Minho had always liked him. The boy with the long blonde hair and accent. Newt. He remembered when they were Runners together. The boy had started out as a twig but man, could he run. He was one of the first volunteers to venture out into the maze. One of the first to become a Runner. Minho could tell he wanted to find a way out more than anyone.

After a few months though, Newt no longer ran the same. It was as if he had been running from something Minho couldn't see. He tried to talk to him a few times but it was like he wasn't there. Newt couldn't hear him. Couldn't see him. Couldn't even feel the hand meant for comfort on his shoulder. It was like he had blinked and Newt had disappeared.

Then the evening came when someone shouted "Look!" and he had spotted Alby dragging Newt toward the Glade from the maze as the walls closed in on them. He remembered how fast his heart had raced. Faster than it ever had while running.

"Griever," had been Alby's explanation but Minho didn't believe him. The two of them had stayed beside Newt's bedside, both refusing to leave while he slept. The expression Minho saw on Alby's face that night as he watched Newt caused his muscles to tighten and his stomach to churn.

It took a few weeks for Newt to get back on his feet again. He could no longer run in the maze because of his limp. Instead, he stuck to Alby's side. Along with the other Gladers, Minho couldn't help but notice how Newt looked at their shuck leader now. It was the same look he had once caught on Alby's face and the moment he saw it, Minho knew that Newt had found a reason to live again.

When a new Greenie named Thomas showed up, Minho couldn't help but laugh when asked if Alby was their leader. "Leader? Yeah, call him leader all you want. Maybe we should call him El Presidente. Nah, nah — Admiral Alby. There you go." No one had ever caught the bitterness in his voice. That, or had assumed he was joking. Even Alby, who for some reason tolerated his crap.

Then came the day when Minho found a dead griever in the maze. Alby came with him to check it out, and that's when it had sprung to life, sticking Alby with one of its stingers. Minho didn't go easy on him. As the two struggled to make it back to the Glade, Minho kept making remarks like "Don't you dare fall unconscious on me!" and "Newt needs you!"

When the Glade had finally come into view, Alby's legs had stopped working and Minho's heart had begun to race the same way it had before when he had seen Alby in his position, dragging Newt through the maze. The memory of that evening was the only reason why he didn't abandon Alby and save himself. He owed him. Owed him for saving Newt in more ways than one.

But even though the two had survived that night in the maze because of Thomas, it all went downhill from there. At first Minho was happy just to see Newt relieved when he found out that along with him and Thomas, Alby had survived too. The Changing had affected him, though. The shuck ended up sacrificing his life, throwing himself to the Grievers anyway. Minho hated him for that. Wished he had left him to die back in the maze that night because then at least he wouldn't have died by choice. At least Newt wouldn't have felt as though he hadn't been enough for him.

"How can you guys be so heartless?" Newt's words still echoed in his head.

How could he be so heartless, Newt? How could he?

Minho knew he should have been there for Newt but he had been so afraid to acknowledge his friend's pain. Had been so afraid that he'd blink and Newt would disappear on him again. But, in the end, that's exactly what happened.

"The following people are not immune. Newt…"

The last memory he had of Newt was of him saying "I'm sorry" with tears streaming down his face. Minho had been so determined to bring him back. Had wanted to drag him home like Alby had done for him so long ago. He couldn't even do that, though. He couldn't even do that.

The truth was, Minho knew that there was a part of Newt that had never escaped the maze with them that night. And as Thomas grabbed Minho by the arm and pulled him away from his old friend, there was a part of him that had never left that Crank Palace.

Even now, years later, he was still there with Newt standing across from him, asking, "How did the world get so shucked?"