"Gauri mentioned it." Om tells her.

Gauri's eyes widen in shock hearing his slip up.

"When did you tell him?" Bhavya asks her in surprise.

"Yesterday when I was asking him doubts." Gauri quickly tells her as she opened her book to not look at Bhavya.

"Ah okay."

**********

Gauri was with Anika and Bhavya having lunch.

"By the way, I overheard Ishana talking." Bhavya says excitedly.

"What?" Anika asks curiously.

"She was saying Professor Oberoi has been wearing a ring for some time now. She was wondering whether he got engaged."

Gauri quickly looks down as she held her ring, starting to feel guilty about hiding their engagement from her friends.

"I looked today and he is wearing a ring."

"But what if he was always wearing the ring? I never noticed it." Anika says thoughtfully.

"Even I was wondering that. If he got engaged he would have mentioned it, right?" Bhavya asks.

"Yeah." Anika agrees.

Gauri felt really guilty for hiding it from her friends, for a few seconds she wondered about talking to Omki about it, then decided against it. It would be awkward for him if people realized that his fiancé was one of his students, even if she was already his fiancé before she became his student.

**********

Gauri rings the bell and Om opens the door for her.

"How was your day?" Om asks her smiling.

"Good." Gauri tells him smiling.

"I missed you." Om tells her in a soft voice.

Gauri smiles hearing that. "Where is Dadi?"

"Kitchen."

Gauri quickly hugs him. "I missed you too."

"Then why did it take you so long to get home?" Om asks her in a teasing tone as he hugged her.

"They wouldn't let me leave." Gauri tells him.

"At least, please close the main door." Dadi tells them.

Gauri quickly jumps back while Om sighing closes the door.

"Not only me, the whole building will go blind at this rate." Dadi mutters.

"I thought you were in the kitchen." Om tells her as he turned to her.

"You can't escape me. my eyes are everywhere."

"And you blame us for you going blind?" Om asks her cheekily.

Blushing Gauri walks off to her room.

**********

Next day, Gauri was walking with Om when she notices Om turn to the other side.

"Your first period is with us. today is Thursday." Gauri tells him.

"I know." Om tells her with a cheeky smile as he looked her up and down.

Gauri blushes seeing him smile.

"I'll come after the bell rings. There is still about an hour for that."

Gauri smiles and walks off. they always came early. Since Omki's work timing was that because he was the department head. that is also the reason that none of the students have seen them come and go together so far. She goes to her class and she was as usual the first one there. She uses that time to catch up on her portions.

Om had finished off taking the attendance when they hear the bell.

"So, I'll see you all tomorrow." Om says and starts to leave then he stops and turns to look at Gauri. "Gauri, please come with me for a minute."

Gauri nods and follows him out. She could feel everyone's curious eyes on her and she felt a little blush creep up her face.

Om walks away from the class and stops.

"I forgot to ask you."

"Yeah?"

"Yesterday, you said that you wanted to learn the routes and city."

"Hmmm."

"I was wondering whether you would rather take an auto or bus daily instead of waiting for me or coming early."

"No. I like coming with you." Gauri quickly tells him then realizing what she had said, she quickly stammers, "I meant..."

"I understood." Om tells her with a cheeky grin making Gauri blush.

"Ah, your Professor is coming. I'll see you later."

"Okay, bye." Gauri says and hurries to class.

"Why did he call you?" Anika asks curiously.

"He was asking whether I am able to catch up with the class." Gauri quickly lies.

"Oh okay."

**********

Gauri reaches the parking area and sees Om leaning on the bike waiting for her. Gauri walks to him and stops in front of him.

"Hi." Gauri says smiling.

Om quickly wraps his hand around her waist and pulls her towards him. "So... what were we discussing earlier?"

Gauri blushes as she squirmed in his arms to free herself, then realizing how her chest was pressing up against his, she stops, blushing.

Om leans down and kisses her cheek. Then he starts sensuously kissing her cheek.

"Someone will come." Gauri whispers as she gripped his shirt.

"At home, Dadi is everywhere." Om says leaning back. "I think this is the safest place for us."

Gauri giggles hearing him. "Come, let's leave."

Om smiles at her as he stood up. Then he sits on the bike and hands her helmet. He wears his helmet. Gauri straddles the bike and sits like her usual stance.

"You like coming on bike with me then why won't you hold me?" Om asks her curiously.

"I always sit on bike like this." Gauri tells him.

"Hmmm." Om kick stars the bike and feels Gauri keep her hands on his either side shoulders.

"If you wanted me to hold you then you should have told me, Omki." Gauri cheekily tells him.

Om grins as he looked at her hand on his shoulder then he gently kisses her hand making her blush.

**********

"Are we having a free period now?" Dandi asks loudly.

"No... Professor is coming." Ishana who was the class monitor informs him.

"Can you tell him I had come? I have practice now."

"Okay."

"Thanks." Dandi says and starts to walk out. Then he stops and turning to look at the class, he says in a teasing tone, "And girls..."

Everyone curiously looks at him.

"Professor Oberoi is playing football with us this hour."

Gauri excitedly looks up hearing that then she excitedly turns to Bhavya to ask if they can go and sees Bhavya looking at her excitedly. They both start laughing.

"Come quickly." Bhavya says as she grabbed her bag.

"What about class?" Anika asks shocked.

"You take notes." Gauri tells her.

"I knew that you had a crush on him." Anika tells her shaking her head.

Gauri cheekily grins at her.

"Let's go before Rudra comes here looking for me." Bhavya says.

"One of these days your boyfriend will find out that you are secretly crushing on Professor Oberoi." Anika warns her.

"Rudra knows I love him." Bhavya tells her and stops in shock seeing couple of girls from their class leaving. "We will have a hard time finding a good spot."

"Wait, I am also coming. I'll be bored." Anika says.

Gauri and Bhavya excitedly sat on the ground as they watched Omkara play football. He looked so hot, as he ran around like a pro kicking the ball and dodging the other players. Gauri blushes realizing how her body was responding to seeing him run around all sweaty.

"I love him." Gauri tells her friends shyly unable to hide her feelings from them anymore.

"I knew it." Anika declares.

"I think he also likes you." Bhavya tells her.

Gauri smiles hearing that.

"You also felt that?" Anika asks Bhavya surprised.

"Yeah, the way he looks at her is so different from the way he looks at other girls." Bhavya tells her.

"Yeah, he just looks at her in between class and then quickly looks away too. That right?" Anika asks excitedly.

"Yeah!"

Hearing them say all that, Gauri felt very guilty for hiding her engagement from them. She decided to talk to Omki about it, she wanted to tell her friends that they were already in a relation.

Gauri looks up and sees Om kicking and scoring a goal. She cheers loudly and whistles. Hearing the whistle, Om curiously turns to her direction and his eyes locks with hers.

Gauri sees the surprise on his face.

"Shit... shit... shit." Anika says as she pulled Bhavya and Gauri up. "He will know we bunked class to see the match. Let's go."

"How will he know?" Gauri asks curiously then she sees him grinning at her. "Damn. He is the department head he will definitely find out." Gauri says as she grabbed her bag and ran with her friends.

**********

Gauri reaches the parking area and doesn't find Om there. She walks to his bike and keeping her bag on the seat, she takes out her mobile from her jeans pockets to call him when Om hugs her from behind.

"Omki." Gauri gasps in shock.

"What were you doing there earlier?" Om asks as he kissed her cheek.

Gauri turns around in his arms and looks at him. "I came to see you play football."

"Oh... I didn't know you behaved like a fan girl too."

"I just came to see how my man played football." Gauri tells him as she kept her hands on his shoulders, then noticing his wet hair, she touches it gently, "You took a shower."

"I didn't want you to be repulsed with me with my sweat and odor."

"Ah... so you also have a fan boy moment." Gauri teases him.

Om chuckles, "I guess, I do."

**********

"Okay everyone... I am going for my tournament today; I'll see you in 10 days." Dandi announces.

Remembering what Omki had told Dandi, Gauri excitedly tells him, "All the best and bring the cup."

Hearing her, Dandi looks at her in surprise. Then he walks to her with a flirty smile, "I don't think we ever got to talk."

Gauri was surprised seeing him behaving in a flirty tone with her.

"Gauri, right?" Dandi asks.

"Yeah." Gauri replies getting uncomfortable feeling his attention on her.

"It's so sad that we never got to talk and now, when we get to talk, I have to go." Dandi says acting disappointed.

Gauri felt really uncomfortable in her skin with the way he was acting. She quickly puts up her left hand and shows him her ring, "Sorry, taken."

"Oh that's sad." Dandi says then he turns to Anika and asks her, "Anika, my darling, what is your status? Still single?"

"You are getting late, Dandi." Anika says in a dismissing tone as she turned to Gauri in shock.

Gauri guiltily looks at Anika and Bhavya who were looking at her in shock.

After Dandi moved to flirt with another girl, Anika asks her, "You are engaged?"

"I am." Gauri confesses guilty.

"But you said you love..." Bhavya whispers to her.

"I know... I want to tell you girls everything. I swear." Gauri tells her.

"Then tell us." Anika tells her.

"I just need some time. I need to sort out something with my fiancé before I tell you both everything. Please, give me some time."

"Okay." Bhavya says.

Anika smiles and holds her hand.

"I love you girls so much." Gauri says as she hugged them both.

They were happily hugging when they notice that everyone had stopped talking and the class was filled with the sound of chairs scrapping the floor. They quickly part and look at Omkara.

Om grins at them, "Done? We can wait for you girls to finish whatever that is."

They get up as all three blushed slightly.

"Please sit." Om says then leaning on the table he looks at the class. "So, how is everyone doing today?"

Om was chatting with everyone when he notices Dandi still in class.

"Dandi, you can leave. I'll mark your attendance." Om tells him.

"Okay." Dandi stands up.

"All the best and bring the cup." Om tells him.

"Oh my God... word by word." Bhavya softly whispers.

"I know. Her poor fiancé." Anika whispers.

"Shh keep quiet." Gauri shushes them.

"Thank you, Professor."

"By the way, Dandi the midterm exams timetable is out. So make sure you are prepared for it." Om tells him.

"Won't we get an extension?" Dandi asks him.

"No, since you will reach a week before exam starts, Principal said the team will take the exams with the rest of the college."

"Oh okay."

"You go." Om tells him then he turns to look at Gauri, "That reminds me, Gauri. Are you taking the exams?"

"I have a choice?" Gauri asks confused.

"It is just hardly a month since you joined, so Principal said if you want you can skip the exams. But you won't get another chance to take the midterms."

"Oh."

"So, what is your decision?" Om asks her.

"What do you think I should do?" Gauri asks him, a little uncomfortable that this conversation was happening in front of the whole class, she would have liked to talk to him regarding this in private. Because she was confused about the exams, she wasn't sure whether she would be able to clear all the papers.

"I think you should take it. You might not pass for all, but it is better you take the exams as it will be added to your final exam aggregate." Om tells her.

"Okay, I'll take then." Gauri tells him.

"Great." Om smiles. "Let's start then?" Om asks the class.

Om was taking class when someone comes at the door. Om walks to the door.

"Second year B.Sc Physics, 44 students, right?" the lady asks.

"Yes." Om replies.

"Here. And sign here." She says as she handed a package to him. Om signs it and opens the package as he walked to Ishana.

"Ishana, please distribute in class. You keep Dandi's and whoever is absent with you and give it to them when they come." Om tells her.

"Okay, Professor." Ishana says as she took it and stood up to distribute them.

"Give me one." Om tells her.

She hands him one and starts distributing the paper around.

Om looks at Gauri and shows her the green paper and keeps in his pocket. Gauri nods in reply.

Ishana comes to Gauri's side and offers her the paper.

