IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: I've re-written the first seven to eight chapters, most of it is just including more detail on Feng and her surroundings as well as her feelings. However I've also taken the time to include Nick, whom I forgot about in the earlier chapters (whoops) He makes a very minor difference as I've come too far into the plot to change it, but I just wanted to inform you so that when I mention him later on within this chapter, you guys don't get confused. For those that don't know who Nick is, he was the leader before Alby.
I would recommend rereading the first three to five chapters if you guys have the time, because that's where most of my major edits were made.
As always, I hope you all enjoy reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it! Do consider leaving a review telling me what you think, I'd love to hear from you! (:
Half-light had settled on the glade, immersing everything within the maze walls in a gentle bluish glow. It was only during this time of the day that even after so long of being here, she felt that the walls didn't look intimidating but comforting even. It was almost ironic that these walls were protecting them from the monsters that were prowling around the maze, but at the same time withholding them from their freedom.
Two years had passed in a flash and plenty of things had changed within the Glade. She witnessed the boys grow up with her, fights, banishings, changings, and recently even death. Qiufeng cringed and skipped ahead in her thoughts. Right after that gruesome incident, Alby took over leader status and Newt became second-in-command. She could hardly believe it's been almost a month since then.
Shaking away the memory, she reached into her pocket and brought out a packet of rubber bands. Snapping one around her wrist, Qiufeng closed her eyes and combed her fingers through her hair, bringing it all to one side in a quick braid. She tightened it after looping the end through a few times and left it to drop just below her chest, brushing away some loose strands out of her eyes.
"Keep long hair! It would be pretty! Yeah right." Qiufeng rolled her eyes and mimicked her younger self in a mocking high-pitched voice. "If only I knew how high maintenance long hair was back then, probably would've just snipped it." She shook her head, but she knew inwardly that she could never bear to cut away her long hair now. Just as she was about to start prepping lunchboxes for the runners as usual, a movement from the corner of her eye caught her attention.
"Feng!" A hushed voice called out urgently to her as she peered over, catching sight of a tuft of brown hair peeking over the kitchen counter. The other gladers picked up the nickname that Minho had given her as soon as they found out about it, not that she minded of course.
"No." She stated as she turned away, not needing to look any further to know who it was. She reached into the fridge, bringing out some tomatoes, lettuce and chicken slices that she prepared yesterday.
"Please?" Chuck asked, giving her a pleading eye. He was the greenie this month, and it didn't take long for the kitchen to be wary of his appetite. He used to approach Fry for snacks, but started turning to Qiufeng instead when the chef eventually got tired of his nonsense and kicked him out of the kitchen one day.
"Nope." She refused to budge, piling her ingredients neatly into a loaf of bread that was already sliced in half. When the gap was filled, she started to slice it into several smaller sandwiches in quick deft movements.
"Aww c'mon." Chuck whined and she sighed, putting down the knife she was holding and rolling her eyes.
"You'd think that we were feeding you nothing but klunk, by the way you act." Qiufeng chided him as she picked up one of the smaller sandwiches she had cut. Walking towards the kitchen counter, she picked up an apple from the fruits basket, and passed it over along with the sandwich to the tanned boy. "Now shoo, before I tell Frypan."
Chuck laughed as he scooted away towards the deadheads to enjoy his early breakfast. "Thanks Feng! You're the best!"
She shook her head and turned back to her preparation. Chuck was about twelve or thirteen, quite a few years younger than her. He had become a slopper a week after he arrived, which wasn't very surprising. He was a little on the pudgy side, wasn't fit enough to do physical work, and was too young to handle any of the other responsibilities. He was a quirky kid with a sense of humour though, and was often caught playing pranks on the other gladers.
"Couldn't stop yourself from giving that lil fat shank a snack could ya?" An amused voice sounded from behind her.
Once again she didn't need to look to know who it was.
"You want a snack too Newt?" She asked with a laugh, carefully picking up an apple for each lunchbox.
