hello beautiful people｡･:*:･ﾟ★ new chapter coming right through. yet again i skipped another day of the game, mainly because Day 12 is pure Nope drama and i didn't want to put you guys through it haha. as always, shoutout to the people who comment and give me feedback✿ you're honestly the best. thank you all for the support and i hope you enjoy reading this chapter.

A long sigh escapes his lips, as if with it he is trying to expel all of those thoughts that make him feel conflicted. He’s not used to being this insecure about birds, or at least not back home, but he really doesn’t want to step over the boundaries that Minni has put between them and upset her. One part of him tells him to just go for it, while other, more unsure, whispers that Minni would rather be with Bobby and that asking her if she wants to recouple with him could scare her away and make things get weird between them.

Chapter Text

Day 13

In the bedroom – Early morning.

With slow and padding footsteps, Gary walks across the hallway and towards the bedroom. He doesn’t know why Lottie chucked him out of the bed this early, and when he tried to ask her, she just kept telling him to go away and to let her fall asleep again. It’s true that they didn’t have a great night, or not the night one could expect to have in the Hideaway, which was the price behind the Mud Challenge they won yesterday after both managed to come out without a drop of dirt in their bodies. The pair did snog last night, but things didn’t go further than that— Gary wasn’t really feeling it, and was secretly thankful when Lottie decided to cut the kissing and go right to sleep. After that, he fell asleep just like her, and that’s why he woke up so puzzled by her sudden aggressive attitude.

His entire body is still numb from slumber, so he tries twice as hard to be silent as he approaches the door. Slowly, he opens it and closes it behind him, without making any noise. Equally silent, he heads towards his bed, trying to sneak past everyone.

Out of the blue, the lights come on, making Gary wince in the sudden brightness and run for his bed in an attempt to not get caught by his fellow Islanders, specially considering how embarrassing it would be to admit that his night in the Hideaway was far from being the best he’s had so far.

“Oi, Gary, what are you doing?” Ibrahim asks him from his own bed, all awake.

Dammit, Gary thinks, just a few steps away from his bed. Maybe he should’ve walked faster.

“Aren’t you and Lottie meant to be in the Hideaway?” Priya seconds with confusion.

The unexpected sound of voices at this time in the morning wakes Minni up, and just then she notices that the lights of the bedroom have already been turned on. The brunette girl turns to lie on her side and, with one eye open, she sees that most of the Islanders are staring at a sleepy-looking Gary, who is standing a couple of meters away from his empty bed.

Not knowing what to answer to the questions without having to tell them what happened, Gary starts to spit out vague words as he tries to make an excuse in his head. “I was in the Hideaway. And now I’m not,” he says, shielding his hurting eyes from the bright lights. “Let’s not get into it, alright? I just wanted a little bit more sleep, but now I guess everyone’s awake.”

Sitting in her bed, still single, Chelsea eyes him with curiosity. A beam appears in her face as she bounces in her place. “Oh my gosh, how was it in the Hideaway? Tell us everything,” she gasps, enthusiastic.

“Give the guy a break, Chelsea! He’s still half asleep,” Ibrahim says.

Gary nods, mentally thanking him for the save and trying to follow that path of conversation. “Yeah, I’m half asleep. That’s why I don’t want to talk about it.”

This makes the blonde girl pout, following with a frown. “Ooh, there’s blatantly a story there. Spill the beans, Gary!” she insists.

A groan from Marisol’s bed can he heard. “Would you guys be quiet?” she asks grumpily, from under the covers.

“Let’s not bicker this earlier, please,” Minni growls, scooching closer to Bobby, who wraps one of his slender and toned arms around her shoulders in a soothing manner. Sinking onto the pillow, the girl tries to fall asleep again, still exhausted due to yesterday’s events.

Since Operation Nope happened, a quiet and underlying instability settled between Hope and Noah, with Priya stuck in between, and it all blew up yesterday after Chelsea stole a card from the challenge which revealed that Noah once had an ex who also happened to be called Priya. Minni didn’t think it was a big deal, but Hope somehow managed to blow it out of proportion and it ended up in a huge argument between the pair.

