I’m going to ing kill you

Woohyun gasped, sitting bolt upright. He took a furtive glance to the right and noticed Junhong still sleeping—then again, the boy only had a certain amount of chores to do. The other Gladers were already in the wake-up, and for a moment, Woohyun almost missed Himchan standing at the North door, sending off Zitao and Minho, the two runners strapped with small knives and simple ropes and hooks on the vest they wore on their chests.

Himchan patted each of them on the shoulder and nodded, waving them off with a small smile. Were they going to retrieve Daehyun’s body? If so, where was Jongin?

Woohyun groaned, physically pulling himself out of his hammock and making his way over to Himchan, who still stood at the door, eyes trained on his shoe scuffing the grass.

“Hey,” Woohyun muttered, looking down the dark tunnel the boys disappeared down, nodding in the direction. “Where’d they go?”

Himchan gave him a look. “They’re Runners, Woohyun. They’re off running.”

“Uh… going to… Daehyun?”

Himchan paused. “If they can find whatever’s left.” Himchan his lips in, silence taking over for a few moments. “The Grievers usually leave the pole.”

Woohyun nodded. “Where’s Jongin?” he voiced, turning around, eyes grazing the Glade.

“Gone already—set off before those two. Jongin’s gonna continue the searching of the Maze, I suppose.”

“Didn’t you say the baggers are gonna take care of the body?”

“Only the runners are allowed in the Maze, though. Zitao and Minho will bring… anything left back, and I guess Myungsoo or Howo— Hoya or someone will do the burial job.” He shrugged. Woohyun knew better than to think he was indifferent.

Something jittered in Woohyun’s head—it might’ve been what Himchan almost called Hoya, or it could be the echoing of Daehyun’s hateful voice drifting back up to the surface of his memory.

“Himchan,” he said. “Why is it that everyone’s against me after The Changing…? Hoya said… Hoya said I came to “wreck over the Glade”, and then Daehyun…”

Himchan fell silent, looking deep in thought. It was then that Woohyun finally noticed how tired the boy looked, his blonde hair falling over his eyes, the gentle frown on his face marring his too-pale skin…

“I don’t know, Woohyun,” he whispered. He turned to look Woohyun in the eyes. “What did Daehyun mean? That you’re going to want to take us out of here… and that we should rather die in here than go out of the Maze…?”

Woohyun flailed a little in bewilderment. “How should I know? Just like all of you, I don’t remember a thing about what anything was like outside of the Maze. I remember what types of trees look like and that we don’t have any oaks in our forest, but I have no clue where that memory is from, Himchan.” Woohyun took a breath, shaking his head. “Don’t you want to get out of this maze? Return to life before the Glade?”

“I…” Himchan turned a little away, scuffing the grass again with the tip of his boots. “I… I guess…”

“Exactly.” Woohyun sighed, leaning back to look up at the clear sky, yet again. “Why does everyone seem to assume everything happens because of me? What could I possibly have done?”

“It’s just that everything began to change after you came, Woohyun,” Himchan muttered, shrugging. “We haven’t ever had a Greenie remember his name within the first day, then the Box isn’t going down, and now Daehyun…” Himchan shook his head. “I don’t want to guess what’s going to happen next.”

Baekhyun looked back and forth, from an unnaturally quiet Sungyeol to Taemin with his head bent low and then Woohyun, who looked lost, and groaned.

“Oh come on guys,” he sighed exasperatedly. “Don’t you guys tell me you didn’t see this coming,” he said, running around the fields with a hose in hand.

Sungyeol looked up. “Well…” he mutters. “It’s still kind of…”

Baekhyun rolled his eyes. “You guys are all so depressing. I mean, fair enough, Daehyun died, he’s not gonna come back, but let’s be fair here-- ever since he got stung, he wasn’t going to come back. You guys reacting now is a tad bit late, isn’t it?” he set the hose down on the tomato patch, walking over to turn the tap off.

Taemin nodded a little, looking up when Yixing came trudging back, the two of them continuing their work quietly.

Baekhyun pursed his lips. “Wow I feel the love.” He looked back and forth amongst his work members, hands on his slim waist, before huffing, blowing his brown bangs out of his eyes. “You guys are no fun. Jongdae!” he chirped, waving at the short passing builder who turned and returned a bright smile.