"I don't want." Gauri tells her while Anika and Bhavya took theirs.

"You only said you are writing the exams. You need to fill this challan and pay the exam fees for them to issue the hall ticket." Ishana explains to her.

Gauri gulps hearing that wondering what to do. Omki took her challan to make the payment and she had heard the lady say that there were challan for exactly 44 students.

"Gauri?"

"I don't want." Gauri replies again.

"What happened, Gauri?" Anika asks her curiously.

"But you need it." Ishana explains to her.

"Is there a problem?" Om asks them curiously as he looked at them talking.

"Gauri says she doesn't want the challan; I was explaining to her why she need it." Ishana tells him.

"Ah that is okay, Gauri's is with me." Om tells her. "Please distribute the rest fast."

Gauri looks at Om in shock wondering why he told that. now, everyone was going to be curious.

"Why?" Anika asks confused.

"What why?" Om asks her confused.

"Why do you have her challan?" Bhavya clarifies.

"Girls, please keep quiet." Gauri whispers to them.

With a confused chuckle, Om asks them, "Why else? To pay her exam fees. Did you forget that she is my fiancé?"

"WHAT?" Bhavya shouts in shock.

"Professor Oberoi is your fiancé?" Anika asks Gauri in shock.

The whole class gasps in shock at the same time.

Om looks at Gauri in confusion, "You didn't tell anyone?"

Gauri shakes her head in negative, still reeling from the shock. Omki was acting as if their engagement was public knowledge.

"Why?" Om asks her confused.

"I thought it would make you feel awkward." Gauri whispers still reeling from shock.

"Then why would I get your admission here?" Om asks her in shock shaking his head at her stupidity. "Anyway, let's get back to class."

Om was about to pick the marker when Adit asks curiously, "Is that why I saw you both in your bike that day? I thought you were giving her a lift."

"Which day?" Om asks curiously then shrugging Om informs them, "We were going home. She stays with me."

"Live-in?" Anika and Bhavya asks in shock.

"NO! I sleep with Dadi." Gauri tells them wondering why Omki was casually revealing everything as if it was public knowledge.

"Oooh." Some students say.

"What Oooh?" Om asks shaking his head at them. "I live with my grandmother you all know that."

"So that is an engagement ring, isn't it? I was right!" Ishana says pointing at his finger.

Om looks at his finger and then he nods, "Yeah... So, getting back..."

"Why didn't you invite us for your engagement?" Adit asks him in shock.

"I didn't invite anyone. It was just Gauri, me, both our grandmothers and some of her family friends. And it was in Bareilly." Om informs them.

"When was this?"

"During the long weekend. Immediately after that Gauri joined here. Now, can we get back? Gauri is here, you can ask her everything during break." Om tells them.

Gauri turns to Anika and Bhavya and gives them guilty look. "I am so sorry. I thought he wanted me to keep it a secret."

"That explains a lot." Bhavya says in shock.

"I can't believe that you took her and went to ogle at your fiancé." Anika says in shock.

"I know she loves Rudra." Gauri says cheekily. "And I was feeling so guilty for hiding from you both. I was really going to talk to him about telling you both the truth. I am very sorry."

"It's okay." Anika tells her.

"But we need all the details." Bhavya tells her.

"Oh thank you... thank you." Gauri says as she hugged them both.

"Gauri..." Om politely calls her.

Gauri quickly looks at him as she broke the hug.

"Why don't you take your party outside the class?" Om asks her.

"Sorry, Professor Oberoi." Gauri quickly says.

There were giggles and sniggers in the class.

Om shakes his head and starts to teach when, "Why did you act as if you didn't know each other?"

"I didn't act like that." Om replies shocked. "Here, she is my student, just like you all. Outside college hours, she is my fiancé."

"Is it love marriage?"

"You people! No." Om says exasperated as he kept the marker on the table. "What do you want to know?"

"How long have you known each other?"

"We met when I went to see her for the proposal. Her grandmother and my grandmother are childhood friends." Om explains.

"So, why did she join this college?"

"Why is she staying with you?" Ajay asks.

"Don't you think you people are asking too many personal questions?" Om asks them with a grin. Then he tells them, "So we can get to know each other well before we marry."

"When is the marriage?"

"We haven't decided on a date yet. But it will be some time soon." Om tells them. He checks the time and sighs. "I was hoping to finish this topic today, now I'll do it tomorrow. Let's take the attendance."

"Will you invite us for the wedding at least?"

Om chuckles, "Let's see. Roll no 1, please start."

Soon everyone was calling out the roll numbers. Once it was done and within seconds the bell rings.

"Okay, I will see you all tomorrow then. Gauri, can you please come out for a minute?"

"Oooh."

Om stops in his way and turns to the students and sternly tells them, "Don't do that."

They quickly stop.

Shaking his head, Om turns to Gauri who was standing up. "It's okay. after college."

Gauri nods and sits back.

The moment Om left, there was a crowd around her seat asking her questions.

*********

Gauri was tired after answering everyone's question. By the time the next hour had ended, she realized that pretty much whole college knew about their engagement because there were people curiously looking at her when she went out, and she even noticed some people coming to her class and curiously chatting with their friends while they looked at her.

After classes, Anika and Bhavya had stayed back with her in class while she told them about Omki and her truthfully, about how they had met and their decision to stay together to get to know one another better before marriage, she didn't mention anything about her mother or their family situation. After their initial shock had passed, they had happily congratulated her.

Hearing her mobile ring, Gauri answers it with a smile. "Hi."

"Gauri, I'm done." Om tells her.

"Okay, I am coming." Gauri says hanging up. Then turning to Anika and Bhavya she tells them, "I've to go. He is done with his work."

"Okay." Anika smiles. "We will see you tomorrow."

"Gauri." Bhavya quickly holds her hand, "You didn't tell him that I like looking at him, right?"

Gauri chuckles, "No, I didn't. Even if I told him then also, he will just laugh it off."

"from now on, you can't look at him." Anika tells her laughing.

"Yeah." Bhavya says sadly.

"I trust you, Bhavya." Gauri tells her chuckling. "I know you are madly in love with Rudra."

"No, it is against the best friend code." Bhavya tells her.

"Awww." Gauri hugs her happily.

"Now go, your Omki is waiting for you."

**********

Gauri hurries to the parking area and finds Om waiting for her.

"Hey." Gauri says happily as she ran to him.

"You seem happy." Om tells her smiling.

"You don't know how guilty I was feeling from hiding our relation from Anika and Bhavya."

"Why did you think I have an issue with it?" Om asks shocked. "You are my fiancé, Gauri. I would never hide you."

"I thought it would be very awkward for you to teach me if everyone in class knew that I am your fiancé."

"But we never talked anything about that."

"I know... I just... that day in Bareilly you said that you weren't sure how the management would take it that your fiancé was your student."

"Yeah, I told you they were cool with it and the only issue was that they wouldn't give concession on your fees because we were not married and technically we were not one family."

"Yeah, but you make sure that you don't look at me during class... so..."

"I don't want to be distracted while I teach."

"Really?" Gauri asks with a flirty smile as she put her hand on his shoulders.

Om grins as he wrapped his hand on her waist.

"But you are not distracted when you teach me at home."

"That time I am worried from where Dadi will jump on us." Om tells her chuckling.

Gauri giggles hearing that.

"But Gauri, why didn't you talk to me if you felt guilty about hiding it from Anika and Bhavya?" Om asks her feeling a little sad.

"I was planning to talk to you today. I even promised them that I will talk to my fiancé and tell them everything truthfully. I didn't know exactly twenty minutes later, you would come and drop the bomb like that."

"Wait a minute, they know that you have a fiancé?" Om asks confused.

"It's not like that. Today, Dandi was flirting with me."

"What?" Om asks frowning.

"Nothing like that." Gauri quickly tells him. "He was like we never got to talk and all. I felt uncomfortable and quickly showed him my ring and told him I am taken. Anika and Bhavya heard it then. So, I told them I would talk to my fiancé and tell them everything."

"I thought everyone knew. You girls are so close and I just thought they definitely knew." Om tells her. "Anika and Bhavya even bunked their class so you could watch me play."

"Only Anika bunked." Gauri tells him giggling.

"What?" Om asks confused.

"Anyway they thought that I lov..." Gauri stops as she grinned at him.

"You what?" Om asks grinning happily.

"I told you before itself."

Om grins and leaning down he keeps his lips on hers. then he moves back, "I won't say it."

Gauri sighs as she blushed with the way his lips had felt on her.

Then remembering what he had said. "Why?" Gauri asks pouting.

"Because I still haven't forgotten that you have a secret that you are scared to share with me."

Gauri's smile drops and she quickly looks down sadly. "What if I never have the courage?"

"I have faith in you and us, Gauri." Om tells her.

Gauri keeps her head on his chest as she hugged him tight.

Om hugs her and kisses her on her forehead.

**********

The next day, in class, Om had behaved just like how he had been behaving all these days. The first few days it was awkward with everyone curiously looking at her and him during classes but soon everyone had gotten used to it.

Soon, Gauri got busy with her exam preparations and quickly their exams had also started. Gauri studied hard as she wanted to clear all the papers, now everyone knew that she was Om's fiancé, she didn't want to embarrass him by failing in her exams.

After the exams were over, the Professors started distributing the papers. Gauri had managed to get above 50% marks in so far all the papers. Only Physics and Mathematics were left.

Gauri messages Om.

Did you finish correcting?

Yes.

How much did I get?

You will know along with other students.

Gauri sighs furiously.

"Can you ask Professor Oberoi how I did in the exam?" Bhavya asks Gauri.

Gauri turns to Bhavya in exasperation.

"I did okay but I made a few silly mistakes." Bhavya tells her.

Gauri takes their chat and shows Bhavya.

"Oh."

Gauri kept her phone in her bag seeing the Maths teacher walk in.

**********

"Please sit." Om says as he kept the answer sheets on the table. he leans on the table. "How did you all do for your all other exams?" Om asks conversationally as he looked at the students then his gaze stops on Gauri.

She was looking down sadly.

Forgetting everything else, ignoring what the students were saying, Om calls out to her "Gauri?"

Gauri looks at him and seeing him look at her with a confused frown, Gauri quickly looks down.

There was pin drop silence in the class as they stared at Om and Gauri, but Om ignores all that as he went to Gauri and kneels in front of her.

"What happened?" Om asks her.

Gauri continues to look down sadly.

"Gauri, look at me." Om says his heart beating fast, his heart breaking seeing her like that.

"Anika... Bhavya... what happened?" Om asks them as he turned to them.

"She has been like this since she got Maths paper." Anika tells him.

"She passed for maths." Bhavya tells him confused. "Don't know why she is upset. She won't tell us."

"Baby, please look at me." Om worriedly tells her.

Hearing him use endearment for her, Gauri looks at him.

Om takes a sharp breath seeing the tears in her eyes.

"Come with me." Om tells her as he stood up and held her hand.

Om starts to leave with Gauri when he realizes that he was in the middle of the class and everyone was staring at them. But his priority was Gauri, and it will always be Gauri.

"Ishana, can you please distribute the answer sheets? I'll be back soon." Om asks as he walked out with Gauri.

Om takes Gauri to an empty class and closes the door.

"Love, please tell me what happened?" Om asks her worriedly as he cupped her face.

Gauri hugs Om and burst out crying. Om quickly hugs her.

"Baby, please tell me what happened. I can't see you like this."

"Is it the maths paper?" Om asks as he raked through his brain. She had been fine start of last period when she had messaged him. After that only maths class was there and Anika and Bhavya did say she was like that since she got her maths paper.

Gauri nods.

"What happened? Professor Malhotra had told me that you passed."

"I failed." Gauri tells him as she cried.