Minni continues without understanding why she also got caught in the middle, although for not the same reasons as Priya; for some reason, they grabbed her as some sort of a mediator, and had her trying to make peace between the two girls and then between the couple. Because of that, the brunette spent her entire evening trying to fix a problem that wasn’t even hers, causing her to not be able to solve her own problems, which she has been postponing for days, and to finish up emotionally exhausted and going straight to bed as soon as the night fell. As if the news that Gary was going to the Hideaway with Lottie hadn’t been hard enough to digest already.

“Yeah, come on. I just want a bit more sleep,” Gary agrees.

Before anyone can say anything else, Hope sits up and stretches. Noah is curled up in bed, with just the top of his head visible above the duvet.

“A bit late for that,” says the dark-skinned girl, animated. “It’s time to get up!” She stands up on the bed and stretches once more, “Another day in paradise.”

Below her own duvet, Minni cringes a little; it’s almost like if yesterday her and Noah weren’t fighting like cats and dogs, with the physics student in the middle.

As much as Minni wants to lie in a few more minutes, there’s a boys-choose Recoupling tonight and, first, she has to look her best, second, she wants to have a chat with the boys to know where their heads are at and, third, she needs to find a way to talk to Chelsea in private, because she can’t seem to catch her alone, to clear her doubts on what she told her about Gary during the Ministry of Sound party for once and all.

In any case, Minni knows that it’s likely that she will end up yet again with Bobby in another friendship couple, because Gary will probably want to stick with Lottie, as he has done nothing but to give the blue-eyed girl mixed signals and nothing coherent for her to interpret. Everything happens so fast here in the Villa and Minni is so focused on solving other people's issues and trying to stay in the game that she feels like she barely has time for herself— and she knows it’s partially her fault for not putting herself first, but now she’s ready to tackle her complications one by one.

While the rest of the Islanders start getting up, the crane operator climbs onto his bed, small and lazy groans coming out of his throat. From where he is, he sneaks small looks at Minni, who spends a couple of seconds stretching while sitting on the edge of the bed. At this point, he has started to accept that being in a proper couple with her is rather platonic, something he only can dream of because both of them explicitly call each other mate. But, suddenly, he remembers that there’s a Recoupling coming, and that maybe he could have the possibility of picking her tonight.

As he scans her up and down while she heads to the dressing room, the blond man asks himself if he is really capable of getting in the middle of her relationship with Bobby. Everyone knows that the pair insists that they’re just friends, but Gary is not sure if this is completely true. Perhaps they are just trying to keep their relationship under wraps whilst they figure out how to deal with their crushes on each other, Gary reckons, because something similar has happened to him too.

He guesses that choosing Lottie would be safer to stay in the game, plus he still fancies her, but things between the two are not going as smoothly as he wishes they were, specially after last night. And his strong attraction for Minni isn’t going away anytime soon; he knows it perfectly, even when he has tried so hard to like his current partner more and to make himself think of her as a first option. He’s tired of being in this weird limbo of not knowing how to approach the blue-eyed beauty.

A long sigh escapes his lips, as if with it he is trying to expel all of those thoughts that make him feel conflicted. He’s not used to being this insecure about birds, or at least not back home, but he really doesn’t want to step over the boundaries that Minni has put between them and upset her. One part of him tells him to just go for it, while other, more unsure, whispers that Minni would rather be with Bobby and that asking her if she wants to recouple with him could scare her away and make things get weird between them. Soon, he manages to ponder the two polar opposites in his head, making him decide to chat to the lads first and see how things go during the day before pulling her for a chat and, finally, try to confess his feelings somehow.

At the lawn – Noon.

“I’m well suited with Priya, actually. We get along really well,” Ibrahim lies back on the bean bag as he responds to Lucas.

“Oh, really? You sure you don’t want to try it with someone else?” the physiotherapist questions, cautious.

The golfer shakes his head. “No, I don’t think I do. I guess we will stick together, at least for tonight.”

The boys have just started chatting about the Recoupling, everyone sitting in a circle of bean bags. By using his paw-like hand, Gary shields this eyes from the strong sunshine that hits the lawn and tints the Villa’s grass of a lime color, as he looks at his mates one by one. Most of them seem relaxed about tonight, because they are the ones who get to choose and fortunately nobody is getting dumped from the Island just yet.

