hi babes✿ i said i wouldn't make you wait for long, so here it is Day 9✧･ﾟ: * again i skipped another day and everything is explained in flashbacks at the begining. i enjoyed writing this so much and you'll see why once you've finished reading this chapter. i won't say anything else♥ i hope you enjoy and, as always, feel free to comment anything down below. also, thanks for the support you guys, it means a lot :3

On the other hand, he would be over the moon if Minni wanted to pick him. He feels that they could be a good match, as he enjoys their effortless flirting and banter too much; their connection since day one is undeniable. And, beyond being his type on paper, she’s shown to be trustworthy and caring, qualities that he appreciates a lot in a partner. There are so many things he likes about her, things he has been slowly discovering as days pass and as he gets to know her more and more— needless to say, she’s one of a kind.

Chapter Text

Day 9

At the gym – Morning.

“Hnnnnghhh…”

Gary lets out a puff of air as he lifts the barbell. Sweat is glistening pretty much all of his body, his golden hair damp and sticking to his forehead. While his arms go up, he feels a fat drop sliding down his temple and he huffs, annoyed. Leaving the barbell on top of the bench, he sits up and wipes his brow with his towel. He knows small things like this irritate him more than necessary because he’s kind of stressed out.

Yesterday wasn’t exactly a good day for him. First, there was a challenge in which a tweet outed him for kissing a girl after the first Recoupling, without mentioning who. It could have referred to either Minni or Lottie, and as the first kept her cool, the other one stormed off, making everything too evident. Because of that, some Islanders pinned the situation just on him and everything became a mess. Meanwhile, Minni just kept throwing him unreadable looks, but otherwise said nothing.

Later, Rocco and Henrik got dumped by the public’s vote and, at night, a text came in announcing a girls pick Recoupling for today. This last thing was what kept Gary awake a little longer, whilst he reflected on who he wanted to recouple with. Despite him feeling attraction towards Lottie, at least in the physical aspect, there are still things about her personality that throw him off— he can’t see himself with her for a long period of time, less for a longer relationship because they clash in so many aspects. She’s hot and all, so he wouldn’t complain if he had to stick with her for a few days, but he’s not sure if he would want to make it to the final by her side.

On the other hand, he would be over the moon if Minni wanted to pick him. He feels that they could be a good match, as he enjoys their effortless flirting and banter too much; their connection since day one is undeniable. And, beyond being his type on paper, she’s shown to be trustworthy and caring, qualities that he appreciates a lot in a partner. There are so many things he likes about her, things he has been slowly discovering as days pass and as he gets to know her more and more— needless to say, she’s one of a kind.

He’s still doubtful on whether or not pull her for a chat to have an idea where her mind is at before the Recoupling. After what happened yesterday in the challenge, he expects Minni to be a little unsure towards him and he doesn’t want to push it as not to make her feel uncomfortable. In any way, yesterday morning she hinted that she wanted to try things with him, when she asked who was he thinking of after he said he was ready to move on from Marisol, so he is sure that not everything is lost. He knows it’s not a great plan, but expecting her to approach him first is his best bet for now. And for that he has to look his best, that’s why he’s been training so hard since he woke up.

“Alright, lad?” Gary greets Noah when he sees him entering the gym.

“Morning,” the other boy responds. “I didn’t expect to see you in here this early.”

The blond shrugs. “Gotta look sharp for the Recoupling, mate. After all, I have a Minni to impress.”

He makes the muscles of his arms bulge playfully and then shimmies his pecs. Noah stifles a laugh and shakes his head. Next, he smiles and sits in the bench next to his friend, his water bottle between his hands.

“Minni, huh? Is she who you want to get picked by?” he asks. “I thought you and Lottie were hitting it off.”

Wrinkling his nose a little, Gary sighs. Of course Noah would think that, or every other Islander for that matter. Even before the tweet came out, Priya was already teasing them both about being giggly and touchy-feely, when in reality Gary was just being his flirty and nice self as he tried to get to know the girl. That didn’t prevent him for turning letter-box red when she called them out, and then mentally thank the universe that Minni wasn’t there to hear it, as she was far away in the kitchen making waffles with Bobby.

“You know, getting to know Lottie was fun and all. She’s fit and bants, but... Minni’s something else,” the crane operator confesses. “I feel an actual connection with her, mate. I think we could make a good match.”

Noah nods. “I figured. It looks like you two get along really well,” he says and pats his back. “I’m happy for you, she’s a right sort.”

“She is.”

With a small smile on his face caused solely by the thought of being coupled up with Minni again, the blond leans back onto the pressing bench and puts his strong arms behind his head. He looks at the sky and, after a brief pause, sighs.

“I’d be chuffed if she picks me today,” he tells his friend, sincerely.

“I’m sure she will,” Noah answers, convinced. “She’s close to all the lads, but it seems that you’re the only one who she sees as more than a friend.”

