Once a year, I check my FB account to see what my exes are up to. I don't know why I do this to myself. The bitterness is killing me. They've all lost weight but got bigger boobs. They all have successful careers, cool boyfriends, exotic vacations. Even though I get bitter and jealous, I'm a good man. I'm genuinely happy for them. I like seeing them happy. They weren't like this when they were with me. I was getting on their nerves. I was always two feet ahead of them, cheating on them, stealing their lip balm. Once a year, they all call to wish me happy birthday. Concerned.
(Translated by Camelia Diaconu / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year II / Corrected by prof. Eliana Ionoaia / Edited 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 2023, the group has 10,220 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, Răzvan Penescu, and Luchian Abel. (Drawing by Adrian T. Roman)
Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale. 
