Days like these sucked even more than normal days in the Glade.

You’d woken up far later than you should, so you hadn’t said goodbye to Minho. Then you’d have had to rush breakfast since you were already behind on the work for today.

By midday, you were sweaty, hungry, and tired, despite having slept longer; it’s funny how the body works like that.

The entire day, you were looking forward to two things: seeing Minho and dinner; you’d heard from Chuck that Frypan was making stew with meat today.

The latter wasn’t as much motivation as the first one was. It was really the only thing that kept you from throwing a tantrum; Minho always had a strange way of making everything seem just a bit better when he was around.

But when Minho and the other runners came back from their run in the maze, you couldn’t even go up to him, because work had piled very high today. And you didn’t catch his eye at all, which didn’t help your already poor mood.

When you finally finished all the work, it was dark, and most of the gladers had drifted into the homestead to sleep. With them, you thought, would be Minho since he always sleeps after dinner to be as rested and energetic for the next day as he can.

That last part made you practically stomp over to the kitchen section near the garden; eating dinner alone ought to make anyone grumpy.

But when you pass the gardens, you see three boys sitting by one of the long tables. Newt, the new Greenie Thomas, and…Minho.

They all look up when you approach, Newt with a small smile and Minho with that soft grin you knew so well. When you sit down, Minho pushes a nearly overflowing bowl of stew out to sit in front of you.

Thomas, apparently, was just there because he didn't know what to do and probably just followed Newt wherever he went, because he stayed silent.

"Didn’t think you should eat alone, love," Newt says first, his voice softer than during the day.

"Eat. Can’t trust you with basic survival instincts anymore, apparently." Minho says, folding his arms, but his voice has that warm edge to it.