𝐂𝐎𝐆𝐍𝐈𝐙𝐀𝐍𝐓 ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳ 𝐧𝐜𝐭 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 - 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐳𝐞 𝐫𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐮

⇛ 𝐂𝐇. 𝟐

sumin followed mark towards a wooden building by the corner of the glade. for a building that was built by a bunch of teenage boys it was impressive. she was told that it was called the council hall and was where they held their meetings. everything in the glade seemed so organised but sumin was still left confused. before they entered, mark stopped them.

"sometimes we gather everyone here for the meetings but we didn't want to spook you with so many people so i asked that only the keepers and leaders be here."

"keepers?" she questioned.

"they're like sub-leaders of each job we have here. all nice people."

sumin wasn't convinced and she was right to be as when she entered the building, her eyes landed on jeno sitting on a chair. jaemin was next to him and then there were ten other people sitting on either side of them. the chairs made a semi-circle around one chair in the middle.

"i have to sit there?" she asked and mark nodded, urging for her to go ahead. with timid steps, she made her way to the chair and sat down while mark took the empty seat next to jeno.

"before we begin, some quick introductions... everyone this is sumin, our new greenie. sumin as you know, i'm mark and i'm first in command. jeno over here is second in command. jaemin is the keeper of runners." he said and jaemin waved at her with a grin.

sumin bit back her tongue and refrained from asking what the runners were because she was too nervous to speak in front of so many people, but she made a mental note to ask mark later. or maybe she'd ask jaemin. he seemed nice enough.

"this is chenle, he's the keeper of the med-jacks." mark gestured to a boy with black hair and distinct cheekbones. he looked intimidating as he rested his back against his chair, his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes looking her up and down.

"med-jacks are like doctors." chenle spoke, noticing her confusion, his voice was much softer than she expected it to be. she didn't think she was being too obvious but her furrowed eyebrows must have given it away.

"jisung, keeper of the builders."

jisung wasn't as buff as sumin thought a builder would be or maybe she couldn't tell because of his clothes, but he was tall, probably the tallest in the room. she could see that even though he was sitting. he had blondish brown hair and she doubted it was his natural hair colour but it suited him.

mark continued on introducing her to everyone, zart the keeper of the track-hoes, billy keeper of the baggers, and the keeper of bricknicks, sloppers and mapmakers, then he got to the last person.

"that's haechan, keeper of the cooks." he pointed to a boy with dark brown hair. he had three moles on his face that sumin thought were perfectly placed. she remembered they had mentioned him earlier. it felt relieving to finally put a name to a face.

"we all know why we're here today. some of the gladers have concerns about our new greenie being a girl and on top of that she stayed in the maze overnight and lived. things are starting to change so we need to be prepared."

"first, let's address the issue with her going into the maze." jeno said. "gladers aren't allowed into the maze, only runners can. she broke that rule."

"lay off, jeno. it's not like she knew." haechan said.

"which brings me to the next issue of trust. how can we trust her? how can we trust she wasn't sent by them as a spy or to cause trouble? she gets here and runs straight into the maze and not a single injury on her despite seeing grievers... i'm not buying it."

"i'm not a spy or here to cause trouble." sumin said firmly, leaning forwards, her hands planted on her knees and all eyes turned to her. "i'm confused and scared with no memory. can you imagine what it was like for me to be surrounded by a group of boys as the only girl? i saw a chance to escape and i took it. you can't sit here and tell me no one else has made a run for it before."