He tried to remove it with a needle, he tried with alcohol, with vinegar mixed with baking soda, he also went to a psychologist, he practised meditation, he even abandoned himself to hypnosis, he took packets of pills that promised to work miracles, he had been confessing for five months, every week, he even called five priests at his home, to cleanse and hallow it, he tried everything yet he didn't succeed. That little parting kiss was etched too deep in his being, under the fine skin of his cheek.
(Translated by Ecaterina Buşe / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year II / Corrected by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)
Real Fiction is a collective project started in 2013 by Florin Piersic Jr. The concept of Real Fiction continued to exist as a Facebook group, after a volume of stories was published at Humanitas Publishing House. (In January 2021, the group has 3.000 members.) The authors write ultra-short stories, with the texts limited to 500 characters (in Romanian, so the length of the English translation might be a little different) - a flash-fiction exercise on a topic that changes every few days. The group's coordinators are Florin Piersic Jr., Gabriel Molnar, and Luchian Abel. (Drawing by Adrian T. Roman)
*Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficţiuni Reale. 