"How? He told me that you passed. Even Bhavya said you passed." Om says confused.

"I failed. He gave me grace mark and that is how I passed." Gauri tells him as she hugged him and cried.

"How many marks did he give?"

"1."

"What is the problem in that? It is normal to give grace mark to make a student pass."

"Everybody is going to laugh at you because of me." Gauri tells him as she hugged him tight.

"Why would they laugh at me?" Om asks shocked.

"You are the best teacher here. You are the department head. Everybody knows that in a couple of years, you will be considered for Vice Principal, you were a rank holder of this college and your fiancé needed grace marks to pass. I embarrassed you in front of everyone. They are going to laugh behind your back."

"Oh my God, love. Why do you think like that?" Om asks as he cupped her face.

"Do you have any idea, how proud I am of you? I didn't expect you to pass and you passed in all the papers. I have been teaching you every day and still I was not able to finish the portions of last three months, and still you managed to get 74 for Physics. Rest of the 5 subjects you were learning by yourself and you managed to pass for them all. All your Professors were praising you for your hard work. Somewhere even joking that I leaked you the paper. All the Professors know that to catch up 3 months' portions in just a month for 6 subjects is a very difficult task but you did that."

"Really?" Gauri asks him as she looked at him. "You are not ashamed?"

"I am proud of you, love." Om tells her as he wiped her tears. "You made me proud."

"You called me love." Gauri says smiling. "Earlier also you called me love."

Om smiles seeing her smile. "Yeah, I did."

"Why?"

"Why do you think?" Om asks her back.

Gauri's smile widens and then it breaks into soft happy laughter.

Seeing her like, Om leans down and takes her lips in his. Gauri wraps her hand around him and kisses him back.

Breathless they part as they happily smiled at each other.

"We should go back." Gauri tells him.

"I know." Om whispers as he nibbled on her lips.

Gauri giggles. "You have class."

Om sighs.

Noticing the lipstick marks on his face, Gauri starts wiping it. Om wipes her smudged lipstick.

They were walking back to the class.

"You should wash your face." Om tells her seeing that the tear stains were still there.

"I will go wash my face and come."

"Do you want me to come with you?"

"No, you go to class. I don't want anyone to say that you forgot your duties for me."

Om nods.

"Omki, don't ignore your duties for me. I don't want people pointing fingers at you."

"I don't think I can ever ignore you when you are not happy." Om tells her softly.

Gauri smiles hearing that.

Om walks back into the class. "I am sorry about that." Om apologizes as he faced the students.

"Is she okay?" Bhavya asks him.

"Yeah, she is fine." Om replies smiling at her. then turning to the rest of the students, he says, "If anyone has any confusion regarding the correction please meet me in the staff room during break."

Om was teaching when Gauri comes back.

"Come in." Om tells her as he softly smiled at her.

Seeing him looking at her, Gauri blushes and looks down as she walked to her chair.

"You okay?" Anika softly asks her.

Gauri nods her head.

"Girls." Omkara calls them.

They curiously look at him.

"You can talk after class. Now listen here." Om tells them.

They nod and he continues to teach.

Gauri sees her Physics answer sheet was kept on her writing table. She smiles seeing that she scored 74. That was the highest she had scored in this exam. Even though it was much lower than what she normally scores, she was happy that she scored well for Physics.

"Hey...Gauri.." Bhavya softly calls her.

"Yeah?" Gauri whispers to her as she looked at her.

"Did you guys kiss?" Bhavya asks her in a whisper.

"What?" Gauri asks shocked.

"Your lipstick is practically gone." Bhavya tells her.

"Oh yeah." Anika says looking at her lips.

"What nonsense?" Gauri asks them as she tried to look at Om.

Om looks at her at that time and seeing him look at her, Gauri blushes and looks down.

Om quickly turns back to face the board so that no one sees him smile.

"Even I have a boyfriend. So I know." Bhavya says.

"Did you see the way they just looked at each other?" Anika asks in an excited whisper.

"Shut up, you two." Gauri tells them in exasperation.

Anika and Bhavya remained silent for a few minutes.

They start whispering amongst themselves. Gauri curiously looks at them and sees them cheekily grinning at her. Gauri ignores them and tries to concentrate on what Om was teaching.

Then she hears Anika and Bhavya softly singing, "Gauri and Omki sitting on a tree, K I S S I..."

"Shut up!" Gauri says as she started hitting both of them to make them stop.

"GAURI KUMARI SHARMA!"

Gauri quickly stops and looks at Om. and he looked pissed.

"Please leave the classroom."

"Sorry." Gauri whispers softly.

"Anika and Bhavya, you both too. Three of you, please leave."

"Sorry, Professor Oberoi." They say.

"Please stop wasting time and leave."

Gauri grabs her things and walks out. Seeing her leave, Anika and Bhavya also grab their stuff and leave.

Gauri glares at him and he glares right back at her.

**********

"What was that?" Om asks Gauri as soon as she reached the parking area.

"You threw me out!" Gauri tells him angrily.

"You were creating a racket!" Om tells her angrily.

"They were teasing me."

"This is not the first time; you have disturbed the class. Every time, I forgave you."

"Everybody talks in class. You only catch me."

"Because you are always loud!"

"I don't want to talk to you." Gauri says pissed.

"Fine!" Om replies and gets on his bike. Then he hesitates for a few seconds then he gets off the bike.

"What?" Gauri barks at him.

"Dadi is going to be home."

"I know!"

"We are not going to get any privacy there." Om says shrugging. "Once we reach home, we will have to wait till tomorrow."

Understanding what he was saying, Gauri goes "Hmmm"

"But I am still mad at you." Om tells her.

"Oh please, I am still mad at you." Gauri declares.

Then they slam their mouth on each other and hungrily starts kissing each other.

Breathless they part, then looking at each other they start laughing happily.

"You are mad, Omki." Gauri tells him as she lovingly caressed him.

"So are you, baby." Om replies laughing.

"I think we should head home." Om says as they stopped laughing.

"I don't mind waiting for 5 minutes." Gauri tells him cheekily.

"Perfect." Om says as he took her lips in his.

**********

Gauri was going to her room after dinner when Om hugs her from behind and kisses her cheek.

"Where is Dadi?" Gauri asks in a whisper as she turned to look at him.

"Kitchen." Om whispers to her. "After Dadi sleeps will you come to my room?"

Gauri shakes her head in negative as she looked down.

"Are you scared?" Om asks her as he kissed her on her cheek.

"I don't want us to make love before marriage, Omki. I am not that type of a girl." Gauri tells him as she looked down.

"We won't do anything that you don't want to do." Om tells her.

"But I can't think straight when you touch me." Gauri tells him as she looked at him in worry.

Om leans down and kisses her hungrily. "Do you have any idea what you do to me?"

Hearing him, Gauri worriedly tells him. "Promise me, Omki that we won't make love before marriage. I am not that type of a girl. I am not immoral."

"Baby, I know you are not. I promise. We won't cross the line." Om tells her seeing her worry.

Gauri leans up and kisses him on his cheek. Then she happily hugs him. Om hugs her.

"These two!" Dadi says in outrage.

Hearing Dadi, Gauri quickly pushes Om away and runs to the bedroom. Om looks in shock at the way she had ran off then he couldn't help smile at her.

"Go to your room, besharam."

Om turns around and walks to his Dadi. He then hugs her happily. He kisses her cheek.

"Chee... go and kiss her."

"Okay, Dadi." Om tells her smiling as he turned to go to Gauri.

"Come here, besharam." Dadi says as she quickly caught him.

Chuckling, Om hugs her. "I love her, Dadi."

Dadi smiles at him. "I know. And she loves you a lot."

"I know." Om says happily as he kissed her.

She kisses him. "Go and sleep. Tomorrow you both have college."

"Good night, Dadi." Om says.

Om was starting to sleep off when he hears a soft knock on the door. surprised that Gauri came, Om runs to the door and opens the door.

"Dadi slept." Gauri tells him shyly.

Om holds her hand and pulls her in. he locks the door.

"Did Dadi see us kiss? Did she say anything?"

"Is that why you ran?" Om asks chuckling.

Gauri nods.

"She didn't see." Om tells her as he moved towards her.

Gauri moves towards him. Their lips meet and they start hungrily kissing. Om guides her to the bed as they kissed.

"This was a mistake." Om whispers as he leaned up. "You should go, Gauri."

"What happened, Omki?" Gauri ask worried seeing him so agitated.

"You should go."

"Why?" Gauri asks as she cupped his face.

"Baby, if you don't leave now then I won't be able to stop myself and we will end up making love."

Gauri pushes Om off and runs out of the room in lightning speed leaving behind a shocked Om to gape at the empty doorway.

**********

Two days later, Gauri and Om reaches home. Gauri goes to her room to change when Dadi comes to her.

"Gauri."

"Haan Dadi?" Gauri turns to her with a smile then stops seeing the serious expression on her. "What happened, Dadi?"

"Devki called today."

Gauri walks to her dreading what might have been the conversation about. "And?"

"Nayantara found out that you are not there. That you are here and you are engaged."

Gauri gulps hearing that.

"She was screaming how we fixed the wedding without her knowledge and she was asking her about Om. She was asking where we live."

"Is she coming here?" Gauri asks worriedly.

"So many of yours neighbors who attended the engagement knows that Om is a Professor in Mumbai. It is a matter of time."

"I don't want her to meet Omki." Gauri tells her scared.

"Gauri, it doesn't matter how your mother is. Om knows you and trusts you."

"No... she shouldn't meet Omki."

"Gauri, calm down. Nothing is going to happen."

**********

Hearing the knock at the door, Om opens the door.

"What happened?" Om asks seeing the expression on his grandmother's face.

"Om, you and Gauri should get married soon."

"I am not ready, Dadi." Om tells her with a frown.

"You should."

"Why?" Om asks frowning at her.

"Gauri wants you both to get married soon."

"Did she say that?"

"Yes."

"Why is she not talking to me about it?" Om asks getting angry then without waiting for a reply he walks to Gauri's room.

"Gauri..." Om starts and stops seeing Gauri worriedly sitting on the bed. She looked on the verge to cry. "What happened?" Om asks her as he walked to her.

Gauri gulps as she worriedly looks down.

"Gauri, what happened, love?" Om asks as he knelt in front of her.

Hearing Dadi step into the room, Om looks at her. then he turns to Gauri and asks her, "Talk to me, Gauri... tell me what is worrying you like this?"

"Will you marry me, Omki?" Gauri worriedly asks him.

"What is your secret, Gauri?" Om asks her in reply.

Gauri quickly looks down as she shook her head and shivered in worry.

"It is nothing, Om. I told you. trust me. It is not a big thing." Dadi tells him.

"You don't understand, Dadi!" Om tells her losing his patience. "I don't care what her secret is. Whatever it is, it won't matter to me. I know her. nothing can shake my faith in her."

"Then what is the problem?" Dadi asks confused.

Om l0oks at her then he turns to look at Gauri and says, "Something is scaring her. something is causing her to shiver in fear. But she won't share her fear with me. There is something that is causing her so much worry, but she doesn't have the confidence or trust in me to share it with me. and Dadi, that is the problem!"

They remain silent for a while, when Gauri made no move to talk, Om finally asks her, "Are you willing to take that leap of faith with me, Gauri?"

Gauri slowly and hesitantly shakes her head.

"I will not marry you till then." Om tells her and walks out of the room.

**********

"Omki." Gauri sadly calls him.

Om looks up and sees Gauri standing by the door. Om gets up and walks to her. Gauri enters his room and stops in front of him. Om also stops in front of her.

"Mama found out that I am not in Bareilly. that I am with you and that we are engaged." Gauri tells him.