The blond crane operator is almost feeling as relaxed as them when Ibrahim’s next phrase makes him tense all over. “And I think Bobby and Minni will stick together, too. They seem pretty solid despite being in a friendship couple,” the golfer says with a slight shrug.

Lucas lets out a small chuckle. “Friendship,” he repeats, making quotation marks with his fingers.

It doesn’t surprise Gary that the Villa is practically divided between those who think that Minni and Bobby or, as they jokingly call themselves, Dick, have something romantic going on despite vehemently denying it, and the others that don’t, choosing to believe in their asseverations. He still doesn’t know where he stands, and that uncertainty holds him back from saying something on the matter. He feels quite paralyzed by the confusing situation, specifically by the thought that he could get rejected by Minni when he approaches later on.

“How about you, mate?” Noah asks.

It takes a couple of seconds for Gary to realize that the librarian is asking the question to him. Awkwardly and scratching the back of his neck, the muscular Chathamite starts talking. “Actually, I—"

“Hi, boys,” a bubbly and airy voice says from behind. The man stops talking as soon as he hears it, accompanied with light yet chunky-sounding footsteps.

With a soft smile in her pink and plumped lips, and her eyes changing from their usual cobalt color to a royal blue with today’s bright light, Minni crashes down into a yellow bean bag, right next to Ibrahim. She waves at the men in front of her, with them being Lucas, Noah and Gary, and all respond amiably.

After waiting too much for Chelsea to finally choose an outfit for today, Minni got bored and decided to spend the time that the other girl was taking to get ready to go to the lawn and talk to the boys.

“Alright, Minni?” Ibrahim greets her with a smile.

“Yeah, what’s up?” the young woman replies, trying to start a conversation.

In that moment, Gary doesn’t know what takes over him, but he starts blabbing out words in a dumb attempt to not turn the conversation on its previous topic. “Oh, you know, just chatting about the world and everything in it,” he says, trying to play it cool. “Like about trees and mountains and stuff. You know. Seasons. People. The future.”

“And the Recoupling,” Lucas adds, nonchalantly.

The crane operator’s face falls a little. “Yeah, the Recoupling. We were chatting about that quite a bit.”

“On Recoupling day, all anyone ever wants to talk about is the Recoupling,” Noah comments, managing to lighten the mood a little bit even when everyone knows that him and Hope are not nearly in their best moment.

Before the conversation can continue, Chelsea comes in out of nowhere and parks on the remaining bean bag. In a split second, Minni opens her eyes a little wider at the sight of her. The physics student has been waiting to talk to her the entire morning and just now she manages to catch her not being busy on getting ready for her first Recoupling in the show. At this moment, she only has to find a way for both to get out of the lawn and into a more private place.

“Oh hi boys!” Chelsea exclaims, flicking her short blonde hair. She has finally settled for a flamingo-pink bikini, which enhances all of her curves. “Talking about me?”

“Not exactly, no,” Gary responds in a soft voice, sincerely.

“Just talking about the Recoupling tonight,” Lucas informs her. “We were talking about how…”

“Wow, that’s so interesting,” the interior decorator interrupts, a grin spreading across her tanned features. Next, she leans forward and places her elbows on top of her knees, paying full attention to the boys. “Tell me everything. What’s the goss? Who’s picking who? Who are you picking, Rahim? Are you going to pick me?”

The dark-skinned golfer hesitates at the sudden bombarding of questions. “Um, I…”

“I think you might pick Priya,” Chelsea speaks, cutting him short.

“Maybe, I’ll…”

Apparently, the new girl is so excited for the Recoupling that she can’t stop talking and is not even aware of it. This causes the boys to exchange glances, quite confused but also entertained. “OMG, you guys will make such a good couple. She’s so fun, I love her,” the blonde continues, exuberant as always. Just then, she turns to Gary and bats her long false eyelashes. “Gary, who are you going to pick?” she asks. “I think it’ll either be Lottie or M—”

“Well, when you just come out and ask like that…” the man interrupts, his voice louder than he intended to because of his nervousness. He clears his throat, and thinks about a response to try and divert the attention.

