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March 31, 2018
"Appa! Appa! Where are you!?" a tiny voice cried out in the midst of the squawking and growling of the various animals in the zoo.
A four year-old boy was wandering the paths of the zoo in search of his father. Losing hope, he began to cry as he walked, snot escaping his nostrils as he shook and trembled. With fat tears blurring his vision, he unintentionally bumped into the legs of a girl.
"Appa?" he asked, looking up only to see the face of a girl with short hair.
He began crying more seeing that it was not his father. However instead of pushing the girl's legs away, he only hugged them tighter. The two limbs in front of him were his only sense of solace at the moment.
Yoobin looked at the little boy in surprise as he began bawling and crying into her thigh. She glanced at BamBam who shrugged his shoulders. Looking down at their hands, Binnie internally sighed at herself for her next decisions.
For the first time after entering the zoo, Yoobin let go of BamBam's hand to pry away the little boy's arms. Then kneeling down to steady the little one, she took out a packet of tissues from her bag, and started wiping the many liquids off the little boy's face.
"Hey, hey, little guy. It's okayyy~" she cooed, trying to calm him down.
"What's your name?" she asked the little boy, whose tears had semi-stopped running down his chubby cheeks.
He glanced at her with glassy eyes and pouting lips. "HaoHao."
"Hi HaoHao~ My name is Binnie, and this is my friend BamBam," Yoobin replied, gesturing to BamBam who had also kneeled down beside her.
"Hi..." HaoHao hesitantly waved shyly.
"What's wrong? Why are you crying?"
"I'm twying to find Appa."
"Ohh..." Yoobin nodded her head, realizing that HaoHao and his father must have lost each other.
She was already thinking in her head to bring the child to the information desk when, BamBam asked,
"When was the last time you saw Appa?"
"I... I dun remembwer..."
"Did Appa tell you to go somewhere if you got lost?" BamBam tried again.
When he was younger and his family went out to crowded places, his parents had always told he and his sister a place to meet up if they ever got lost. He thought HaoHao's parents might have done the same thing.
"Umm... Umm. Wion," HaoHao managed to say after thinking for a long time. "Wion is my favowite so Appa said to go theywe."
"Oh ok, then. Binnie and I will take you to where the lions are, and we'll help you find Appa," he said standing up, and grabbing one of HaoHao's hands, and pulling him up.