"You are not in talking terms with her, so why does it matter?"

"She is angry and she will come here."

"So?"

"She still wants to control my life."

"You are an adult, Gauri. no one can force you."

"I am not scared of her."

"Then what is the problem?" Om asks her confused.

Gauri looks down and whispers. "I don't want you to meet her."

"Why?"

"Please marry me, Omki."

"What is your secret, Gauri? what are you worried of?" Om asks her.

Gauri doesn't reply. She worriedly looks down.

"You told me your father was an alcoholic. Then why can't you tell me what is your issue with your mother is?" Om asks her in exasperation.

"I can't." Gauri whispers.

Angrily running his hand through his hair, Om turns away.

"I love you, Omki." Gauri tells him in tears.

Om turns to her in shock hearing her confess.

"I can't live without you. please marry me."

"Will you tell me what is scaring you after our marriage? Will marriage give you the courage to trust me?"

Gauri shakes her head in negative.

"Please, Omki?"

Om walks to her and tells her as he felt his eyes fill up. "It is killing me, Gauri that you are practically begging me to marry you but won't tell me what is scaring you like this. Why can't you trust me?"

"I am scared." Gauri worriedly whispers to him.

"Scared of what?"

"I don't want you to meet Mama."

"I don't care however your mother is. All I care about is you."

"I can't live without you, Omki."

"Love, I am not going to let anyone take you away from me."

"I'll not go away from you, Omki. Never." Gauri vows to him.

"Then?" Om asks confused.

Seeing her worriedly looking at him, Om understands. "You think I will leave you."

Gauri nods.

Om steps back in shock and says, "You said you won't even tell me after our marriage. You think I would abandon you after marriage if I find out whatever it is?"

Gauri gulps worriedly.

"Answer me, Gauri!"

"Yes." Gauri whispers.

"Why do you have so little faith in me, Gauri? actually, you have no faith in me!" Om tells her heart broken.

When Gauri remains silent, Om asks her "Don't you realize, Gauri? that I love you? that I can't live without you?"

"Yes."

"Still you have no faith in me?" Om asks her feeling his heart break again.

When Gauri remained silent, Om takes her hand and walks out of his room. he takes her to her room and leaving her there he walks out of the room.

"Omki." Gauri calls him as she hurried behind him.

Om ignores her and walks off.

"Om." Dadi calls him when he was about to get into his room.

Om turns to look at her.

"I'll tell you what it is." Dadi tells him.

"No." Gauri quickly says.

Om looks at Gauri hearing her then he turns to look at his Dadi, "I don't care whatever nonsense that is, Dadi." Om says furiously.

"Om..."

Om turns to look at Gauri and says, "All I want is for her to trust me. rest, nothing matters."

Then he gets into his room and closes the door.

"Omki." Gauri knocks on his door.

Closing his eyes, Om sits on the floor as he leaned against the door fighting the urge to open the door hearing her cry.

*********

Om spent a sleepless night as he thought on what all had happened ever since he met Gauri. By morning, he had made his decision. He comes out of his room and sees Dadi sitting in the living room with Gauri sitting on the floor, her head on Dadi's lap. Om walks to them.

Seeing him, Gauri sits up.

Om looks at Dadi then at Gauri.

"I don't know what more I have to do to make you trust me. I don't know where I went wrong that you don't trust me, Gauri."

"You didn't go wrong, Omki."

"Then why don't you trust me?"

"I trust you, but I am scared. This fear, I can't control it." Gauri tells him in tears.

"You might call it fear, but at the end of the day when you refuse to share your fear with me because you are afraid that I would leave you, it really comes down to your lack of trust in me."

Gauri looks down in guilt. "It kills me, Omki that I can't tell you my fears. but I am scared. I can't think of a life without you."

Om kneels down in front of Gauri and points at Dadi. "This lady, sitting here, she gave me a life. whatever I am today, whatever I have today, whatever I will be, it is all because of her. I owe my life to her. but Gauri Kumari Sharma, I love you more than I love her. there is no one more beloved to me than you in this world. There will be no one who will be more beloved to me than you, ever."

Tears start flowing from Gauri's eyes hearing that.

"If we getting married will ease your worry even a little then we will get married, Gauri."

Gauri looks at Om in surprise, a smile of relief starts to break out on her face.

Seeing that, Om puts up a finger, "I am not done."

The smile freezes on Gauri's face as she waited for Omkara to continue.

"We will be married for the world. We will not be husband and wife. You will stay in Dadi's room. till this wall that you have created between us is destroyed, you will not be my wife and I will not be your husband."

"What are you saying, Om?" Dadi asks him in shock.

"This is between Gauri and me, Dadi." Om sternly tells her. then he turns to Gauri and stares at her, waiting for her to answer.

Gauri nods her head in yes.

Without taking his eyes off Gauri, Om tells Dadi "Fix the wedding date, Dadi."

Then he just walks off.

**********

Om parks the bike in the parking area. Gauri gets off the bike. Gauri hesitates near Om as he got off the bike. They silently look at each other waiting for the other to speak. When the other remained silent, sighing sadly they both walked off to their destination.

"You okay?" Anika asks Gauri curiously.

Gauri nods.

"You look upset." Bhavya points out.

"I don't want to talk." Gauri whispers to them.

Anika keeps her hand on Gauri's shoulder and Bhavya keeps her hand on Gauri's hand and gently squeezes it.

During Physics period, Om comes to the class. The moment he stepped in his eyes locked with Gauri. Gauri looks down. Om takes the marker from the table and walks to the white board.

"So, last class we learned..." Om starts teaching.

Gauri felt Anika and Bhavya looking at her. Gauri looks down, this was not the Professor Oberoi they all knew. Very soon, Gauri could feel the eyes of the whole class on her and Omkie alternatively. Gauri tried her best to ignore it all.

The moment the bell rang Om had left the class.

"Hey Gauri..." Dandi calls her.

Gauri curiously turns to him.

"Did you guys fight?"

Gauri quickly looks away.

"Whether they fought or not, what is it to you Dandi?" Bhavya asks him.

"I was just asking. He was looking so serious today." Dandi says shrugging.

"Everybody can't be always happy and cheerful like you, Dandi." Anika tells him. "So why don't you just keep to things that concerns you?"

"Okay, I am sorry. I was just curious." Dandi says putting up his hand as he moved back.

Anika and Bhavya reassuringly holds Gauri's hand.

They didn't ask her anything and she didn't tell them anything.

Hearing her mobile ring, Gauri picks up her phone as she grabbed her things.

"Hello?"

"I am done with work." Om tells her.

"I am coming." Gauri replies and hangs up.

Gauri walks to the parking area and finds Om waiting for her. she stops near him. When she remained silent, Om sighs and gets on the bike. He hands her helmet. Silently they wear their helmet. Then she got on the bike. Without a word, they went home.

**********

Om stops the bike in the parking area next day. Gauri gets off and starts to walk off. Om quickly holds her hand to stop her. Gauri stops and turns to look at Om. Om gets off the bike and leans on his bike as he looked at her.

"You'll be late." Gauri tells him.

"Did you talk to Dadi today?" Om asks her.

"Yes."

"We are getting married this Sunday."

"I know."

"Are you not happy?"

"No." Gauri replies, her eyes filling with tears.

"Why?"

"Because you are not happy." Gauri says as she sobbed sadly.

Om smiles and pulls her close to him, "Ever since the day I met you, I have wanted to marry you. I have dreamt of a life with you. I have never thought of anyone or anything else. So, why won't I be happy?"

"This is not how you wanted to marry."

"True but I want to marry you."

"I am forcing you into marriage."

"I am marrying you because I love you."

Hearing that Gauri hugs him. Om hugs her.

"I want you to have faith in me and I feel marriage is the first step to that. but a marriage without trust, it won't last long, Gauri. that is why I said that until you trust me completely we won't start our marital life."

"What if I never overcome my fear?"

"Look at this place, Gauri." Om tells her smiling. "Isn't this the place where you vowed that you will not tell me that you love me till I tell you first and I vowed that I will not say it before you tell me your secret? And what happened? Didn't we both confess our love?"

Gauri nods.

"We can't predict the future, what we can do is take it one day at a time." Om tells her.

Gauri nods and she cups his face in her palms. "I missed you so much."

Om keeps his hand over hers and tells her, "When you didn't talk to me, I died a little."

Hearing him, Gauri leans to him and takes his lips in her. Om hugs her and pulls her closer to him as he hungrily kissed her back.

Gauri removes her backpack and keeps it on Om's lap. She opens her bag and takes out cleansing wipes. She gently starts cleaning around his lips to remove the lipstick marks.

"I think I should stop wearing lipstick."

Om chuckles as he wiped off her messed up lipstick with his thumb.

"I love you, my jaan." Om whispers to her.

"And I love you, my Omki."

Om hugs her tight and she hugs him back.

**********

"You okay?" Anika asks her.

"Yes." Gauri tells her smiling.

"What happened?" Bhavya asks hers,

"Forget all that." Gauri tells them. Then she excitedly whispers to them, "This Sunday is our wedding and you both are coming."

"Whaat?" they shout in shock.

"Sshhh." Gauri tells them.

"But why so suddenly?" Anika asks her in a whisper.

"Pundit gave the date for Sunday." Gauri tells them. Technically, it was not a lie. And she wouldn't tell her best friends the truth which she hadn't told Omki yet.

Gauri excitedly looks at the door when the bell rang. Few minutes later, Om walks in. everyone quickly gets up.

"Good afternoon everyone." Om says smiling as he gestured all to sit. "How are you all today?" Om asks as he looked at all and his gaze ending on Gauri.

Gauri smiles realizing that he was asking her. Om smiles and looks away.

"Fine." Most of them reply.

"How are you?" Ishana asks him.

"Fantastic." Om replies smiling at her.

"What happened to you yesterday?" someone calls out.

Om chuckles and asks, "So what else?"

"You are happy today." Dandi calls out to him.

"Why you don't want me to be happy?" Om asks him chuckling.

"Even Gauri is very happy today." Dandi cheekily tells him.

Making everyone chuckle and Gauri blush.

"One of these days, I am going to throw you out of the class, Dandi." Om tells him jovially making everyone chuckle. He took the marker and walked to the white board. "Gauri..." Om calls out to her.

Gauri curiously looks at him.

"I am very happy that you are happy." Om tells her grinning happily.

Gauri blushes in surprise for having Om flirt with her in front of the whole class while the class hooted in excitement.

**********

The next day, Om finishes taking the attendance and the bell rings. Om takes the duster and starts cleaning the white board. Gauri curiously looks on because normally he doesn't do that. no Professor does that as that was the duty of the class monitor. Gauri watches as Om started writing on the white board. Once done, he moves away and Gauri smiles seeing the details of their wedding venue, date and time. they both had wanted a simple wedding but had decided to invite Gauri's class for the wedding and the teaching staff.

"So, this Sunday is our wedding." Om starts and stops when everyone starts clapping.

"Congratulations Professor Oberoi and Gauri." some called out.

"Thank you." Om replies smiling. "You all are invited for the wedding. But please don't tell the whole college because only your class is invited for the wedding. Please do try to come. And Gauri..." Om calls out to her.

Gauri looks at him curiously.

With a flirty smile and twinkling eyes, Om tells her, "You should definitely come. I'll wait for you."

Gauri's face breaks out into a big smile as she blushed happily while her classmates chuckled, whistled and cheered.

Grinning happily, Om walks out.

**********

That evening, Gauri's grandmother reached. They got busy with their wedding shopping.

Since they had only two bedrooms, Om was sleeping on the living room floor as Gauri's Dadi was using his bedroom. After their grandmothers had gone to sleep, Gauri walks to Om and sits on his mattress.

