He led me down the steps of the Homestead with a smirk on his face that seemed to grow by the minute.

"Minho, where the hell are we going?" I whisper shouted to him as he leapt over the open window of Frypan's kitchen. He turned back to face me, his features only being lit by the moonlight.

"Just shut up," He opened the fridge and grabbed two water bottles, tossing one over his shoulder at me. I gasped and fumbled with it for a few seconds before looking back at him, "We're gonna need these, so don't drink it right now."

"Why?" I asked, feeling my confusion rise. Minho ignored me and hopped over the window again, making his way to the poorly-built door. I debated whether to ask him where we were going again, but I realized that he would probably just shut me down, so I stayed silent and followed close behind him as we walked across the Glade for what seemed like the millionth time that day.

Minho didn't say a word as he led me to where the other boys slept. I walked as slowly and as quietly as I could, careful not to wake up anyone who was fast asleep. We passed Thomas and Chuck, who were sound asleep and snoring up a storm. I smiled at both of them, feeling the tiniest bit touched by the two. If I couldn't sleep, it was good to watch other people find peace in the sanity of the day.

"Hurry up, shank!" Minho whisper-shouted to me, motioning me to follow him. I rolled my eyes and took one last look at the two boys before following my annoying friend. We made out way to the closest torch we could find, and he grabbed it off the wall. He turned around and started to swiftly walk towards the Deadheads, a place I wasn't sure I wanted to ever step foot in again.

"Minho," I whispered, catching up and placing my hand on his shoulder, "I-I don't think I wanna go in there..."

He let out a breathy laugh, "Relax, Greenie. You'll be fine. I just wanna show you some stuff."

I followed him as he led me back through the forest, the warm glow from the torch in his hand lighting our way. We weaved through trees and under branches, going deeper and deeper into the trees every moment. With every step I took, it seemed as though the foliage seemed to become somewhat like a blanket, blocking out any possible light from the moon that had been guiding us before, and the trunks of the shrubs became thicker. He led me to the back corner, where the East wall and North wall met. We finally stopped, and he turned around with an amused smile on his face.

"I set this up a while ago," He pointed to the space around him, "Was bored one day and I almost got attacked by a shucking Griever, so I taught myself how to be cool."

"What do you mean?" I asked. Hanging down from a tree was some kind of weird punching bag. It looked like a net stuffed to the brim with leaves, and it had a few thick strings at the top to tie it to the branch of the tree. There were a few weapons laid down next to the wall, which Minho uncovered and leant against the corner.

The Runner looked back up at me with his hands on his hips, "Okay, so based on those awesome moves you did on Gally last night, I figured out that you must've had some kind of training before you came here. But you didn't exactly know where those moves came from. Am I correct?"

I nodded and crossed my arms over my chest, "Yeah, but when Ben attacked me I didn't do anything."

"Exactly," He smiled. I furrowed my brows in confusion before he took a step closer to me, pointing to the punching bag, "Go over there. I'm gonna help you get your muscle memory back."

He set the torch down in between two rocks, giving the space around us just enough light to see. I stood as he came up behind me and patted the bag of leaves hanging from the tree, "Do you know how to punch?"

"I think I can figure it out," I muttered in all confidence. Minho clicked his tongue and disappointedly pointed his finger at me.

"When you're in a fight, you don't have time to figure it out, shank. Come here," He motioned towards me and I stepped forwards, dropping my arms. He stood in front of the bag, his hands in tight fists as he brought them up beside his head, "Okay, so what I want you to do is smack the living hell out of this bag. Watch."

Minho began to punch it, showing absolutely no mercy. His hands were in tight fists that he brought close to his face every time he executed the punch. I was guessing it was because it was just a reflex, but as he continued going, the bag started to gain more momentum, swinging back and forth as he swung his arms around in a professional manor. Every time the bag came close to hitting his body, he would let out a grunt and raise his fist, colliding it with the leaves. He did this repeatedly, and I think I got the gist of what he was trying to show me. When he finally stopped, he stood back, breathing heavily.

