Minho woke to someone pelting him in the head with a shoe. He scrambled out from under his coarse blanket and tried to clear his eyes. For a brief moment, he was rendered useless but he quickly came to. "You shuck—" Minho rolled over in the direction the shoe had come from.

"Rise and shine, Minho." Gally knelt a few feet away trying his shoes. "Lawrence wants us in ten."

Minho sat up, chest tight from having slept on his side on the hard ground. He looked around and then back to Gally. "Where's Y/N?"

"No clue." Gally shrugged nonchalantly.

"No clue?!" Minho was very suddenly awake. "You—"

"I'm kidding, she's fine." Gally put out his hand and motioned for Minho to relax. "She went to get some supplies."

Grumbling to himself like he did most mornings, Minho rolled out his bed and hissed at the feeling of the cold concrete on his fingers. It wasn't as nice waking in this dark room as it was back in the Glade to the sun rising over the walls and dewey grass. He missed it. Here, he felt like even more of a prisoner.

Gally noticed how Minho seemed a little off. In theory, Minho should have been the first one up, kicking at them to get moving for the morning. Today though, it was the opposite. "Rough night, man?"

"I dunno," Minho forced on his shoes. He still wanted his ones from the Glade back. "I only sleep that hard when something bad is about to happen. Like the night before Newt? Ben? Before the day with Y/N."

"You never told us that." Gally said.

"Cause I didn't think it meant anything." Minho sighed. He'd tried hard to push those memories out of his head but it seemed they really were going to stick with him forever whether he wanted them to or not. "Maybe we—"

"You would not believe how hard it is to find paper around here." Y/N ran into the room with a few pieces of old looking parchment. "Someone offered to trade a stack of paper for a handful of my hair."

"And did you...?" Minho grimaced.

Y/N held back a mischievous smile. "I got a few pieces..." She lift up the ends of a now very short patch of hair. "A handful seemed like a lot. But this seemed worth it."

Gally shook his head and laughed. Y/N was certainly still the same Y/N he'd always known. The world hadn't changed her. Though, if she knew what those people were going to use her hair for she might not have given it up. He was going to let her enjoy the blissful ignorance.

"C'mon. Let's go." He motioned to the two runners to follow him.

"You alright?" Y/N asked quietly as they walked through those halls back to Lawrence with people staring at them like lunch. "You're always the first one up."

"I'm good," Minho pursed his lips and kept walking. "The food Jorge sent us with on the other hand? Must've been bad."

"You really hate that guy." Y/N let out a soft laugh and kept walking. She knew the food obviously wasn't bad because she'd eaten it as well and wasn't affected in anyway. She knew something else was bothering Minho but he wasn't willing to let it out. It was possible that his travels through the scorch had finally caught up to him, but Y/N saw that as highly unlikely. Whatever was bothering him seemed to go deeper than just being tired, hungry, or dehydrated. He was mentally distracted.

With a less than kind farewell and talk about do's and dont's from Lawrence, the three former Gladers dropped down into the tunnels. They stumbled around in the strange, disorienting in-between of light and dark while they waited for their eyes to adjust.

"I say we spend the day getting you two acquainted with this crap hole before we start doing any serious work." Gally stopped walking and turned to face his friends. "You good with that?"

Y/N and Minho shrugged in agreement.

"Take her away," Gally motioned for Y/N to take the lead. "I know this place pretty well except for the outskirts. If we get there, I'll stop you. Otherwise, don't worry about getting lost."

The group began to carefully run through the slick tunnels. It was slow going, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. After not having run the maze for a few weeks, it was best they took it slow to start. As nerve-racking as running the maze had been everyday, there was a new sense of uncertainty here. No, they weren't afraid of grievers or what else was lurking in the dark. What they feared was WICKED. Now, they were knowingly infiltrating their turf as wanted people. They knew what WICKED was capable of and they also knew they were living in a facility full of liars, cheaters, and survivalists. None of this seemed like a good idea.

"What's wrong, dude?" Gally whispered. "You look like you've got ants in your pants."

Minho pulled his mouth into a tight line. "Still adjusting."

"To what?" Gally scoffed. "You did this everyday for three years."

"Yeah, and WICKED was considerate enough to send up clothes specific to running." Minho shortly fired back.

Gally raised a brow and nearly broke out in laughter. "You're missing your runnie undies. You've got to be joking."

"Gee, sorry." Minho narrowed his eyes on Gally.

Amusingly snickering to himself, Gally shook his head. "I'm sure we could find some tape somewhere if you're really that upset by it."

Immedietly, Minho jabbed Gally in the ribs. "Shut up, Gally. I'll be fine."

"Alright, alright." Gally surrendered, holding his ribcage. It felt sort of weird that just a while ago, Minho had honestly believed he had killed Gally. It wasn't that long ago his friends watched him kill Chuck. It seemed there was some sort of silent understanding that none of that was Gally's fault and Minho had only done what was needed to protect everyone else. Without words, there was forgiveness.

As they kept running along slowly, Gally noticed how deep in thought Minho seemed to be. He also wasn't blind and could tell that more often than not, Minho's eyes were on Y/N. "So what's with you and Y/N?"

Minho gawked. "...what?"

"I mean I knew you guys were close back in the Glade. We all knew. But things seem a little different now?" Gally's words faded out quietly.

Minho seemed to close off. "Doesn't matter. I'm not doing that to myself."

Confused, Gally scanned his friends features for any hints. "Do what to yourself? Telling her isn't a bad thing. If that's what you're referring to."

"There's nothing to tell." Minho shut down the conversation. "When'd you become a shuck therapist?"

Gally scoffed. "Maybe when I watched my friends leave me to bleed out. I've started to learn what's really important and I've stopped taking out my fears on other people."

Minho paused. Was he becoming like that? Sure, he'd always been on the rougher side, just like Gally had. But he'd never directed and forced his negative emotions out on other people, right? Or was he now? Because he was really honestly afraid?

"I'm sorry." Minho bit his tongue. "I'm sorry we left you. And I'm sorry that I've treat you like klunk since showing up."

"No worries. You haven't been anything other than Minho to me. I just don't want you to lose yourself. I know this isn't easy and I know whatever weird in-between you're in with Y/N isn't easy either."

"Thanks." Minho muttered. Gally was right. This weird space he and Y/N existed in was starting to strain him. It wasn't that he was desperate to put a name on things. He just wanted to know the truth. Were both of them not saying anything because they were afraid of losing it? Or was she not saying anything because she didn't have anything to say?

"Agh, YUCK!" Y/N slipped on something. Minho and Gally could only assume what.

"And it's moments like these when I wonder why it's her." Minho snickered to himself and Gally smiled lightly.