"What happened?" Om asks her as he turned to lie on his side to face her.

"Are you okay here?"

"Yeah, I am comfortable."

"You could have slept with Dadi in her room and I would have slept with my Dadi in your room."

"I am more comfortable here."

Gauri smiles. "In three days, we would be married."

Om takes her hand and kisses it lovingly, "I am very happy, Gauri. I swear."

"I know." Gauri grins. "What's with you flirting so openly in class?"

"I don't know. I can't seem to control it." Om tells her smiling. "Maybe it is the joy of our marriage."

"Are you worried your mother will find out about our wedding?"

"A little."

"Why don't you just tell her? she can't stop our wedding. You don't have to fear her."

"I am scared she will come here."

"Let her come. big deal."

"I want our wedding to go without any hitch. She will unnecessarily create a scene."

"Hmmm."

"You should sleep."

"Even you should sleep." Om tells her. "Go."

"Can I lie with you for some time?"

"I don't think that is a good idea."

"5 minutes."

"Okay." Om says smiling as he moved to give her space.

Gauri lies next to him.

"I wanted to tell you something." Gauri tells him smiling at him.

"What?"

"I always thought that I would work in some research lab or maybe in a corporate set up."

"Hmmm." Om smiles.

"But seeing you, now I want to be a teacher."

Om's face breaks into a big smile.

"I feel that teaching is the best, the noblest job." Gauri tells him then lovingly caressing him, she tells him, "You are my inspiration, Omki."

"You will be a wonderful teacher." Om tells her as he kissed her lips.

***********

They had a simple wedding with their grandmothers, Anika, Bhavya, their classmates and few teaching staff. Om and Gauri had happily sat through all the rituals. By evening, everyone had left. Even though Dadi tried to convince Om one last time, he had stood his ground.

At night, Om was lying on the mattress in the leaving room, when Gauri comes to him. He smiles seeing Gauri lie next to him.

"Our Dadis will have a heart attack if they see us together." Om jokes.

"We are not naked or doing anything naughty." Gauri chuckles.

Hearing that, Om's mind fills with images. He leans down and lovingly starts kissing her cheek.

"What are you doing?" Gauri asks blushing.

"If you come near me this is what will happen."

Gauri blushes.

"You should go."

"Can't I be with you for some more time? it is our first night." Gauri asks him sadly.

Keeping his thumb and index finger slightly apart, Om tells her, "I am this close to taking you to one of the rooms and asking one of our Dadis to get out so we can celebrate our wedding night."

Gauri giggles as she hugged him happily.

"I don't know how I am going to stay away from you." Om sighs.

"You don't have to stay away from me. we are married." Gauri tells him shyly.

"I told you my decision, Gauri." Om tells her a little seriously.

"I know, but I just wanted you to know that." Gauri tells him then she pecks him on his lips, "Good night."

**********

Hearing people talking, Om opens his eyes sleepily. He could hear both their grandmothers talking, they were in the kitchen. He was about to turn around and sleep when he notices a movement in Gauri's bedroom. Curiously he sits up to see clearly.

He sees Gauri standing in front of the mirror as she wiped her hair. Smiling, he wraps his hand around his knees and watch her. She was wearing a salwar today. He was surprised to see her in a salwar, after coming here, it was the first time she was wearing a salwar. As Gauri twisted around wiping her hair, he notices her magal sutra flinging around her neck and chest. He wondered when the distance between them would be over that he could be as close to her as the mangal sutr that was in his name was to her. Om sighs, a little happy, a little sad and a little longingly.

Each movement she made, was accompanied by the sound of her chooda. There was something tantalizing about the sound of her chooda. Gauri keeps the towel carelessly on the side. She takes her hair brush and starts brushing her hair.

Om feels a little sad realizing that if things were normal between them then he would have been with her now, irritating her, distracting her, trying to kiss her, maybe even trying to drag her back to bed.

Om watches her put the hair brush back on the table. Then she takes her sindoor dabba, he sees her face break out into a smile as she put her sindoor on her maang. Seeing her smile, Om smiles.

Gauri keeps her sindoor dabba on the table, then she takes her eye pencil and puts the eye liner. Om was surprised, she never put her eye liner and lipstick when she was home, she only did that when she went out.

Om watches her color her eyes then she takes her lipstick. He sees her look at her lipstick thoughtfully, blushing a little, giggling a little. He realizes why she was hesitating. Om hugs his knees tightly feeling his heart yearn for her. then he watches her put lipstick, just a hint. Then she moves away from there and he couldn't see her or her reflection. He starts to lean to look for her and sighs in relief when she walks back with her dupatta in hand. She then drapes her dupatta over one hand. Then she adjusts her dupatta a little. Then looking at herself in the mirror one last time, Gauri turns around her eyes immediately going to his mattress.

Om's heart skips a beat realizing that all this was for him. She had been getting ready for him. He sees her shyly smiling at him. His heart brims with love for her. smiling, he kisses his palm and blows the kiss to her. Gauri blushes happily.

I love you. Om mouths to her.

**********

Gauri watches Om from the corner of her eyes. He was talking to her grandmother. She was happy and a little sad. She was happy because they were married and Om was looking very happy. A little sad, because Om continued to behave like how he had behaved when they were engaged. He did keep a distance from her like he usually did. He did talk to her like he did before, but it didn't feel like they were married, it just felt like they were engaged. Nothing seems to have changed between them. If they were not doing all those marriage related rituals, she would have found it hard to believe that they were married.

**********

Two days later, they had started going to college. Her Dadi had went back to Bareilly the day before.

Gauri gets off the bike and waits for Om to get off the bike. Om looks at her as he got off the bike. He smiles at her.

"You should have removed this." Om tells her as he held her hand. "You will have difficulty writing."

Gauri shakes her head in negative.

"It is going to disturb the whole class." Om says as he ran his finger through her chooda.

"I'll try my best to not disturb anyone."

"I know you will, love." Om tells her.

Gauri smiles, leaning towards him she kisses his cheek lovingly. Om kisses her cheek.

"Go, I'll see you in class."

**********

"You are back already?" Anika asks surprised to see Gauri sitting in her chair.

Gauri smiles at her.

"We missed you." Bhavya says as she hugged her.

"How is married life?" Anika asks her as she hugged her over Bhavya.

"Nice." Gauri tells her smiling.

"They won't find it any different as they have been staying together all this while." Bhavya tells Anika.

Gauri couldn't tell Bhavya how right she was. But she smiles at them.

"But why did you come back fast?" Bhavya asks her.

"The exams are near, so Omki couldn't take leave now."

"Oh... you should have got married during the semester holidays. At least you guys would have got a week off and could have gone for honeymoon."

"But teachers don't have semester holidays. They have paper correction then mark list preparations." Anika tells her.

"Yeah, that is true. At least this way, you got to spend two days together."

Gauri smiles. "I need to copy notes for the last two days. Can you girls help me write them?"

"Okay." Bhavya says sadly making Gauri chuckle.

**********

Gauri stands up with the rest of the class when Om walks in. Om looks at her for a second before he looks at the rest of the class.

"How are you all?" Om asks as he leaned on the desk.

"Good."

"How is married life?" someone asks him.

Om looks at Gauri and sees her looking at him. For a second she looked worried, Om smiles at her. she smiles happily seeing him smile.

Om looks at the rest of the students and smiles in reply.

Then he quickly changes topic and talks to them for a few minutes.

Then he walks to the white board and writes a problem. "Who can solve it?" Om turns to keep the marker on the desk when he hears the unmistakable sound of Gauri's chooda. He couldn't help the smile that broke out of his face. there was something in the sound of her chooda, he knew many found it irritating but for him, it felt like music.

Om turns and looks at the students and sees Gauri and Anika had raised their hands. Om breaks into a smile in surprise seeing Gauri raise her hand for the first time.

"That's new." Om says smiling.

Gauri smiles. She had finally caught up with the portions and she was feeling confident in her studies.

"Come, Gauri." Om tells her.

Gauri gets up and walks to the desk and takes the marker. Om walks to her chair and sits on it.

He watches Gauri walks to the board and start writing. As she wrote, her chooda made sound. Om looks down as he tried to control his smile and his raising heart. He couldn't understand why he had such a reaction to her chooda. Is it because the chooda was a symbol of their new relation?

Om notices Gauri's book kept on the table. He curiously opens it. He takes the pen from his pocket and he strikethrough.

He feels someone poking him with a pen. Curious he turns to his left and finds Anika and Bhavya looking at him.

"Yes?" he asks with a frown as he looked at the pen Bhavya was holding.

"She is our best friend." Anika tells him.

"I know." Om replies a little confused.

"And she loves you a lot." Bhavya tells him.

"I know." Om replies again.

"Always keep her happy." Bhavya tells him.

"Otherwise you will have to answer us." Anika tells him.

Om hides the smile that threatened to break out of his lips. "You do remember that I am your Professor, right?"

"You do remember that we also love her, right?" Anika asks him back.

Om turns in his seat to face them, then resting his hand on the back of the chair and his head leaning on his palm, he asks them, "How did you girls get this close in such a short time?"

"If you forgot then you just have 4 days of seniority than us in knowing her." Anika points out.

"And we have seen you drooling after her." Bhavya tells him.

"My wife. I will drool." Om says shrugging.

"Cheapde." Anika says shocked.

Om chuckles then he tells them. "I love her and I'll always keep her happy."

"That's all we wanted to hear." Anika tells him approvingly.

"Now, you can go back to drooling." Bhavya tells him cheekily.

Om grins and turns to look at Gauri. she was slightly bending down as she wrote at the bottom of the board. Normally, he would be reading everything a student wrote so they don't make any mistakes in the steps and confuse other students. But today, he couldn't look at what Gauri was writing because he simply couldn't take his eyes off her.

Om had this uncontrollable urge to leave a note in her book asking her to meet him in one of the empty classes after this hour. He wanted to kiss her senseless. But he knew that if he kissed her then he won't be able to stop because now she truly belonged to him and he had always belonged to her.

Gauri finishes and turns to look at him as she put the cap on the marker pen. Om gets up and walks to the front of the class while Gauri went to her seat. Om checks what she had written.

"It's correct. Please copy it." Om tells the class.

Gauri takes her book to write down the solution. She opens the book and stops in shock seeing a line drawn through her name, Gauri Kumari Sharma. Beneath that it was written Gauri Omkara Singh Oberoi.

She looks up at Om in surprise and sees him looking at her. He winks at her. Gauri blushes as she looked down at her book. She lovingly runs her finger over her name.

**********

"Gauri... hey Gauri..." Ajay calls her as he leaned towards her one day in class as they waited for Omkara to come.

"Yeah?" Gauri turns to him curiously.

"Has Professor Oberoi finished setting the question paper?" Ajay asks her.

"I don't know." Gauri shrugs.

"How can you not know?" Ajay asks confused.

"He doesn't tell me all that."

"Can you ask him for the questions?"

"What? No." Gauri says offended. "And he would never cheat like that."

"Please Gauri, ask him for just the 20 marks questions, then two 10 marks questions... maybe a 5 marks question to be on the safe side."

"No way."

"Study for the exams, Ajay." Anika tells him.

"What is the use of having our Professor's wife as a classmate then?"

"I am not here to leak the question paper. I am here to study." Gauri says frowning at him.

"Did you join college knowing Gauri would be joining? No, right? So, study for your exams." Bhavya tells him.

"He will obviously tell her which all questions are going to come, right?"

"Of course not. My husband is not a cheater!" Gauri says getting furious.

"But he would tell you the questions! Otherwise how did you pass for all the exams last time?"

"Stop irritating her." Dandi tells Ajay. "We know Professor Oberoi is not like that. and I have seen Gauri studying in class all the time."

