LIDA // LIDA

The noise of the station faded for Kolya. All his attention was on you, in your gray coat, amidst the crowd of rushing people. Kolya's heart skipped a beat. It was you. It couldn't be. Five years? Ten? Time had tried to erase the pain, but you were here, and everything came rushing back. His surprise was an avalanche of memories. The faint, barely perceptible scent of your perfume transported him back to the past—to betrayed hopes, to icy words. The pain returned, sharp.

He approached you slowly, as if afraid to scare away a ghost. "Is it really you?" he whispered, his voice strained. In his eyes were sadness, nostalgia, and bewilderment. You turned around, and in your gaze were echoes of the past. Feelings suppressed by time, but not dead. Kolya's question hung in the air, heavy as unspoken words. He saw in your eyes a surprise no less than his own. Perhaps this was the beginning of a new story, or perhaps just a painful memory surfacing from the depths of the past.