The next few seconds were a blur to me. My mind froze up along with my body and I couldn’t move. I could only stare down at the fast approaching lake we were plummeting toward. Then I was pulled from my seat and out of the passenger door. The truck hit the lake water full on with me and Tao close behind. Stinging pain erupted from my entire body and I went very limp in the cold lake water. All of my breath was punched out of me and I didn’t have the strength to move anything. My eyes fluttered shut as sounds faded away from my ears…

As if lightning shot right into my heart, my eyes burst opened and I rolled onto my side coughing violently. Water spluttered from my mouth as I gulped in breaths constantly. It took me about a minute to get my breathing back to normal and I was pulled into someone’s arms.

“You’re okay.” Tao whispered, my head softly. “You’re okay.”

I squinted my eyes open and blinked at him, still breathing very hard. I tried to speak, but it only came out in heaves. I could see Tao’s face in the morning light. The sun already peaked over the horizon.

Tears came to my eyes. “W-where…are the…guards?”

Tao’s face was covered in an unreadable expression. His eyes were very wet and I could see tear marks on his cheeks beside other water trails from the lake. I quickly glanced around at the area we were in. it was the land surrounding the lake. The cliffs were so high up it almost made me dizzy to focus on them.

“I don’t know.” Tao replied in a very stiff voice.

I looked back at him. His gaze shifted away from my eyes. They were clamped shut. He was clearly trying to hold back tears. My entire heart dropped like our truck just a few moments ago. “I’m so sorry…”

“This isn’t fair…” Tao shook a little as a pained cry escaped his lips. “Why did this have to happen…?”

My mind rewound to Kris’s fallen figure on the barren ground. It made my own eyes wet and my stomach ache. “I-I don’t know.” I responded quietly.

Tao stood up and walked away from me several feet. I pushed myself up and watched him go. He approached the lakeside and screamed, punching the water’s surface and making water fly into the air. “THAT BASTARD! WHY DID HE DO THIS!?” Tao collapsed to his knees and his head dropped. His cries were enough to make my own tears fall.

I wrapped my head around the situation. After thinking about it for a few seconds, my eyes widened a little. Wait. It is morning now. The sun rose already. I looked at Tao’s hunched over figure. Human figure.

“T-Tao…y-you’re still human!” I stared at him wide-eyed.

Tao’s head slowly rose.

“The sun rose already…but you’re still human!” I stood up slowly.

Tao slowly looked at his hands. They weren’t transforming. None of his body was.

I let out an awed breath. “Does…does this mean…?”

“The curse is broken.” Tao slowly turned to glance at me with slightly widened eyes.

“H-how…?”

Tao’s gaze turned back to his slightly shaking hands.

I gasped quietly. “Wait…c-could it be because of Kris?”

“No…” Tao’s voice was raspy and quiet.

“He gave up his life to save yours…could that have been the way to break your curse?” I stepped closer to Tao.

“N-no…this can’t be…” Tao’s hand shook more violently and his arms dropped to his sides.

“It has to be! You didn’t turn into a panda!” I suddenly felt very excited. “Tao! Kris saved you!”

“HE WAS MY BEST FRIEND!” Tao turned to her and yelled at her, making her take a step back with surprised eyes. “AND NOW LOOK WHAT HAPPENED! HE’S GONE! ALL BECAUSE OF ME!” Tao punched the dirt close to the lake water. “It’s all my fault…” Tao’s upper body slowly lowered. “He’s gone…” He wrapped his arms around his waist and cried for several long minutes.

I just stood near him with my head down, fighting and losing to keep tears falling down my face. Once he calmed down a little, I carefully approached him and sat down next to him. “…I think…on some kind of level, Kris understood what he had to do. Like…maybe he figured it out for himself…and then took on the role. He wouldn’t have done it if he didn’t care about you. He wanted to break your curse as much as I did…and he fulfilled. You’re a normal person now…because of him. I think you should be grateful.” I said quietly.

Tao didn’t look at me or respond.

“I know it hurts now…but what he did was really the thing that you’ve always wanted. Since you can live normally now…you should cherish him as a devoted friend.”

Seconds ticked by as the lake water made soft sounds as the wind blew over it.

Then Tao’s head slowly rose and he glanced at me with red, wet eyes. I smiled a little and gently placed my hand on his shoulder. He glanced at it, sighed shakily and leaned his head into the crook of my neck, bringing me close to him in a secure embrace.

“It’s not fair.” Tao’s tear-filled voice whispered.

I nodded and held him back tightly. “No it’s not.”

We held each other for a very long time as the sun made its way higher and higher into the sky. We wouldn’t stay in that lake area for too long before finding a way out of the area and back on the road toward civilization. We were lucky because we found a city after an hour of walking and shuffled in to find the subway and navigate our way to get back to my house. As we sat on the subway train in stone silence with held hands, my mind started racing about Tao’s new life and all of the things he could do that he couldn’t do for his whole life. I expressed these thoughts to him with growing excitement. He listened wordlessly. Although his own excitement was growing, his heart was still in pain and it was evident on his face. His expression was tired and sullen, but that would change in due time.

With each passing day we lived together, getting back to my daily schedule and him discovering his own, he started to accept the life he could never have and started to smile more and more. Seeing this made my own world light up as I searched for jobs in my area, since the panda zoo was unfortunately closed down. The government president decided to stop searching for me and Tao because they apparently thought we died and drowned after plummeting toward the lake in the countryside.

We made a small burial site for Kris even though we didn’t have his body. Tao placed a several small stones above the green grass close to my house and went there to pray a lot. I’m not much of a religious person, but I would catch bits and pieces of what Tao was saying in his prayers. He thanked Kris for being his friend every time and ensured that he will continue living well with me. Hearing those things made me smile.

We slept together every night, even if we were just holding each other in our arms. We would constantly fall asleep like that and wake up still in cuddly moods. Every time I look into his eyes, I’m grateful for him to be alive and curse-free.

And even now, because he knows it tickles, he sometimes nibbles my nose.