Ikigai

Alex Micu
I know nobody will miss me, so I've made peace with the idea. I closed the shop and I moved on to the next level, glancing at my loved ones. No, I haven't become selfish. I just looked at the bigger picture, because in a better world it would be a lot better for all of us. I enrolled myself as a volunteer for a much nobler cause. My folks won't miss me, technology will keep us in touch for the next two years. I pack my bags and get in the car. On the way, there's two passers-by. They could fix your car here for barely any money, one of them said, looking towards what used to be my auto workshop.
 
 Gabriel Rusu
The role of the Dacians was not to subjugate the barbarian peoples of the world, as historian Jiji presents in Techniques of Maturing Ancient Cheeses. There are historical sources that claim that when Dromichetes completed the circumnavigation of the flat earth, he surrendered his sandal in the service of enlightenment and spiritual development. Part of that legacy can be found in Japan through the samurai, an order created for defence, and, of course, through the Japanese cherry tree, whose roots were brought across seas and lands from the Garden of the Holy Mother.
 
 Caterina Tudorache
Boy, just, shouted the old man. The young man murmured absent-mindedly, Yes, and downed the glass, half full or empty, depending on how depressed you are, dear reader. Boy, no, the old man insisted. The young man murmured another absent-minded, Yes, and asked for another. Reader, if you're bored by this text, you can have a drink with them or watch the lunchtime news. No, wait, that'll make you want to get wasted, and you've got to be able to come up with your own theories, implanted in juice. Boy, the old man scowled. It's just my story. The young man murmured an absent-minded, Yes, and slipped under the table.

 
(Translated by Diana Gabriela Radu / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year I / Corrected by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)