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Minho sits, watching the waves with a sad expression. He’s been sitting alone since far before the sun came up. The light is still soft on the horizon, but it’s enough to pull Minho out of his stupor. He thinks back to when he and Newt would stay up talking all through the night, and would only realize what they’d done when the sun started to come up again. It doesn’t feel right sitting here alone, especially not with the beautiful ocean in front of him. Newt would have loved it.
In the early days of the maze, they would talk about all the things they wanted to see in person when they got out. Eventually they stopped thinking they would, and gave up talking about those kinds of things. It breaks Minho’s heart even more thinking that they did get out, and Newt still didn’t get to enjoy it. He’s gone, and now Minho has to be here as one of the few people who made it out of the maze. So many losses.
Minho always figured out how to cope with things, much better than most of the people who lived in the maze, but he can’t seem to do that now. Maybe he only did so well, because he had people to take care of. Someone he needed to be strong for, but now that’s not the case. He hears someone walk up behind him, the sand crunching under foot. Gally drops down beside him, looking out over the water too.
“You miss him, don’t you?”
“Oh course I do. Don’t we all?” Minho says, his voice thick with unshed tears.
Gally sighs.
“Of course we do. It’s crazy to think of everything that we’ve lost, everyone we’ve lost. It’s also insane to think of how little time it’s been since we were in the maze. How different things are now. Though I guess when you’re being isolated from reality like that, it’s bound to be a slap in the face once you figure out what the world is actually like.”
Minho nods.
“Yeah, and it’s crazy to think that most of us knew each other even before the maze. Some of the guys here are cool, it’s just been hard to connect.”
Gally nods.
“Even though we went through a lot of the same trauma, it’s like we’re all so far apart. Especially the ones that were in the other maze.”
Minho drops his forehead onto his knees with a sigh.
“What do we do now?”
Gally laughs, though he sounds near crying too.
“I’m not sure. I don’t think anyone actually knows. Everyone is throwing themselves into work, trying to get this place operational, but that won’t last forever. We’re going to have to figure out how to deal with the things we saw, and the things we did. I’m just not sure how to go about that yet.”
Minho hums.
“I guess you’re right. Speaking of which, we should probably report in.”
Gally stands up, offering Minho a hand. Minho grabs his hand, letting Gally help him to his feet. He brushes the sand off of himself as they walk to start work for the day. Minho has a slow, quiet day, which he’s glad for. His mind is running slower than it normally does, and he’s struggling even with his simpler tasks probably because he didn’t sleep. Gally keeps checking in on him, and they even eat lunch together. Gally mostly stays quiet, and Minho doesn’t try to start a conversation.
Thomas keeps giving them confused looks, but Minho ignores that too. Thomas has always been a little too nosey for his own good, but most of them just let it slide. However, Minho is absolutely not in the mood to deal with Thomas when he comes up to Minho after work.
“Hey, so what are you and Gally doing?”
“What do you mean?” Minho asks, exasperated. He looks up, sunken eyes staring at Thomas with surprising intensity.
“Well, I mean, you guys have just been spending a lot of time together today. I didn’t even think that you guys were on good terms again.”
“I told him that I was having a rough day. That I miss Newt a lot.”
“Oh, I guess that makes sense. I understand, but why Gally?”
Minho glares at Thomas.
“This is your problem. You could have someone explain things to you forty times and you still wouldn’t get it. You don’t understand how I feel, especially about Newt. What, you thought you and Newt were best friends cause he was nice to you? No, he was nice to everyone. You aren’t special, and you need to stop acting like the world revolves around you.
You can’t even understand that I’m not mad at Gally. Gally is my friend, and most of what happened wasn’t even his fault. He was just as much of a victim as the rest of us. In fact, he’s more of a victim than you are. We’ve all done things that we aren’t proud of, but we were just children.”
Thomas stares at Minho with wide eyes.
“I wasn’t trying to say that he-”
“No, shut up. You don’t get to try to justify what you said. He’s my friend, and I’m sick of you deciding that he’s not worthy of a second chance. I know that he was hard to deal with, I know. I lived with him for years, and you were stuck with him for a week. He’s changed so much, and he doesn’t deserve the way you treat him. Stop pretending like you know everything. You don’t know anything so can you please just butt out?”
Thomas just continues staring at him so he storms off. Gally finds him an hour later, hiding amongst some of the half built structures that they’ve been putting together.
“Hey, Thomas told me what you said. You ok?”
Minho shrugs.
“I don’t know. It’s just Thomas acted like he was Newt’s best friend, and he didn’t even know him. Then as soon as Newt died, he just decided that we were best friends. He’s been acting like he needs to protect me from you, but I don’t think he can make decisions for me like that. You’re my friend, and at this point, I don’t think he is.”
Gally nods.
“Yeah, he’s a fake little bitch. Thanks for standing up for me. I know you don’t really have a reason to at this point, but I am glad that we’re still friends even after everything is said and done.”
Minho laughs.
“Yeah, well I’m glad that we’re friends too. I feel like I’m a little too short on those.”
Gally nudges Minho with his shoulder.
“Well, we won’t lose each other like we lost everyone else. We’re safe now.”
Minho smiles, feeling a little bit of the weight lift off of his chest.