"Your turn."

I pursed my lips and stepped in front of the bag, putting my hands near my face like Minho had done. I inhaled a slow breath and swung my fist, but right before it made contact with the leaves, Minho grabbed my arm. I looked over my shoulder at him, confused.

"Your stance is wrong. If you don't have a solid stance, I can knock you right down." He pushed his foot in between my two feet, spreading them apart just a bit more than shoulder-width. My right leg was planted into the ground while my left leg was slightly behind the rest of my body. From this position, I immediately felt more balance, and more secure. Once I was in the right stance, Minho let go of my arm, "Continue."

I rolled my eyes at him before turning back to the bag and starting to hit it. Both of my fists collided with the leaves, and I showed no mercy. I imagined that the bag was all of my emotions, and I was punching them right in the face I imagined that it was the Creator's faces—whoever they were. My breathing stayed shallow and steady as I hit the daylights out of the bag, finally having it swing back and forth like it did with Minho. From the corner of my eye, he was carefully examining the way I was executing the punches, picking and prodding around what I was doing well, and what I needed to improve on. I trusted him, and I trusted that he would teach me the right things. And if I really was specially trained before I came up in the Maze, then we weren't going to have to spend all night out here.

"One more," Minho muttered just loud enough for me to hear. I listened to him and gave the bag one more forceful punch with my right fist, sending it swinging backwards. The boy caught it with both of his hands right before it hit me, and he nodded his head, "Not bad for someone who just figured out how to punch..."

"Shut up," I heavily breathed.

"You doin' alright?" He asked, regarding my breathing, "Heard about that little incident. Scared a lot of guys, shuck-face."

"It's not like I meant it," I told him, "I was scared and I was in pain. Plus it wouldn't have been a problem if I hadn't lost my stupid shucking inhaler somewhere in this damn forest."

He nodded, understanding but deciding to put the topic to rest for now. "Okay so, you've practiced with the punching bag, now we're gonna practice with me."

I raised my eyebrows, "You want me to...punch the living hell out of you?"

"Yes!" He nodded, circling around me, "Well, not literally, I want you to pretend like you're gonna punch the living hell out of me. There's no way I'm giving you the chance to mess up this pretty face."

"Okay..." I hesitated while facing him.

When I was fighting Gally, I knew the moves he would preform. I knew that he was slow, but so also knew he was strong. That's how all of my ninja moves—as Chuck calls them—were so effective. With Ben, he was half out of his mind, and he was fast. He came at me with no warning, therefore me not being able to think of a way I could easily bring him to the ground like I had with Gally. Minho, on the other hand, was different. I knew he wouldn't hurt me, and I knew this was for training purposes only. But still, I had no idea if he was going to warn me before he decided to execute them. And that made me a bit nervous.

"So," He clapped his hands together, "Now we go into movement. When you're in a fight, you're not just gonna be standing there throwing punches like you just did. When I start to come at you, I want you to step out of the way, got it?"

I nodded, somewhat understanding. We both got into our fighting stance, and slowly, Minho lifted his right fist towards my face. I moved to the left, letting my right leg step first before my left leg followed, and I swiftly moved out of the way.

Minho relaxed and nodded, "Good. Now again."

We repeated the same actions, but this time he swung his left fist so that I now had to move towards the right. I did it easily again and smiled proudly to myself.

"I'm not so bad at this, huh?" I smiled, placing my hands on my hips.

He scoffed, "Don't get ahead of yourself. Now we're gonna do the same thing, but faster. Ready?"

I nodded, feeling confident with the things he had thought me so far. We both resumed our stance, and he began swinging his fists to the right and to the left. I dodged them all easily, fueling my confidence. Then, without warning, Minho raised his fist and swung it at me straight on, making me flinch and stumble backwards into the dead leaves. I clenched my jaw at his action, mad that he didn't show me that before. But the boy just smiled and held out his hand to help me up.

"What was that?" I asked him, frustrated.

He shrugged, "Thought I would catch you off guard..."

I scoffed and stood up to my feet, "You could've hit me, shank. That wasn't cool."

