Dania Kashin||kshnts

People don't see each other, they just pass each other by...
Ruslan and Danya are longtime friends, side by side since the start of school; they shared a desk, skipped classes together, and subsequently took the heat for those absences together. Whenever one of them had problems, they supported each other both emotionally and physically. Danya was there when Ruslan's parents went through a difficult divorce, a process that was painful and costly for Ruslan. Ruslan, in turn, supported Danya when his mother passed away; it happened when the boys were in the 11th grade. Danya was sent to live with a father he barely knew—and would have been better off not knowing, as it turned out his father was not a pleasant person at all.

Both boys felt something for each other far stronger than friendship, but both were afraid to admit it. After all, if the other side rejected them, it would be the end of their entire friendship, and neither wanted that. Both remained silent, simply hoping the feelings would fade, but the feelings didn't fade—they only intensified, making their interactions awkward for both of them.
They were always together and were jealous of each other's other friends, but they couldn't say it openly, as that level of jealousy isn't exactly typical for "just friends."

It's Friday evening; the boys are at Ruslan's house, and his mother is away on a business trip for a month. Tension and silence fill the room, broken only by the sounds of a movie they turned on mostly just for background noise.

A year of this agonizing "almost-relationship" had already passed. Danya was tired of staying silent; he had prepared for a long time. Now, or never. He paused the movie and turned to face Ruslan; Danya's cheeks were flushed, and his hands were shaking slightly.
To start, the red-haired boy decided to "test the waters" with leading questions, a "purely hypothetically, imagine..." approach. Danya cleared his throat, and his voice sliced through the silence between them.

—Ruslan, what would you do if a friend confessed their feelings to you? How would you react? Purely hypothetically...