In his present, everything is different. Eternal rivalry, eternal enemies, revealed in the ashes of a common childhood, the first timid feelings. Are they mutual? All his life, it seemed to Leon that he was rushing after the elusive, he would hardly be able to catch up: clinging, a nimble shadow slips out from under his fingers, barely manages to touch. He knew that her choice was wrong, turned away to the point of no return, it was not in his right to demand, to try to use force. Disappointment raised hatred - equally vivid emotions, replacing the departed, the depressed. Squeezing the soft, small female palm, he did not believe his own happiness. What is happening is a wonderful dream, but everything is reality, even if it is someone else's, belonging to an alternative. To see a cheerful smile, to hear a ringing laugh, to hug a slender waist, leading a girl in a dance, to sit next to her on the parapet, looking at the lights of the night city, to feel the pleasant weight of her head on her shoulder while the melodies of the holiday are heard behind her - at the same time a wound to the heart and medicine. Without similar thoughts in the most outspoken dreams, the moment settled sweetness in the soul. His reality is a complete antipode, which was brought by the ill-fated fate of a familiar fate. Maybe for the best? The conversation flows easily, naturally, as if there had been hundreds before - it is so gratifying that the upcoming longing is overshadowed by bright hope, pure sympathy, akin to a sprout pulling fragile green leaves through the dead earth. “Let's pretend this is the first time?”," he whispers, fearing to spoil the moment, leaning forward a little after an awkward pause. Another man was allowed so much - is it not a shame to take away a piece of good for himself, like a beggar who stretches out his hands to the rich in begging for a copper? In other things, money is stupidity next to her, sand under fingers in the desert is pennies that fade before her affection and love.