"He would never do that." Gauri tells Ajay getting furious. "He is a man of principles."

"Gauri... stop." Anika and Bhavya tells her as they patted her.

"Shit... stop Ajay." Dandi also says seeing Omkara in class. He was looking at them with a frown.

Gauri turns around realizing Om was there. They quickly stand up.

Om looks at Ajay and Gauri for a while. Then he turns to Gauri and asks her, "Is there a problem?"

Gauri shakes her head in no.

"We were just talking." Ajay answers.

Om nods and walks to the desk. "Please sit everyone."

"Professor Oberoi, did you finish setting the question paper?" Ajay asks him.

Om looks at Ajay for a few seconds then he looks at Gauri then he again looks back at Ajay and informs him, "Yes, Ajay. The question paper is set."

Om turns to the rest of the class and tells them, "And this time's exam is going to be tough."

"Oh no." some moans sadly.

"Please be lenient in correction, Professor Oberoi." Ishana tells him.

"I have never been strict or lenient in my corrections, Ishana. I was always being fair in my correction. And this time also it will be fair." Om tells her then he turns to look at Gauri, and says "Except for Gauri's. her paper will be corrected very strictly. Don't want anyone saying I leaked her the question paper."

Already furious with Ajay's baseless accusation and on top of that, this unfair treatment by Omki, Gauri stands up in anger. "That is not fair!"

"Sit down, Gauri." Om says frowning at her outburst.

"You know that is not fair. You have never favored me over other students. You always treated me like the rest of the class. Then why are you giving stricter evaluation than the rest of the class. That is not fair, Omki!"

Hearing her call, him Omki in front of the whole class, Om lifts his chin and looks down at her in anger.

Hearing a few sniggers and giggles Gauri realizes what she did. "I meant Professor Oberoi." Gauri says softly.

"Sit. Down. Gauri. Omkara. Singh. Oberoi." Om tells her in a clipped tone.

Gauri quickly sits down.

**********

Gauri walks to the parking area and sees Om waiting for her.

"How can you do that to me?" Gauri asks him in sad anger. "You know how hard I study then why are you going to be strict in correcting my paper?"

"How could you think that I would do that to you?" Om asks her in anger.

"You only said that!"

"And you would believe it?" Om asks exasperated.

"Have you ever lied to me that I would start second guessing you?" Gauri asks him hands on hips.

Om couldn't help the smile seeing her so furious at him. "I simply said that."

"Why?" Gauri asks confused.

"I saw that Ajay was pestering you about something and you looked damn pissed off. then he asked me about the question paper. I realized that he was asking you about the questions for the exams."

"So why did you say that?"

"Because I know you are going to score really well for this exam."

"How do you know?" Gauri asks shocked.

"Because I know your caliber now, Gauri. I know you are caught up with the syllabus and studying really hard. So I know, you will score well. And I don't want anyone accusing you of scoring so well because I already told you what questions to expect."

"Oh."

"I was just indirectly telling everyone that whatever you get for your exams it is because of your hard work and not because I would be lenient in correction or because I leaked the question paper."

"Oh." Gauri says feeling guilty for creating a scene.

"And I would never be strict in correction for any student specially you."

"Sorry." Gauri says as she hugged him. "I was really angry that idiot Ajay was saying you would give me all the questions before exams. And I took my anger on him, out on you."

"It's okay." Om says hugging her. "Do you want me to handle him?"

"No. don't waste your time on him." Gauri tells him. "I am sorry I called you Omki. It slipped out."

Om chuckles hearing that. "It's okay, love."

**********

Soon, Gauri's exams started. Since it was the semester exam, Gauri had spent all her time studying. She would be mostly in her room studying. She would see Om only when they went to college and got back. Once exams started he was also busy with the exam formalities, corrections and all.

It was Physics exams and Gauri was busy writing her answers when she hears Omkara's voice. She quickly looks up.

"Does anyone have any doubts or confusions regarding the questions?" Om asks as he stood next to the invigilator.

Some continued to write while some shook their head in negative.

Gauri couldn't help the smile that came on her face seeing him. She had been missing him due to her studies. Today finally, her exams were getting over and now she would be free.

She sees the invigilator whispering something to Omki's ears.

"Sure, I'll be here." Om replies.

The invigilator quickly leaves.

Gauri continues to look at Om when he looks at her. seeing her giving him a goofy smile, Om smiles then he with his eyes points at her paper, silently telling her to write.

Smiling Gauri looks down at her answer paper and she in a goofy mood, draws a heart on a corner of her answer paper.

"45 minutes left." Om informs everyone.

That brought her out of her dreamland and she quickly looks at him. And sees him glaring at her and he again points at her paper. She quickly continues writing.

**********

Soon after the exams, Gauri had her one-week semester break. She had spent her break with Dadi while Om still had to go to college.

The night before her fourth semester was to start, Gauri was alone at home. Hearing the doorbell, Gauri excitedly opens the door.

"Hey" Gauri says seeing Om at the door.

"Hi." Om says smiling.

"How was your day?" Gauri asks him as she hugged him.

"Hectic." Om tells her as he hugged her.

"Did you finish correcting papers?"

"Yeah. Couple of days back. Was signing the mark sheets today." Om tells her as he started to walk to his bedroom.

"How much did I get?" Gauri asks him excitedly.

"You can find out in the class tomorrow with the rest of the students."

Gauri makes a face at him, then she asks him, "Are you happy with my marks?"

"No." Om replies as he looked at her.

"No?" Gauri asks feeling sad and her heart breaking.

Seeing her sad, Om tells her, "But I think you will be very happy."

Gauri smiles in relief hearing that. "Isn't it a little over ambitious of you to expect me to score 100%?"

"I wasn't expecting 100%." Om mutters.

"Okay, you go get ready and come. I'll also shower and get ready."

"No, Gauri." Om says tired. "I don't want to go for the Puja."

"But Dadi asked you to come."

"Please I don't feel like coming." Om says feeling tired.

"Okay then don't come." Gauri tells him. "I'll go and come back quickly. I'll come back in 10 minutes."

"Okay." Om says smiling.

"Don't eat dinner. We will eat together." Gauri tells him.

Om smiles sadly, "It's been a while since we spend some time together, right?"

"Yeah. First you with exam question paper and time table setting. Then I was busy with studies and then exams. Now you with evaluation." Gauri says sadly.

"Oh baby." Om walks to her and hugs her. "Even I missed you terribly."

"I missed you also like crazy."

Om smiles. "Okay, you go and come back fast."

"Okay."

Few minutes later, Om was stepping out of the bathroom after his shower when Gauri calls out to him, "Omki, lock the door, I am leaving."

Om opens bedroom and steps out.

"Come fast okay?" Om tells her and stops in shock seeing Gauri.

"Yeah, maximum ten minutes." Gauri promises as she checked her saree pleats.

Om gulps seeing Gauri in saree, a sleeveless blouse and her wet hair left open, she had never looked this provocative. His heart started slamming against his chest as he walked to her. all his resolve breaking.

"Gauri." Om nervously whispers as he stood in front of her.

"Haan?" Gauri answers as she looked up at him. Her breath gets caught in her throat seeing the way he was looking at her.

They hungrily start kissing each other as they stumbled and hurried to his bedroom.

They were on the bed, making out when they hear the doorbell.

Om leans up and looks at Gauri in confusion. "Did you hear the doorbell?"

Gauri gasps and sits up, "I think Dadi is back."

Seeing her looking so worried, Om frowns, "Why are you looking so worried?"

"We had decided..." Gauri says worriedly as she tried to sit up.

"Yeah but you are still my wife." Om reminds her as he helped her sit up.

"But you said..."

"We'll talk... okay?" Om tells her as he cupped her face. "We'll talk tomorrow."

"Okay." Gauri smiles softly.

Om leans down and kisses her lips. "You go open the door, I'll come in a bit."

"Okay." Gauri says as she got out of the bed and started adjusting her saree. "Do I look fine?"

"yeah." Om replies as he adjusted her hair. "Good thing you didn't wear lipstick." Om chuckles.

"I was in a hurry to go and come back fast." Gauri tells him. Then she starts to hurry to the door when she hears the doorbell again.

Gauri stops at Om's bedroom door and asks him shyly, "After Dadi sleeps, do you want me to come?"

Om shakes his head. "Not like a thief, Gauri. I asked you to stay in Dadi's room. I'll bring you to our room."

Gauri smiles hearing that. then she runs to open the door for Dadi.

"Puja is over?" Gauri asks Dadi as she stepped in.

"Yes. I didn't stay for dinner. You were about to come?" Dadi asks her seeing her in saree.

"Yes."

"Oh... it got over sooner than I expected. Om reached?"

"He is in his room. he will come now."

"Okay. then we will have dinner."

**********

The moment she looked at herself in the mirror the next morning, she saw the love bites on her neck. She had quickly wrapped a scarf around her neck to hide the hickeys.

Om stops the bike and Gauri gets off the bike. She stands near Om as he puts the bike on the stand.

"You okay?" Om asks her.

Gauri nods her head.

Om cups her face and tells her, "We need to talk, Gauri."

"Yes."

"You know what I mean, right?" Om asks her.

Realizing he was talking about her issue, Gauri gulps in fear.

"Please baby, don't cut me out. It is killing me." Om tells her.

Gauri hugs him hearing him. "It still scares me, Omki."

"I know, love. But please have faith in me. I'll not leave you no matter what. I love you."

Gauri nods.

"Take all the time you need. Just talk to me."

"Okay."

Om smiles in relief hearing that. "I love you, baby."

"I love you, Omki." Gauri tells him. Then she hugs him tight. "Please don't leave me, ever... okay?"

"Never." Om vows.

"I'll go?" Gauri asks him as she stepped back.

Om smiles and gently tugs on her scarf. "What's with this?"

Gauri blushes and tells him. "It's because of you."

"Me?" Om asks surprised. Then realization was quick, he gently unties her scarf and sees the love bites. He runs his finger over the marks. "Why you hiding my hard work like this, baby?"

Gauri hits him giggling. Om smiles and ties her scarf around her neck securely.

"Now, go. I'll see you in class."

**********

Gauri looks at her mark and gasps in outrage.

"What happened?" Anika asks curiously.

"He said he wasn't happy with my marks!" Gauri tells Anika as she glared at Om who was talking to a student regarding some doubts in correction.

"How much did you get?" Bhavya asks curiously.

"91."

"I think he wanted you to score more than Anika." Bhavya says chuckling.

Gauri looks at Anika's paper to see that she had scored 94. "I am happy with what I got." Gauri declares.

Anika chuckles hearing that.

"Congratulations, Anika on topping the class." Om tells her loudly then he turns to Gauri and says, "And Gauri for coming second. And Ishana for coming third. Well done. Good job." Om says and claps.

Hearing him clap, the whole class claps for the top three. Om then turns to Gauri and cheekily grins at her.

Gauri realizes that he had been teasing her and grins as she checked the answer sheet. Gauri was scanning through the paper when her eyes caught it.

The heart she had drawn, had a half a heart drawn with it.

Surprised Gauri looks up at Om and sees him smiling at her. Gauri smiles at him happily. Om starts scratching his neck as he walked to the teacher's desk. It took her a second to realize that he was scratching the exact spot where she had her hickey. Blushing profusely, she looks down.

Om left after the bell had rung. The students started talking amongst themselves as they waited for the next Professor to come.

"What is with the air hostess look?" Ajay asks Dandi curiously.

"What?" Dandi asks confused.

"Gauri." Ajay says pointing at her.

Dandi curiously looks at Gauri and then he shrugs, "Why do you care?"

Ajay curiously looks at Gauri and notices every few minutes she consciously starts pulling up her scarf.

"I bet she is hiding a hickey."

