"Wow, Minho. Real smooth." Newt rest his chin on his shovel and sent an unimpressed look down at his friend. "What exactly were you trying to achieve here?"

Minho, with a bruised ego, now lay in the dirt. He had just tripped horribly trying to sprint through the gardens on a shortcut to the maproom. The runner groaned as he rolled over and lift himself to his knees. He slumped in defeat looking at the new holes in his pants.

"Shortcut. Nobody warned me though, that there was going to be twine all over the ground." He eyed Newt accusingly.

"Honestly, man. You shouldn't have to be told that. Running around in here just seems like a bad idea in the first place." Newt shook his head in disbelief and tried to get back to work.

In that moment though, a faint laugh came from around the corner of the large plants he and Newt were currently behind. Minho froze. He knew that laugh. Sure enough, there was Y/N, walking with Zart. Instead of just staying quiet and letting Y/N pass without ever knowing he was there, the runner panicked.

"Oh shuck," Minho scrambled to get up and half ran and half crawled his way over behind Newt. He held onto the back of Newt's legs and shoved his face in the grass. "No no no no no."

"The hell's gotten into you?" Newt tried to smack at the runner with his shovel as Minho kept trying to hide behind him. "GET OFF ME YOU SHANK!"

Y/N turned around just in time to witness Minho balled up in the grass with a death grip on Newt's ankles. As Newt fought to make Minho let go, he toppled over him backwards. The girl watched Newt reorient himself and smack Minho over the head.

"You're acting like you got stung!" Newt snapped. "You've gone mad!"

Minho perked up to apologize but once again froze when he noticed Y/N running their way. "No I'm—I haven't!"

Newt followed the runners eyes and then calmed down immediately once he saw Y/N. "Oh." Minho definitely wasn't stung by a griever, he was just a lovesick idiot.

No wonder he'd been running through the gardens today. Minho, as Newt had noticed, had been trying really hard to get Y/N's attention lately. He always ran as fast as he could, even when it was unnecessary. His voice never failed to get ten times louder whenever she was close enough to hear. And god forbid all the extra times he'd walked past her hammock, just so happened to pass her sneaking to the kitchen late at night or fought at bonfires just because he knew she was watching.

What he could never do though, was just talk to her.

"You really are hopeless, aren't you?" Newt stifled a laugh at the flustered and humiliated keeper. "All tough guts until this sorta thing, huh?"

Minho finally looked to Newt. He almost looked kind of sad. "Don't embarrass me more, please. I just don't know how to—"

"Uhhh," Y/N finally made it to them. Both of the boys looked up with awkward half smiles. "Everything okay?"

Silence. Neither of them answered. Newt tried to egg Minho on but he was lost for words.

Finally, Newt stepped up. "Ah...Minho saw a spider on me—"

"And he's allergic!" Minho spat. "So I tried to smack it off but it kept jumping around."

"I am not allergic to spiders you dimwit," Newt groaned.

"You don't know that for sure!" Minho tried to save it. "Maybe I just saved your butt!"

"Alright, fine." Newt rolled his eyes. "Thank you."

"Okaaaay," Y/N pressed her hands together hoping this would all be over soon. "Anyways, Minho, I had a thought about the maze after talking with Ben yesterday. I don't know if you have time, but maybe—"

"Right now." Minho cut her off. His brain didn't even have time to really process what she was saying or have the patience to hear her fully out. It just jumped into action. "I have time right now."

"Like, right now?" Y/N asked.

"Yeah," Minho hopped up and helped Newt off of the ground as well. "C'mon!"

With that, he started walking the way in which he'd originally intended with Y/N at his side. He turned back to Newt and gave him a shy thumbs up. In no way was he sure how he just pulled this off, but he did.

"I saw you fall, by the way." Y/N looked up to see a whole new shade of embarrassment cross Minho's features. She then looked down to his legs and point at the newly brandished holes in his pants. "I can fix those if you want."

"Ah...ah aha... okay yeah." Minho rubbed the back of his neck. He stole a couple glances at Y/N as he tried to pick his words. "Did it look as bad as it felt?"

Y/N pursed her lips as if contemplating how honest to be. Just because of that, he already knew it was bad. "Yeah, it really did." She laughed.