"You're free."

A voice comes into Lauren's ears, putting her out of her thoughts. Minho is standing in the doorway, his hands on the wooden frame.

"Sorry, what?" Lauren asks roughly. "You're free," the Runner repeats. "You won't get punished. You can go wherever you want."

"Eh... Okay," Lauren responds, and she stands up. The two of them just stand there for a moment, looking at each other – none of them knows something to say – before Minho turns around.

"I'll get you some clothes," he says. "You can't keep walking around in... that."

Lauren looks down at her white blouse, with WICKED spelled across the chest, and sighs.

"You're right."

After a moment of silence, she says: "Would you mind if I come with you? I mean, I don't want you to choose something ugly for me to wear..."

Minho grins. "Of course I wouldn't. I've got a fabulous sense of style, but you can come with me, if you really want to."

Lauren giggles, more because she doesn't know what else to do than that it was actually funny, and she walks toward Minho.

"Come on, then."

They walk through the Homestead, to a small room next to the council room. A large box, almost as wide as the room itself, stands in the back of the room, under a window. It is late and it's getting darker, so there isn't much light in the room, but Lauren knows that she hasn't seen yet what's in the box, not even through her cameras.

She smiles when she realizes that she hasn't seen everything from this place. Maybe WICKED doesn't know as much as they always thought.

In the meantime, Minho is standing next to the box. He lifts the top with a groan. It must be heavy.

Lauren comes closer to see what's in the box, and it is what she expected.

Clothes.

Boy's clothes.

She turns to Minho. "Eh... This'll be less awkward if you get out," she says, sure she is blushing.

The boy grins, and she wants to slap that awful smirk off his face. "Of course, ma'am," he says. He leaves the room with a bow.

When he closes the door, Lauren sighs. Man, she knew that that boy could be annoying, but in real life, he's even more annoying. Well, at least he's not mean to her, like Winston and Gally. How can those two hate her while they don't even know her? They wanted to feed her to the Grievers!

Lauren sighs again and bows down over the clothes.

Eventually, she chooses a dark blue lumberjack blouse and blue ripped jeans. The sleeves of the blouse are too short and the pants are too tight at her hips, but she couldn't find anything else that would not look terrible at her, so this isn't so bad.

When she pulls on her leather boots, Minho knocks on the door and opens it. "Have you made a choice?" he asks, still with that terrible smile on his face.

Lauren nods. "Yep. What do you think?" she says, trying to imitate his childish tone. She turns around.

"Eh... Well..." Minho says, probably not sure what to say. When Lauren squints at him and puts her hands on her hips, he quickly adds: "It looks amazing at you. When Frypan wore it, he looked like a clown, but you look nice. As if they were made for you. And..."

She knows he is being sarcastic, and she knows that he'll go on if she doesn't do anything, so she cuts him off.

"Oh, shut up. I know you don't mean it."

Lauren grins at him. She starts to pick up her old clothes. Minho gives her a bag – where did he get that? – and she stuffs her WICKED-blouse and grey sweatpants in it.

A loud, rumbling sound makes her jump up, but she realizes that is it only the closing doors, and she relaxes.

"You better find a place to sleep," Minho tells her. "It is getting dark soon, and if you wait too long, all the good places will be gone."

Lauren nods. "Okay. Goodnight."

"Night," the Runner replies, suddenly absently.

Lauren starts to walk toward the Gardens.

Yep, it was fun to write this one. Minho can be so annoying, but actually he's quite cute, don't you think? :)