“Hey Baekhyun,” he said, jogging over. “Wow what’s with the atmosphere here?”

“I know right,” Baekhyun sighed exaggeratedly. “Everyone’s like Himchan, for shanks sake.”

“Speaking of Himchan,” Jongdae looked around, slightly worried. “How is he?”

“Breathing.”

Jongdae ignored that. “Jongup went to check on him, since Junhong’s cleaning the toilets and Hoya’s being all bossy again.”

Speaking of the short, muscular boy, Baekhyun craned his neck to look around, spotting Jongup jogging over from the Homestead, where Himchan must’ve visited Daehyun’s sick room.

Jongdae only raised an eyebrow and Jongup shook his head, panting as he came to a stop beside the two of them.

“Not good?” Baekhyun inquired, puffing his cheeks.

“Yeah—I think he’s crying again.”

Baekhyun huffed. “He wasn’t even like that with Yifan.”

“No, let’s be real,” Jongdae said, looking back and forth between Baekhyun and Jongup’s simply blank expression. “Himchan was closer to Daehyun. Barely anyone was that close to Yifan—”

“But Zitao.”

“But Zitao,” Jongdae agreed with Baekhyun. “But he cried for forever, remember? For weeks he was still going on about how Yifan was definitely not going to abandon us.”

Baekhyun nodded, pursing his lips. “Thank heavens Zitao wasn’t best buddies with Daehyun. I don’t think I can deal with a flood a month.”

Jongdae nudged him a little. “That wasn’t nice.”

Before Baekhyun could shoot back at him with yet another remark, another voice rang across the Glade. “Jongup, Jongdae, did the two of you go on a holiday and leave Jonghyun with the chipping by himself? I did not expect that of you!” Hoya clucked his tongue, pointing back to where Jonghyun sat all by himself. “Stop slacking, and get back to work! There’s a lot to do!”

Jongdae sighed, shooting Baekhyun one last pitiful look that had him giggling, before running off, Jongup on his heels.

“Jongup-ah!” Baekhyun called out, the boy in question pausing and turning around. “You really have to learn to put those nice, big guns to use—you look even hotter with your shirt off!”

Jongup’s ears started burning a bright, embarrassed red, before quickly turning back around and running as fast as he could away from a cackling Baekhyun.

“Baekhyun! Please!” he turned to find Minseok, his own keeper, staring exasperatedly at him, temporarily abandoning his ploughing and watering work. “Are you ever going to stop embarrassing the poor thing?”

Baekhyun grinned trudging over to join Minseok to harvest the crop in the next field down. “As long as the boy keeps his abs, I’ll compliment them.”

“Himchan?” Yongguk poked his head through the door, and what did he expect? For Himchan not to be moping around the bed Daehyun had once occupied? “Hey, Himchan, come down for dinner, at least?”

“Okay,” he heard Himchan sniffle, hurriedly drying his face. When was he going to run out of tears? “In a moment.”

Yongguk sighed, trudging over and turning Himchan around, eyes running over the dried tear tracks over the boy’s cheeks. He brushed a thumb gingerly over them, watching Himchan’s bottom lip quiver, his eyes never leaving the bed Daehyun laid on just days ago. How could it have been just a few days when Woohyun hadn’t even arrived and Daehyun was still safe in this room?

Yongguk wrapped his arms tensely around Himchan’s shoulders, not used to the intimate contact, but Himchan didn’t seem to mind, burying his face into Yongguk’s shirt, forcing himself through a few deep inhales and exhales.

“I’m sorry,” Yongguk muttered, a hand rubbing into Himchan’s back. He just wanted his best friend back—he just wanted Himchan normal and happy again.

Himchan shook his head. “No—it’s not your fault. He did break the rules, and was too dangerous.”

He took a last deep breath before shuffling back from Yongguk’s slightly dampened shirt.

“I hate the Creators,” he gritted out, taking one last glance at the bed that no longer showed any sign of occupancy. “I hate them.”

Yongguk raised a hand, shielding the sun from directly shining into his eyes as he trudged out from the Homestead, having greeted Dongwoo on the way—the keeper had swapped with Myungsoo, reckoning Myungsoo needed a bit of a break from guard duty all the time.

Yongguk slowly made his way towards the clearing where the Gladers were filtering in for their dinner, the sun just beginning to set—

“YONGGUK!”