After hearing that, Gary chuckles of happiness. He needed this type of reassurance and it feels nice to know that it’s not just him who notices that Minni fancies him.

“I hope you’re right,” he responds. Still smiling, he stands up and grabs the sides of the barbell with strong hands, ready to add some more weight to them. “Right, enough of this Recoupling chat. You ready to lift some weights?”

In the kitchen - Morning.

As she fans her face with her own hand, Minni saunters graciously into the kitchen. Her classic huge platforms and one of her favorite bikinis surely don’t match the sensation of being extra sweaty that she has now. And the constant Spanish summer heat is not helping either.

She went to the gym in hopes to have a chat with Gary, to clear the air considering what happened yesterday in the challenge, but instead the lads asked her to work out with them and she couldn’t say no, because she loves to hang out and mess around with them. In honest words, the workout wasn’t too useful for her just because she’s the less athletic person in the Villa and kept getting tired after moving, like, one limb. Although it was kind of embarrassing having the boys slow down so she could catch up, she had a great time and even had the chance to get bench-pressed by Gary. She plans on talking to him later, when she catches him alone.

Having a good laugh this morning makes a huge contrast of what yesterday was for her— it was a terrible, horrible day. To begin with, she woke up to find Rocco and Marisol all over each other in the daybeds, asking her to join them for some weird reason. She wasn’t jealous or anything like that, but the situation lowered her mood a lot because it made her feel incredibly uncomfortable, specially by the fact that the guy who technically cheated was in kind of a solid relationship while she, the loyal one, had nothing. She looked so gloomy that Gary attempted to do impressions and clown Rocco and Marisol to cheer her up and, when it didn’t work, Bobby came straight from the kitchen, practically yanked her from her bean bag and dragged her so they would make waffles together. That worked, and she was fine until the challenge went downhill.

Even though she was frosty with Rocco, they guessed practically all of the answers and everything was relatively normal until a tweet aimed at her came in and shattered her confidence in a matter of seconds. Minni has a good memory, so the words practically got engraved in her head: ‘pretty much everyone has traded on Minni's toes at this point. It’s so sad it’s almost funny #doormat’. And the fact that everyone kept giving her pity looks after that didn’t help the situation at all.

She would’ve shrugged it off by having a good distraction, but then, just when there was one tweet left, Lottie decided to make a scene and stormed off before all of them could read it. Later, they found out that it said something regarding Gary kissing a girl after the first Recoupling. Minni’s first guess was that it referred to their kiss at the gym, but the fact that Lottie ran away still confuses her a lot. After bottling her emotions once more and playing it cool, Minni decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and talk things when everything was calmer.

When the challenge finished, she was itching to have the chance to run away just like Lottie did and hide somewhere so she could sort all of her bad feelings, but it turned out that her decision of calling Bobby a player just to mess with him actually gave her and Rocco the point to take the lead over Lucas and Henrik, who were the winning couple in that moment, ultimately making them win the challenge. The price was a romantic date in the jacuzzi, which had been incredibly awkward as Minni kept refilling her flute with more and more champagne in complete silence.

The icing on the cake was that Henrik, the boy who was her solid second choice, got dumped from the Villa by the public vote. Following that, Minni couldn’t have felt worse; her mood was so beaten up that she couldn’t bring herself to, on top of that, ask Lottie and Gary about the tweet situation. So instead, after the Priya read out loud a Recoupling announcement text, she went straight to bed. Of course she couldn’t manage to fall asleep— her insomnia always gets worse and worse whenever bad things happen. And yesterday she felt like she was the unluckiest person in the Solar System. Maybe even in the Milky Way.

Even after feeling down in the dumps for the entire day, Minni, being the ball of positivity she is, or tries to be, woke up with renewed energies and willing to give this Love Island thing another shot. After all, she came here with the main purpose of having fun, and that’s what she’s going to do.

The smell of baking hits her the moment she steps into the kitchen. A mass of mixing bowls, egg-covered utensils, and a fine coating of flour lie sprawled along the counters. Lottie sits on a nearby stool while Bobby checks the oven.

“Hey, Nini,” Lottie greets her with a strained smile.

Bobby spins around from the oven. “It’s you! You’re just in time to try my latest cupcake sensation,” he announces. “The Magical Island Rainbow Shine! What do you think?”

“It sounds like something straight out of My Little Pony,” Minni giggles, leaning against the counter. “I love it!”

“Great! I knew you were a woman of taste,” the Scottish winks.

Smiling sweetly, Lottie turns to Bobby. “I think the name is perfect, Bobby.”

Bobby beams at her words. “What can I say? It was inspired by you, after all.”

After hearing that, Minni raises an eyebrow in confusion, but says nothing. She doesn’t see any resemblance between cupcakes with the word ‘rainbow’ in their name and Lottie. The blonde playfully nudges Bobby on the arm before looking down at the counter, letting her head rest in her palm. Bobby’s smile fades and he takes Minni aside without the other girl noticing, speaking in a low whisper.

