Spring Starts with Tinder

Caterina Tudorache
Titi takes the bus with joy to the No-lifer village. With his gel-styled slicked back hair, ripped jeans he got from the Chinese store, reeking of cheap perfume, Titi blabbers on about beauty and something indefinite. With a smile, he activates his online charisma for all the girls. Wyd? You're pretty. I want to take a pic with you. I'm at the gym, workin' out. I'm rich, I own a car and I want to wife you up. I'm 190cm tall and I live in London. Kiss ya. I'll call you in a bit, I've got to take this call from work. Yes, mommy. Yes, dear. Should I also get powdered milk? Okay, babygirl. Kiss the kids for me.

Sanda Burță
As many times as I cried over some dude, my sister would say I'm like a willow, no matter how much the wind blows, it can't knock me down. Willow my ass, muttered dad, as he looked at mom in a certain way, while she remained silent. Dad's words made me think for a moment; the one about the willow was just nonsense, Greta would say anything because she loved me. I can't live without love like a willow can't live without water, hehe, I fall in love precisely during springtime. Where do you find them like that? grandma would ask. All of them in the same place, my brother would mock me, because she lacks a brain.

Cristian Nedelcu
Sleepy Sleeperson woke up disoriented. He had dreamed that Ube von Hässlich had won over Cutie McPreety, his high school sweetheart. He got out of bed, stretched, did three push-ups, and put the coffee pot on the stove. He needed coffee. After savouring two sips of the elixir of life, he took three puffs from his cigarette and turned on his laptop. If Cutie had preferred Ube, even in his dreams, even if he was von Hässlich, it could only mean one thing. He needed to find a mistress. Perfect match appeared on his monitor. From Northern Ireland, Patricia O'Horryble.

(Translated by Oana Ionescu / 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 April 2024, the group has 12,860 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.