“I’d give her thirty seconds at most,” Taylor said, sprawled across the sofa while scrolling on his phone.

“Ah here, cop on! Be a bit more optimistic! I reckon she could last seven days!” Max crossed his arms with a smug grin.

“Dead on, yeah? You seriously think she’d survive seven days without a mirror? You’re painfully innocent,” Taylor yawned, locking his phone before turning over to nap on the couch.

“That’s such an exaggeration, I’m not in front of a mirror all the time,” Yuri muttered, running a hand through her hair.

“Oh yeah? Then why’d you bring your mirror over here?” Taylor mumbled half-asleep, already starting to snore.

“Well… ah! I don’t owe you any explanations!” she huffed. “What about you, Liuk?”

When no answer came, both she and Max leaned closer to him. He was just staring blankly into space in total silence.

“Liuk?” Max waved a hand in front of him.

“Oranges… piranhas… no, hang on. They weren’t oranges… he said lemons. Wait, why am I even trying to solve this madness? What if the lad’s actually mental and I’m too thick to notice and now I’m the insensitive eejit here?! He didn’t even try to be my friend… but what if I talk to him anyway… no, hold on, shouldn’t I be focusing on the fruit mission? I wrote down that the lemons are… rabid dogs trying to swallow him!”

Liuk thought all this while drooling a bit.

“Jesus Christ, LIUK!” Yuri shouted into his ear.

“AH! YOU’VE GOTTA SQUEEZE THE LEMONS INTO A WATER SALAD WITH ACETONE!” Liuk snapped out of his trance and fell backwards onto the carpet. “Wait… what the hell did I just say?”

“Great question, because I’d love to know too,” Yuri said while helping him up. “What’re you even thinking about? That rejection from Joyce?”

“I’d honestly forgotten about that till now, cheers for reminding me of one of the most traumatic days of my life!”

“That one’s on you, I told you she wasn’t into you,” Yuri said as she got off the carpet and walked over to the table, grabbing a triangle instrument and tapping it lightly.

“You know how to play the triangle?” Max looked at her hands moving carefully over the instrument.

“A little bit. Still need practice,” she said, playing slowly before stopping. “Hold on, I should be focusing on your weird tongue-twister lad! What’s with the lemons, water and… acetone?”

“Ah… that? Right… I’m trying to learn a recipe for… avocado smoothie! Yeah! That’s it!” Liuk stood up too and turned away from them. “And… eh… the oranges are for a special flavour… Christ, that excuse was shite.” He lightly punched his own forehead.

“Honestly, the only thing worse than that is Taylor’s excuses for skipping college,” Yuri said while walking closer to him again.

“I heard that,” Taylor grumbled.

“Good. Maybe now you’ll realise people are sick of your laziness,” she shot back. “And you… what’s your deal? We were talking about how long I’d survive in a white room for a million euro. You always love these conversations involving numbers.”

“So if there are sour lemons surrounding the orange… then she is… him?” Liuk murmured to himself.

“Know what? Forget this nonsense.” Yuri stepped right in front of him. “I’m curious about this orange thing now too. Didn’t they have oranges in Kyiv or something?”

Liuk looked directly at her face and instantly started sweating.

“Oranges? Kyiv? Ah… yeah! They did, sure! But that’s not the point… well, maybe it is, but it’s got nothing to do with ye. I need to sort this out myself!” Liuk stepped away from her and tried leaving the room, but she grabbed his wrist.

“Liuk… you’re absolutely brutal at lying. Wanna talk? Just the two of us?” she asked softly.

“I don’t need to… I mean… maybe I do but… not now. I’ll sort it soon, promise. And when I do, I’ll tell ye everything! Mind Max before he wakes Taylor up and gets another punch in the eye.”

Liuk rushed out of the room.

“Max? AH FOR FECK SAKE, MAX, NO!” Yuri turned around quickly, but the lad was already sitting on the floor sulking with a black eye and his arms crossed.

“He woke me up again, that’s his own fault,” Taylor grumbled with crossed arms, staring off in the opposite direction.

“Liuk’s thing was way more interesting than babysitting the pair of ye,” Yuri muttered while walking slowly toward them.

Meanwhile, Liuk wandered through the streets with his head hanging low.

“Right… so he’s an orange… but is it actually him or someone close to him? And do I even know this orange? Grand, there are lemons too… but if there’s fruit then what do I do with the piranhas? I don’t think piranhas eat fruit…”

Liuk stopped after smashing his head into a traffic light.

“OW, OW, OW!” He rubbed his head in embarrassment after noticing a few people staring at him.

He quickly looked ahead and crossed the pedestrian lane faster than usual.

“Bloody Leon! He should pay me ten euro every time I try solving this nonsense of his. Actually… I don’t even know why I’m involved in this. Hang on… good question… why AM I involved in this?”

He suddenly stopped in the middle of the street with a hand on his chin.

In a quieter house, a blond young man wearing a white hoodie, trousers, socks and slippers watered the garden plants carefully. He checked each plant closely until a soft female voice called out to him.

“Leon.”

The young man dropped the watering can and straightened up immediately, staring at the woman standing before him.

“You… actually read my message?!” Leon slowly walked toward the house fence.

“What wouldn’t I do for my nephew?” she replied calmly while watching him approach. “You’ve a lot to tell me about how you’ve been.”

“Yeah… I do.” He lowered his gaze with a faint smile as he finally reached the fence.

“I really missed you…” he thought silently.