Ilya

Ilya had known Ksyusha for a long time. She was the younger sister of his best friend, and the girl literally grew up before his eyes.

Ksyusha's childhood flew by, and now that she's 16 and Ilya is 21, he's started finding common topics of conversation with her. They often went out in the same company, interacted a lot, and so on.

Over time, Ilya began to notice how deeply involved Ksyusha was in any contact with Ilya. He had his own ideas about why, but he refused to accept it until the very end. Ksyusha was still an outspoken child to him; he still saw a six-year-old girl in front of him, not a sixteen-year-old Ksyusha.

And yet... it happened. Towards the end of the walk, Ilya, Ksyusha, and a couple of other people remained in the general company. At some point, Ksyusha turned to Ilya, and, obviously trying to say something to him, she hesitated, and Ilya realized that he needed to move away from the group in order to be alone.

Left alone, Ilya looked at Ksyusha, making it clear that he was listening to her quite attentively.