The blond chuckled as he leaned against the counter. His once girlish voice had matured into a one with a boyish charm, complete with a British accent. "What? Can't I just visit a friend for no reason?"
She turned around to place the lunchboxes on the kitchen counter, taking an extra apple as she did so. When she passed by him, she pressed the apple against his lips gently. "It's hard to believe people actually come by the kitchens for no reason, especially at this time." Her eyes twinkled with amusement as she mimicked his accent playfully.
He smiled as he took it from her, taking a quick bite. "Can't fool ya at all Feng, you know us too well."
"I'll be damned if I stayed with you shanks for two years and haven't memorized all your patterns already." She rolled her eyes at him as she packed away the extra food that was lying around.
"You're up early Newt." Someone commented as there was the sound of shoes trudging through the grass and Qiufeng couldn't help but smile at the sound of his voice, a hint of a dimple appearing at the corner of her mouth.
"Was peckish." The blond grinned, gesturing with his half eaten apple.
"Also, all packed and ready to go." She announced as she leaned forward against the kitchen counter and gestured to the lunch boxes on the table top.
"Thanks Feng." Minho smirked as he casually swung an arm around Newt's shoulder. He too had developed a more masculine voice after a few months of 'squeaking like a mouse', but his was deeper and shared the same touch of Asian origin as hers.
"As always." Her expression softened into a fond smile as she took off her apron and hung it up on the cupboard, before joining the other two boys and walking with them towards the opening in the walls.
Waking up, prepping lunch for the runners, sending Minho off into the maze, before coming back and starting on breakfast preparations. In her free time afterwards before lunch she usually hung out with the other gladers that weren't doing anything. Lunch prep, free time again, followed by dinner prep, and dinner. Such have been her days for the past two years really.
However after a knife slipped out from her hand one day, spinning and stabbing the ground in a fascinating way, she started to use her free time for practice, learning how to throw knives in the deadheads for self-protection. Qiufeng thought the skill would come handy in the future since she was a cautious person, and preferred not to get up and personal with her enemies. She knew that sooner or later would come a day where she herself would have to step into the maze, and she didn't want to go unprepared.
The gladers didn't know about her unique skill only because they were usually too busy to notice, although she suspected that Frypan knew. The amount of kitchen knives that were going blunt or missing frequently over the months that followed were too much, and the scars that riddled her hands from accidents were too many for cooking incidents. He had thrown her a knowing glance once or twice but she had always returned it with a sheepish smile, not wanting to read too much into it.
Hearing laughter from the side brought her back to the present as she glanced fondly over to the two boys that were joking around beside her. Nothing much had changed between them as well, except for the fact that they had all matured into older teenagers.
Newt had grown into a lean muscled young man over the past two years. In all honesty, Qiufeng felt the only difference puberty gave him was just a more mature body. His messy dirty blond hair still fell in a side swept fringe above his chocolate brown eyes like it always had. His face was basically still the same, just without the baby fat.
Minho had also grown along with Newt, but with more obvious changes. His chest and shoulders had matured to become a lot broader than his lean body shape back then, and he had developed a lot of muscles on his arms. He had also lost the baby fat on his cheeks, replaced with a well-defined jawline and more prominent high cheekbones.
Meanwhile as for herself… She honestly couldn't tell because there weren't any mirrors around the glade. She knew her hair was definitely longer now and was proud that she seemed to have something along the lines of a chest now. She was also definitely taller, but besides that she would have to ask the boys about the rest and she didn't really want to hear it from them.
Well, just Minho specifically.
She could live without knowing his opinion because… Honestly, she didn't want to hear his thoughts about her.
Upon reaching the East door, Minho distributed the lunch boxes until he was left with one for himself. Just when he was about to drop his backpack, Qiufeng stepped forward. Taking the box from him, she wordlessly turned him around to pack it in for him without making eye contact.
