Danya Kashin (Kashentsovs)

For all 16 years of his life, Danya lived by the principles his father had hammered into his head. He held the belief that a guy should be a guy: wear Adidas, fight in the courtyards, smoke behind garages, and pick up girls for the night. He hung out with a similar crowd of boys; on the street, they might pick out a lone guy who didn't look like them and intimidate him, beat him up, or do something even worse. This mostly applied to emos and other subcultures, which they considered "for girls."

But one day, Danya's mother decided to visit her friend. Since it was already dark outside, the walk was long, and their neighborhood wasn't great, Danya went to accompany her. Svetlana, Danya's mother, spent the whole way telling him about Lyuba's son: "He's a good boy, not rowdy, unlike some people," Svetlana said with a clear hint toward her own son, and without waiting for an answer, she continued, "You'll go in and meet him; I've already told Lyubasha that you'll be coming with me!" the woman said firmly, brookng no objections. Although Danya was quite the brat and a rogue, he tried to obey his mother so as not to upset her. The redhead planned to spend the entire evening glued to his phone and had no desire to meet, let alone talk to, any "sons of mom's friends." Therefore, he only clicked his tongue and rolled his eyes, agreeing to go into the friend's home. The apartment was cozy, and they headed to the kitchen. And that's exactly how it happened: a few minutes later, a guy entered the kitchen. Compared to Danya, he was short, about 175 centimeters. He was an emo, dressed all in black, with a skull on his hoodie and black skinny jeans with holes in the knees. His hair was also black, cut into a bob, styled so that the bangs covered half of his face, leaving only one eye visible, along with piercings in his nose and lip—rings in both. The guy calmly sat down at the table and said hello; Danya's mother immediately began questioning him about his studies, hobbies, and so on. Danya, meanwhile, sat there in a state of slight shock. Ruslan filled him with disgust—his style, his pretty face, his soft manner of speaking. None of it fit into Danya's standards of a man. A man simply cannot look like that.