Just Smile (TMR Fanfic Minho x Reader x Newt)

Chapter 21

*Minho's POV*

"Alright shanks, Vera and I are going to take section five, you three settle it between yourselves," I announced before we headed into the maze.

"Aye aye, captain," Ben replied, smirking.

I smugly squared my shoulders out as Vera frowned at him.

"Isn't that what Gally calls himself?"

Zia snorted, catching our attention. "Captain my a-"

"Language, Zia," Newt snapped.

Zia merely huffed and puffed her cheeks out. It was adorable. I resisted the urge to reach out and stared off into the distance, when I caught movement. Robbie was gently poking her cheek, causing air to wheeze out. I felt angry towards him for doing that. Newt and I exchanged scowls and I coughed, leading them out without even glancing at Zia.

Newt and I had finally been honest with each other when we were discussing problems involving Zia. He liked her. He said that what I was feeling towards her was also the same. How her laugh would never fade from my ears, how her smiling made a smile form itself on my face. How her slapping me lightly on the back would make my heart pound, I thought the entire maze and Glade would be filled with it. We both agreed to leave it be, and to let her naturally choose one of us. Whenever a new greenie came up, we grew tense, worried that she'd choose someone new.

I focused back on running with Vera. Her coppery hair was tied up in a bun as she cut the vines. She was like my best friend, and nothing more. I knew who her crush was, and I'd encouraged it, nearly screaming his name to the entire glade when I was drunk. Thankfully, Zia and Newt had managed to put me in bed, smacking when needed.

"Minho?" Vera snatched me from my thoughts.

"Yeh?" I answered while jogging.

"When are you telling Zia?"

I nearly halted.

"Tell her what," I demanded.

"The whole glade knows that my brother, you, Newt, and Zia have something going on. I talked to Robbie but he said that she was just his best friend," Vera panted.

We halted for a lunch break.

"And?" I spoke through a mouthful of food.

"Why are you shanks so stubborn when it comes to Zia?" Vera pushed.

"We can't 'like' someone. Once we do, we have a weakness. The creators might hurt you if you're 'liked' by someone, and the creators will target who you like," I sighed.

"So you're going to ignore your obvious feelings towards Zia?"

"Yes."

"You're going to regret it in the future," Vera warned. I looked up at her. I noticed that she was pale and tense. Almost as if she saw something she didn't want to see, something that scared her so much.

"What is it?" I asked, patting my full stomach.

"I... I had a nightmare, Minho," she visibly shuddered.

"It's probably just a nightmare," I got up, getting ready to get back. We'd already run the whole section without noticing anything.

*after everything happened*

My insides were numb as I looked at the gray slabs of stone. She'd died. She didn't make it. Now she was dead. It was all my fault. If I hadn't sent her with Robbie, if I hadn't talked to Vera about what I feared, if I hadn't let her be a runner in the first place.

I looked on numbly next to Newt. He held his head in his hands, burying his face as his body racked with sobs. Ren sat next to him, muttering something. Chuck was the only one who was half-cheerful.

I couldn't understand him. Why? How could he smile like that when she was out there, dying or dead?

"I'm sorry," a voice broke me out of my spiralling thoughts. I looked up and met Robbie's guilty expression.

"Thanks for letting me know," I snapped. I didn't want to look at him. He was the reason why Zia was dead. She'd been slowed down by him, and she'd sacrificed herself for him, for him.

He made a sound like he was trying to find the right words to say something, but just sat next to me, his crutches on the other side of him. He awkwardly patted my shoulder in a steady beat.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked him, tired.

"I don't know how to comfort people," he awkwardly drew his hand back again.

"Why would you comfort me?"

"Because of Zia."

Newt looked up at her name. We all did.

"She told me to tell you guys that she's sorry. She told me to take care of you all. She told me to tell you guys not to miss her too much," Robbie averted our eyes. "And she told me that it was what she chose, and it wasn't our fault."

I finally cracked. I finally let go of any disguises. I finally cried, wailing and becoming a mess. I felt helpless, felt hopeless. I felt a pain deep inside me, a pain that made me sick. It throbbed and ached so much and I couldn't do anything but pound my fists against the gray walls. Against the door of Death. Chuck walked over and hugged me. Something about him was like Zia, maybe it was the way their eyes shined with mischief. Chuck squeezed me once before speaking to all of us.

"She'll make it out. If there's anyone who can survive a night in the maze, it's her," he implanted small shreds of hope in us, and we clinged on to it.