No one can claim perfection, that's why everyone needs a second chance

~Unknown

Devansh

"Really! You cleaned your work space, that's what you wanted to show me." She scoffed at me with a stinky eye while I smiled at her.

"Do you want an award for this?" She said making fun of me for bringing her here.

She looks better with a smile on her face and thewitty attitude of hers, I was so scared when she passed out on me. It felt like some one choked me to death in that moment, I couldn't breathe, I didn't know what to do expect sit by her side and pray for her to wake up.

Those seven minutes felt like hell looking at her lifeless body and now I can understand why everyone is so protective of her and requested me to stay away from her.

I am the reason behind her pain and I will be the reason for her happiness now.

She snapped her fingers to grab my attention and stopped me from staring at her face.

"Sure, If you can give me one for it. I see that you don't have an office in our house and you have been struggling in the porch and in your room, so I made you an office room. This is not that big, just a small space but I hope that will be enough."I explained to her showing her the setup.

I divided my garage into two and built an office space, with everything she likes in there. This is what I have been doing all day cursing myself at my past behavior.

"Come sit in here.." I dragged her to the new fancy swivel chair I bought for her, which is behind the desk I built.

"What happened to your hand?" She question me looking at my left hand covered in bandage.

"I cut my fingers trying to saw wood, those things are damn sharp." I said to her looking at my cut and feeling that pain again.

My Janu ran to the hospital after I got hurt while playing cricket, she broke down to tears but this girl before just sat still, she lost her empathy.

"Why are you doing this? Why are you being nice out of the blue?  You hate me, So Why now.." She asked gulping away the tears.

"Janu..I can never hate you.... I felt betrayed by you and it made me sick and mad. You are the last person I expected to hurt me and all your truths from others mouths, made me doubt our relationship. I know what I did was wrong. I should've had some faith in you. I realized my mistakes and I will do anything to erase them. I broke you, so I will help you build yourself together. "I said kneeling before her chair, placed my head on her knees, begged holding her hands in mine, and letting the tears out freely.

I can be vulnerable before and she would never judge me.

"Don't cry Devansh..Stop blaming yourself..It was my mistake too...I didn't mean to hide about my identity from you. I asked my mom to let me tell you but she said no, and at the same time I was scared to lose what we had. I guess we were just two immature kids back then.." She replied hiding her pain with a smile, and assured me holding my hand.

"But we loved each other, didn't we?" I questioned her and she froze at my words.

"Love was the only real thing we had.." She whispered after a long pause and lone tear slipped off her eyes.

"I remember the first time I saw and fell in love with you..Your eager and emotional eyes and that smile, just.. blew my mind...I knew that smiles are contagious but your smile stuck to my heart..and after that I fell in love with you every single day..all the moments we spent together..they have been driving me in your absence." I explained reminiscing all the beautiful times we had together.

"Please give me another chance Janu, Please...." I begged her while she looked lost, staring at the wall behind me.

"We failed once and it took us years to get back to normal..I don't think I have it in me to go through it again." She said sternly fisting her palms in my hands.

"Trying to forget all that love and suppress my feelings for you, will only weaken me Janu... It's killing me to stay away from you and act like a stranger, because I am still the same Dev who loves his Janu. Please..I promise it won't be like before because we know what went wrong and I am willing to do anything to make it work for us." I pleaded her, feeling her softening gaze on me.

"It hurts me too, but I am scared.. scared that you will push me away again..scared of the pain waiting on the other end.." She whispered in a coarse tone with tears in her eyes and I could feel the pain she went through just by looking at her face.

"It has always been you and me, please don't break my heart..I can't live without you..I don't want to live without you.."I told what I really feel.

Life without her feels empty, and life before her is just a blur. She made a regular day filled with rainbows for me.. She lit up my dull world, I can't leave her knowing that I have a chance a forever with her.

"My mind is saying no, but my heart wants me to believe you, it's holding to every single word you are saying...It wants you and me to be together." She said sliding down and sat before me pushing the chair back to the wall.

"I won't leave you, I won't give up this time, I will be here every single time you need me. I am not leaving you or I am not gonna let you leave me this time." I said assuring her.