"Really?" Dandi asks smiling interestedly.

"I am damn sure."

"Good for them." Dandi declares.

"Do you want to bet?"

"On a hickey? You mad?" Dandi asks him then turning to him he asks cheekily, "Are you blaming her for you failing the exams?"

"How do you think she got so high marks?"

"By studying." Dandi replies.

"Yeah, right!"

"She sits in front of me. she is always studying."

"Do you want to bet Rs 500 that she has a hickey on her neck?" Ajay asks him.

"I have better things to do in life." Dandi tells him.

Ajay looks at Bhavya in front of him. Then leaning towards her, he calls her.

"What?" Bhavya turns to him disinterested.

"What happened to Gauri?" Ajay asks her.

Bhavya curiously frowns as she looked at Gauri. "Nothing happened to her."

"No, her neck."

Bhavya rolls her eyes, "It's style, you, idiot."

"She got a cut on her neck."

"What?" Bhavya asks shocked as she looked Gauri.

"It looked pretty nasty too."

Bhavya quickly leans towards Gauri. "Gauri, are you hurt?" Bhavya asks as she quickly removed her scarf.

"Bhavya!" Gauri shouts in shock feeling the scarf slip from her neck.

"Oh shit!" Bhavya says seeing the love bites. "Sorry... sorry." Bhavya quickly hands her the scarf.

"Gauri got hickeys!" Ajay loudly says.

There were soft giggles in the class.

"Shut up, you pig!" Bhavya screams at him.

"Looks like Professor Oberoi and Gauri had a wild night." Ajay says loudly laughing.

"What the fuck is wrong with you man?" Dandi asks in shock.

Gauri quickly ties the scarf around her neck as tears filled her eyes.

"It's okay, Gauri." Anika tells her.

"I am so sorry, Gauri." Bhavya tells her. "He told me you had a cut and I just... I didn't realize."

"Omki and baby were at it last night." Ajay says.

"Shut up, you asshole." Bhavya screams at him.

"Shut up, man!" someone shouts out from the other end of class. There were a small grunts of approval.

"They are married." Someone says from the other end.

"Yeah... mind your own business."

Gauri quickly gets up and runs out of the class.

"Shut up!" Anika screams at Ajay as she took her book and hit him. Bhavya joins her in hitting him.

"You both go and check on her." Dandi tells them as he tried to stop them.

**********

Anika and Bhavya finds Gauri in the parking area sitting on Omkara's bike.

"Gauri... I'm sorry. I didn't know." Bhavya tells her as she stood next to her.

"I know." Gauri replies as she wipes her tears.

"Please don't cry, Gauri." Anika tells her as she wiped her tears.

"I just want to be alone." Gauri tells them.

"Please don't say that, Gauri." Bhavya requests her as her eyes filled up.

"I don't blame you, Bhavya. But right now, I want to be alone. I don't want to talk to anyone. Please leave me alone."

"Please come back to class, Gauri." Anika tells her.

"I can't go back there." Gauri whispers sadly.

"You can. You haven't done anything wrong." Anika tells her.

"I know. I just want to be alone now. Please you both go."

"Gauri..."

"Once Omki is done with his work. He will come. I'll just go home with him. I don't want to go to class."

"Did you tell Professor Oberoi?" Anika asks her.

"No. you girls also don't tell him. He will feel bad. I'll tell him after we go home."

"Gauri, you both are married. There is nothing wrong in it. You know that. then why do you have to act like this? Let it go." Anika gently tells her. "You both are married. It is natural for all this to happen between you both. Don't blow it out of proportion and make it a big deal. Just ignore it."

"Both of you, please go."

"Come, Anika. Let's go." Bhavya tells her.

**********

Om was in second year M.Sc Physics class.

"Professor." Anika calls him from the door.

Om turns to them and seeing them he walks to them with a curious smile. "Yes?"

Bhavya looks up at him and tells him, "You have to come with us."

Seeing tears in Bhavya's eyes, blood drains from Om's face. "Where is my wife?"

"Gauri."

Gauri looks up and sees Om running to her. seeing him, she breaks into tears.

Om stops near her and without a word, hugs her.

"Last night was so beautiful. It was our love. And he made it all dirty. He made our love dirty and disgusting. He made it all immoral."

"Just because he said that doesn't make our love dirty, Gauri." Om tells her as he hugged her.

Touching her neck, she tells him "I didn't hide it because I was ashamed of it. This is our love, how can I be ashamed of it? I hid it because this was between both of us. just ours. And he showed it to everyone. He made this also dirty."

"please don't cry, baby." Om tells her as he cupped her face.

"He made baby and Omki also dirty." Gauri tells him as she broke into loud sobs.

"You call me Omki because of your love for me and I call you baby because of my love for you, so how can that ever be dirty?" Om asks her. "So what if he made our love a dirty joke, it is still our love, right? And we know the purity of our love, right?"

Gauri nods hearing him.

"All he can do is make it sound dirty. But what we experience, when we touch each other, we know what that feels like. And it isn't dirty. His thinking and his mind is dirty. It is so small that he can't comprehend our love or what we feel for each other. Last night, what happened between was not dirty. It was not immoral. And it was not wrong."

"I felt sad. It broke my heart when he made our love a joke and made it dirty. It felt like when Mama..."

"You don't have to talk about that now. I know." Om tells her as he wiped his tears.

Gauri looks at Om in surprise then she hugs him.

"How will you teach them tomorrow?" Gauri asks him.

"I'll teach them just the way I always did. I haven't done anything to be ashamed of. I am a man who is in love with his wife."

Gauri smiles hearing that. "Your students did speak for you."

"I know. Bhavya told me. and they spoke for both of us."

She keeps her head on his chest, "I haven't even talked to half of the class. They spoke because of the love and respect you have given them."

Om kisses her on her forehead. "Are you okay?"

"Yes." Gauri replies as she nodded her head.

Om smiles. "I love you."

"I love you, Omki."

"Come I'll take you to class."

"I don't feel like going." Gauri says a little worried.

"You are going. And I am going to see that Ajay."

"No." Gauri says worriedly as she looked at him. "You are a Professor. If you do anything to a student, then you will lose your job."

"I don't care."

"I care, Omki. I don't want you to suffer because of his small and dirty thinking."

"He made you cry, Gauri." Om tells her giving into his anger.

"No, you have to promise me that you won't hurt him."

When Omkara remains silent, she begs him, "Please Omki. You love your job. You respect it. Don't ruin everything by forgetting that you are a Professor because of Ajay."

"I am a husband, first."

"Then you should listen to your wife!" Gauri tells him stubbornly. "I won't have you ruin everything for a man who doesn't know what love is. Promise me, Omki."

**********

Gauri and Om stop seeing the crowd in front of her class. They were curiously looking as they walked a little faster to find out when a boy pushes the crowd away and comes out of the class holding a hockey stick. Noticing her, he slows down.

"Are you okay, Gauri?"

"I am fine, Rudra."

"Professor Oberoi." Rudra nods his head. "I took care of him."

Om looks at Rudra's hockey stick and then he looks at Rudra, "Please tell me you at least broke one of his bones."

"You bet. No one makes my girl cry." Rudra tells him and walks off.

Om stops and turns to look at Rudra in shock and confusion. "Why the hell is he calling you his girl?"

Gauri giggles. "He is talking about Bhavya."

"Oh yeah... she was crying." Om tells her. "She was feeling so guilty."

"That Ajay tricked her."

"She told me." Om tells her then he asks, "She is dating Rudra?"

"Yeah."

Om chuckles shaking his head, "I thought she had a crush on me."

"You knew?" Gauri asks shocked. "And why didn't you tell me?"

"She was your friend and I didn't want to make it awkward for you. And lately she doesn't look at me like that."

"You notice all that." Gauri says with a frown.

"I don't go looking for it. I just notice it."

"And Bhavya didn't have a crush on you. she liked looking at you."

Om chuckles.

They reach her class and Om's demeanor changes completely.

"Get back to your classes." Om tells the students that were crowding in front of the class.

Quickly the crowd disperses giving them way. They walk in and find Dandi and Abhay helping a beat up Ajay to his feet. Om walks to them then he furiously fists his shirt and pulling him up, he slams him against the wall and hold him in air, so they were eye to eye.

"You made my wife cry." Om furiously tells him. "No one is more important to me than her in this world, and you humiliated her. the only reason you are breathing now is that I promised my wife that I will not harm you. but if I see you anywhere near her again, then it will not be Professor Oberoi, you will be facing. You will be facing Gauri's husband. Gauri's husband will not see you as an immature adolescent who played a mean prank. NO. Gauri's husband will see you for what you are. An asshole who lacks the basic decency and respect for women. A prick for his petty revenge would cross any line and would hurt anyone. So, Ajay stay away from my wife. If I see you even looking at her, then I'll kill you. Understood?"

Om glared into his eyes till Ajay nodded in yes. Then Om unceremoniously dumped him on the floor.

"Gauri?" Bhavya calls her as she walked to her.

Gauri hugs Bhavya. "It's okay, Bhavya. It was not your fault."

Anika also hugs Gauri and Bhavya. "You are fine, right?"

"Yes."

"Are you okay, Gauri?" Ishana asks her as she kept her hand on Gauri's shoulder.

"Yes." Gauri replies smiling at her as she broke away from Anika and Bhavya.

"You don't have to hide your hickey or be embarrassed." Another girl tells her.

"You are Professor Oberoi's wife. We all are there with you." Ishana tells her.

"Thank you." Gauri tells her as her eyes filled with tears.

"Are you okay, Professor Oberoi?" Dandi asks him.

"I am fine, Dandi." Om tells him smiling. Then he curiously asks, "I thought you had Professor Sinha's class. Didn't he come?"

"He was here. Rudra just ignored him and started hitting Ajay." Bhavya worriedly tells him.

"In front of Professor Sinha?" Gauri asks shocked.

"Yes. Professor Sinha has gone to complain to the Principal. Will you support Rudra?" Bhavya asks him worriedly.

"Rudra's father is the trustee of this college. Don't worry. Nothing will happen to him. And I'll let the Principal know what happened." Om promises her.

Bhavya smiles in relief.

Om turns Gauri and cups her face. "You are okay, right?"

"I am fine." Gauri tells him.

Om kisses her on her forehead and Gauri hugs him.

Some students giggle seeing them while some out of respect looks away.

**********

Om comes out of the bathroom after his shower and finds Gauri sitting on his bed. He smiles lovingly at her as he threw his dirty laundry in the laundry basket. He walks to her and sits on the bed.

"Are you okay now?" Om asks her.

Gauri nods her head.

Seeing her looking so nervous, Om takes her hand in his and gently squeezes it.

"I want to tell you my fear." Gauri worriedly tells him.

"Tell me." Om tells her smiling at her.

"I... I was 9 years old... I heard Papa and Mama arguing." Gauri whispers.

Gauri takes a deep breath trying to calm her raising heart and fear.

"Do you want my help?" Om asks her gently.

"Help?" Gauri asks him confused.

"To talk about it. I figured it out, Gauri."

"You did?" Gauri asks confused.

"Yes. The night you asked me to marry you, I was thinking about everything and I think I figured it out. I am sure, actually." Om tells her.

"Still you married me?" Gauri asks in shock as her eyes filled with tears.

"I love you, Gauri. I trust you and you are not your mother's daughter. You are my Gauri." Om tells her as he lovingly cupped her face.

"What do you know?" Gauri asks him.

Om thinks for a few seconds to gather his thoughts. Then he says, "You told me your father was alcoholic but you refused to talk about your mother. So, I understood that whatever it is, it is worse than your father being an alcoholic. You never blamed your father for his alcoholism, so I figured you blame your mother for his alcoholism."