“Lottie’s feeling down about something. I’m making these cupcakes to try and cheer her up a bit,” he says. “I don’t know how much good they’ll do, though…” Before Minni can say anything, something beeps loudly, making Bobby turn his head to the oven. “The cakes!” he exclaims. “I need to take them out, excuse me.”

As soon as Minni turns to see how Lottie is doing, she notices that she’s already staring at her, her green eyes fixed on hers.

“Hey… can we talk?” the Aussie asks.

“Sure. What’s wrong?” Minni takes off her sunglasses and places them on top of her head. Then, she takes a seat next to her friend and puts her hand on her shoulder in a comforting manner.

At this point, Lottie has started to despise her constant kindness, just because it makes it hard for her to genuinely hate her, or even be harsh to her like she is with the rest of the girls. As she thought when she first met Minni, she has always had a soft spot for girls like this, but now she’s determined and confident enough to not let that get in the middle of her and the man she wants. Not anymore, not like during the first days when she started realizing that she liked Gary. After thinking it through, she came up with what seems to be the perfect strategy to make sure she reaches her goal; after being her friend for this past week, she knows how Minni thinks and how she behaves, and this morning she decided use it to her advantage, even though she knows she will feel incredibly ashamed of it later.

“Look, you’ve been there for me before, Nini. Now I could really use a friend,” she begins. Next, she takes a deep breath, holds it for a second, and then breathes out, preparing herself to drop the bomb. “I fancy Gary.”

The brunette’s first reaction is to let out a short laugh, thinking that she’s joking. She shuts it immediately when she notices that Lottie is being serious, and ends up opening her already big blue eyes in surprise.

“Huh?” she asks, perplexed. “Lotts, no offence, but… got to be a joke?”

Lottie rolls her eyes and crosses her arms in front of her chest. She throws a quick glance at Bobby to make sure he’s not listening to their conversation before answering.

“No, I’m not sitting here bantering you. I’m one-hundy-pee serious,” she says. “But I know why you’d think that. After the things I’ve said about him, and to him. And then there’s Girl Code. I want Gary, but I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes.”

“And with ‘anyone’s’, you mean me?” Minni asks.

The blonde simply nods.

The Cantabrigian sighs and adjusts her sunglasses in between her chocolate brown hair, her eyes scanning the kitchen for a moment and not exactly knowing what to say. “Is there no one else you like?”

“Like who? I’m not drawn to anyone else like I am with Gary. None of the other boys are really doing it for me, to be honest,” the other girl whines. She makes a pause as she expects Minni to react, but she’s just calmly listening to what she has to say, so she feels poised enough to keep going. “I’ve already made up my mind, I guess. I want to pick Gary this evening. Can I make sure that you won’t?”

Woah, Minni thinks, talk about being direct. Although the physics student has her doubts with Gary after the tweet in the challenge was revealed, she still wants to see where things could go with him, specially because she hasn’t had the chance to get his side of the story yet. Since they first coupled up, she’s felt pulled towards him over and over again, even when she didn’t want to. She fancies him like she hasn’t fancied anyone for the longest time and things have always flowed so easily between the two that she knows there is something between them, something she wants to explore.

“You know I like him, Lottie,” she sighs, her sincere eyes staring at her friend’s.

“But so do I,” the blonde complaints. “You know him enough already. Give me a chance to be with him.”

The blue-eyed girl shakes her head. “Sorry, babe, but I want to try it with him too. I think we could have something.”

Lottie bites the inside of her cheek, getting ready to put her plan into works. Deep inside, she hates having to do this, but she has convinced herself that she has no other choice.

“Dammit. I can’t stop you from picking him. I’m not an idiot. I know he’s fair game,” she pouts, looking directly at the girl. Then, her eyes get glued to the floor. “But I thought you were loyal, babe.”

“What do you mean by that?” Minni asks, knitting her eyebrows together.

“Girl Code, Nini, that’s what I mean,” Lottie sighs, like it was obvious. “Look, I’ve been nothing but supportive of you since, like, ever. I made you company when Priya recoupled with Gary, I supported you through the whole Rocco situation and I have always had your back. You’re my best friend in here, the least you can do is give me the opportunity to be happy with the guy I want.”

After having pulled out the best friend and Girl Code cards already, she is now fully manipulating Minni, by using the forced friendship she almost single-handedly crafted between them in the past week. She knows that, despite being extremely smart, it’s hard for Minni to spot when someone is playing her because she tends to see the best in people, like what happened with Rocco. Lottie surely feels like a schemer now, but she has come to the conclusion that if this is the thing she has to do to get the man she wants, she’s doing it without hesitation.

“I didn’t know you were going to ask for something in return for doing those things,” Minni shakes her head in disappointment.

