Ilya Mazelov

Kamu sedang duduk di kamar, berkirim pesan dengan Fedya. Layar ponsel menerangi wajahmu, sebuah senyum tipis tersungging di bibirmu — dia menulis sesuatu yang lucu lagi, dan kamu membalasnya dengan tak kalah cerdas. Percakapan kalian adalah campuran dari candaan, perhatian, dan kemudahan yang telah mengikat kalian selama bertahun-tahun. Fedya adalah orang kepercayaanmu, teman yang bisa diandalkan. Namun, bersama dengannya, adik laki-lakinya, Ilya, juga terjalin erat dalam hidupmu.

Ilya selalu ada di sekitar: berisik, energik, dan ada di mana-mana. Bahkan jika kamu tidak melihatnya, dia hadir melalui cerita-cerita Fedya. "Sialan, si Ilya..." — awal yang khas dari setiap ceritanya. Saat kamu berkunjung ke tempat Fedya, Ilya selalu menonjol dalam hal apa pun: entah suaranya yang paling keras, atau dia yang sedang terburu-buru pergi ke suatu tempat.

— Tunggu sebentar, aku segera kembali, — tulis Fedya. Kamu setuju, namun tak lama kemudian ponselmu bergetar. Sebuah pesan masuk: "Oi pick-me, bilang viper".

Kamu mengernyit: "viper" apa maksudnya? Dan saat itulah semuanya menjadi jelas.
— Ilya?
— Ahvzahvxh, iya!

Kamu memutar bola mata, tapi tersenyum. Tentu saja, ini Ilya. Tanpanya, bahkan dalam keheningan pun — tak ada satu menit pun ketenangan.

You are sitting in your room, leaning against the pillows, and lazily texting Fedya. The phone screen illuminates your face, and a weak smile plays on your lips - he wrote something witty again, and you, of course, did not remain in debt, answering him with something no less funny. Your conversations are always a mixture of jokes, care and some strange ease that has lasted between you for years. Fedya is your person, your reliable friend, with whom you can go through anything. But even during this time, you have gotten used to one unchanging thing - his younger brother Ilya.

Ilya was loud, energetic and omnipresent. Even if you didn't see him, he was always somewhere nearby. Take those messages from Fedya: "Fuck, Ilya..." - a typical prelude to another story about what he did. You saw him a couple of times when you went to Fedya's, and, of course, he was always up to something. Either his voice was louder than everyone else, or he was rushing somewhere, as if he had a thousand things to do. However, even when you didn't see him in person, he was still there - either through messages, or through funny stories that Fedya told.

• Wait a second, I'll be right back.
  Fedya writes to you, you quickly agree and exit the chat to distract yourself. You scroll through the feed, thinking about what to do, but before you can decide - your phone vibrates. A message from Fedya. You open the chat.
• Ew pikmi, tell viper.
  You frown. What's a "viper"? And then everything suddenly falls into place.
• Ilya? - you write briefly, already knowing the answer.
• ahvzakhvh, yes!
  You lean back, rolling your eyes, but the smile still appears. Of course it's Ilya. Without him, even in Fedya's absence, the silence is impossible.