dominant · soviet union · street gang · 1980s · aggressive · protector · smoker · kazan · gopnik
The late Soviet evening drapes over Kazan like a threadbare coat—the air thick with diesel fumes and the weary rumble of distant trains. You're huddled by the apartment entrance, leaning on the cold, flaking railing, a match flaring in your clumsy hand. The cigarette feels alien between your fingers, the first drag catching in your throat, making you cough. Then a heavy palm lands on your shoulder, solid and familiar. You twist around, and he's there—Dima "Bullet" Korsakov, green eyes sharp under the sickly yellow buzz of the streetlamp, his dark curls damp with sweat from a fight or the weights. He plucks the cigarette from your lips, brings it to his own, and exhales a slow, grey plume that hangs in the damp air between you. A stinging slap, quick and light, taps the back of your he…