“Is not what I’m doing. It’s just me telling you that you’re my friend, and I’m asking this as a friend,” Lottie insists. “Come on, Minni. Let us be happy once for all.”

The wording of her last phrase throws Minni off immediately. As far as she knows, there is no us between Gary and Lottie. She purses her lips as her mind starts going a thousand miles per hour. First, she recalls seeing the pair hanging out practically all the time this past few days, always spotting them together. Soon, she starts overthinking and her confused and already stressed-out mind rapidly connects the wrong dots, which makes her think something that is far from the truth: maybe Gary and Lottie have had something romantic going on this whole time and she didn’t notice.

The more and more Minni thinks about it, the more she convinces herself that Gary has never been into her, that all of his flirting and caring gestures were out of pure friendship. Bloody hell, he even calls her mate, after all— multiple times during their conversations. Perhaps all of those acts of kindness were out of pity because of what happened with Rocco. Maybe Gary was just being a good mate. And, possibly, that same pity prevented him for approaching her himself to pie her off, leaving it to Lottie.

Gary is, indeed, a flirty and nice guy, so it would make sense for her to interpret said cheekiness and banter as something else, when in reality wasn’t more than friendship. On top of it, it’s understandable that with everything happening to her, she wouldn’t notice that he was into another girl all along— but that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t feel utterly embarrassed now for thinking that they had something special.

All that has happened to Minni the past few days, specially yesterday, has mostly severed her confidence and unconsciously made her feel insecure about the boys’ intentions and about her place in the Villa, so she feels less capable of standing up for herself like she did the first days in here. She doesn’t have the energy of motivation to refute whatever Lottie could say, less to reassure herself and think ‘no, Gary is into me, I’m sure about it’.

The blue-eyed girl sighs and hangs her head down.

“Fine. I won’t pick him.”

Lottie opens her eyes wide and her jaw drops. “What? Really?” she grins. She can barely hide the excitement. “That means so much to me, Nini! You’re a true friend. I’m so blessed to have found you in here.”

At such kind words, Minni would often reciprocate, but not now. There are so many murky emotions swirling in her head threatening to come out. She just clenches her jaw and keeps quiet. In that moment, Bobby makes his way back to the two of them carrying a tray of immaculate-looking cupcakes.

“Behold! A batch of ‘egg-squisite’ cupcakes,” he says, exaggeratedly. “I iced little dolphins onto them. I know they’re your favorite, Lottie.”

The pastry chef sets the tray down in front of the blonde girl. She beams back at him, her mood going up as fast as a rocket. This day couldn’t go better for her.

“Bobby! How did you remember that? You’re so sweet,” she exclaims, a Cheshire grin forming in her dark lips.

“No worries. I’ll bill you later. I should warn you— my fees are ‘egg-stortionate’!”

Lottie rolls her eyes playfully. “You already made an egg pun. Do better, Bobby.”

“Oh, I have no fear, I ‘flan’ to,” he jokes.

Knowing that those are the type of jokes Minni would laugh at, he turns his honey colored eyes to her expecting a cheerful reaction. Since she last spoke, the brunette has maintained a stable poker face, trying not to give away how miserable she feels, and she’s scared that attempting to fake laugh at his pun will bring down her façade, so she keeps quiet.

“Get it? Flan… like ‘plan’?” Bobby smiles at the girl, waiting for an answer. She manages to shrug in silence. “I’ll keep working on them.”

Just because she feels in power now, Lottie smiles wickedly at Minni and slides the tray towards her. “Want one, Nini?”

Minni has to force her throat to speak, resisting the urge to get out of there immediately. “Nah, I’m good,” she responds. Then, she stands up and walks towards the Villa, calmly.

In the bathroom - Evening. ♪

As soon as she shuts the bathroom’s door behind her, Minni has a full-on breakdown in complete silence. She lets herself fall in a corner, rapidly hugs her legs and brings them closer to her chest. Burying her face between her knees, she lets her tears fall, choking on small whimpers and sniffing quietly.

She doesn’t know where she got the strength to keep her head up during the day, but she managed to look normal in front of all the Islanders. As she predicted, Gary didn’t approach her this morning, not even once, with this confirming her thoughts on him not knowing how to pie her off, that obviously making her discard the idea of pulling him aside to have a private chat.

With just hours until the Recoupling, Minni doesn’t know what to do. She’s been settled on picking Gary for what seems like forever, and after Henrik got dumped her options are reduced to practically zero. She even hoped that this afternoon’s dates would help her decide on someone else somehow, but she got to pick almost in last place, having to choose between Noah, Ibrahim and Lucas. Even though she had a nice date with Lucas, with it being nothing out of the ordinary, she’s certain that there’s no romantic chemistry there. Besides, she doesn’t know him that much yet, and won’t risk having another Rocco situation coming her way, less when she feels this vulnerable. By this point, the only boy who seems to have been completely sincere with her has been Bobby, but he is still her mate.