"Oh please," He rolled his eyes, "I would never hit you. You're just mad because you got scared and fell over."

"That's it, I'm done." I clenched my jaw and began to walk away, "This was stupid anyways."

"Mae!" He shouted at me. I paused, hearing him chuckle behind me, "Get your ass back here. You're not leaving until we do this."

"Yeah?" I asked into the air, continuing to walk. "Try me."

Suddenly, I heard the leaves ruffle from behind me, and I didn't even get the chance to turn around before I felt a grip on my shoulder, and my body being pushed to the ground. I groaned at the impact, feeling the sting in my back from the wound Ben had so mercilessly brought upon me. Minho towered over me, holding his hands on his hips and wearing a smirk.

"Stop whining and try again."

I clenched my jaw when he held his hand out for me to grab, and I grabbed it this time, letting him pull me up. Once I was back to my feet, Minho placed his hand on my shoulder and looked deep into my eyes.

"When you're being attacked, you're not gonna know what the other person is gonna do." He told me sternly. I dropped my gaze to the floor as he continued, "I did that because I wanted to catch you off guard. See what would happen if you weren't expecting it. I would never hit you on purpose, Mae. You gotta trust me, okay?"

Thinking over his words, I realized how right he was. Ben had preformed actions I wasn't familiar with, making me get scared and back away. He was unpredictable, and ultimately that's what led to my downfall. All Minho was trying to do was help, and I was getting frustrated because I was scared. I needed to have trust in him and know that he was trying to help me out. There are a million other things Minho could probably find to occupy his time, but he decided to help me out and teach me basic self defense. I wasn't gonna let that go to waste, and then get attacked the next day. That would probably just make both of us mad.

So, I nodded and agreed to letting him take control.

"Okay," He sighed in relief, "Let's try this again, Greenie."

We got into our fighting stance again and repeated the same actions, but this time, I learned to watch the movements of his arms, predicting which way he was gonna hit me. I moved my head out of the way, and I shuffled side to side when he decided to go for the sides of my head. We repeated this again, but faster. Soon enough, he was sending full force punches my way, and I was dodging all of them without a second thought. It was like something came over me when I felt a lightbulb go off in my head. When he moved to hit me in the face, I jerked my hand up and caught his fist. His face dropped and I smirked as I quickly punched him hard in the stomach and swung my leg underneath his feet, sending him to the ground in a fit of coughs.

I smiled at his groaning body on the floor, "Thought I would catch you off guard," I shrugged.

"Where was that this whole time?" He shouted the question at me. I shrugged and held out my hand which he took, allowing me to pull him to his feet, "Okay, so I was right. You probably have leaned this stuff. Now, I want to do the whole thing at full force. I'm not gonna hit you, but you can hit me. Just...not in the face, alright?"

"Are you sure?" I asked him in all seriousness, "I don't wanna hurt you, Min."

"You don't ever want to hurt anyone," He groaned, "Just channel that inner beast cause I know you have it. Pretend I'm a pig."

I laughed aloud, "Yeah, okay."

For the millionth time tonight, Minho and I got into our fighting positions. I waited for his cue, and when he moved to hit me, I dodged my head out of the way and grabbed his fist like I had done previously. When I moved to hit him in the stomach, I hesitated.

"Mae! You were so close!" He stepped back and ran his hands down his face in frustration.

"I'm sorry! I don't wanna hurt you!"

He stopped moving, and I saw the hint of a smile appear on his face. Minho turned back to me and tilted his head to the side.

"Who am I kidding," He gave me a disgusted look, making me furrow my eyebrows, "I should've known you couldn't do this."

"What?" I asked him, feeling the pang in my chest at his sudden change of mood.

But he shrugged, folding his arms and walking towards me, "You had so much potential, Maisy. Too bad to see it all go to waste because you're worried about what your boyfriend will think."

"Minho what the hell are you talking about?" I could feel my anger start to rise at the mention of Newt. He didn't need to be brought into this. I already knew he would disapprove of me learning how to defend myself with Minho.

