How to Find Your Match

Irina Vasilescu
First, you decide what you're looking for. How important is appearance and what lies beneath the surface? How much do you want to invest? Then, boldly, go ahead. If you don't make mistakes, you won't see the wonders. Remember, you have nothing left to lose. There's also the online app option, but the chances of finding love there, the way you want it, are minuscule. Over 90% of ads are misleading. For me it was to be at a farm in Valcea county. There I found the most beautiful pair of ducks of my life.

Varinia Mitrea
Yes, Mr. Psychologist, last year I suffered a loss of one of them, I became disturbed and can't stay with just one. I can't imagine life without them. I admit, now I'm changing them a lot. There are women who raise an eyebrow and judge me directly: look at this desperate woman, how she is looking around. They are pleased with what they have at home, but I'm always looking for others. I see them, they wink at me, they whisper to me to take them home. I sleep with them, and the next day I find them there too. In my ears.

Mihaela Suciu
Search. Customize. Choose. He spent a whole night in front of the PC, adjusting, adding, removing. Some features cost too much, he settled for the free ones. The customized offer was fine, but it seemed that all were the same, he wanted something original, special, only his own.Finally, he succeeded. Everything he wanted was now sitting in front of him on a screen, ready to start a battle. He adored his little warrior, he spent hours with her. If only there was a download option, he would have married her.

(Translated by Florina Șamata / 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 August 2023, the group has 11,680 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.