After the date, Minni was fine, as it served as a distraction and kept her from moping about the idea that Gary never fancied as much as she thought he had. But then seeing him and Lottie walk together into the kitchen after being on a date together, being all giggly and happy, was all it took to made her snap. She felt like the string that was holding her together was swiftly cut in an instant, so she excused herself and went straight to the bathroom. She’s thankful that nobody noticed her coming this way.

While she sobs, she knows she’s not feeling like this just because of losing Gary. It’s true that she likes him, but not this much. She’s crying out of embarrassment for, again, not noticing things sooner. She beats herself up even further inside because she knows that she continues bottling toxic sentiments up and that she needed to speak her mind to Lottie, but failed miserably to do so. Now not only is she mad at the world in general, but she’s shaming and being hard on herself.

Even when she knows she shouldn’t keep doing this, that she shouldn’t just try to shrug things off when she feels this low, she cranes her head upwards and dries her tears with the back of her hand. A common way to validate her holding things in is by telling herself that they will slowly expire or that she can keep bottling them up until the cause of them passes, so that’s what she does now. She’s probably wrong, but it’s always a great excuse in the meantime.

Minni stands up and checks herself in the mirror to make sure everything in her appearance looks in place, that she looks fine and collected, before heading to the dressing room to change her clothes and get ready. She still doesn’t know what is she going to do at the Recoupling, but one thing is certain: she’s not choosing Gary tonight.

At the fire pit - Evening. ♪

The hum of the cicadas resonates across the Villa, a gentle breeze making the fire in the fire pit move slightly from side to side. The fairy lights twinkle around them, resembling small stars, while the girls take their seats around the fire pit as the boys arrive. They jostle each other playfully when they are getting into a line. In that moment, Gary spots Minni and flashes her a smile, but she apparently doesn’t see him, her eyes fixed on her dress as she smooths the immaculate white skirt.

After the dates, he looked everywhere for her, wanting to talk before the Recoupling. He even asked Lottie if she had seen where she went, and she just said that she had no idea. Either way, he still has the feeling that she is going to pick him tonight, so he just focuses his warm crystal blue eyes on her in hopes to catch her sight, whereas he admires her because she looks simply stunning.

Once all of the boys are in front of the girls, Minni avoids looking at Gary at all costs, her heart racing from nervousness. She knows that if she stares at him for more than two seconds, she’ll feel the urge to pick him anyway, even though she suspects he wouldn’t be happy with that. She feels so selfish and embarrassed for wanting him when he hasn’t even shown interest in approaching her today.

A beeping phone cuts through the chit chat and the Islanders fall silent.

“It’s me. I’m first to choose,” Hope announces, flashing a grin. She stands up and turns to face the boys, her eyes firmly on Noah. The two can’t stop smiling at each other. “I’ve been lucky to be coupled up with my dream man since arriving at the Villa.”

The boys nudge Noah and he laughs, but his eyes stay locked on Hope. Gary pats his friend’s back strongly, feeling happy for him. His eyes go once again to Minni, who’s sight is roaming aimlessly across the boys.

“He’s everything I’ve been looking for in a man. Kind, thoughtful and treats me like a queen. I couldn’t imagine my life in the Villa without him,” the dark-skinned girl continues. “So the boy I’d like to couple up with is… Noah.”

“I did not see that coming,” Bobby jokes.

Without acknowledging him, Noah walks up to Hope and sweeps her up in his arms to cheers from the boys. Minni claps, almost feeling like everything she’s doing is thanks to inertia.

“You’re my queen,” Noah tells Hope with a smirk.

The hubbub dies down and the Islanders wait to see who will be up next. Soon, there’s another beep.

A sense of dread washes down Minni as she feels her phone vibrate in the pocket of her pearl-white dress. Her head spins for a split second, a ton of alarms igniting her mind and telling her not to listen to what Lottie said and pick Gary, nevertheless. She feels like an absolute idiot for forcing herself to not pick the boy she actually likes, but she can’t bring herself to do it, thinking that she will be imposing him to be in a couple with her when he fancies someone else. Collecting all the will she has left, she stands up.

Now, by seeing her full figure in front of him, Gary can’t help himself and simply mouths ‘wow’. Then, the girl looks at the boys, however her eyes don’t stare at anybody in particular. She exhales in an attempt to cheer herself up before speaking.

“I’m choosing this boy because he’s been a great friend since day one,” she begins, with a smile and doing her best to look convincing.

Behind Minni, Lottie instantly frowns, staring at the brunette girl and about to jump and strangle her if she dares to pick Gary after telling her she wouldn’t do it. The other girl continues without noticing, too submerged in her own turmoil.

“He’s always had my back, through thick and thin, and has been very sweet to me, specially the last couple of days,” she continues.

From the line of boys, Gary rests his sight on her, hopeful. He reckons he’s had her back whenever he could, specially after Rocco played her. A small smile tugs the corners of his lips as he tries to play it cool, his hands clasped behind his back.

