You were alone under a twisted maple tree in the middle of the yard, surrounded by people. You laughed like Seydoux, with comforting sadness. After 3 years, you came out of hiding.
In the mood for love, the movie, was on the big screen that evening. You were unchanged, a whole world revolved around your being, nothing harmed you. I gave you my ticket. It was sold out. I slipped through the backstage. I stood next to you on the stairs, sometimes accidentally touching your elbow. After the movie, we were hungry for noodles and life. But you were married. As were you, have you forgotten?
(Translated by Andreea Laura Stanca / 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 June 2023, the group has 11,430 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, Luchian Abel, and Vlad Mușat. (Drawing by Adrian T. Roman)
Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale. 
