A seven-year-old Tao skipped happily over to his neighbor’s house.

‘I can’t wait to tell Fanfan-gege about my new pet!’ Tao thought to himself. When he was at the door, he reached over to ring the doorbell. Once the door open, Tao looked up to find a tall, thin lady with smooth, black hair.

“Oh my! If it isn’t little Taozi! Are you looking for Yifan?” She asked.

“Yes, ma’am!” Tao nodded enthusiastically. The woman smiled at the cute adorable boy and called out to her son.

“Yifan! Your friend, Taozi’s here!” She called into the house. A second after being called, a ten-year-old, dark-haired boy came running from around the corner. He quickly slipped on his shoes and tiptoed to kiss his mom on the cheek, who leaned over to meet him halfway.

“I’ll be at Tao’s house, mama!” He said happily as he took hold of the younger boy’s hand and ran to the house next to his. He could hear faint yelling from behind regarding homework, but he pretended not to hear as he dragged the young Tao alongside him.

Now the age difference between the two isn’t that large, but it’s still quite odd to be seeing a student from Key Stage two to be playing with someone from Key Stage one. However, those who knew Zitao and Yifan knew the two were inseparable even though they came from different grade levels.

Once inside Tao’s room, the two sat on the floor to catch their breath and soon Zitao, followed shortly by Yifan, started to laugh. About what, the two weren’t sure. Suddenly, Zitao jumped up from his seated position on the floor and tugged on Yifan’s sleeve.

“Fanfan-gege! Come with me! I have something cool to show you,” He said as he pulled more on Yifan’s sleeve to get him to stand. Sensing the boy’s excitement, he got up and let himself be dragged by the overexcited Zitao. Downstairs, Zitao leads Yifan to a large fish tank that had only a few freshwater fish.

“There! Look! Isn’t she pretty?” Zitao asked as he pointed at the fairly-sized, scaled creature. It's long and translucent gold fins matched nicely with the slightly orange in tint and shimmering scales that adorned its body.

“Is that a goldfish?” Yifan asked the boy who had his face practically pressed against the glass.

“Yeah! I won her yesterday at the fair. We bought her food and everything,” Zitao said as he turned to smile at the taller. Yifan couldn’t help but smile at the little boy’s cuteness as he watched the fish. He noticed that this one moved oddly slower than the others. It looked almost as if it was weaker or just plain sick.

“Taozi, I think she’s sick,” Yifan said. Zitao turned around to look at Yifan quizzically before looking at the fish. Although Zitao is a smart kid for his age, he couldn’t really tell that the Goldfish was moving slower compared to the others.

“I don’t know, gege. I just got her yesterday, and I’ve been doing what I need to do so far,” Zitao said, pouting in thought as he squinted at the fish. Yifan just shook his head and smiled. He ran his hands through Zitao’s hair.

“Never mind, I think I might’ve just been imagining it,” Yifan said. Zitao looked up at his gege and smiled brightly.

“You imagine silly things, gege,” Zitao said.

For the rest of the day, Zitao and Yifan played games and Yifan helped Zitao with his homework. When Zitao’s mom finished making dinner, Yifan’s parents and Zitao’s dad were on their way to the Huang residence. The two families did this often. They would always gather together at Wu’s or Huang’s place and have dinner together on Fridays and hang out together over the weekends. The only difference was that Zitao pretty much talked about his goldfish the entire time, and the two boys spent more time in front of the fish tank admiring the fish, that was more on Zitao’s end.

Right now, the weekend has ended, and both kids are back in school. Zitao was walking home happily with Yifan. Both boys chatted up a storm about their day. When Zitao was able to see his house, he bid his gege goodbye so that he could go check on his fishy friend, which he had later decided to name “Leng” due to his cold and aloof nature. Usually, both boys would play together throughout the week, but Yifan didn’t mind this time around. He had made plans with a couple of friends to meet up at the park to play basketball.

