Disclaimer: Don't own the Maze...don't know the first thing about running Mazes so...yeah.
Show-stopper. Attention-grabber. Hand-biter. Just plain noisy.
These were some of the words that sprang to her mind the first day she saw him. When she thought about it, most of those adjectives still rang true for the dark-haired boy as the years went by, except that by the time she was around nine or ten, he had leveled up from biting hands to punching faces.
That day she first arrived at WICKED, she started off crying endlessly. One of the social workers, a female redhead, was trying and failing miserably at making her stop.
"Don't cry young lady. Everything's alright."
Nothing was alright. She knew that much. At eight years old, she had lost everything. Her daddy...their house...their cat...even her name. She was aware that she was never going to get any of them back. And the woman was too busy scanning through the pages of her files to come up with a convincing lie.
"What did they name you again?" she mumbled to herself. "It was quite a mouthful."
There was a loud bang and the front door burst open. What came next was a shrill, high-pitched cry like the sound of an animal going berserk. Two men dressed in the same uniform as her social worker carried a young boy inside the room. They hauled him by his arms while he kicked and screamed. A rapid litany of words which sounded foreign to her ears came out of the boy's mouth in an endless flow.
"Shut it squirt!" one of the men snapped at him.
The boy glared at him. To the young girl's surprise, he chomped down on the man's hand so unexpectedly that the latter yelled in surprise and dropped the chubby Asian kid on to his knees.
"Shit!" the man cursed. His face darkened with anger while his left hand raised up, ready to strike the boy. "You sonuva-"
"Don't! He's just a kid Ned!" the woman called out. The young girl let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding.
The man named Ned dropped his hand. Instead, he gave the boy a rough shove towards the redhead. She managed to catch him before he face-planted on the cold metal floor.
"Take him then." He turned to the other man he came in the room with and signaled at him to start heading out.
"Seriously. Minho? Should have named that bastard Bruce," she heard him say before the door closed with a final click.
"Minho" or "Bruce" pushed himself away from the redhead's arms. He turned to face the door and let out an angry scream. His little body shook. Sweat dripped down the back of his neck. From behind, she watched in fascination as his ears turned a bright shade of red from straining too hard.
"Alexandria. Right!" The social worker looked at her. "You're Alexandria."
The girl shook her head. She wasn't. The name sounded alien to her. She didn't even know anyone who went with that name.
"Stay right there okay?" she continued anyway. With a sigh, she trudged back towards the screaming Minho-or-Bruce and did another half-assed attempt at calming him down.
The boy and his loud entrance succeeded in doing what the others couldn't do. Without even knowing it, he made her stop crying.
She couldn't remember why but the Asian kid, now officially known as Minho, had managed to get her really really mad. Maybe it was the sight of Van crying by the corner of the monkey bars. Maybe it was the jerk's mile-wide grin as he stood there mocking him. Or perhaps it was because he called her something funny awhile ago which made Newt laugh. And she just so happened to find Newt cute. Whatever it was, it was enough to make her pounce on him when he turned his back on her.
"Get off of me!" he exclaimed, spinning in place to get rid of the petite girl latched on his back. Alex let out a squeal and pulled at his hair.
"Leave Van alone! You fat jerk I hate you! I hate you!"
Minho, despite his head tilted to the side because of the hold Alex had on his hair, managed to grab hold of her wrist and bit it hard.
Alex screamed and bit his ear.
They were found by the orderlies stuck in this position.
"Minho! Alexandria! Stop it this instant!"
A pair of strong arms pried her off of the howling boy's back. A patch of jet black hair came away with her fist.
"Miss Ava," one of the children mumbled and the room fell in an eerie silence.
The Vice Chancellor stood in front of the two children who immediately stopped glaring at each other. She didn't say a word, just raised one eyebrow up questioningly behind a pair of almond-shaped spectacles.
"She started it Miss Ava," Minho said.
Alex gave him an incredulous look. How dare he had the gall to talk in front of the Vice Chancellor. And to blame her for this mess?
"No, he started it!" she shot back. "He was acting like a bully and-"
"That's enough," the Chancellor interjected. "To the office both of you. Come on."
When she turned to head out of the hall, the two had no choice but to follow. They walked silently side-by-side. Minho reached up to touch his right ear which throbbed painfully. When he pulled his hand back, he saw blood on its fingertips. Alex eyed him cautiously, bracing herself for when he would jump at her for making him bleed. He glared at her, shook his head and did the thing she least expected him to do. He chuckled at her.
Ava Paige huffed and gently patted her neat bun. "Now when I first saw the both of you I expected you two to become fast friends. I guess this shows that things do not always turn out the way we expect them to."
"...7289, 9306, 1149, 4237, 1005, 7735, 2292!"
