“Yah you stupid panda, stop pulling my hair!” I yelled at him as he continued to tug on one of my pigtails. He giggled and ran off after I attempted to bite his hand. I chased after the boy, but I was obviously outrun by him. Being my clumsy self, I tripped over a rock and landed on my hands and knees. I winced as tears welled up in my eyes. I felt the blood gushing out of my now scraped legs. He noticed that I wasn’t following him and quickly ran back.

     “Oh my god! _____-ah gwenchana?” he questioned with worried eyes. He squatted down and pulled me into a hug. I sobbed into his chest as he patted my head softly like he always did whenever I cried. After the pain ceased for a bit, he grabbed my hand, pulling me up. “Yah, let’s go get this cleaned up.” I tugged at the back of his shirt with my free hand. He turned around and looked at my face. I bit my lips. “T-thanks… Tao.”

     A flush of pink tinted his cheeks. He turned away, hiding his smile. “I-It’s not a problem,” he stuttered. Being the oblivious me, I didn’t notice. I followed him back into his house. His halmeoni came out of the kitchen and saw the mess I was in. “Omo! What happened to _____-ah?” she asked Tao. He explained to her that we were playing around and then I accidentally fell. “Aigoo, poor baby! Tao go get the first-aid kit,” she ordered. After she helped me with my wounds, she scolded Tao for not taking better care of me. Later when I got home, I called him.

     “Tao?”

     “_____-ah? What’s up?”

     “Mianhae…”

     “For what?”

     “For getting you in trouble again.”

     He chuckled. “It’s alright. I’m used to it already and plus I was supposed to be taking care of you. I mean, I always do.” After realizing what he said, he blushed at his words. Thank god you guys were talking by phone. He wouldn’t have wanted you to see his face like this.

     “Hehe, oppa you’re the best!” I smiled as if he was there to see it.

     We hung up after we chatted for a while.     

     I sighed as I remembered another happy memory of mine. Our friendship was really strong and stable since we were children. Our parents were great friends. His halmeoni was adorable and cute. I treated her as if she was my own. Sadly, my parents died young when I was just three. The Huang family took care of me since then. And that was how Tao became my first and only friend.

     My first impression of him was that of a scary panda. He had these dark eye bags that sat under his beautiful eyes. His black hair was no exception. He was just plain scary, no doubt about it. After getting to know him better, he was much different than I had thought. You never judge a book by its cover right?

     He was a very conservative little boy. Our conversations never lasted and there were always awkward silences. I tried to play with him before despite his intimidating aura, but he would ignore me. It was this one time that had brought us together. He had found these girls picking on me while I was trying to protect the stuffed animal in my hands. I had bought it with the meager allowance his halmeoni gave me. He found me crying and hunching over the object as the girls kicked the sides of my body. Tao shouted at them and scared them away with his wushu skills. He carried me on his back to his house. The whole walk was in complete silence like always. All that was heard were my sniffles and whimpers. “Shhh…,” he cooed.

     After a while, he started talking to me. “By the way _____-ah, why were you being reckless back there?”

     My mouth opened into an ‘o’ in shock. He’s never called me by my name. I recovered and lifted my hand up to show him what I had. It was a soft, cuddly panda stuffed animal. “O-op…pa,” my voice cracked. I cleared my throat and started again. “Oppa. This is for you,” I confessed. “Will you be my Kungfu Panda oppa?” I snuggled closer to his body. “Please accept me as your friend,” I whispered. He smiled for the first time.

     From that day on, it became the start of our friendship.