"Morning. New greenie today. You excited?" Minho asked as he sat down next to Elizabeth and started eating the breakfast Frypan made that morning. Ellie made no answer as she continued to poke around her food. "Hey? You okay?" The boy asked, worry creasing his eyebrows.

"Huh? Oh, yeah." Ellie answered after a few seconds. "Just thinking." Minho relaxed a little, shoving another bite of food into his mouth. "About what?" He asked.

"Ew, don't eat with your mouth full." The blonde girl cringed. Minho rolled his eyes. "Don't change the topic." Ellie sighed as she grabbed a small bite and ate it.

"How long will this last? You know, this can't go on forever." She said as she motioned with her hands to around them. "I'm starting to feel as though we are being punished for something we don't even know we did. Like, Chuck, for example. He is so young, ripped from his parents, and thrown in here." Ellie took a deep breath, calming herself down. "And we probably all had lives before this. We weren't here from birth. We probably had friends, families, hobbies. What is so bad in the world that they had to throw us in here?" Elizabeth said, getting a little heated.

"Hey, hey. El." Minho said as he put her hands into his, making her look at him. "I get it, okay? We are all tired. We are all done with living in here in constant fear of everything. But you have to understand, even if we had family before this, we have family now. You, me, Chuck, Alby. Newt. For shuck's sake, he is your actual brother. All of the gladers, we are all family. Even the ones that piss you of sometimes, like Gally."

Ellie smiled at the last part. "Remember, you will always, always, have me. No matter what." He said as he started rubbing his thumb in circles on the back of her hand. Ellie took a deep breath, nodding.

"Hey, don't get all sappy on me now, will ya?" She grinned. Minho groaned. "I show some affection for once, and you are already making fun of me?" He said as he moved his hands back to continue eating his breakfast. "Yep. That's the point of being best friends. Endless teasing and gossiping."

Friends. Minho felt a pang in his heart when he heard the word, but he didn't know why. Minho was good at suppressing his emotions, because they were the last thing he needed right now. His top priority was running, and hopefully finding a way out of the Maze. Everyone saw him as a hero who was confident, sexy, sarcastic. Some would say he was the perfect man, but deep down Minho knew that he was just a little boy, covering his emotions up with a facade.

His running served as a sign of hope for the Glade, but truly, Minho ran so that he didn't need to face the feelings and thoughts he had every day. Some would say he was running from his problems. Minho shook his thoughts away before going back to eating.

✧ 🌳 ──── ⊹ ࣪ ˖ ⚔ ⊹ ࣪ ˖ ──── 🌳 ✧

Ellie stood up as soon as she heard the alarm. Minho wasn't there to see the new greenie as he was out running in the Maze. She walked to the Box, where a brunette boy was sitting along with some supplies. The boy looked about the same age as Elizabeth, with sharp almond eyes, greasy dark brown hair and pale skin. Ellie shoved to the front to get a better look at the boy. "Day one, greenie." Alby said as he pulled the new boy out of the box and onto the grass.

The girl was about to say some comforting words to the brunette boy, but she didn't even get a chance to get a word out before he stood up and started sprinting towards the Maze. "Hey, we got a runner!" A boy from the crowd yelled, with other boys joining in and cheering. The greenie didn't run for longer than 30 seconds before tripping over his feet and rolling on the ground.

Ellie ran up to him, some other boys right behind her. "You okay?" She asked as she examined his features. The greenie nodded shakily. Some other Gladers quickly helped the boy up, before grabbing him and taking him to the Slammer. "It's all yours." They commented before Ellie shooed them away and told them to get back to work.

She sighed as she ran her hand through her hair. "I'm going to go help unload the supplies." She said to Alby before walking towards the Box.

She unloaded the boxes with some other Gladers in silence, carrying them to the stations they were need in. As they finished up, she saw Alby giving the new boy a tour of the Glade. "Do you want to go check out the new greenie?" Chuck said, breaking the silence. Ellie looked up at him. "Yeah. You okay finishing up by yourself?" Elizabeth asked to which he nodded. Ellie ruffled his hair before standing up and walking away.  

As she made her way over to Alby and the new boy, the latter watched her curiously. "Who is she? Why is there a girl?" He asked.