I am ready for all the struggles, because I want her to be by my side at any cost.

"We just fell in love earlier..we didn't understand each other, but for a relationship to sustain it needs trust, respect and support. We will try attain those and make it happen, we will take it slow this time.. . "I tried to convince by holding her hand in mine and comforting her.

Relationships are not perfect, people make it perfect by conquering all the imperfect times, and she is the one who I want to conquer my imperfect battles with.

"I am willing to try it, even though we might not have a future together, I want us to be happy in the present we have." She replied clutching my hand tight and wiping the tears off my face.

No amount of words are gonna suffice to what I am feeling right now, All the heaviness in my heart was suddenly off my chest, and the guilt I have been carrying for hurting her is leaving my body, all that past pain was worth it.

"This seems unbelievable Devan.."

"Devansh sounds  foreign coming out of your mouth, call me Dev.." I stopped her before she could complete, pulled her into my lap and made her sit in it.

She snuggled into my neck, leaning her head on my shoulder and wrapping her arms around me. Finally, this feels amazing, the forever I have always imagined is in my lap. I feel complete now.

"I missed you..Dev."She whispered hugged me tight and I felt a bubble of happiness burst in my chest.

"I missed you so much, Kick me in the nuts if I ever ask you to leave. "I told her patting her head and she chuckled letting out a breath on my neck.

Oh Boy! My whole body went up on fire, tingles all around my fingers making me shiver.

This is what she does to me, she has more control over my body than I do, and I'd rather it be her than anyone else.

"Thank you for the office space, where are you gonna work?" She asked me and helped get off the floor.

"Here on the other side, this way I can be here when you need me and see you work. This was our dream remember, to work together at my place and it's happening." I told her with a smile that has been plastered on my face.

"You remember?"

"Of course, I could never forget a single word that came out of your mouth."I replied with a smile looking at her confused eyes.

After my reply I could see her staring at me in disbelief, she smiled at me gently after a few seconds and moved closer to my ears and whispered

"Thank you, for accepting me the way I am." She mumbled against my neck again.

This is it, today is my last day, I am gonna die, she is waking up all those giddy and fuzzy sensations in my body making me feel like a pre teenager who had his first kiss.

"Don't thank me, Are you sleepy?" I asked her carefully holding her in my arms and sinking in her smell and the reality that we are gonna be together from now on.

"I literally slept the whole day. Do you want to sleep? You are legs are gonna die if I sit on you like this for more time." She said moving away from to the floor, but I didn't want to let her go.

She is the thirst my heart was quenching for and she wants to move away that quick from me, I just want to pull her close to me and kiss the life out of her.

We are taking it slow remember, don't scare her.

"We could watch a movie together.." I suggested holding her hand keeping in my mind that we are taking it slow.

"You should sleep Dev, You have been working all day and you want to watch a movie now? How careless are you? And you complain that you are not getting any new ideas to work, how will you when you don't give your brain a pause? You are sleeping and that's final. " Janu said, more like commanded me to sleep.

I chuckled at her care and love and felt happy at a small hope of her going back to the way she was.

"But I want to spend some more time with you."I pouted at her denying what she said earlier.

Her face went all shades of red in seconds and I immensely enjoyed the affect I have on her.

"I have an idea, Why don't you sleep in here while I work?" She said after a few seconds and I agreed.

And that's how I slept, watching her work right beside me on the floor, with her hand on my head massaging me while I went to a bliss of a sleep after an emotionally draining day.

I loved my life after that day, and she is the reason for it.

And this is my schedule from the last one month, I go to the fields with my father, and sometimes if I am lucky I get to see Janu working with other farmers like us there, watching her work is so fascinating and I just can't seem to get enough of it. I am too attracted to her work mode, I can talk about her all my life without a pause.

After working with my father, I come back afternoon and go to my lab and with her motivation I started working on my new idea which is to protect crops from heavy unprepared rains. And every night after dinner we meet in the garage and talk about our days till we doze off.

"You seem happy these days." My dad asked me with a frown as we were walking to our farming lands.

I am excited because I know that Janu is going to be there today, as the harvest season ended we prepared the land for the next season, while Janu's team did the testing on soils. In the mean time they want to practice, Vertical farming using hydroponics where plants grow without soil.

