Gabo visited me again. In my dream, of course. Amigo, do you know the key to happiness? I think I do, Maestro. To love and to be loved? Oh, Santa Ingenuidad. Hombre, this thing happens very rarely, almost never. Usually, you either love, even if the other person doesn't care about you, or you are loved, without feeling anything in particular for the poor soul. What option do you choose? I choose the first one. Can I ask why? Because I like butterflies, Maestro. On flowers, on leaves, but, most importantly, in my stomach.
(Translated by Constantin Istrate / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year II / Corrected by prof. Daria Protopopescu / 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. 