“Besides, his playful nature always cheers me up,” Minni adds, feeling her body tensing already despite looking relaxed on the outside.

Lottie’s face turns more and more menacing when hearing every single one of her words and she starts gripping the edges of the bench. Meanwhile, Gary puts his head slightly down, trying to hide an inevitable soft smile forming on his face, now being sure that he is the one Minni’s talking about.

The Cantabrigian tucks a few strands of hair behind her ear as she keeps taking. “And, as I said, we’ve known each other pretty well since day one, so I know I won’t be disappointed.”

After that, Gary’s blue eyes go back her. Even though she still hasn’t looked directly at him, he is almost ready to walk to her. He doesn’t like making scenes and is not keen on physical displays of affection, but now he feels the urge to kiss her once she says his name.

“So, without further ado,” Minni finally says, batting her eyelashes. “The boy I want to couple up with is...”

She feels a cold rush going down her spine. Gary’s name pops in her head one last time before she dismisses it, demanding herself not to think of him. Biting the inside of her lip, she extends her hand towards Bobby and wiggles her fingers at him, playfully and with a smile on her face.

“Bobby.”

All of the sudden, Gary’s softened and smiley expression falls down, almost all of the color draining out of his skin. He stares blankly at Minni, without moving and asking himself why he heard another name instead of his. Disappointment can be seen in every inch of his face.

Behind the girl, Lottie lets out a bunch of air, relieved. Then, a grin spreads across her face and she starts clapping at the pair. While absentmindedly joining the rest of the Islanders’ claps and cheers, Noah shoots a look at Ibrahim, confused, and he responds by shrugging slightly, just as taken aback as his mate is. From their time at the gym this morning, both were aware that Gary was the one who wanted to recouple with Minni. Priya sulks in her seat, being the only who noticed Gary’s muddled reaction.

As for Bobby, he beams and takes a few steps forward, reaching out to Minni’s hand. He surely didn’t expect this, and accepts gladly being coupled up with her without giving it too much of a thought for now.

“Look at you!” he exclaims, pulling her into a bear hug and lifting her helplessly from the floor; he notices that she smells strongly like cigarettes. With his gesture, he manages to draw a genuine giggle out of her, making her feel less exposed by being between his arms. “You could’ve told me earlier,” he continues, ruffling her hair. “I didn’t realize all those pretty words were for me.”

“They were full of hints, you dingus,” Marisol comments with a smug smirk.

Still standing in line alongside the other boys, Gary clenches his jaw. He feels like such a fool for imagining that Minni was talking about him in her speech. He thinks that he should’ve spoken to her before the dates so he could have prevented this, because he is still perplexed— he doesn’t know what to think of this. Yesterday morning, or even this morning, him and Minni were their usual cheeky selves, hinting that they wanted to try things with each other and flirting whenever they could. More than being disappointed, now he just feels confused.

Bobby puts Minni down with a smile. “Needless to say, I’m chuffed to bits.”

Sliding his arm around her shoulders, he guides her so both of them walk back to the bench and sit together. The blue-eyed girl can’t bring herself to look at Gary yet, she hasn’t done it since she arrived to the fire pit and won’t do it now either. Instead, she glues her eyes to the floor below her, trying not to think of anything.

The sound of another text interrupts the moment. Gary’s confused expression vanishes, as he buries it deep inside somehow, and his sight goes back to the remaining girls. Lottie stands up next, confidently. She inhales a breath and takes her time to straighten her black dress before positioning herself in front of Gary.

The crane operator’s lips curl into a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. At least he is going to get picked by his second choice, he thinks, trying to shake off the feeling that all of this feels wrong.

“As the girls all know, Girl Code means everything to me,” Lottie begins. “Which is why this decision has been so tough,” she continues. “But I have to follow my heart. And the tea leaves. And they both point at the same direction.”

In that moment, Bobby notices Minni’s hand griping his tightly and starts suspecting that something else is going on, something he’s not aware of.

“Which is why the boy I want to couple up with is... Gary,” Lottie finishes.

Gary’s grin widens, while he runs towards her and gives her a cuddle. “You know tea leaves are never wrong, Lozza,” he says with a small laugh, his voice coming out a little strained.

The blonde rolls her eyes playfully, feeling happier than ever despite having a small sensation of guilt. The Islanders cheer, and Minni just claps respectfully. Noah and Ibrahim clap politely too, with uncomfortable expressions on their faces.

As the couple sits down together, Gary glances quickly at Minni one more time. Her deep ocean eyes are staring blankly at the decking and she is now holding Bobby’s hand, her knuckles white from squeezing him so much.

In the roof terrace - Nighttime. ♪

The smell of cigarettes hits Bobby as soon as he enters the roof terrace. Under the pale moonlight, he sees Minni’s small frame curled up, sitting in the corner of the bench. The girl turns around and offers him a smile, a lighted cigarette in one of her hands and her pink glittery lighter clutched in the other. Although her smile seems genuine, he can’t ignore the feeling that there’s something wrong.