"I guess so." I shrugged him off.

"Is that because of a certain someone staying in our house? Who sneaks into the garage every night? Does that ring any bells?" He asked with a smug look on his face.

Is this really happening? My father is teasing me about a girl and that too Janu, his favorite one off all.

"Maybe, We kinda made-up and are talking to each other at night as we are busy during the day." I answered him rubbing my neck in embarrassment.

Thank God! We reached the land before my father could make more fun of me.

I could see all the people in our village standing before Janu and her team, she looks tired, upset and angry. She tried explaining something but was stopped in the middle by another Uncle who is yelling at her loudly.

She stomped her foot and walked away from there with her team.

"What happened Ramu?" My dad asked the uncle who yelled at Janu, but my feet automatically started walking to her angry face.

"Jagati, How are we going to do this?" Mark the lead of JD team questioned her while she was fisting her palms and chewing her lips in anger.

I held her hand, to calm her down and she looked at me with a smile on her face pushing away the anger for me.

"These people are so struck in their old ways and they are not ready to do what we want. They are so hard headed, How am I gonna do this if they keep protesting my every move? I should've considered this element when I took up the project, I am so dumb..Why can't they listen to me?" She groaned in frustration while all the other team members left giving us some time.

"Look at me, Take some deep breaths..." I calmed her down while she looked into my eyes.

"Janu..You have to understand that they have been stuck in their own methods from decades, and you were kinda forced on them by the government.. It's gonna take time..." I told her in a soothing tone rubbing her hand.

"There is no time Dev..We are already late on our schedule..You don't understand the pressure on me.. " She started fretting about things again.

"Let me go talk to them." I said and walked to the others my dad was talking too.

"If you are here to convince them, it's not going to work. They are not listening to your dad, why would they listen to you." Raj my friend said before I could open my mouth.

I could see my dad explaining the benefits of this vertical agricultural methods, but no one is even bothered to learn about it.

"Leave it Uncle. You know what? Let's make things interesting, we will play a game. If I lose we will do things your way, and if you lose we will do things our way." Janu came in and announced to everyone, and was followed by all her 8 team members including her bodyguard Shreya.

I looked at her with a confused look but she met my eyes and assured me that she has everything under control.

The crowd started murmuring for a few minutes and then Ramu Uncle came forward and said.

"Sure, but we will play a game of our choice which is cricket,We don't know all your stupid foreign games."

Janu's face fell at the mention of cricket while I felt elated, we could be on the same team and I could win this for her like a gift. This is gonna be amazing.

"One more thing, Devansh is gonna be on our team not yours." Ramu uncle proudly announced looking at me.

"We don't want your Devansh, you can keep him to yourself." Janu snickered back at him and it was my turn to frown and feel sad.

"As we are 9 total, I'll take Uncle and Raj will you be on my team?" She asked him sweetly batting her eyelashes.

"Forever my Janu!" Raj said dramatically while I kept sulking at thought of playing against her.

And that's how we dispersed to our respective houses while everyone in my village asked me to win this for them, Janu was seriously talking to her team members.

I went to my house, changed my clothes and found my dad and Janu seriously discussing about their game plans.

"You do know that I was our colleges cricket team captain right? There is no chance you are winning this." I told them cockily while they just glared at me.

"You know that I was our college captain's girlfriend and there is a saying that, there is woman behind every successful man." She commented back and sticking her tongue out.

Doesn't she look cute? How can play against this load of cuteness?

"And I was the father of your school's captain, so be ready." My father mimicked Janu throwing the red ball in his hands while I caught it before it hurt me and put on my shoes ready to play cricket after so long just because of her.

I am sorry that I vanished again, I do have some valid reason for doing that.

I got my COVID Shot and it made me sick for two days and on top of that my finals are approaching which means so many project deadlines to complete.

Schools, colleges and work suck man! I wish we were born with degrees and loads of money....

Anyway, Will try to update again soon.

Also I hope you enjoyed Janu and Dev making up and talking it out instead of bottling it forever.

Don't forget to vote and comment.

Love,

Sneha