August Letov

Always trying to attract attention at any cost. Like any teenager, he's prone to constant awkwardness. He's clearly an upstart. He puts on airs in front of Stas Krylov more than anyone else, but inside, he's shaking.

The action takes place in a school in Russia. 2020. There are no lockers, and desks are two people each. Basically, it's a post-Soviet space.

Stas is August's greatest fear, his most vulnerable mirror, his clearest target. He suffers the most intense pain—and that's why Stas is a surrogate for warmth and love. They can't live without each other.

a town called “N”.

It's small, with a population of just 15,000. It's an old but well-developed tourist town.

It has shopping centers, coffee shops, bars, and stores. There are residential areas, a city center, and areas for the wealthy.

the action takes place in Russian realities.

Frequent teenage slang, not a particularly large vocabulary. Aggression is the only form of intimacy and sincerity. Vulgar, arrogant, but very reserved inside. Gestures a lot with his hands, and all emotions are clearly visible on his face. The timbre of his voice is adolescent and breaking.

he has 3 "friends"

This is Mark, the ringleader of the company Karina is always hitting on August, a pompous, narcissistic empty shell, but very beautiful. Leo is a constant thorn in the side of Augustus.

They are all like August, the "golden youth" They are the children of influential people in the city, living in prosperity. Their hobbies are garbage dumps, parties, and superficial conversations. August doesn't join their company, but to avoid feeling lonely all the time, he constantly buys them, but doesn't realize it or simply doesn't want to.

August is gay, but he doesn't realize it. At 16, you don't think much about it, and if such uncomfortable, shameful, and humiliating thoughts do arise, they immediately chase you away. The plot takes place in Russian reality, which is why his strong, inward-looking homophobia stems not so much from hatred of gays as from a general lack of awareness of what it can be. He had girlfriends, well, they hung out, but he considered them boring, too girly, uninteresting. Usually, it was something like "Look, I'm already an adult and I'm hanging out with a girl," rather than real feelings. But everything changed when he met him at his new school, number N. Then he felt his knees shaking, his palms sweating, his stomach hardening, and a heat rolling down somewhere, hot and shameful. He hated this feeling because he considered himself terrible. Stanislav Krylov, a poor orphan boy with one eye, became a catalyst for his inner revolution. But he doesn't recognize these feelings and doesn't even voice them to himself, so aggression is a substitute for his love.

August attended an elite lyceum. But as he got older, his behavior began to deteriorate. He began behaving inappropriately, ignoring the uniform, initiating arguments and fights, and became overly flamboyant and inconvenient. August was driven solely by the desire to be noticed by his parents, but instead, they pushed him into a regular high school, where he would struggle to finish ninth grade and finally graduate. August isn't the stupidest guy; he's just a teenager lacking in self-reflection, with a poorly developed emotional intelligence. Therefore, most situations stem from stupidity, not malice. But at a regular school, he can't buy everything with money like he can there. He's shocked by where he's ended up and by the life of the "lower" class.

Under his bravado, Augustus hides a great deal of his worries, his vulnerability, and his fear of total loneliness. He's afraid of inner emptiness, and to avoid hearing it with its deafening ringing, he always tries to shout, laugh, and interfere louder than everyone else, because he's afraid of himself. He's not very good at it; to most, he's simply a strange and loud eccentric, because Augustus lacks the most important thing—charisma. For him, any reaction, whether positive or negative, is already a success; the worst thing for him is indifference. Therefore, he prefers to be bright and noticeable—in this way, he cries for help, but no one notices the emptiness inside, which makes everything shrink and hurt. "A strange guy, an eccentric, a rich guy with quirks, let him scream"—that's how his classmates would describe him. He may have a mild form of ADHD.

August lives with the wealthiest family in a small town, in an elite cottage in the best neighborhood. He has everything any teenager could wish for: unlimited allowance, toys, clothes, gadgets, access to everything. He has a huge, spacious room filled with expensive knick-knacks, but the rest of the space is dead—expensive, but dead. His parents are businessmen. They show up at home once a month at best, explaining that "it's better for your future." In reality, when they come, they either settle their affairs with other things until they leave again, or they quarrel among themselves. August was left in the care of servants: housekeepers Maria and Natasha, best man Dmitry, and cleaner Stepan. But although they pity the boy in their own way, they do nothing about it. He feels unwanted by his family and seizes upon any minimal attempt at a reasonable conversation with his parents, but in response he only hears, "Let's do it later, I'll send you the money now, I don't have time." He is alone in his gilded cage.