The sound of light and quick footsteps frightened Zitao’s mom. She knew from the sound that her son was home and wasn’t sure how she was going to explain the misfortune that had befallen in their family. Her brows furrowed and the worried wrinkles on her face showed her age. When Zitao approached the fish tank, he noticed something odd about it. Just as he was about to call out to his mom to question her, Mrs. Huang appeared by the hallway and sat her son down in the living room to relay the terrible news to her son.

“Yes!” Yifan cheered to himself as he scored a three-pointer. His teammates high-fived while his friends in the other team called Yifan a show-off. Although this was a pick-up game amongst friends, Yifan was a very competitive boy. His friends and family could vouge for it. Even amongst his friends, he hated to lose. So, when he heard the familiar sobs of a seven-year-old boy nearby, his friends were surprised that Yifan even stopped dribbling the ball just to look for the source. Not too far off, Yifan spotted a lonely and sobbing Zitao sitting on one of the swings by himself. Upon the sight, Kris immediately dropped the ball and ran over to the boy. He slowed his pace and knelt in front of his crying best friend.

“Taozi, what’s wrong? Did someone hurt you?” Yifan asked as he moved Zitao’s hands from his face to check on him. All Zitao could do was shake his head, his words only coming out as blubbering nonsense.

“What happened? You know you can tell gege, right?” Yifan said. By then, Yifan’s friends had gathered around to check on the young boy. Yifan started to rub Zitao’s back when he noticed that his crying was stopping him from speaking properly.

“She’s. . . dead. . .” The words came out in a soft, raspy whisper between sniffles. Yifan and his friends heard it properly though, their eyebrows rose and their eyes wide open. Yifan shook his head and pulled Zitao closer to him.

“Who’s dead? What happened?” Yifan asked. There was a moment of silence, apart from the whimpering and sniffling coming from Zitao, before he spoke again.

“Leng. . . My goldfish. . .” He said in the softest voice. Yifan’s friends had all let out groans of disapproval. One even spoke up about his disapproval towards Zitao’s situation

“Seriously? A goldfish? Are you seriously crying over that? You’re such a los-” The words got caught in his throat when Yifan turned to him, his glare sharp and menacing for a ten-year-old. Instead of commenting further, Yifan’s friends left the scene as Yifan turned back to the crying boy. He pulled Zitao’s head onto his chest, the younger automatically grabbing for his shirt and crying into his chest. Yifan pats the younger’s head. He was never good at comforting people, but then again, he’s like ten years old.

‘My mom’s good at this stuff. . . What would she say?’ Yifan thought to himself. He just kind of stood there awkwardly letting a sad Zitao cry into his chest. He could already feel a wet patch forming on his shirt and knows pretty well it wasn’t just his tears. An idea suddenly struck Yifan when he tried to think of what his mom would say. He remembered one time when they went to a funeral. He didn’t really know the person who died that well, but he knew that the person meant a lot to his mom’s friend.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Yifan’s voice was soft as he rubbed Tao’s back. The younger’s cries have finally begun to settle as he looked up towards Yifan, eyes b with tears. Yifan wipes them away.

“What does that mean, Fanfan-gege?” Tao asked as he let the older wipe his teary eyes. Yifan paused his hands and looked down at Zitao’s curious little eyes. He pouted his lips in thought as he thought back to the moment his mother said those exact words.

“Well, people usually say that to people they love when they lose someone important to them,” Yifan explains to the younger. The younger’s questioning and sad pout slowly transform into a small, appreciative smile.

“Thank you, Fanfan-gege. I’m sorry about your shirt,” Tao said. A small smile makes its way unto Yifan’s face seeing the lift in Zitao’s spirit.

“It’s okay. Are we gonna hold a funeral for Leng?” Yifan asked. He can see the confusion in the younger’s eyes.

“A funeral is like a sad ceremony for a dead loved one so that we can properly say goodbye before they go to the afterlife,” Yifan explained.

About half an hour later, Zitao and Yifan have both managed to remove the dead fish from the tank, wrapped it in ceremonial dressing (aka toilet paper), and have just finished their eulogies.

“And now for the twelve-flush salute,” Zitao said.

*flush*

*flush*

“Huang Zitao, you flush that toilet one more time, I will come up there and use you as a toilet brush!” Zitao’s mom yelled.