The Runner gave me a cocky shrug and rolled his shoulders, "Don't deny it, Greenie. You're in love with the second in command, and you're letting him take over your life. He doesn't even know what he's doing, he wants to protect you because he thinks you can't protect yourself. I'm starting to think he's right."

Before he could say anything else, I let out a huff of frustrated air and began charging towards Minho. He immediately put the cocky nature aside, and moved his hand up to hit me. I dodged it and punched him in the stomach hard, making him groan and flinch backwards. When I thought he had enough, Minho started to run towards me again, and he took on one of my own moves. He dropped to his knees and swung his leg around my feet, sending me to the ground on my back. I grunted in pain and watched as he towered over me for the second time that night.

Without knowing what came over me, I placed my palms behind my head and rolled my body up on my shoulders, pushing off with my arms and standing back up on my feet. Minho furrowed his brows and opened his mouth to speak again but I charged towards him and jumped into the air. I wrapped my legs around his neck and swung my body backwards and around his body, using the momentum to bring my friend to the ground. He fell against the leaves with a loud grunt, and I landed on my feet as if I hadn't even touched him.

He rolled onto his side, "Jesus, I was only joking..."

"Mhmm," I squinted at him, "You deserved that."

I watched him lay on the ground, heavily panting with his hand in his stomach.

"Are you okay?" I ask him with no emotion.

He nodded and opened his eyes to look up at me, "I appreciate your concern. And I only said that stuff to rial you up. Didn't mean any of it."

"I know," I told him, "Smart move."

"Thanks," He groaned and sat up, still not getting to his feet, "I guess I'm a pretty good teacher, huh?"

I scoffed and shook my head, "I guess so. Are we gonna move to the weapons now?"

He nodded, "Just give me a minute for my body and my confidence to recover. Ya kicked the klunk outta me, slinthead."

"Well you made me mad, shuck-face."

The boy chuckled and looked up at me with a newfound emotion in his eyes. I couldn't really tell what he was holding back, but when I opened my mouth to ask him, he beat me to it.

"When I went to the Gathering earlier today and Alby told me what happened, I wanted to kill him. Ben, I mean," He shook his head and winced as he stood up, "Made me so shucking mad that he tried to hurt you when you were digging up shucking fertilizer."

"He tried to hurt Thomas as well," I told him, "I just got the worst damage done to me."

"Mae, you don't understand." He rubbed his eyes and looked down at the floor.

"Understand what?"

Minho sighed and bit his bottom lip in contemplation before lifting his head up to look at me, "How much you mean to all of us. I mean, I consider you as my little sister. If we would've lost you then the Glade would never be the same. We would all be a mess..."

I knew that what happened earlier today had a negative effect on the Gladers. I knew it scared some of them, and I knew that some of them thought that it would be the last time they would see me breathe. But hearing it from one of the strongest boys here hit a different spot in my heart. I've never really had an emotional conversation with Minho besides the one I had up in my room an hour ago. He was always hidden behind the sarcastic mask of trying to cheer everyone up around him. It was his personality. But seeing him be serious about teaching me how to defend myself because he was scared for my life made me never want to put myself in a dangerous position again. But deep down, I knew that when it came to the boys in this Glade, I would run into the Maze if I had to.

So, I sighed and placed my hand on his shoulder, "Ya can't get rid of me that easily, shank. Now let's move to these weapons."

Minho sent me a small smile and shook the vulnerability off his face. He turned around and grabbed a long wooden stick with the top shaved so that it made a sharp point. He motioned towards it and held it out for me to take.

"This is called a spear," He said slowly as if I spoke another language.

I gave him a blank expression and leaned forwards, nodding my head mockingly, "I know."

"Just checking," He gave me an ornery smile as I rolled my eyes, "We're gonna do somewhat of the same thing we did with the punching, but with the sticks. Got it?"

"Yeah."

"Okay," He grabbed his own spear and held it out towards me the pointy end away and facing the area behind him in caution. I copied and took my fighting position, holding the spear near my right hip.