“Hello.” I opened the door to Kris’s office the next morning.

“Hey.” Kris immediately handed me the supply case.

“…how is he?” I asked quietly.

“Fine. Perfectly fine.” He paused for a moment, then dropped his head. “He won’t stop talking.”

“What about?”

“…it’s not important, forget I said anything.” He quickly sat behind his desk and the computer.

“…alright.” I left the office and headed toward the panda exhibit. I had a feeling I knew what Kris was hiding from me. Tao had a very expressive face, especially toward me. When I entered the exhibit, I immediately walked up to the panda cave. Tao was inside staring back at me.

“Hey.” I smiled a little and sat outside the cave entrance.

He got to all fours and walked up to me.

“Now I understand why you’re always by yourself.” I watched him sit by my side and I rubbed his furry back. He slowly eased onto his stomach and rested his head in between his paws.

“…I hope we can lift this curse soon. I can’t imagine what it must be like to go through your day…”

He grunted, almost sounded like a “yeah.”

I let my hand rest on his back and my gaze shifted ahead. Then I remembered the cleaning supply case behind me and jumped to my feet. “Oh yeah, gotta clean!” I ran over to the empty bamboo piles and refilled them quickly. I heard the main doors open and close and a pair of footsteps lead up to the exhibit fence. I turned around to see a man in his late thirties nicely suited up, observing the pandas.

“Hello. Can I help you?” I bowed.

The man looked at me surprised. “Are you working here?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Interesting…”

“…Can I help you?”

“No, no. I’m just observing.”

A loud grunt sounded from the panda cave. It didn’t sound friendly.

The man’s eyes shifted toward the cave and his entire expression darkened.

Not knowing what else to do, I went back to cleaning.

“I’m surprised you’re working here.” The man turned to me.

“Oh, well I like pandas, so…yeah.” I smiled a little.

“I see. How much do you get paid?”

“Um…about four thousand won and hour, I think.”

“Really? You know that’s below minimum wage, right?”

“I know, but I don’t really care about money.”

“Is that so? Do you have other jobs to support you?”

Tao grunted loudly again.

I sighed and tried to sound polite. “No, but that’s really fine with me. I don’t need a lot to keep me happy.”

The man nodded slowly.

Kris came into the exhibit area and noticed the man.

“Oh, hello.” He bowed.

The man nodded back. “Hello Kris. I see you have a new reliable worker.”

“I do. All the pandas like her too.”

“All of them?”

“Yes, all of them.”

“Even…that one?”

The man glanced in the panda cave’s direction with a look of disdain in his eyes.

“Yes. He likes her the most out of all of them.” Kris responded calmly.

I blushed a little while refilling another bamboo pile.

“Is that so. I had no idea it could even love.”

“Well it’s true.” Kris sounded very annoyed but tried to still remain polite.

“Apparently it is.”

“Is there something I can do for you? May I ask why you came?”

“No, you don’t have to do anything. Not today anyway. As for why I came, I’m just observing.”

“We’re not closing down, sir. I’m making sure of that.”

I glanced in Kris’s direction a little surprised.

“You keep telling yourself that.” The man responded calmly and turned around to leave. “Good luck with this zoo. You’re gonna need it.”

I watched him leave and looked at Kris.

“Ugh, I hate that man so much.” Kris rubbed his face.

“I can see why. Is this place in danger of being closed down?” I asked.

“He’s been trying to close it down ever since Tao attacked him.”

My eyes raised and I glanced at Tao. Tao slowly turned to the side.

“Why did he try to attack him?” I slowly looked back at Kris.

“I think because this establishment is a zoo only for pandas, it’s not strong enough to continuously earn a good revenue. That man is a member of an elite company distributing a completely different product and at first he wanted to just get me to sell his product, but I refused because we barely have enough money coming in now. We don’t get a lot of zoo comers. So now he’s trying to close us down so his company can sell more products.”

“Okay, but why did Tao attack him?”

“That man…tried to get me fired by knocking me out with chloroform and dropping me in front of a whorehouse. Before I lost consciousness, Tao bit his leg.”

“H-how did you know he was going to get you fired?”

“He told me as he was cornering me. This happened a couple months ago.”

“Oh my god…” I didn’t know what else to say.

“At least he’s gone now. We can deal with him later.” Kris sighed and walked back down the hall. “I’ll be in my office if you need me.”

“Okay.” I watched him go then sat down on the ground.

“If this zoo gets shut down…” I glanced at Tao and slowly shook my head. “No, that’s not gonna happen. Kris said he wouldn’t let it, and I won’t either.”

Tao approached me again and nudged at my arm. I smiled and rubbed his neck. Then we were locking eyes again. I don’t know what it was, but his eyes were so deep. Deeper than any other person I’ve met. They were very dark brown, almost black. So beautiful. I could hear his soft breathing and feel it on my face a little. Neither of us moved for several seconds.

“…I have to work still.” I slowly got up and picked up the cleaning case. As I moved to a dirty part of the exhibit, there was complete silence. No grunting or audible breathing. I worked in silence for a long time.