Luckily for him, Minni sees this as the perfect time to pull Chelsea away, because she has just noticed that her water bottle is empty and has decided that it’s the perfect excuse to go to the kitchen area. “Hey, Chels. I need to get some water,” the Cantabrigian says, smiling. “Would you like to come with me to the kitchen?”

Unexpectedly, her friend pouts at her proposal. “But babes, I need to find out who are they going to pick,” she whines, gesturing at the boys in front of her. “It’s such a good goss,” she adds, subtlety rejecting her. Following that, she turns to the men once more. “What about you, Noah?”

“Chelsea,” Minni insists, fighting to maintain the same smile. The blue-eyed girl attempts to make eye contact with the other girl, but she doesn’t seem to take the hint. She’s too distracted and overall excited to pay attention to her signals and body language to even notice.

“Oh, come on, Minni,” she gets closer to her and speaks in a quieter voice, although the boys can still hear from where they are at. She talks in a thrilled tone. “Don’t be a party pooper. I bet you want to know too.” Then, she winks at the brunette and her eyes dart briefly to Gary, now without nobody noticing.

With the situation getting to her nerves already, Minni grits her teeth and blinks her anxiousness away. “Chelsea, would you go with me to fill my water bottle?” she asks one more time, maintaining her composure.

“Let me quiz the boys here first, babes,” her friend dismisses again with yet another whine, still not getting what Minni wants from her. “I’m having so much fun!”

After that, the brunette decides to give up. With a bit of luck, she can catch Chelsea after she finishes talking to the boys.

A sigh escapes the girl’s lips as she gives her blonde friend a frustrated look. “Alright, see you guys in a bit… I guess,” she mumbles. Without waiting for an answer, she stands up and heads to the kitchen to refill her water bottle, all alone.

Just when Minni’s petite and light figure, dressed in a flowy light purple mini dress, has transformed into a small purple silhouette at the kitchen, Chelsea notices that she’s gone. She turns her head around, looking for her friend, and then spots her far away.

“Why did she go?” the new girl asks, puzzled.

The four men exchange a quick glance, everyone quiet.

“I think she wanted to have a private chat with you,” Lucas finally speaks for them.

Chelsea’s mouth opens a little in surprise. “Did she? Oh, shoot. I didn’t notice,” she gasps with a bit of shame. “I’ll talk to her later,” she shrugs after a couple of seconds, flicking her hand in an easygoing manner and not making a big deal out of it.

The lads' chat resumes to the initial Recoupling talk, with Ibrahim, Lucas and Noah instantly initiating a candid conversation. Gary turns his attention to them with the intentions to join, when he feels Chelsea getting closer to him with a secretive attitude.

“I bet you wanna pick her today, don’t you?” the blonde girl whispers to him, sneaking a wink.

Gary freezes in place at the forward of her declaration. He reminds himself that obviously Chelsea knows about his crush on Minni, because she watched every episode of the show so far before entering the Villa. “I…”

Once again, Chelsea can’t contain her bubbly and enthusiastic persona and interrupts him before giving him time to form a proper sentence. “You want me to tell her you wanna pick her when I go talk to her later?”

“No!” Gary exclaims. With a gasp, he shuts up in an instant, ashamed of his nervous outburst. “I mean… no. Not yet. I want to have a private word with her myself. I’d really appreciate if you don’t say anything before I can talk to her.”

Understanding where he’s coming from, Chelsea beams and nods. “My lips are sealed. Pinky promise.”

Recoupling – Evening. ♪

At the fire pit, the small flames crackle and dim rhythmically as all of the Islanders settle onto their respective positions, girls and boys separated from one another. With tension slowly raising in the atmosphere even though nobody is getting kicked out, the girls stand in a row around the fire pit and the boys sit opposite them. Nobody speaks and a few friends or couples exchange brief looks.

Gary can’t help to avoid the eyes of the girl he wants to choose today, berating himself for not having the guts to pull her for a chat as he first intended. He knows that it could be a bad idea picking her out of nowhere and without having talked to Bobby about it; the crane operator doesn’t want to tread on anyone’s toes, but he can’t do much now that they’re all here. He doesn’t know what to do now, although he heavily considers the idea of saying Minni’s name and explain himself later, after all of this weary ceremony is over. He scolds himself internally for not being good at handling confrontation.

