Actor Zayed Khan and wife Malaika Parekh were high school sweethearts, and while he kept pining over her from afar, she took matters into her own hands by boldly making the first move. During a recent interview with Zoom Spotlight, the Main Hoon Na actor opened up about their love story. “I never wanted to fall in love or anything. That was not on my to-do list. I was a free soul. It just so happened that I saw a girl. I saw Malaika when I was 17, and she was 15. When she turned around, I found her just gorgeous. So I asked my friend, ‘Who’s she?’ He told me, and added, ‘I think she’s dating somebody’. I said, ‘I didn’t ask who she’s dating’,” he shared.DISCLAIMER: This article is based on information from the public domain and/or the experts we spoke to.“It took me 3 months to make eye contact with her. Finally, I went to a friend and went, ‘Yaar, she doesn’t say anything. She just looks through you. Give me an introduction, let’s go out for a coffee or hot breads or something like that,” recollected Khan. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Zoom TV (@zoomtv)“A few days later, I was getting into environmental science class, she was also getting into it and she looks at me and says, ‘Hi’, as if she was saying hi to a leaf. I just walked past her, because I didn’t believe she could say hi to me. And then I’m looking behind, and I thought, ‘My God, there was nobody behind’. I was so angry with myself. I went inside the class, and Miss Mukherjee was saying something something and I was doodling, and one girl comes and says, ‘There’s a phone call for Zayed in the principal’s office.”“I went down, and there was this shoe flower plant out there. I was so frustrated, I thought I’ll put a stop to it. Tearing leaves of the plant, I went , ‘Loves me, loves me not’ while she was sitting on the side, and said hi to me again. She asked me, ‘What are you doing?’, I said, ‘Just one second, my father’s got a phone call. I’ll quickly take that phone call and come. And she says, ‘No, that wasn’t your father. That was me’. I looked at her and was like, ‘Kya baat hai yaar, what daring and what guts! I want to make babies with you. For me, that kind of personality and quality, thinking and all of that made me fall in love with her twice more than by just looking at her.” Zayed Khan with his wife Malaika and kids. (Source: Instagram/@itszayedkhan)Shruti Padhye, senior psychologist at Mpower Helpline at Aditya Birla Trust, believes that while that initial infatuation or “spark” can be captivating, what truly helps a relationship sustain over time is emotional maturity and compatibility. “It is easier to give in to the chemistry which could come in the form of physical attraction and much more difficult to gauge someone’s emotional capabilities,” she said.ALSO READ | ‘You truly see who your friends are…’: Zayed Khan on when his family hit rock bottom after Sanjay Khan’s fire accident; how childhood trauma shapes adult emotionsLike we see in Khan’s case, while there is a focus on shared interests, it’s the values that really matter. “Sharing the same interests and hobbies eases building the initial phases of the relationship, but what helps a relationship sustain is the ability to have shared values about the way of being,” she said.According to Padhye, choosing a life partner isn’t about finding someone perfect. It’s about picking someone with whom your wounds can heal rather than deepen, someone who truly sees you and stands by your side as you both grow.Story continues below this adDISCLAIMER: This article is based on information from the public domain and/or the experts we spoke to.