Redamancy (Minho | The Maze Runner)

十二 : Murder

"So, what did you tell Fry?" Qiufeng asked as she bit into an apple and plopped down beside Newt, leaning against his side. She held out a bowl with the other hand, the steaming hot stew of a slightly bigger ratio compared to the other gladers around them. The blond raised an eyebrow at the large portion as he took it slowly, and she caught onto his suspicion. She made a face as she sat up and glanced back to face him properly, taking another bite of her apple. "What? You saved my ass this morning."

"I just told Fry you were klunking out a big klunk, and was so sore afterwards you had to sit down." Newt shrugged as the nonchalant expression on Qiufeng's face changed into one of disbelief. He grinned as she eventually just rolled her eyes. She couldn't really say anything to rebuke him, Fry would've had her head otherwise this morning.

"So, what's happening in the glade today?" she asked, settling back against him.

"Nothing much, except that shuck face Gally pummelled his finger with the hammer again," Newt answered as he started digging into his food.

"So that was the scream I heard." Qiufeng looked up thoughtfully as she recalled the sudden yell from across the glade that had made her jump and almost drop the knife she was holding.

"Apparently," he replied in amusement. "He's being patched up by the Med Jacks now, I think it's the third time this week."

"You would think that a builder would have more patience." She laughed out loud.

"It's Gally, that shank will never have patience." The blond chuckled. "Besides that, we're hoping that Minho comes back today with news of some kind." Newt spoke again, capturing her attention immediately with his name.

"...Isn't that just every day?" She let a wistful smile settle on her lips.

"Well..." His voice was uncertain as he took a moment. "I haven't told you this, but Minho has been venturing out into the outer rings since last year."

Qiufeng had no reaction, because she already knew. She had a bad habit, she knew, of eavesdropping on their meetings occasionally and just so happened that one of those meetings had fed her that information. She felt an urge to protest, but she couldn't afford to reveal herself and they were right after all. The runners needed to make progress if they wanted to get out eventually. She tried her best to remain oblivious about it, worrying silently every single morning the Korean boy left the glade.

"Oh." She managed, failing to sound surprised.

"You're taking this rather well." Newt glanced over, but with her sitting against his shoulder he couldn't see anything but the back of her head.

"Why not?" She laughed a little too cheerfully. "Since when was it that the oh-so-great Minho couldn't handle things on his own?"

He stayed silent for a little, contemplating her words. Qiufeng had never been too great of a liar ever since the day she arrived in the glade, but and most could tell. It was either she stayed silent about what she knew, or she gave it away in a voice too light-hearted. It was often the former, and only someone that talked to her as often as he did would know that she was frequently hiding things from them.

"Yeah." He got up without warning, making her fall over unto the log with a surprised squeak. "Well, I gotta get back to work."

"You go ahead." She smiled as she waved him away, one arm resting lazily over her forehead.

After Newt had left with a shake of his head, she lay there for a while until her eyes could no longer take the brilliance of the sky. Qiufeng then sat up, letting her vision adjust to the sudden change of brightness and saw that a couple of gladers were resting nearby, a mixture of the several sections. They waved her over upon realizing she was done spacing out.