Liana and I joined Minho, who of course always woke up early, for breakfast.

"Morning." I groaned, stretching my arms out. "What's up?"

"You know what I'm gonna do today?" Minho started. "I'm gonna run."

"Run? Where? A maze?" I chuckled.

"No," Minho replied, offended. "I don't have to work today so I'm gonna run. It's quite nice out here. Lots of trees and stuff."

I thought about it for a second. "Can I come with you?" I finally asked. It seemed kind of exciting to be honest.

"Do whatever you want. But I'm not slowing down for you." Minho responded with a grin.

"I ain't gonna run." Liana sighed. "Not my best ability."

~

Minho and I started running. Minho turned out to be right. It was nice. The sight was beautiful. We mostly ran through the woods. Sometimes I saw some animals, like deer and foxes running by.

The two of us came to a sudden stop when there was a big lake in front of us. Waterlilies were on top of it, making the lake look even more beautiful. The water was very clear, almost magical.

"Wow." I sighed. "It's beautiful."

Minho agreed and sat down on a rock. "We'll have a break." He decided. I nodded and sat down too, staring at the water. "Nor?" Minho suddenly asked. I still liked the nickname a lot.

"Yeah?" I looked at him.

"Do you ever think about the time WICKED took you?" Minho carefully asked.

"Not much. Do you?"

Minho hesitated. "Yes. Everyday." He sighed lightly. "Every night I just wake up from another dream of them."

My eyebrows furrowed. I felt so bad for Minho. WICKED had done so many bad things to him. I considered he might even have a trauma after it. "Oh, sorry to hear that. You know you can always talk to me whenever you want to, right? About anything."

I realized the funny, sarcastic Minho wasn't always like that. Everyone had a sadder side. Some just didn't show it.

"Thanks. You too, by the way. Did you manage to stop harming?" Minho looked up.

"I'm trying to stop. I didn't do it for a few months." I responded, my voice cracking.

"That's good, right? I'm proud." Minho smiled.

"Thanks, Minho." I smiled too, genuinely cheerful by his caring.

~

"And where have you been?" I ran right into Newt's arms when Minho and I came back.

"We went for a run." I wiped some sweat off my forehead.

"A run? You have been running for three years already!" Newt looked at Minho, who shrugged.

"It's a habit."

"Well, it's also dinner time, slintheads. You've been gone the whole bloody day." Newt argued. I smiled at his expression. It was quite funny how worried he was.

"Thank you, Fry." I smiled when he handed me a plate of food.

"Enjoy." Frypan gave me a laugh.

Minho and I joined Newt, Thomas, and Brenda. I noticed Liana and Logan sitting next to each other a few tables away. I grinned when I realized they were making a great bond. Maybe a little too great. Something more was there.
Newt's eyebrows stayed furrowed the whole time and he seemed quite irritated.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

Newt looked up. "I'm never working in that bloody med thing again." He grumbled.

"Why? What happened?" I chuckled lightly.

Newt's face darkened even more. "They're shucking touchy in there! Minho, you better switch with me 'cause I ain't working there again."

"Touchy?" I repeated, pretty confused.

"Yes, touchy. That Kristina or whatever the klunk her name was couldn't get off me." Newt dramatically explained.

I laughed. "Seems like you got yourself another girl."

"But I already have one! Why would I need another? One is enough." Newt replied.

God, Newt was clueless.

"It's Kirsten, not Kristina." An unfamiliar voice behind us said. I spun around and my eyes turned wide. A beautiful girl stood behind us. She had black, shiny, long hair. Wore a revealing red top with black shorts. Her posture was confident and she had a big grin on her face. Her lips were red as roses and her lashes were longer than anyone else their lashes I ever met. Stunned I stared at the girl.

Newt muttered something under his breath. "Can I join?" The girl, whose name appeared to be Kirsten and not Kristina, asked.

"Of course, you can," Minho responded, staring at the girl.

Newt pulled a face at Minho, but the Runner only seemed to have attention for Kirsten. She gave me a quick, almost nasty, glance before sitting down right next to Newt.

"Hey, nice to see you again." Kirsten looked the poor boy in the eyes.

"Yeah, very nice," Newt mumbled, trying to ignore Kirsten. Still stunned by the girl her beauty, I started eating. I tried to ignore the way Kirsten only moved closer to Newt and started playing with her hair. She was flirting with him right in front of my face. Unsure I gave Brenda a glance, who shrugged.

Minho told them a joke I didn't even hear. The only thing I did was to look at Kirsten. She annoyed me a lot. Every time Minho said something she revealed her perfect white teeth annoyingly and put her hand on Newt's shoulder.

Honestly, I was jealous. Kirsten was a whole lot prettier than me and she seemed to impress Newt and the others easily. I bit my lip and focused on Brenda her talks. I noticed Brenda didn't really seem to like Kirsten either. Minho did. He was over the top of her, but Newt, I wasn't sure about. He seemed quite uncomfortable, but his face was bright red and he kept looking at the girl.

I sighed when Kirsten finally got up from the table. "Bye, Kristina," I said on purpose. She gave me a dirty glance and looked up and down at my body, before walking away.

"What was that for?" Newt turned to me. "Her name is Kirsten, not Kristina."

Stunned I looked at him. "Three seconds ago you hated her!"

"I never hated her. And besides, that was just a little issue in the past. She's nice, actually." Newt replied.

My eyes opened wide. "You do realize what she's trying to do right?"

"Yeah, she wanted to make some friends since she doesn't have them." Newt simply said.

Offended and shocked I started arguing. "And you believe that?"

"It's a bit rude if I didn't." Newt shrugged. He didn't seem to understand anything.

"Minho, help me!" I frustratedly ordered.

"You're overreacting, Nora." Minho shrugged.

Anger rose up in my chest, but it could've been just jealousy. Maybe I was overreacting and jealous. Very jealous.

"And," Newt started. "You're with Logan all the time. Don't tell me you're allowed to hang out with other boys and I can't do that with girls."

I only got angrier. "You could've chosen another girl! Why don't you go talk to Sonya someday instead, huh? I'm sure that's a lot more interesting than that bitch." I almost screamed out loud. Newt still hadn't talked to Sonya and I didn't understand why.
"Great." I sighed when Newt didn't respond. "Night, everyone."

~

A/N: Thank you/credits to Ivy_mazereaderrr   for the idea of adding Kirsten ❤️❤️