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The best thing about Aris, Minho thinks, is that he's pretty. The second best thing is that he's not a Glader.
Not that there's anything wrong with the Gladers, of course, Minho loves them. But it's a bit hard to consider any of them with romantic interest when he's been living with them for the past three years, and regards them as brothers.
That's why when he met Aris, he was relieved. Here was someone attractive, smart, resourceful. Here was someone he could actually go for.
As it turns out later, "going for Aris" was a terrible fucking idea. Because, okay, maybe he came on a little strong, but Aris' reaction was totally uncalled for. Minho was not just a "pretty face with no brains", and he certainly wasn't just "trying to to make a fool" out of the other boy. If anything, Minho had expected Aris to fawn over him right away, assuming that he had low-standards.
Who figured that landing in a maze full of girls could actually teach a guy about values and self-respect?
This entire turn of events is very troubling to Minho. He's never been rejected before (at least, he thinks he hasn't been, the whole wiped-memories-deal makes it hard to know for sure), and he has absolutely no idea how to deal with this.
He doesn't even know why he was turned down in the first place. It might not always seem like it, but he's actually a pretty smart guy. Minho's always been particularly adept at puzzles, especially mazes and the like. And he knows that he's attractive- one time it rained in the Glade and he spent all day staring at his reflection in a puddle- so Minho's pretty sure that he's the perfect catch.
Then he remembers the scornful look on Aris' face and decides he needs an outside opinion.
He goes to find Teresa, first- she's sitting on her bunk and still snacking on some of the leftovers from the buffet- and when she finally looks up to see him standing over her, holding a clipboard and a pen, she only sighs wearily.
"What do you need, Minho?"
"Just a couple of responses for a short survey I'm conducting," He begins, and waits for her reaction. When she motions for him to continue, he quickly hurries on.
"Okay, so...um- Question One: How likely would it be, on a scale of 1 to 10, for you to go out with me?"
"Minho, I'm a lesbian."
"Ah...so I'll put down a 7?"
She raises an eyebrow in response.
Minho quickly decides that the completing the rest of the survey with Teresa would be a massive waste of time and moves on to his next subject.
He finds Thomas in a state in between frazzled and confused- which seems to be his default setting these days- and cuts right to the chase.
"Thomas, on a generous scale of 1 to 10, how likely would it be for you to go out with me?"
A pink blush immediately appears on Thomas' face, and he starts stammering. "Um, I don't know man, like a 3?"
Minho sighs, pinches the bridge of his nose. "Okay, hold on, let me rephrase. How likely would it be, if you didn't have a huge secret crush on Newt?"
He gets no coherent answer out of Thomas after that point.
Minho moves on to the rest of the gladers. Much later, he starts analyzing the results of his survey. There have been some mixed responses, but all in all, feedback is overwhelmingly positive. He concludes that most of the subjects interviewed would be happy to date him. This absolutely does not stroke his ego and reaffirm his belief that he is the perfect catch.
Which brings him to the problem of Aris. Because if Minho is (basically) a dreamboat, why did he get rejected? Maybe Aris is one of those pretentious people who thinks that they're better than everybody. Maybe he's just shy, and was frightened by Minho's bold approach.
This line of thinking leads Minho to realize that he knows absolutely nothing about this guy.
Okay, so he can just learn more about him. He frequently sees Aris with that blonde chick and her friend (girlfriend?). He'll just start there.
Sonya, as he learns the blonde one's name to be, does not enjoy having her lunch interrupted by Minho sliding into the seat next to her. She puts down the fork she was eating with and half-turns to face him, and expression of annoyance on her face.
"Can I help you?"
"Yes. Or at least, I hope you can. I'm Minho-"
"Yeah, we know," Sonya interjects.
"Aris told us about you." the other one (he thinks her name is Harriet?) continues. From the expression on her face, he imagines that it wasn't anything good.
"Oh," Minho says, looking down. "Look, I'm sorry for whatever he told you."
"Just that you had only been introduced to him for about two seconds before you asked him out?" Sonya's eyes are bright, and Harriet's hand reaches up to pat her on the the shoulder.
"Yeah, I'm sorry about that too. I was just so excited to be meeting someone that I hadn't spent the last 3 years with, y'know? And he just seem so open, so interesting...like somebody I'd want to spend time with."
At Minho's confession, Sonya's eyes soften. "Look, Minho, it was nothing against you. Aris is a sensitive guy, he likes to build connections with people. He was just offended that you tried to get with him so quickly, despite still being total strangers. He thought you might be playing a joke, or something."
She leans in closer to Minho, whispering in his ear, "And, just between us, I think he was a little intimidated by your pretty face." He laughs softly, feeling a bit better.
"So anyway...how do you suppose I talk to him, try to convince him that I want to actually get to know him?" Minho asks, watching as Sonya turns to Harriet and then back to him, her eyes calculating.
"We're having a little get-together tonight, mostly kids from Group B, as well as some of your friends, and Aris. I guess it wouldn't be a disaster if you showed up..."
And so Minho puts on his best shirt (which is really just a henley, but the world is falling apart, his options are limited) and gets ready for the party.
Sonya wasn't lying when she said it was little, there's not many kids there, but he sees Teresa standing by the punch bowl, animatedly talking to a girl with short dark hair, and Thomas is there as well, sitting awfully close to Newt on the couch, both of them laughing at some unknown joke.
He goes to to thank Sonya for the invitation, but she's occupied with making out with Harriet (and shit. What Minho interrupted earlier was probably a date, now he feels like a bigger douchebag) and he decides to let them go at it.
Left with nowhere to go, he resorts to standing alone in the middle of the party until a hand taps him on the shoulder and he spins around.
Standing there is Aris, hands tucked into the pocket of his hoodie and a soft smile on his face.
"Hi," says Minho, surprised.
"Hi." Aris says. "I'm glad you're here, I meant to apologize to you sooner. I was harsh, earlier-"
"No, it's okay, I probably deserved that anyway. My ego needed a healthy kick."
Aris smiles, and to his credit only rolls his eyes a fraction.
"Hey, so...what's your favorite animal?" Minho asks, grinning slightly.
"What is this, 20 questions? Are you secretly a stalker trying to collect information about your victim?" Aris replies, but he's grinning as well.
"Just answer the question."
"Okay, a goldfish."
Minho laughs. "Why a goldfish?"
"Just throwing you off my trail." Aris winks.
So, information Minho has just acquired: Aris' favorite animal may or may not be a goldfish and he is definitely the biggest, cutest dork Minho has ever met.
"Okay, what about your favorite color?"
Aris pulls away from him slightly, to look him more squarely in the face. "Seriously, what are you playing at?"
Minho runs his hands through his hair. "I just thought I could learn some things about you, get to know you better. We could take things slow-"
He's cut off by a loud groan from Aris, who only replies, "Oh, screw taking things slow," before grabbing Minho's head and pulling him in for a hard kiss.
He's just started to relax into Aris' mouth when the other boy pulls away, resting their foreheads together and smirking.
"And my favorite color is blue."