He was thirteen. She was twelve. As a trainee of the medical team, she was tasked with giving a hand in performing mental assessments on the chosen candidates. Originally, he wasn't on her list. But he managed to strike a deal with Mozart and they ended up switching proctors.
Earlier she had given him a tablet with twenty random numbers in their thousandth form. He had three minutes to memorize as many numbers as he could and had to recite all these numbers back to her. It was one of the hardest tasks in the assessment.
"How's that?" he asked cockily.
She looked down at the answer key. He got the numbers right. All twenty of them. Pride swelled in her chest and she couldn't help but smile.
"I guess that proves it. Frenemy, you are a genius."
The selection process for the Trials was long and tedious. Of the few kids they had selected years ago, only a handful of them qualified for Tommy's Maze. She never doubted for one second that Minho was one of them. She knew he was gong to make it. He was proud of this fact and she knew she should be happy for him. She didn't have the heart to tell him she wasn't.
It wasn't something any of the observers expected but over the years that they had spent in WICKED, the pair had grown to become close friends. The same boy she hated with a passion when she was younger became the person she ran to when things got too much for her. And for Minho, the same girl who dented his ear turned out to become the person he came to trust the most.
Everyone had their person. Thomas had Teresa. Aris had Rachel. Van had Sigmund. Harriet had Sonya. Alex had Minho. And Minho had her.
Always.
Their first kiss happened a few months before the Trials began. It was an experiment of sorts, which they decided to give a shot after they spotted two of the workers making out in the Wire Room, their favorite hiding place. He was fifteen. She was fourteen. They did it because neither of them wanted to back down and be labelled as a puss cake.
"Just think of it this way. In about two months I'll never be able to blackmail you with this because I'll forget all about it."
It seemed like a fair deal.
So they kissed. It was sloppy. Their noses kept bumping on each other and their teeth clacked. By the time they ran out of breath they broke away laughing.
"This is ridiculous," Minho guffawed. Alex giggled and nodded in agreement. She didn't want to be called a puss cake.
That night she cried herself to sleep. Realization came to her that she didn't want Minho to forget after all. Because when she really thought about it, it wasn't only the kiss that he was going to forget. He was going to forget everything. He was going to forget about her.
Minho didn't sleep at all that night. He didn't tell her how the kiss make his heart jump up into his neck or how it make him dizzy in a good way. He didn't tell her how much he enjoyed the feeling of her soft lips upon his. His mind went back to the two lovers sneaking in the Wire Room, caught in that awkward embrace with goofy grins on their faces. Realization came to him that maybe, just maybe, he wanted to give that one a try. Nope, he wanted to give that, the kissing and the hugging thing, many tries and he knew who he wanted to do it with.
Should I ask her? He thought.
Of course not. He'd be gone in two months. The tests gave the scientists access into his mind and that was the last thing he wanted them to come stumbling on inside his head. And besides...
He didn't want to be called a puss cake.
"You've been avoiding me."
Alex looked up from the paper she was scribbling on and came face to face with her best friend's infamous frown.
"I wasn't avoiding you." She went back to writing. Minho suddenly grabbed the pen from her hand.
"What the hell-"
"If you wanna lie to my face at least make an effort to sound convincing," he snapped, raising the pen over his head. At a little over six feet, he had succeeded in putting it out of the short girl's reach.
"What are you writing anyways?" he asked.
Alex hopped after the pen for a few times before giving up on it altogether. "None of your business." She slumped back in her chair.
One of the orderlies found her crying in the toilets that morning. Their department head wasn't too pleased about it. She said the last thing she needed was an "emotionally compromised" teenager on her team. She sent her off for the day and ordered her to make ten handwritten copies of WICKED's mission and vision, a pathetic attempt at knocking some sense into her.
"I'm getting the Swipe tomorrow you know," he said as he fumbled with the fountain pain. Without much thought he scribbled "Minho" and "Alex" on his right palm.
Alex paused, allowing the acidic burn in her stomach to subside before she replied, "Yeah. I never forgot you know."
She watched him plop down the metal study table in front of her.
'In less than twenty-four hours you're going to lose him. He won't remember a thing about you.'
She had to say something before she started crying again. Her crying made the both of them uncomfortable. Putting Minho out of his comfort zone can turn him into a total asshole. Alex can attest to this based on her experience.
"You should be proud of yourself, Min. You'll be playing a huge part in finding the Cure," she cracked a smile. "You're a rock star now."
"I am," he smiled back before sighing. "Look, you can't lie to me Alexandria. I know you're not as happy about me getting in the Trials as you want to let it on and I don't know how to change your mind about that. So can we just forget that those stupid Trials existed and try to have a good time? Just for today."
"Oh you make it sound so easy." The cynic within her reared its ugly head up, putting her in a foul mood. "What does it matter anyway? Whether you have a blast or a shitty day today you'll forget all about it tomorrow."