His head snapped up, and like all his senses were heightened, with how tense he’d being recently with everything going on, he instantly pinpointed Woohyun crouched over a boy lying flat on his back in the grass just in front of the East door. A wave of unpleasant memories of Daehyun screaming as the pole and the walls simultaneously close in on him invaded his head before Yongguk forced them away with pure willpower, sprinting as fast as he could towards where Woohyun was beckoning him.

“Jongin!” Yongguk panted, crouching down, observing his best Runner, eyes drifting to Woohyun. “What happened?”

“He just came back,” Woohyun explained, a hand coming up to indicate the boy running in through the East doors. “And just collapsed.”

Yongguk turned back to the keeper, who, upon closer inspection was conscious, breathing and taking everything in—just a little too out of breath.

“Water,” the boy finally panted, thick, chapped lips barely moving, his arm resting on his forehead shielding his eyes from the setting sun. He raised that arm, lazily pointing Yongguk towards what must have been the Cooks’ base. “Get me water.”

Yongguk rolled his eyes. “You’re alive enough to boss me around?” he snapped, but stood anyway and jogged back across the Glade.

Woohyun’s eyes returned to Jongin. The boy was slowly beginning to recover his erratic breathing, though he didn’t make a move to get up. He didn’t want to bother Jongin by asking his stupid questions on being a runner, but he wasn’t sure when he was going to get such a golden opportunity again.

“What’s in the Map Room?”

At this, Jongin’s eyes cracked open. “Ah,” he hums. “You’re the Greenie. What was your name again?”

Woohyun blinked, feeling somewhat discouraged. It didn’t look like Jongin thought much of him at all—and he was the keeper. “Woohyun.”

“Okay, Woohyun.”

Woohyun waited, and frowned. “Are you not going to answer my question?”

“I don’t feel obliged to do anything for anyone,” Jongin snapped, and finally heaved himself up with a groan upon the return of Yongguk, who had a bottle in hand.

Woohyun and Yongguk were left to do not much but stare at Jongin then at each other as the exhausted runner downed most of the bottle then wiped his lips on the hem of his dirty tank.

“Are Minho and Zitao back yet?”

“I believe so,” Yongguk was saying. “Why? Were you not with them?”

“That’s not important as of now,” Jongin said quickly. “You won’t believe what I found.”

Yongguk’s eyebrows went up. “You found something?”

“Of course I found something,” Jongin snapped, shooting an irritated look at his Leader. “Why does it sound like you don’t expect me to find anything in my lifetime at the Glade? Anyway,” he quickly dismissed, eager to spread the news. “Area 5, at the border of area 5 with area 4 I came across a Griever.”

Yongguk frowned. “What, a Griever? Out in the day?” his eyes ran up and down Jongin’s lithe body. “Are you okay?”

“I’m breathing and talking and getting annoyed at you, Yongguk, do you think I’m okay?” Jongin sighed. “My point is—it was dead.”

Woohyun blinked.

Yongguk stared, searching Jongin’s blank face for any giveaways that the boy was joking.

“That wasn’t funny, Jongin. Now, get to the point and tell me the truth—what exactly did you find?”

“A DEAD GRIEVER!” Jongin shrieked. “Why don’t you believe me?”

“No way,” Yongguk gasped, frowning. “Area 4-5?”

“That’s what I just said.”

“Bloody shank,” Yongguk breathed, running a hand up his forehead and tangling his digits in his hair, looking bewildered. “A dead Griever. Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

Woohyun looked between the two of them, blinking. He didn’t want to ask any stupid questions—it didn’t seem like the time to ask something the two of them obviously took for granted (like, ‘do Grievers actually die’).

“Alright,” Yongguk finally said, after a deep silence. “It’s too late now—the doors are gonna close any minute. Get your up from the grass and get yourself some food and a good night’s sleep—tomorrow morning, you’re showing me this dead Griever.”

“It’s not going anywhere, Yongguk,” Jongin smirked, dusting himself off as he straightened to his full height. “It’s dead.”

____________________________________________________

A/N

aaaand chapter up!

If anyone spots any mistakes with tense or grammar or anything feel free to let us know so we can correct it, the more eyes the better ^^

Hope you enjoyed this chapter  `ワ` 

~Unicorn