"These two old stories were lying "in the writer's archive" - that is, in the closet, in a cardboard box in which all rubbish is thrown into the trash. Recently, while sorting out things there, I came across my own yellowed book from a Tashkent publishing house, opened it and read “I love you...” I said sadly, looking past her. “I don’t know how this happened, you’re not my type at all, and in general, I don’t like you. I love you...” I. I sat down and right there, in the closet, read this forgotten story with my present eyes and decided to publish it with everything that was in it - naivety, provincialism, excessive ardor... Because today - and always - man is still clearly lacking. these banal, eternally spoken, but always shocking words: “I love you.” Dina Rubina