Y/N was exhausted. Mentally, physically, emotionally. There wasn't a part of her that didn't ache nor a fibre of her being that wasn't strained by the anxiety which the previous day had brought.

Things had been going alright, just like they usually did. The day started with dawn breaking over the maze walls and a cold nose while Minho tried to playfully dump Y/N out of her hammock. The pair travelled barefoot through the dewey grass, passing the kitchen and grabbing their breakfasts and lunches. Then, they slowly meandered over to the maproom to gather their supplies.

It was so calm. As the days went on, the longer Y/N was a runner and got to spend one-on-one time with Minho, the more she got to see the real him. The real Minho was one she was truly beginning to care for. He could actually be funny, he was kind, thoughtful and at times, intimidatingly bright.

There was nothing in the air. No gut feeling that told Y/N this day was going to end in the way she always feared deep down. There were no warning signs, absolutely nothing. Maybe the universe had tried to call out to her in subtle ways but she'd been blinded by Minho. Perhaps his warming presence caused her to forget the world could play cruel tricks, especially here in the maze.

Taking off into the maze, making it to their lunch spot and enjoying the quiet, the day had been great. The pair had a lot of good days in the maze together, but this day, something seemed different. They were happy and comfortable, seemingly both in the same headspace. Together, they worked flawlessly, yet at the same time kept one another in check.

After lunch, when the clouds rolled overhead, when the wind started howling and when the rain fell, everything changed.

"C'mon," Minho gently wrapped his fingers around Y/N's wrist as she scrambled to jot some notes down. "We gotta get going."

Y/N looked to him, confused. It wasn't normally like Minho to be so spooked by some weather. Sure, they'd had some bad days in the maze with lightning storms and torrenting rain. This, though? It was basically nothing. They weren't going to have any trouble finding their way back. "Everything okay?"

"I uh—" Minho frantically looked around, as if searching for something. He took the wrist he held in his hand and led it to the ground, placing both of their palms against the stone floor. "Feel that? Something isn't right."

Y/N tilt her head and focused. Minho was right. There was a slight rumble, hardly noticeable, but not insubstantial enough to pass by Minho. "That's not good."

"No." Minho shot up, his legs already filling with adrenaline. He tightened his pack and looked to Y/N with forbidding eyes. It wasn't often his true feelings showed through, but when they did, his eyes always showed it. "The maze is changing somewhere beneath us."

"Then we need to get back to the glade," Y/N took off, Minho following right behind.

This wasn't the normal changing of the maze. They had no idea what was going to happen. That variable of the unknown was what scared both of the runners. Grievers were predictable. The maze changing was routine. The weather was something they could navigate through. A rumble beneath them with no explainable source or any previous experience to rely on wasn't something they could control.

Minho cursed himself silently. This had to be all his fault. He'd gotten sloppy, reckless, making stupid decisions. No, he wasn't getting lazy with the maze. He was getting careless with the more mundane things that didn't seem to pose a threat. He always warned the others in the Glade about keeping their mouths shut just incase whoever put them here was listening. He didn't trust the beetle blades nor anything about where they lived.

He'd made his biggest mistake a couple of nights ago and he knew that now. At the bonfire, he'd confide in Newt about Y/N. He'd said things he never should have, that if overheard, exposed him for his greatest weakness to the people who put them here. He'd foolishly told Newt he loved her. Like the idiot he now saw himself as, he'd muttered something in his tired state about never being able to find a way out of the maze if anything ever happened to Y/N.

The ground split beneath them. Caught up in his thoughts, racing for his life, this caught the keeper of the runners off guard. He veered left and Y/N went right. She stumbled, falling, having been caught right on the fault line where the stone split. She got up and kept running, moving on before Minho could even contemplate going to help her. The pair could see the end of this coffin like opening and sprint for it as the ground beneath them disappeared to their sides. Minho's stopped moving, giving him a few feet worth of stone to keep running along side the wall to keep himself from falling into the abyss below. Y/N's didn't stop retreating. She had to run faster, trying to beat the disappearing floor before there was nothing left to place her feet on. She was fast, but it seemed the maze, maybe the people behind this, had a mind of their own. They wanted her dead.

She was forced to run right against the wall to her right, tearing through the skin on her arm, just the gloves on her hands protecting her knuckles from being torn apart.

"Y/N!" Minho, now just having reached the solid ground, skidded to a stop and turned back to watch Y/N. "RUN!"

In a last ditch effort to keep herself alive, she had to jump. With just centimetres of ground beneath her, she leapt for the edge just a metre or so away. Her feet touched down but her feet slipped, her weight taking her backwards. Dropping down, she scrambled to get a grip on the edge of the stone with her fingers. She could see Minho running toward her but she knew in this moment she knew he wasn't close enough. She couldn't place blind faith in him right now like she had so many time before. Her life was in her own hands.

With an agonizing scream, the girl managed to grab hold on the edge of the stone. But that broken rock tore up her legs and she kicked to keep herself up, the underside of her arms shrieking with the stinging from being shred.

Finally sure she had a solid hold, she tired to clear her eyes, get a look at what was going on around her. She had to get up on that ledge. Minho was there, face caked in dust. He held out a hand to her and she took hold, hauled up and crashing on the stone.

Breathing heavily, the girl fought back a sob of sheer panic. She was so close. So, so close to not having made it back to the glade today. This was the closest call she'd ever had.

Minho held the girl against his chest. He, too, was just as horrified as she was. All of the times they'd been stuck in the middle of a changing maze or grievers didn't even compare to what had just happened. Right now, they could look down into the dark cavern and wholly understand that was not a fall a person could survive.

