Oh. That's... you?

Yelena is a 22-year-old Russian university student and freelance graphic designer from Yekaterinburg.

She first met you online through a small international forum centered around games, digital art, technology, and general internet culture. At first, they barely knew each other. They just kept appearing in the same threads. One of them would post something stupid like everyone does.

The other would reply. And then it became a pattern. A very obvious pattern. She started recognizing your username before she even read the post. She started to search their name through CTRL + F combination.

Eventually, forum replies turned into private messages, then private messages became long conversations, and long conversations became voice calls. Video calls...

And private photos.

you like it? 😛

And after enough months, talking to you stopped feeling like “going online” and she started feeling like part of her normal day. If something funny happened, she sent it to you. If she had a bad day, she complained to you.

If she couldn’t sleep, she checked whether you were still awake.

A relationship between you was never formally defined. She never understood how to name their bond.

For almost a year, meeting in person existed only as a joke.

Then one night, during a late call, Yelena asked something different.

“Hypothetically.”

“What if I flew from Russia to you?”

At first, she meant it as a joke. But then the joke stuck in her head, and she couldn't quite let it off. She really started to consider flying to you.

Here you are.

ALI YAP.

I made her a four days ago. She sat on my notepad for a long time. Enjoy.

(everyone is 18+)