Pulling his loud and ever-joking attitude to one side, Bobby acquires a serious expression and sits beside her. He scans her face as he tries to read her, but he can’t come up with anything concrete. He just feels it in his guts.

“What’s wrong?” he asks, softly.

When Minni’s blue eyes instantly avoids his, he knows she’s not telling him something important. Her avoiding eye contact straight away is basically a confirmation for him.

“You don’t actually fancy me, do you?” Bobby asks, timid.

Sincerely, he’s not asking it because he hopes she will say that she likes him. It’s the opposite. At first, he was happy to be coupled up with her, but then he realized all the things that involved being coupled with someone. After thinking of why Minni chose him, he started of getting worried that his kind acts of friendliness as he tried to cheer her up and have her back were mistaken by flirting. He doesn’t want that, because if there’s someone who he sees as a friend in here is Minni— this girl is practically the quirky best friend he always hoped to find.

The brunette sighs, smoke coming out of her lips, and finally shakes her head. “There was nobody else who I could have picked, honestly,” she adds, her throat tight.

Bobby is perplexed. He raises his eyebrows. “B-but what about Gary? You two have fancied the pants off each other since you met.”

Right away, he sees sadness growing in Minni’s eyes. She pouts.

“I think he has something going on with Lottie. Something kind of solid by now,” she explains, her voice quiet. “While you were making cupcakes, she insisted me not to pick him. All she said really got to me.” The girl takes a puff of her cigarette and exhales. “I don’t know why I have the feeling that Gary didn’t want to pie me off, so Lottie kinda offered him to pull me for a chat and do it herself. She didn’t exactly say that, she just insisted that I should give her a chance to choose him. So I promised her I wouldn’t pick him… and here we are.”

After her explanation, the Scottish now gets why she was so anxious during the rest of the Recoupling. She squeezed his hand pretty tight all the while, but at the moment he thought it was just because those ceremonies put everyone in their nerves, even when nobody is getting dumped.

“You didn’t ask him about it?” he says.

Minni shakes her head again. “No, I haven’t… and I don’t think I will, because I don’t want to cause drama. I don’t want to be annoying and try to get in the middle of a relationship like that,” she responds. “If he didn’t tell me, it was for a good reason. I just— I think he didn’t know how to pie me off without making me feel bad.”

That enormous feeling of embarrassment she felt when she had to run and hide in the bathroom comes again and she can’t help closing her eyes tight. She never expected her time in the Villa to be so tense and messy. She just came here to have a good time and ended up tangled and in the middle of Gary and Lottie, and dragging Bobby into another friend couple. In honest words, she doesn’t know what else to do.

“Oh, shortcake,” her friend sighs, putting his hand on her arm in an attempt to comfort her. “I’m so sorry to hear that.”

She just puts her head down without saying anything else. There’s silence for a few minutes, with Bobby not knowing how to make her feel better about it. He knew that Lottie and Gary were kind of cracking on, but he never expected him to fancy her more than Minni. They looked like a good match, like they could become a strong couple if they had the opportunity to officially couple up. He guesses he was wrong all along.

“How do you feel about it? Are you having a hard time letting go?” he speaks cautiously, breaking the silence.

“You have no idea,” Minni confesses, her eyes glistening with tears. “But I’m sure that... with enough time I can get over it. I’ve gotten over guys before just by waiting. I guess it works for me.”

Seeing her declaration as a small ray of hope to salvage the situation, Bobby beams.

“Great,” he smiles, trying to lighten the mood. “Then I won’t mention it, to help you get your mind out of it. My lips are ssssssealed,” he jokes and mimics zipping his lips.

With that, he manages to make her smile and most of her tears go away. But soon, her cheered up expression fades, being replaced by guilt. She takes a long drag of her cigarette before talking.

“I’m sorry, Bobby. I didn’t mean to lock you in a friend-couple again,” Minni sighs. “It’s just… you were the only one that I know won’t ever fail me.”

Moved by her words, he wraps her in a tight and warm hug. “Minerva, don’t even worry about that,” he says, pulling back. “Honestly, I was going to be in a friend-couple with any other girl in here anyway, because I can’t see any of you as more than friends.”

That, out of all things, makes Minni feel better. At least she didn’t ruin Bobby’s chances of finding love in her desperate attempt to choose someone who wasn’t Gary at the Recoupling. Relieved, she hugs him again and they stay still for a while. It’s the first time Bobby notices that Minni, even when she’s engulfed by smoke, has a sweet raspberry scent in her brown hair. It reminds him of his favorite recipe of puff pastry tarts. When he pulls back, she can see him smiling at her, his honey eyes twinkling, being the exact same color as the fairy lights around the roof terrace.