He'd almost lost his running partner. Almost lost so, so much more.

Y/N, though hesitant, pushed off of Minho, breaking from his deathly tight grip. "We have to go."

Still frantic, Minho admired Y/N's ability to get back on her feet and do what had to be done. "Y/N, you're hurt."

The girl lift up her hands, shaking, examining her ams as she rotate them and then looked to her legs. She hissed through her teeth but with one mental check over, she knew there was no damage that was life threatening. "I can make it back, trust me."

Minho didn't doubt her. It would be best if they could get back sooner than later. As they ran, the rain stung her skin. She felt the bruises on her bones forming. From deep inside, she was using everything she had left to just hold it together.

Y/N was tough. Never once had Minho, her closest confidant here, even seen her cry. But right now? Pain aside, with all of the emotions swelling inside of her, she felt her nose sting and eyes watering up.

The run was sort of a blur for both of the runners. When they finally made it back, gladers with worried faces await them at the maze doors. Quickly, both Y/N and Minho were brought into the medjack hut, kindly brought dinner and water, and then given dry clothes. Bandaged up and a little shaken, smiling through it all, Newt felt awful for his friends. He couldn't even imagine how petrified they were. The least he figured he could do was offer Y/N up his room in the homestead for the night to keep warm and dry.

Y/N, despite trying to decline the offer, got pushed inside of Newt's room by a few of her friends as they bid her goodnight. She thanked them and settled down onto the cot.

Truth was, she would have been a lot happier to have slept out in a hammock even with it being wet and cold. At least then, she'd be with people. In here, it was quiet and lonely. She'd just been confronted far too close with her own mortality and the last thing she wanted was to be all alone.

Now by herself, there was no stopping the sobs. They came on so fast and caused her lungs to lurch, no matter how hard she tried to stifle them. Her body shook with cold sweats and yet her skin felt like it was on fire from any spot the rock and torn up her skin. There was a pounding in her head that was honestly nothing like she'd ever felt.

The girl couldn't even lay down. Anytime she tried, it felt like she was falling and she would constantly jolt, making the wounds on her body just hurt more. All she could do was sit with her head in her hands, listening to the thunder outside.

Minho knocked his shoulders against the doorframe as he tried to run out of the room. He was hyperventilating, clawing at his eyes in hopes they'd clear up, heart literally trying to climb up through his throat. He'd just woken up—at least he was pretty sure he did. The second he'd hit the cot in his room, he nothing short of passed out. But that small piece of sleep came at a massive cost. His mind went spiralling to the worst case scenario, once again Y/N, running—the rest was self explanatory.

He had to find her. Stumbling in the hall, he found Newt's room and pushed open the door. It took him a minute, but there he saw Y/N with palms pressed to her skull, clearly stuck in a similar headspace to his—one of breaking beneath the weight of the world.

"Y/N?" He whispered.

She didn't respond. So, carefully, he went and sat down beside her. Gently, he placed a hand on her back and wait for her to look up. Eventually, the girl lift her head and looked to him. Shocked to see him here, assuming he was getting the deep sleep he was always lucky enough to get, she furrowed her brows. "You okay? You're never up this late."

Minho felt tears threatening to make an appearance again. He swallowed hard and looked down. "I had a nightmare about you. I wanted to make sure you're okay."

Y/N almost laughed. Minho? Being this sincere? What happened today got to him more than Y/N thought. "I'm alive, so yeah, I'd say I'm okay."

Minho raised a brow. He knew they were both people to easily brush off and hide how they really felt. Right now wasn't the time for their perfected art of deflecting.

Y/N knew the look he gave her. "I'm glad you're here. I don't want to be alone right now. I am okay, I just—it got to me a little."

Silently, acknowledging her fear as well as his own, he landed his hand in hers and squeezed it. He lowered his head a little and sighed. "This is my fault."

"No, don't say that." Y/N shook her head. "You noticed the maze changing to begin with. If we had left even seconds later, we might not be here."

"That's not what I mean," He grunted. "A couple nights ago...I—"

Y/N wait. She could tell he was struggling.

"I told Newt I loved you. That I wasn't sure if I could do any of this without you." He forced out the words despite having it feel like bile spilling into his mouth. "What if the creators heard that? It seems like they exist to make all of our worst fears come true. What if—"

"And maybe it was just coincidence." Y/N paused him before he completely spiralled. "None of what happened is your fault."

He tried to accept it, but it was hard. Minho liked it when things could be explained, that there was a reason for them happening. His obsession seemed to stem from the fact that there was still one unknown: how and why they'd all been put here in the glade.

Y/N then shift a little and put her other hand on top of his. Confused, Minho scanned over her face but couldn't quite read her expression. It wasn't so tense anymore, though. She seemed more at peace.

"If it means anything, I love you too."

For a moment, Minho forgot what he'd said just moments before. He was so caught up in trying to make it clear he believed all of this was his fault, he'd forgotten why he thought it was his fault. Realizing he'd been silent for an awkward amount of time, he caught eyes with his running partner. At least he'd admit to it first so it wasn't like she was waiting anxiously for his response back.

"I guess if the maze tries to kill us again, then maybe there is a correlation between saying certain things it trying to get rid of one of us." Y/N almost laugh, dropping her forehead onto Minho's shoulder. He chuckled a little as well and then leaned his head against hers in relief.

"Maybe let's wait a couple of days before we go try to find out," Minho suggest with a sad smile. "I think a couple days in the gardens might be good for us."