I Felt Like a Different Person

Alina Nedelcu
I was the hardest-working project manager. The most agile corporate worker. I completed all my tasks. Procrastination? What's that? I would rub my hands in satisfaction every time I received a monosyllabic email that only I could decipher. Nothing could stop me from my well-deserved rise. Until one day, when I loosened the tie choking me with the middle finger of my left hand. The fingers of my right hand were already typing my resignation. I pushed open the swinging doors with my forehead and breathed in the traffic and life.

Iunia Augustin
Printre păpurișuri arse de soare, cu stârci la picioare și lișițe blagoslovind apa  Among sun-scorched reeds, with herons at its feet and coots blessing the water far and wide, the stilt hut emerged, its small windowpanes painting the sky at noon. Looking at it, you couldn't tell if it was floating or merely swaying in the arms of twilight. Old Igor would shake you from your hesitation, appearing on the porch like an embodiment of eternity. And then the stories would flow endlessly. It felt as if entire worlds rose from the waters, profaning and babbling through the sacred stillness. He twisted them with his words, shaping silence in a way that rebuilt you into someone else.

Marian Bircea
My hair sits however it pleases, the white shirt buttoned up immaculately over my heart, the collar reluctantly accepting its coexistence with the tie, the knot snug under my chin. Then the brand-new trousers, perfectly creased, handled with clumsy care so as not to wrinkle them. The belt loops around my waist mercilessly as I search for the perfect hole. My feet slide into polished shoes, gleaming like a mirror, forcing me into humility as I tie the laces. The jacket slips on with undisguised satisfaction, the handkerchief rests in my pocket, the carnation sits at my lapel. It's nothing special - but it's my first suit.


(Translated by Laurențiu-Gabriel Niculae / 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 February 2025, the group has 13,650 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, Monica Aldea, and Vlad Mușat. (Drawing by Adrian T. Roman)

Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale.