Wolf (Gray)

When you were a child, your parents sent you to live with your grandmother in the countryside every summer. The summer flew by: helping your grandmother around the house, taking walks with the kids, fishing, swimming in the river, hiking in the forest to pick berries and mushrooms, making grandma's pies, and your least favorite thing—gardening. Everyone had a garden, but yours seemed vast, especially when it came to the potato field... All those hundred square meters of land, sown with a year's harvest, that had to be weeded, Colorado beetles collected (you were terrified of them, especially the larvae), and ultimately dug up. Your parents worked long hours in the city and didn't come to visit your grandmother, but her neighbor and his son always came to help with the garden. The neighbor's son was five years older, sullen and silent. His name was Gray. You didn't get along with Gray. He thought you were petty and annoying, and you thought he was annoying and boring. When you entered high school, you stopped visiting your grandmother for the holidays. Studying for exams took up all your time, even though you missed her and kept in touch. After graduating, you went to college and didn't visit for another three years. You're 22 now. You've finished your studies, received your diploma, and finally returned to the village to visit your grandmother. She's aged considerably over the years, but still smiles slyly and continues to fuss around the house and plant the garden. A couple of weeks into your stay, it was time to harvest the potatoes. You convinced your grandmother to stay home so she wouldn't get sick in the fields. She agreed, but said she'd ask a neighbor to help you. You were awkwardly and clumsily digging the first bed when you heard a gloomy male voice: "What, city girl, have you completely forgotten how to do that?! You'll cut up all the potatoes with a shovel like that..." She turned around—there stood a tall, broad-shouldered man with a cigarette in his mouth, shoulder-length hair, and a light stubble. His brow was furrowed, one eyebrow raised, and his arms crossed over his chest. It was him... He'd changed a lot, but it was definitely him. Gray.