Prolog

                                    

                                          
When he saw the girl in the box, he had to admit that he was amazed. This had never happened before. A girl. Of course they knew such a thing existed. But there were none here in the glade. And she seemed to understand that pretty quickly because she initially refused to come out of the box. Understandable. If he had been in her place, he would probably have shied away too. Although... she wasn't shy. Not at all. When Alby, their leader, jumped into the box too, she threatened him and raised her fists. The rest of the boys found that amusing, and he had to grin about it too. Maybe it was the laughter that finally lightened the mood. Because finally she let herself be pulled out of the box. But when she got to the top, she immediately became rough again and pushed everyone away. "Don't touch me!"
Minho could see that some of the boys would be very happy to touch the girl. Somehow he didn't like that. Not because she was important to him. He didn't know her, so he didn't care about her well-being. However, he already suspected that she would cause trouble. 
"You heard them, get away! You all have a job," Newt, their second leader, called out. Reluctantly, the others complied with the request. So did Minho. Even though he was actually done for the day. The gates would close soon and the sketch of his today's labyrinth section he had already finished. So he ran towards the kitchen with the other runners. You could smell that Pan was nearly done cooking dinner. 
"A girl. Finally. I'm starting to have enough of all the stupid faces here," said Ben, as they sat down at one of the dining tables. Mike, a lanky runner with a brown side part, grinned. "Who are you telling? Above all, they sent a particularly pretty one. "
"And she's wild too," someone added his two cents. Minho rolled his eyes. "Did you also judge the other Shanks by their appearance when they came here?"
His colleagues shook their heads. "Not exactly. But that's the point!"
"That's not the point," Minho argued. "You're runners, so focus on that."
"Now admit that this is something special," Ben elbowed him in the side. Minho just shrugged his shoulders.
"I'm sure he likes it even more than we do and just doesn't want to admit it," laughed Frank, a freckled runner with red hair. Almost automatically, Minho's eyes jumped to the girl who was walking across the glade between Alby and Newt. She didn't look special. Normal hair, normal stature, a completely normal girl. But she was the only girl here. That was also the reason why no one really focused on the food at dinner. Everyone looked at Newt because she was sitting next to him. Minho also looked at her from time to time. He tried to see what everyone saw. What was special about her. But he still didn't find anything. 
Later, when he went to the washhouse to shower and brush his teeth, she was standing there at the sink. He paused in the doorway. But she had already spotted him in the mirror on the wall. She turned around, smiling. "Hello." 
"Hello," he replied, somewhat confused. Why was she smiling at him? They didn't even know each other. But she didn't seem to care. "Newt said your name is Minho." 
"Mhm," he nodded. He wasn't quite sure what to do now. He didn't want to shower when she was the only one in the room. But he didn't want to stand next to her and brush his teeth either. So he just continued to stand in the doorway. She seemed to understand that he wasn't entirely comfortable with all of this. "I'll be done soon, then I'll be gone."
At first he wanted to nod, then he remembered that she wasn't special after all. At least that's what he had said. So he could behave completely normally. Like she was one of the boys. So he stood next to her at the sink. She acknowledged this with a pleased smile. Actually, he didn't expect her to be friendly. Not after she had threatened Alby in the box. But her smile disappeared again when Bruno, Alex and Luc came in. The three belonged to the builders. When they saw the girl their looks became strange.