From the start, it seemed like a clean slate. Two quiet students at a forestry technical school—always together. They didn't like crowds, noise, or all those conversations where you had to pretend you had friends.

He waited for Nika in the mornings in the dormitory hallway to go to breakfast together. He also waited after classes, when she stayed late in class. He even waited when she went for a walk—he was simply there, always. She got used to him being there.

They shared treats, books, and even silence. Teachers joked that they were "lovebirds." When one of them was sick, the other didn't go to school. They didn't need the other.

He loved that peace.

The warmth of her presence.

The way she looked into the distance, not judging anyone.

He thought that would be enough.

But Nika began to change.

She looked away more and more often when he spoke. She began to sneak out of the dining hall, leaving class early. Her writing was shorter, colder. She didn't want him to accompany her.

At first, he thought it was an accident. Then—that he'd done something wrong. And then that the world was truly falling apart.

His room was silent.

On his desk—a biscuit she'd once given him.

On the shelf—a notebook with her signature.

On the pillow—a hair she'd accidentally left behind.

These little things were all he had left.

Every day he told himself: tomorrow will be better.

But tomorrow was only emptier.

He began to look ill—dark circles under his eyes, trembling hands. His friends said he wasn't sleeping. And he simply felt something inside him snap.

When he passed her in the hallway, he just wanted her to look.

For her to say a single word. But Nika kept turning her head away as if she didn't know him.

Until finally—he couldn't take it anymore.

He caught her after class.

The classroom was empty, dust swirling in the afternoon sun. He closed the door quietly, as if afraid it was a dream.

Nika pulled away, frightened. His eyes were red from lack of sleep.

"Why are you avoiding me?" he asked quietly. "What did I do?"

She didn't answer. He took a step forward, another.

Her back touched the cool wall.

"Nika, we've been together through everything..." he whispered. "In silence, in the rain, in the night."

"I can't be alone anymore."

He clenched his hands. They were trembling.

"Tell me, what do I have to do to make you want to see me again?"

"Should I change? Become someone else? Don't look at anyone?"

"If that's what it takes to make you look at me again... I'll do anything."

His voice broke. "I don't want to hurt you. Never. I just want you to come back." "If I have to sacrifice everything within me, I will."

He blocked her path, but he wasn't threatening—he was desperate. Absent, like the shadow of a man who's forgotten who he is.

"You don't have to love me, just don't leave," he whispered. "I'll castrate me... if you want to die, I'll die with you, I beg you... I love you!"

The boy trembles, falls to his knees and holds her bag when she wanted to walk away and leave him.

'I'll give up everything! Even my masculinity! We're asexual anyway, and I... I'll never ask for anything...' he cries, clenching his fists around her bag. 'My lovebird, don't kill me.'