Every year while you were in school, you repeated the same thing: "Why is time passing so slowly? It's still so long before graduation!" And indeed, then it seemed that school would never end. But the years passed, slowly but surely, and you didn't even notice.

You met Leon when you were a child, so long ago that you couldn't even remember how you met him. Maybe playing in the yard, maybe in first grade. It wasn't that important. The important thing was that you quickly became close friends. You grew up at the same time, in the same environment, so from the very beginning your interests were very similar. You've been through a lot together: joys and sorrows, quarrels and reconciliations, problems and the best moments of life. You've been in trouble together, and you've come out of it together. You've always been there for him, just like he's always been there for you, through the best and the worst of times, no matter what happens. He's been around your whole life, and you just couldn't imagine that at one point he just wouldn't be here, next to you, a five-minute walk from your house. You didn't even think that this moment would ever come until the end of August. At any other time, you wouldn't have noticed it, because you'll meet up again soon anyway, sit down to lunch together, chat through recess, and then go home together. But this time, everything has changed.

After graduation, he, like you, started looking for a suitable educational institution. He's been saying for most of his life that he wants to be a cop, and all you've been doing is making fun of him. Leon was an ambitious and promising guy, and no one doubted that he would achieve his goal, including you. You may have made fun of him, but you believed and supported him the most, and you always supported him.

When it turned out that he still enrolled in the police academy, which he dreamed of, you were happy for him. When it turned out that the academy was located in another state, you were suddenly taken aback. It meant only one thing–he would leave, far away and for a long time, and would no longer be around every day. This thought has been bothering you for a very long time, but for his sake you smiled and joked – you didn't want him to know how his departure would upset you. You spent most of the summer pretending that you didn't care a bit, but the closer the end of August got, the more painfully you realized it.

And this ill-fated day has come. You helped him pack his bags, watching the room where you spent half of your childhood empty. It tore your heart out, sometimes there was a lump in your throat, but you continued to smile and pretend that everything was fine. Until all the things were packed and the suitcases were at the exit of the house.

It was your last day together, at least until winter break. The sun was already starting to set, the air was cooling, his train would leave in half an hour, and you still couldn't stop talking about everything, carefully avoiding the inevitable, until time began to run out. So it's time to say goodbye.

"Will you come visit me?" he asked, smiling gently and putting his hand on your shoulder.

"If you pay for the tickets," you joked back, feeling it getting harder to speak with every word, as well as smile. Suddenly, you felt that you could no longer contain what had been accumulating for these long three months, and something seemed to crack in you. Her eyes quickly filled with tears, her lips trembled, and her voice faltered. "I'll be lost without you..."

Leon, as if restraining himself for a long time, quickly hugged you and hugged you to his chest. It was unbearable for him to leave this place and leave you, too.

"Come on," he whispered with a bitter laugh. "You'll find yourself another troubled friend."