"Her name is Elizabeth, but everyone calls her Ellie. We don't know why she is here. She was sent up with her brother, Newt, so some people think that they were a package deal. Her job is a Medjack, along with two more guys. Don't you dare make a move on her, or else she will punch the hell out of you. The one time it did happen..."Alby whistled. "Not only did Ellie punch him, Minho got a little... protective, I guess." Alby answered as the girl in question made their way to them.

Newt also made his way to the group. "There you are Alby! Hey Ellie." He said as he came up to the trio. "Greenbean, meet Newt. When I'm not around, he is in charge." Alby introduced him as Newt shook his hand.

"Well then it's good that you are always around then, eh? Because if Newt was in charge this place would be in shambles." Ellie joked as she shook the greenie's hand. Newt rolled his eyes. "That was quite a dash you made out there. For a second I thought you had the chops to be a Runner, until you face planted." Alby and Ellie laughed. "A, uh, a runner?" The new boy stuttered. Alby sighed before sending Newt off to find Chuck.

"Look, I'm sorry to rush this, but you came up a little late, and we got a lot to do." Alby said as he led the greenie to the tower and Elizabeth trailed behind them. "We have got something special planned tonight."

The girl zoned out as Alby took the greenie to the top of the tower and told him about the rules. She was called back into reality when Chuck came up behind her. "Hi Ellie!" He smiled as he made his way to the girl. "Hey Alby!" He called up, causing Alby to look down and chuckle. "Hey Chuck! Where ya been?"

Chuck and Ellie then showed the new boy where he will be sleeping. "It's the same story for all of us, greenie. We arrive in the Box, we freak out, Alby gives us the tour, then here we end up." She said and Chuck nodded along. "Don't worry, you are doing better than I did. I klunked my pants three times before they got me out of the pit." The younger boy said and Ellie smiled sympathetically. She turned around to talk to the new boy, but he was already gone, walking towards the entrance of the Maze.

Chuck and Ellie ran up after him. "Dude! Where are you going?" Chuck said as he reached the other boy. "I just wanna see." The other one replied. "You can look around all you want, but you better not go out there." Chuck warned as Ellie caught up to the two. "Why not, what's out there?" The greenie asked.

Chuck looked over at Elizabeth who sighed and shook her head. "You don't want to know." She said as Minho came back with Ben. "Hey Chuck. New greenie, huh? How does it feel to be promoted?" Ben asked. Chuck shot a thumbs up. "Feels great, Ben."

"Hey Els, Chuck." Minho said, smiling at her. She returned the smile before he continued running into the Glade with Ben.

"I thought no one was allowed to leave." The new boy said as they left. "I said we are not allowed to leave." Chuck replied. "They are Runners, they know the Maze like the back of their hand." Ellie added. "They go out every day, memorizing it, mapping it out."

"You just said Maze..." The greenie said. "We did?" Chuck frowned.

The new boy ran up to the entrance of the Maze again. "Where are you going?" Chuck called out. "Just taking a look." The other boy replied. "We already told you, you can't. No one leaves. Especially not now." Chuck warned. "It's not safe."

"Okay, I'm not going to go in." The older boy said as he moved closer to get a better look. Before he could get too close, Gally ran up to him and pushed him to the ground, yelling, "Hey! We got to stop meeting like this."

"Hey! Gally, calm down." Ellie interrupted as the greenie got up and got away from Gally. "Whoa, calm, calm, calm." Gally said as more Gladers came up to the group.

"What the hell is wrong with you guys?" The new boy exclaimed. "Just calm down alright?" Ellie's brother said. "No! Why won't you tell me what's out there?"

"To protect you." Alby said. "For your own good." The siblings replied in sync.

As the greenie got more angry and loud, the Maze started making noises and a wind blew. "What the hell?" He asked as the doors started closing.

As the doors fully closed and people started leaving, Gally came up to the new boy. "Next time, I'm going to let you leave." He said before walking away.

"Welcome to the Glade."

✧ 🌳 ──── ⊹ ࣪ ˖ ⚔ ⊹ ࣪ ˖ ──── 🌳 ✧

authors note ☁️

words: 1699
date written: 08/04/2024
date published: 10/19/2024
thoughts: first chapter my lovelies! not much interaction between minho and ellie, but more coming next chap. hope you enjoyed and lots of love!