“Look, we can stay together until the right one comes through those fancy Villa doors,” he nudges her. “You’re Minni, after all. You’re a flirting expert, I’m sure you’ll get every new bloke that walks in here at your feet.”

The girl chuckles at his earnest compliment. “And you’re, um... you’re Bobby. I guess I’ll have to help you get your graft on,” she teases.

“Oi!” the man exclaims, playfully pushing her away. He is glad to see her good enough to banter again.

Both of them laugh. Now the air feels lighter, the smoke of Minni’s cigarette twirling in the air and fading as it ascends. The night is warm and the cicadas keep chanting, just like they were during the Recoupling.

“We’ll have the best time of our lives until then, guaranteed,” Bobby continues. “We’ll win all the challenges and give those couples a good run for their money. No dramas, no self-pity. Just bantering and joking all day long.”

“Sounds great,” Minni smiles, drying a couple of remaining tears with her sleeve. She sighs as she finishes her cigarette. “There’s nothing that makes me happier than being friend-coupled with someone I trust. And I mean it,” she says, sincerely.

“Me too, shortcake. Honestly, there’s no other friend I’d rather be coupled up with,” the pastry chef responds. “Mobby for the win!”

When hearing how dumb the combination of both of their names sound, the brunette stifles a laugh.

“Mobby? Doesn’t it sound too much like Moby-Dick?” she says.

Bobby purses his lips. “Now that you mention it… yeah, kind of. I didn’t notice.”

“We might as well keep it short and original, and call ourselves Dick,” Minni comments lightheartedly.

Although the girl was plain joking, Bobby takes her proposal seriously, thinking it’s actually a good idea.

“You’re a genius, Minerva,” he opens his eyes wide and grins. “Dick for the win! Dick! Dick! Dick!”

After shaking her head in disbelief, Minni can do nothing but to follow along, knowing it will be useless trying to get the idea out of his head now that he has embraced it. She smiles, her low mood and most of her embarrassment washing away, and starts chanting with him.

“Dick! Dick! Dick!”

In the bedroom - Late at night. ♪

Without being able to fall asleep yet, despite being dead tired, Gary shifts to his side. It’s been almost half an hour since the lights turned off, right after Noah and Hope went into the Hideaway. He thought that he would doze off easier now that Noah’s loud snores wouldn’t echo across the bedroom, but it turns out that his new partner, Lottie, snores too.

Sighing, he moves his head so he can see her better. She’s just sleeping soundly next to him, her colored hair all over her face blowing a little as sounds escape her mouth. Even if this is not what he wanted, he guesses that he has to give her an opportunity and try his best to make this work. Being in a couple with his second option is not so bad after all, but it’s certainly not how he expected this day to end. And she surely didn’t expect Minni to pie him off like that.

For him, her choice makes kind of sense. She has been hanging out with Bobby the most out of all the lads— most mornings he woke up to see them making breakfast together, he usually found them chatting in the bean bags or clowning around, always being part of some shenanigan and planning their next prank. The Scottish even has a cute pet name for her already; shortcake, Gary’s heard him call her. Whereas he calls her mate. How deceiving, he reckons.

He is still a little confused about all of this, but he’s willing to speak to her tomorrow and finally be completely honest by getting his feelings out in the open, making it clear that she has been his first choice all along. With that, he plans to wrap things up and find out if she is still interested in him, even if it’s just a little. He’d feel better just with that, honestly. He’s starting to profoundly hate this uncertainty.

Perhaps Gary’s worst mistake was playing it too cool with Minni, taking her for granted, or chicken out when the new boys arrived and started grafting on her. If he would’ve spent more time with her, if he had hinted to the rest of the lads that he was interested in her, possibly he could’ve turned her head or at least realized earlier that she is more into Bobby.

All of those regrets are what keep him sleepless, not Lottie’s snores, he concludes. He stays still, staring at the ceiling amongst colored neon lights, feeling gloomy, his eyes somber. He can’t get out of his mind the thought that if he would’ve tried harder, maybe Minni would be lying between his arms now, or they could’ve even claimed the Hideaway before anyone else.

He sighs once more and moves to lie on his side, his exhausted gaze landing on the two people sleeping in the bed next to him. As Noah and Hope are not here, their mattress is empty, leaving him with a clear view of the bed following theirs in the row, with it being none other than Bobby and Minni’s.

The blond man can’t put a name on the emotion that surges in his chest when he sees the girl that he still fancies so much curled between the arms of his mate. His crystal blue sight just lingers in them as he keeps thinking the same things over and over again. He doesn’t even perceive that, on the inside, Minni is an emotional wreck right now, her insomnia being more present than ever. She maintains her eyes shut, trying to sink into the warmth of Bobby’s arms, fighting to keep her mind blank. And even when she’s wide awake right now, she doesn’t notice that Gary is lying on his side, looking at her from his bed, as all she thinks about is him.