Redamancy (Minho | The Maze Runner)

十 : The Three of Us

The next two weeks were relatively calm and uneventful, except for one tiny thing.

"Sup shanks," Minho said casually as he approached the kitchen from behind. His voice suddenly shot up a pitch at the last word, making everyone within hearing vicinity turn and roar in laughter, including Newt.

Minho's voice was breaking and if it wasn't the most hilarious thing that happened this whole month, nobody knew what was.

Even Qiufeng couldn't help stifling a laugh as she turned to the rather annoyed boy. "Hey." She smiled from behind the kitchen counter as she looked up from putting plates on a tray, her eyes twinkling with amusement as the other settled down beside Newt. It was so rare to see the big and tough Minho get shut down by anything, or even flustered really, that she had to enjoy the few moments that he was out rightly embarrassed.

"I swear when it's their shucking turn to have their voice broken..." Minho growled in a low voice, trying not to trigger the break.

"Look on the bright side, you'll be the first one done when the rest of us start squeakin." Newt patted him on the back sympathetically as Qiufeng glided over with the tray.

"So who's the greenie?" she asked cheerfully as she passed over a few plates to them, effortlessly holding the tray at the same time. Today she officially graduated from being the greenie of the glade, someone else having come up in the box this afternoon. She was kept busy in the kitchen the whole time preparing for the welcome party in evening. "Dinner preparations had me busy in the kitchen this afternoon, didn't even have time to look up."

"He's a little shank," Minho said, voice cracking again. He rolled his eyes and took a deep breath as if trying to calm his frustration, and dug into the food.

"Everyone's a shank to you shuck face." Qiufeng shook her head, the glade slang coming naturally as she set down her plate in between them. Hanging out with the boys had really rubbed off her. She was about to sit down when a thought occurred to her and she clapped her hands together. "Oh remember when I said I had something to show you this morning?" She smiled widely, creating a dimple at the corner of her mouth. Her eyes were sparkling with excitement.

"Yeah?" Newt looked up from his food curiously, as did Minho.

She grinned cheekily. There was a moment as she took a breath and extended her right arm out to balance her body weight, while the other one brought her left leg high above her head. After her fight with Minho and realizing that her body was capable of much more, she carried out some experiments by herself and found out her body was extremely flexible and agile. At first she was a little bit stiff with her movements, but after enough practice she eventually got the hang of it. Now as long as she kept to some daily exercises, staying nimble would be effortless.

Minho raised an eyebrow and Newt just stared. "Doesn't it hurt?" the blond eventually asked, and both boys instinctively brought their legs closer together.

"Surprisingly no!" She brought herself back into a standing position again with a little jump and a proud smile. "I've been testing my limits recently, and apparently I'm more flexible than I thought."

Qiufeng promptly took her plate off the log and squeezed in between the two boys, her smile never wavering. "Isn't this great? It might come in handy one day, like for avoiding bullets or something."

"The bullet would've already killed you by the time you're done performing," Minho replied dryly as he poked his fork in the air as if making a point.

"Yeah maybe if it hadn't killed you first while you're so busy yapping," she shot back quickly, and they spent a good few seconds squinting at each other before she gave in and laughed. "Okay okay seriously though, who's the Greenbean?"