Meanwhile, Minni’s big blue eyes roam across other boys, in an attempt to read their expressions. She notices that Bobby is particularly anxious, and she can guess why; earlier on she went to the roof terrace to find him talking to Marisol about a weird feeling they had regarding today in general, specially about the Recoupling. Minni didn’t feel that uneasy vibe they were sensing, but understood his preoccupation and tried to reassure him the best she could. In any case, he promised to pick her tonight, which has her feeling secure about tonight’s outcome. They might not be the next big romance here, but at least they have each other’s backs no matter what.

As the brunette finds her own mind starting to overthink quite a bit, she uselessly tries to convince herself that maybe the Scottish just has that tense face because he’s still frustrated for not winning today’s Master Bakers challenge, even when his and Minni’s cake looked world class— the pair of best friends still make a great team and they had an amazing time together.

In need of something to bring her thoughts back to the now, the physics student reaches out for Chelsea’s hand, who is standing next to her. The other girl takes it without thinking it twice and gives her a reassuring squeeze. In some way, her friend managed to avoid her big time, despite Minni’s restless attempts to chat with her. This only brought the blue-eyed girl to think that she was far too distracted about the Recoupling and about today’s events in general to pay attention to her, something that frustrated her but didn’t hold against Chelsea, particularly because she told her that she has ADHD.

What Minni doesn’t know is that the blonde interior decorator was trying to keep herself away from her as to not to tell her everything about Gary’s thoughts on her, about the things she saw on TV when she wasn’t in the Villa— Chelsea was, and still is, itching to tell Minni the cute things the blond crane operator said about her in the Beach Hut confessions since their first day in the Villa, how devastated he looked when the brunette didn’t pick him at the latest Recoupling and how much he still fancies her. In any case, she hasn’t told her friend all of this things sooner because the last time she spoke about what she saw on the outside without someone asking her to first, the new girl got in trouble with Lottie and caused major drama, or because she simply forgets about it as her mind swims in a bunch of different thoughts all the time. Anyway, there was a point during the day when she wanted nothing but to spill everything to Minni and she still doesn’t know how she managed to contain herself. Now, the bubbly blonde is proud for being able to keep the promise she made to Gary. She asks herself if he talked to the blue-eyed girl yet, as he said he would.

To say that Chelsea is excited would be an understatement, because she has been waiting to couple up with someone for days since she got here. By this point, she doesn’t care who it is because every boy in here is extremely hot and rather nice. As long as she can say that she has a couple, she finally will feel truly immersed in the Love Island experience she came looking for.

A phone chimes, cutting the silence like a sharp knife. Jakub checks his, then rises to his feet with his characteristic smug grin. He clears his throat and smooths his outfit by using his massive hands. “Alright,” he starts speaking. “I want to couple up with this girl because I think a lot of people in here might have given up on her. And because I think I see something in her that nobody else does. She’s a great laugh and I want to see where things could go with her,” he says. “I always say I’m not afraid to shake things up. I want to see where my journey takes me. So the girl I want to couple up with is… Hope.”

The Villa’s fire pit fills with gasps and every Islander’s face shows evident astonishment, staring at either Jakub or Hope in disbelief. Even Chelsea seems shocked, as she squeezes Minni’s hand a little tighter in surprise right after hearing the mention of the dark-skinned girl’s name.

“Woah,” Hope breathes. She looks strangely pleased, amused even.

Minni feels more confused after seeing her reaction, because, after having insisted so much in sticking to Noah this entire time, specially after Operation Nope and yesterday’s argument, the blue-eyed girl figured out that Hope wanted nothing else than to be with the man who she has been coupled up since day one. Nobody says anything while Hope walks over to Jakub, kisses him on the cheek, and sits down.