Gauri nods her head agreeing with him.

"that night, you told me that you were not immoral. You got scared when you thought Dadi saw us kiss and later, you had practically ran for your life when you realized that we might make love. And I realized that you were scared of being immoral. But I knew you were not immoral. You mother is. Right?"

Gauri nods as tears fell from her eyes. Om lovingly wipes her tears.

"Dandi harmlessly flirted with you and you freaked out and told him about our engagement. What Ajay did today... instead of blaming him for his small thinking and answering him back, you had run off in pain, fear and humiliation. I realize that your fear is that since your mother is characterless you were scared that people will also think that you were characterless. That your mother's sin would be labeled on you."

Gauri sobs softly.

"Don't cry, baby." Om tells her as he wiped her tears. "I would never think of you like that. I know you. you would never betray me. you would never give my place to anyone else."

"I will die but I'll not let anyone else come into my life." Gauri vows to him.

"I know, baby. but why did you think that I would blame you for your mother's sins? In beginning I can understand but even after all the time we spent together?" Om asks unable to hide his pain.

Gauri sadly looks at him and tells him, "I tried, Omki. But I just couldn't. this fear, I couldn't escape from it."

"I know."

"Om." Dadi knocks on the door.

"A little busy now, Dadi." Om calls out to her and sees Gauri worriedly looking at the door.

"Okay... where is Gauri? I can't find her. Did she go out?"

"She is with me." Om tells her.

"Ah okay."

Gauri starts to get up from the bed when Om holds her.

"She is going to misunderstand, Omki." Gauri worriedly tells him.

"You are my wife, Gauri." Om sternly tells her as he held her and made her sit.

"But..." Gauri worriedly looks at the door.

"No one will think you are immoral because you are in a room with me." Om gently tells her.

"But she knows we are staying in separate rooms... what if she thinks..."

"It is not her place to think what happens between us." Om tells her.

"But..."

"You are my wife and we have every right to be with each other." Om tells her.

Gauri nods as she tried to calm down.

"I was 9 when Papa found out about Mama's affair." Gauri tells him.

Om holds her hand to give her courage to speak.

"Papa wanted to divorce her but then Papa and Dadi thought that if Mama's affair was exposed then it would ruin my life. that I won't get a good husband. That I would always be compared to my mother."

Om takes a sharp breath realizing finally what the issue was. At a tender impressionable age, her father and Dadi had made her believe that she would be judged for her mother's choices.

"So, Papa didn't divorce her. Mama continued to have affairs with many rich men. Papa started drinking." Gauri tells him as she cried.

"People started finding out but Mama didn't care." Gauri tells him.

"I was in 11th. There was this boy in my class. I liked him." Gauri tells him as she worriedly looks at him.

Seeing her worry, Om nods. "And?" Om gently prompts her.

"He somehow found out that I like him." Gauri closes her trying to shut down the memory.

Om keeps his hand on her cheek and tells her, "If you don't want to talk about it, it is okay."

"No, I want to tell you. why I couldn't tell you about my mother." Gauri tells him.

"Okay."

"He came to me and told me that he has a girlfriend and didn't want anyone to know that he was associated with me. but he wanted to have an affair with me. after all, I am my mother's daughter and he will also spend on me like those men spen..." Gauri bursts out crying.

Om quickly hugs her, "Baby, why didn't you tell me all this before?" his eyes filled with tears, his heart breaking realizing the heart break and trauma she had gone through because her first crush wasn't someone who was worthy of her feelings.

"I never talked to boys after that. I was scared they would think that I am... but they still came to me, they would say you are your mother's daughter, anyway you will be like her so why not sleep with me?"

Om hugs her tight getting furious at all those men who had tortured her.

"I didn't want to get married. I was scared. I refused all the proposals Dadi got me but when I saw your photo... I just don't know what happened to me. Dadi told your Dadi about my fear and all. Dadi thought it to be silly and didn't mention it to you but when I found out that she knew, I got scared and I told Dadi that I won't meet you if you knew anything about Mama. Then I made both our Dadis promise that they wouldn't tell you anything. since, Dadi was sure you wouldn't care about it, she promised."

"Then when I met you, you didn't care about my mother. First time, someone was seeing me for me and not as my mother's daughter. I started falling in love with you then. I was scared that you would not want to marry me if you found out about my mother. That is why I agreed when Dadi suggested that we get married quickly."

"After coming here, my life changed. After a long time, I was happy. I found people who cared for me and loved me for me. You and Dadi. Then you got me my first friend here. Anika got me Bhavya. I was so happy. I was surrounded by people who love me. I was scared that I could lose it all if anyone found out about Mama. Then Dadi said Mama might come here. And I panicked. I couldn't think of a life without you and that is why I asked you to marry me. if I got married then Mama wouldn't come because she can't then take me from here. so you would never meet her and you will never find out how she is."

They remained silent as they hugged each other, both lost in thoughts.

"Omki... do you regret marrying me?" Gauri finally asks him unable to handle his silence.

Om cups her face and tells her. "My only regret is that I was not there to protect you all these years. That I couldn't tell you that you are not your mother's daughter. That you are worthy of everyone's love and loyalty. That you are the biggest blessing I got in my life. that there is no meaning to my life, if you are not there."

Hearing him, Gauri hugs him happily and cries in joy and relief.

"I love you, Gauri."

Once she had calmed down, Gauri moves back from Om.

"Omki, I told you all my fears." Gauri tells him as she looked at him.

Om smiles at her and asks her, "Would you like to come and stay with me in our room and start our life together?"

Gauri nods her head in joy. "I love you, Omki."

**********

Later, Dadi was getting ready to sleep when Om walks into her bedroom with Gauri.

"Dadi?"

"Yes." Dadi sits on her bed as she curiously looks at them.

"From now, Gauri is going to stay with me in our room." Om tells her while Gauri turned pink.

"Okay." Dadi nonchalantly replies then she looks at both of them and smiles happily.

Om smiles seeing her smile while Gauri blushed even more.

"So, you both talked about everything?" Dadi asks them smiling.

"Yes." Om replies.

"I told you it was a silly thing." Dadi tells him smiling.

"But her heart break and pain wasn't, Dadi." Om tells her with a slight frown.

"I know. I blame all of this on Devki and her father." Dadi says with a sad smile. "You are feeling relieved right, Gauri?"

"Yes, Dadi."

"Good night, Dadi." Om says smiling. "Come, Gauri."

"What? You both are staying in the same room, from now on?" Dadi asks shocked.

"Yeah." Om says frowning.

"Idiot. You should have told me earlier. I would have decorated the room for your suhaag raat." Dadi says getting up.

Gauri turns completely pink.

"DADI!" Om shouts in shock. "As it is, this conversation is awkward, can you not make it any more awkward?"

"Fine" Dadi stops. "Just give me my great-grandchild soon."

"Are you mad?" Om asks her shocked. "Gauri is still studying. Don't talk about it for another 6-7 years."

"Hmph."

"Let's go, Gauri." Om says as he turned to Gauri and sees her blushing profusely. He couldn't help smiling at her.

"And please tell your wife not to walk around the house wearing that scarf." Dadi tells him as she got on the bed and pulled the blanket over herself. "I have been married and I have lived thrice as long as her and I saw it last night itself."

*********

"You are glowing." Anika says smiling.

"You are alright, right?" Bhavya asks sitting next to her.

"Yes. I am happy." Gauri tells them smiling with a slight blush.

"Good." Anika tells her smiling.

"How did it go with Rudra?" Gauri asks Bhavya.

"They have called his father." Bhavya tells her worriedly.

"Omki said that he will talk to the Principal."

"But what if Ajay presses charges against him?"

"Actually, Omki wanted me to complaint against Ajay for harassment. He wanted to press legal charges against him."

"Good. You should." Anika tells her.

"I told him that I will wait to see what happens with Rudra. If he threatens to press charges against Rudra then I'll also press charges against him. If he doesn't complain against Rudra then I won't complain against him."

"You would do that?" Bhavya asks smiling.

"Of course." Gauri tells her smiling.

"You alright, Gauri?" Dandi asks as he walked in.

"Yes."

"I am sorry. he was my friend."

"It's okay."

"He is no longer my friend."

Gauri smiles hearing that.

When it was Physics period, Om walks in. the moment he walked in, he looked at Gauri. he smiles at her and Gauri quickly looks down blushing.

"So, how are you all?" Om asks as he leaned on the desk.

"We are good... how are you?"

"I am good."

"Ajay's leg is fractured." Dandi informs him.

"Ah." Om says nodding.

"You can say, 'good'. We won't judge you." Dandi cheekily tells him.

The class starts chuckling hearing that.

Om chuckles hearing that.

"You people are such gossipmongers. Every class I had today, they were asking me about what happened yesterday." Om tells them as he shook his head at them. He starts to take the marker to start teaching.

"You are the stud now. the love machine." Dandi tells him and bursts out laughing.

"What?" Om asks shocked, though turning a little pink. Then Om worriedly looks at Gauri to see how she was taking it.

He sees her blushing and laughing happily along with the whole class.

Om sighs in relief realizing that she was no longer scared or conscious, she was confident in their love now, that she was taking a harmless fun jab in the stride. He smiles at her and she happily smiles at him.

"One of these days, I'll throw you out of the class, Dandi." Om tells him as he turned to Dandi.

Om was teaching and Gauri was listening as she took notes.

"Gauri." Anika softly calls her.

"Yeah?" Gauri asks as she continued to look at Om.

"Give me your hand."

Without thinking she gives her hand. Anika slightly moves her chooda down to look at her wrist.

"This wasn't there yesterday." Anika tells her.

"What?" Gauri and Bhavya asks at the same time.

Gauri turns completely pink realizing that they saw the love bite he had given her the night before. Something about her chooda was making him go wild.

Gauri quickly pulls her hand back.

"Oh my!" Bhavya says grinning.

Anika also grins seeing Gauri blush.

"He is really a love machine." Bhavya whispers as she leaned to them.

"Yeah." Anika chuckles.

"Stop it!" Gauri says as she hits them to make them stop giggling.

"GAURI!"

They quickly stop and turn to look at Om.

"If you don't want to sit in the class then you don't have to." Om tells her angrily.

"Sorry." Gauri tells him.

"Three of you leave." Om tells them.

"We won't talk again." Gauri tells him.

"I have told you before not to disturb when the class is going on. You never listen."

"We were disturbing Gauri." Anika tells him.

"We are sorry." Bhavya tells him.

Om looks at them for a few seconds then he declares, "Last chance."

"Thank you, Professor Oberoi."

**********

"You girls..." Om starts as soon as Gauri reached the parking area.

"Shut up." Gauri whispers as she took his lips in hers.

"I was dying to kiss you all day." Om whispers as he kissed her back.

"Even me." Gauri whispers.

"Let's go home." Om says urgently.

"What were you girls giggling about?" Om asks after Gauri got on the bike.

"This." Gauri says as she put her hand forward to show him her love bite.

Om grins and kisses over her love bite.

"They agree that you are a love machine."

Om chuckles.

"But they don't realize that it is not their Professor Oberoi, but it is my Omki who is a love machine."

"Aren't both the same?" Om asks as he turned to look at her.

"No. Professor Oberoi is nice. But he always ignores me. My Omki doesn't ignore me and at times, he just takes over Professor Oberoi for a second in class and looks at me, smiles at me. And that is when I felt loved the most."

Om smiles as he looked at her. "Professor Oberoi and Omki both loves you so dearly."

"But I love my Omki more." Gauri tells him as she hugged him from behind. "My Omki is the best."

*** The End ***

I hope you guys liked this story. I don't know how the ending was, I am feeling confused about it. Please do leave your comments and vote.

- Lazy