As she zipped it up, she rested her hands there for a moment. "Careful." She kept her eyes on his back, murmuring softly only for him to hear. There was a pause as he glanced up into the sky that was starting to bleed hues of amber and gold unto the surface of the grey walls. "Yeah."
Qiufeng stepped away and Minho gave the go before the runners quickly disappeared into the maze, all but gone within mere seconds. He eventually left the safety of the glade too, heading towards the farthest lane down the corridor. She felt a pang of worry as he left her sight, she had been eavesdropping on their meetings lately, and knew he was headed to the outer rings of the maze again.
Then she left alone with Newt. Turning behind, she smiled at the blond a little too brightly and started walking back into the glade. There was a silence as the Newt trudged along behind her, before he spoke up uncertainly just as they were walking past the box. "Actually, about Minho…"
Qiufeng felt her body freeze for a second in shock at the question, but quickly recovered and continued walking. She tried to ease her heart from hammering against her chest, scared that Newt might hear if he was too close. "…about Minho?" She asked cheerfully as she dared to glance back at him, trying to keep nervousness from seeping into her voice.
Newt opened his mouth to ask his question, but nothing came out. There was a moment as he contemplated if this was the best question he should be asking her right now, and in the end shook his head, gesturing for her to continue walking.
As soon as he left her to go about checking on the gladers for the day, Qiufeng slipped away to make the most of her remaining free time. Surprisingly, no one bothered about her as she skirted along the edges of the kitchen, and she managed an easy disappearance into the deadheads after grabbing her jacket.
Once within the forest, she reached into her pocket to pull out a knife. However before she could even throw it she sighed and sank down to the ground against a tree, ignoring the rough bark scratching her back. She kept the knife and untied her hair, re-braiding it. While her fingers worked, her thoughts wandered. She couldn't remember when exactly she had started feeling this conflicted, this confused. Qiufeng felt her heart sink for some reason, and she didn't know why.
Wrong.
Qiufeng had never experienced it in her life but her mind though brainwashed, knew.
As the days had passed over the years, Qiufeng eventually got comfortable enough with the boys and her own skin. Laughter started to come easy as she became warmer and fooled around more. No one knew, but it was partially due to Minho that she had started opening up. His brash and sarcastic nature made it difficult for her not to rebuke most of the time, and they always ended up in banters that challenged her comfort zone.
There was once during these frequent banters where her tongue had slipped up and she fell over her words. Usually it was easy for her to continue after laughing it off. However this time she remembered how she had looked up into his amused eyes to reply, and it was as if all the wit she had just fell out her mouth during that second. Her stomach decided then to tie itself into knots, and her voice failed her. He didn't notice of course. He thought she had nothing left to say and claimed victory with a smirk that sent an electric spark through her body.
She had tried to dismiss the feeling. Until the day she witnessed a banishing for the first time, Leon suffering the consequences for stabbing Max over something about an insult carelessly tossed. She had sat close to Minho for comfort after the whole ordeal because Newt was busy talking to Nick, and remembered his hand brushing past hers while reaching for water. It made her jump and set her cheeks on fire, but he had dismissed it indifferently, thinking it was shock from the earlier event. She had smiled back nervously while noticing the way his cheekbones were becoming more prominent.
That night itself, she remembered that she couldn't tear her eyes away from him. A strange attraction had her admiring the composition of where his board shoulders met the curve of his slightly arched neck, extending up to his well-defined jawline. However whenever he looked her way, she had turned away as quickly as a frightened doe, heat searing through her cheeks and her heart pounding frantically in her chest.
That was about a year ago when all of them were still barely matured. Now of course, her feelings weren't as intense anymore and her reactions weren't as drastic but then she remembered Nick's death.
With the new greenie this month, he had insisted to rappel down the box hole in a crazed attempt to escape the maze. Nick was still their leader, so the rest of them couldn't do much to stop him. She remembered watching Newt and two other boys lower him down with a rope into the darkness, with Minho beside her. It was going smoothly, when about halfway down there was a swishing sound like a blade cutting through the air.