The silence around the place becomes eerie until Noah’s phone beeps. He stands, his expression unreadable despite having his head bowed and his arms hanging loosely at his sides. “Well, I… I think I need to…” he stutters. After that, he stops and shakes his head, clearing his thoughts. “Right, right. Okay. This is a bit of a shock. But actually, it’s not completely unexpected. And I know what I want to do.” He clears his throat. “I’d like to couple up with this girl because even though it wasn’t how I was expecting it to go this evening, I’m excited to embrace this opportunity to give it a try with someone new.”

While Noah continues with his speech, Minni tries to catch Bobby’s bright, honey-colored eyes. The pastry chef is shifty and stares at Noah with a bashful expression on his features. The brunette girl now realizes that maybe he feels guilty because he took part in planning Operation Nope to try to separate them and now they’re all seeing the consequences of it.

Suddenly, the young woman hears Priya’s name and notices that, sitting next to Bobby, Lucas looks up suddenly and clearly shocked.

“Wait, what are you…?” Ibrahim growls at the other end of the bench.

Gary is quick to put a hand on his arm. “Easy, mate.”

Dazed in confusion, Minni joins the Islanders in a little round of applause for the new couple. She reckons everything is getting all messy in this Recoupling and that maybe Marisol and Bobby were right about today’s vibe. Biting her inner lip and now worried because someone could pull her away from her solid friendship-couple too, she nervously follows Priya’s figure with her eyes as she walks over to Noah, then puts her arm around his waist and sits down next to him.

Noticing that there are major couple changes by now, Gary’s urging look darts to Minni few times. Maybe he could get away with choosing her now without having anyone getting mad about it. It seems like most will be swapping partners anyway, but does that mean he could do the same?

The blond’s thoughts are cut short by the notification sound of a phone next to him.

“It’s my turn now,” Lucas announces and then he rises slowly to his feet. “This isn’t quite what I was expecting to be saying when I stood up here,” the physiotherapist begins. He looks meaningfully at Noah for a second. “But it’s looks like nothing’s going how you expect this evening, so... I want to couple up with this girl because I think that we could probably make a really good go of it. She’s...”.

He seems to glance at Hope now, his speech already not sounding too convincing and meaningful. In honest words, Lucas doesn’t quite fancy any of the girls he has in front of him. His thing with Marisol didn’t work, he finds Lottie notably moody and Chelsea’s enthusiasm is too over the top for him, which leaves him just with Minni, who isn’t exactly his type either; when he first met her he thought that she was a good option, but inside the Villa he has seen the girl constantly taking the role of a peacekeeper, with or without intending to, and never watching out for herself first, something that is not of his preference. Still, he tries to deliver a convincing speech the best he can.

“She’s the kind of girl I know I could really get along with. I think me and her could... really make it happen,” the Asian trails off.

It’s obvious for Minni that he was going for either Hope or Priya, and that now he doesn’t know what to do. She winces internally, feeling bad that he is in this position and speaking in such an awkward manner.

“So the girl I want to couple up with is...” he continues. “Minerva.”

A few seats away from him, Bobby looks up, clearly shocked. Following that, the Scottish and the recently picked girl share a confused look, none of them knowing how to react yet. At Lucas’ side, Gary can’t avoid throwing a death glare at the man once he fully realizes that he left him without the chance to pick Minni and, on top of that, he took her away from Bobby.

The muscular crane operator lets out a quiet grunt and shakes his head. “For fuck’s sake,” he mutters to himself, frustrated.

After getting out of the initial surprise, Minni raises her eyebrow slightly and looks directly at Lucas, trying not to make it too evident that she’s not pleased with his decision. The young woman plays it cool because she doesn’t want to make him look bad in front of all this people, but will surely question him in private later on, despite hating confrontation. With that in mind, she slowly walks over to him and takes her seat next to him.

Lucas senses her frosty attitude at once, specially reminding himself how warm of a person she usually is. “How are you feeling?” he whispers to her.

Minni just responds with a small hum and a shrug. Contrary to her chill front, the physiotherapist notices that her lips are forming a small pout and her entire body is tense.

“Oh, sorry…” he mumbles, really meaning it. “I guess we should talk about it afterwards.”

The brunette simply nods, her burning eyes avoiding his and going to look at the fire pit instead. Just in that moment, Ibrahim’s phone beeps.