Minho narrowed his dark eyes at her. "I know. I'll forget about you too."
"No need to point that out,dammit," she replied through gritted teeth.
"Of course there is because you're thinking about it."
"I'm not-"
"Why are you getting mad at me for it?" he pushed.
"I'm not mad!"
"I said don't lie to me!"
"Geez Minho knock it off!"
Both grew silent when they noticed that other people in the library were looking at them. Neither of them realized how loud their voices had become.
"Look," the dark-haired boy continued in a softer voice, shifting his body so that he was fully facing her, "You're making it sound like I have a choice. That's not fair."
"We're Munies working for WICKED. What do you know about fair?"
Minho shook his head, irritated. "Don't change the fucking subject. You think I'm ecstatic to be a part of this? I'm not stupid, Alex. I know the consequences. Either I risk it in the Maze or I take my chances and hope I die nice and easy before the Cranks overrun the entire planet."
"I just wish there's another way." She folded her arms on top of table and buried her face in the crook of her elbow. "I don't want you to leave," she whispered, aware of the cameras surrounding the entire room.
He put his right hand on the top of her head, gently massaging it with his fingertips. "There isn't. We just got to deal with what we have."
"You can say that because you're not the who will be left behind. You're not the one who gets to remember."
Despite being unconscious and sedated in his stretcher, Clint still cried out in pain as the machine introducing the Swipe entered his ear canals. From the observation room at the second floor, Alex silently watched as one by one the people she knew so well had their memories erased. Another set of robotic hands went in the boy's bloody ears and put the implants in place.
"I don't get why they put the telepathy shit in. We won't be able to use it anyway," a familiar voice beside her said.
Alex blinked a couple of times before looking at her side to face Minho.
"Looking sharp there," she joked.
Most of the subjects for the Maze Trials had on the same outfit: a grimy t-shirt, worn pants and dirty shoes. Minho had on a blue button-down shirt tucked in brand new cargo pants tucked in heavy duty army boots. She still couldn't figure out he did it but he always managed to strike a good deal with everybody, even the appointed costume designer apparently.
"I'll be on-screen all day everyday from now on. Might as well look good while I'm at it," he replied. He looked wary as he eyed Clint undergoing the minor but life-changing surgery. In a few minutes it will be him going through the same thing. He knew all too well what the implications were after he was done with it.
He looked at Alex beside him. The slight girl had more strength in that little body of hers than even she was aware of. Last night, he had asked if she could be there when he got Swiped. He knew it was a selfish thing to ask from her but had no other way of indirectly telling her that he was scared shitless. And he was more than ready to let it slide if she refused. It was painful enough knowing that he was leaving her. Seeing it happen firsthand was nothing short of a slap in the face.
She agreed of course because she was Alex. So right there, with the minutes slowly ticking away he fought the urge to envelope her in a bone-crushing hug. He had so many things to tell her, so many mixed emotions about her that he had kept hidden under lock and key for all those years. And he was about to lose all of them. He wanted so much to let those pesky feelings be known but he knew it wouldn't be fair to her, not when he was about to forget everything in the next few minutes.
The Trials were already hurting her.
Doing that would kill her.
"I'm not gonna lie for your sake. I still think going into the Maze will be for the best. Once we finally come up with the right blueprints for the Cure, we'll all have that freedom we could only dream about now. Imagine that. We can build homes for ourselves. You and me. We'll be next-door neighbors or something."
Alex smiled and rested her head on his arm.
"I like that. I like that very much." She glanced up at him and smiled widely. "I'm going to miss you though."
"Subject A7. Please step in the preparatory room for the pre-assessment," a cold male voice echoed from the speakers.
Minho gulped in a deep breath. He took both of her hands into his own and gave them a firm squeeze.
"That's me," he said. "You think you can handle staying out of trouble while I'm away?"
"Of course."
"So long." His throat hurt and his voice broke but he urged himself not to cry.
"Later Min." She didn't care how "emotionally compromised" she looked like. She was going to cry and no amount of homework would stop her from doing so.
Alex watched as he sauntered out of the room. The tears got so bad that she didn't bother wiping them away. She wanted to sit on the floor and kick and scream and throw up but she knew none of those things will bring him back. It would be useless, not to mention embarrassing.
He paused by the door and looked back at her.
"Alex? Promise me one thing," he said.
"Anything."
"When all this is over, come find me."
Author's Note: If I wrote the couple's life story before The Maze chances are I'll be making another fic in the middle of a fic...haha! So um...I just put those things that I thought would reflect most about how Alex and Minho were towards each other back in the days. Hope you enjoyed it!
Oh and I seem to have royally upset a bunch of people with my previous chapter. Again, just to remind you, I don't put characters through klunk just for the hell of it. That would be a bit psychotic do you reckon? But I am royally sorry though. I hope you guys will become okay with it eventually. Cheers.