Newt and the two boys that were holding to his safety rope suddenly jerked backwards, their expressions changing into one of confusion as they panicked about the rope suddenly being 'much lighter'. Then came the screams from inside the box hole. Strangled, raw and excruciating like a dying animal. The boys worked quickly get him up, but then suddenly the screams stopped. Just silence.
It took a moment before the boys continued to pull, slowly this time as if they didn't really want to see what was at the end of the rope. The moment Nick's head peered out of the edge of the box, there was clearly something wrong. He was limp and as more light was shed on him they could see that his eyes were unblinking, face frozen in a twisted expression of pain.
Dead. That was what ran through their minds the moment they saw him, but no one voiced it out. They gingerly pulled him out further onto the grass. She had caught a glimpse of a bloody stump dripping with blood where his waist should've been, before suddenly Minho roughly grabbed her to turn and face him instead. She stared at his broad chest in shock for a moment before glancing up. He stared on above her head, expression grim.
And through the whole gruesome situation, she couldn't help but feel there was still something, something lingering whenever he was around.
Then a bright light blinded her for a second and she flinched, her thoughts temporarily scattered. Her hand instinctively flew up to block the source and as she squinted from her position, the light flickered off. Something scuttled through the bushes and she caught a glint of silver flash from between the leaves. She relaxed, realizing it was just a beetle blade.
Glancing up to the sky between the cracks of the leaves, she noticed it had softened to a light blue and closed her eyes. Once her breathing had evened she stood up against the tree, pressing her hands against her cheeks and pushed against them really hard. "Okay! I've done this for a year or so now, I'll do it again if I need to." She nodded confidently to herself.
"Do what?" A voice sounded behind her and she groaned inwardly, almost not even surprised anymore. Why was it whenever she talked to herself and herself only, someone had to show up? Though it was better him than anyone else because he was her closest friend.
"Do…" Her voice faltered for a second as her brain fought to think of an excuse. "Do the seasoning!" Qiufeng announced as she turned around to face Newt, walking up to him. "Y'know, it is such a pain." She laughed nervously. Newt raised an eyebrow, obviously not buying her act.
"Anyway, what're you doing here?" Qiufeng quickly changed the subject, squinting at Newt. It was barely half an hour since he had left to finish up his own business, and she highly doubted he was done checking on the gladers.
"Fry's looking for ya." Newt jabbed a thumb towards the kitchen and the girl gasped in realization, she had spent so much time in thought she had forgotten about the time.
"Shuck oh my god." Panic spread over her face. "He's going to kill me, he told me not to be late…"
Shouting back a quick thanks to Newt who just shook his head with a fond smile, the girl made way to the kitchen where Fry was already done with most of the work. She gulped, wondering if she would make it past his temper.
"F-Fry!" She began brightly as she approached the other from behind, peering out sideways to see if she could catch a glimpse of his expression before deciding on the best route to go down.
The other paused in his work and she froze in her steps instinctively.
"You feeling better?" He suddenly asked, his voice surprisingly neutral considering she hadn't done any work this morning.
"I… I feel great!" She stuttered, trying to keep confusion out of her voice. She wondered if this was a trick of some sort.
"Newt told me what you were up to, sounds pretty nasty the way he said it." The cook picked up the tray he was holding, turning around to face her and she did her best to pretend she knew exactly what he was talking about. "I did most of breakfast preparations around here, just help me bring over the food will ya?"
She sighed in relief inwardly, thanking the heavens for a friend like Newt even though she didn't know what exactly he had told Fry. She honestly never thought that they would be as close as they were now, but since the day she stepped into the maze he was always the one she would turn to whenever she needed help. That and she stuck to him the most, because he just naturally made everyone comfortable around him.
Picking up the tray and moving them to the tables, she glanced up once again at the azure. Qiufeng wondered where Minho was in the maze right now and prayed for his safety, her only consolation coming from the sky that they both shared.