“Alright guys. It’s my turn,” he says, raising to his feet. In front of him, Lottie, Chelsea and Marisol are still single. “I’m not really sure, like, how this is going to go. But everyone’s pulling it out of the bag tonight, so I think I’ll do the same. It’s all change, right? So I’m gonna go with my gut,” he explains. “I’d like to couple up with this girl because she calls it like she sees it. She gets straight to the point, she makes me laugh, and I really want to try things out with her and see where they can go. I think it’s time to do something a little unexpected.” The golfer makes a brief pause before continuing. “The girl I want to couple up with is Lottie.”

“Really?” the pale makeup artist asks, astounded. She surely did not see this coming, and although she’s not sure that she will drop Gary to be with Ibrahim, she’s willing to give him a chance just because the timid golfer was brave and confident enough to choose her. “Babes! Okay, let’s… let’s see how this goes, then.”

Now with his first and second option for this Recoupling gone, Gary feels like there’s some kind of force conspiring against his wishes. He keeps quiet and, without having too much time to think more, his phone beeps.

“Righto. My turn,” he speaks, rising to his feet. He manages to cheer himself up whilst he looks at the two girls that are left in front of him and pulls up a smile. “I’d like to couple up with this girl because she’s got a lot of energy. And I wonder if she’s got any hidden depths,” the blond man says, keeping it short. “The girl I want to couple up with is Chelsea.” Then, he looks at Marisol, apologetic. There was no way he would’ve chosen her after what happened between them with the whole Rocco situation. “Sorry, love.”

The law student shrugs, comprehensively. “It’s fine.”

At her side, Chelsea beams. “Oh my gosh,” the interior decorator gasps. Without thinking much of it, she rushes over to Gary, plants a massive cheek on his cheek and puts a hand around his waist, more excited to already be in a couple than because it’s him. “I can’t believe it!”

Her new partner looks at her, feeling odd. He reckons she’s alright and that maybe he could also try to work something with her, although he’s not completely sure what to expect. She’s incredibly fit in his eyes, but as far as having a romantic connection goes, he hasn’t felt it yet. “Me neither. What a turnout,” the crane operator adds.

Gary tries not to overthink all of this stuff and to remain collected as he goes to sit back on the bench alongside Chelsea, but still he can’t shake off the brooding thought that, yet again, he wasn’t able to couple up with Minni.

In the kitchen – Nighttime. ♪

Before going to sleep, Minni takes the time to go to the kitchen to top her water bottle; after the unforeseen events of today, she expects a sleepless night, so having enough water to go through it without having to take a trip to the outdoors kitchen in the middle of it is the best she can do for now.

She appreciates that Lucas looked concerned following the Recoupling, giving her cold reaction, and that he was honest during the chat that they had right after. At first, the girl sensed that he was trying to fake that he was into her, but soon he admitted that she’s not his type and that, sadly, she was the only one he thought he could get along well out of the four remaining girls. With both of their heads into different people and no chemistry between the two, they decided to stay in a friendship couple until the next Recoupling. Although there’s no bad blood between them whatsoever for the sake of keeping things light, Minni still feels offended and doesn’t think that what he did was okay.

Beyond being mad at him for pulling her away from Bobby, Minni feels bad about herself for landing in some sort of a third-choice category. While she fills her water bottle absentmindedly, she begins to worry that maybe she’s everyone’s third or second choice, and no-one’s first.

In silence, Gary wanders into the kitchen, finding the blue-eyed girl completely alone for the first time during the day, and for the first time of what seems like the past week. His heart beats fast at the sight of her petite frame, and he decides to take his chance to speak to her in private before it slips away from his fingers like it always happens.

“Hey, Minni,” the blonde man says, putting on his brave face and getting all the confidence he has on himself out of his chest and onto his head. He puts a gentle hand on her shoulder to get her full attention. “I’d like to chat with you for a bit.”

When the girl finally meets his light blue eyes, the crane operator can see that her typical cheery and brilliant cobalt color has been replaced for what looks like a stormy sea. Uneasiness expels from her facial expression, bringing instant worry to his gut.

“Oh, Gary, I… I’m sorry,” she sighs, trying hard to avoid looking upset in front of him and to contain her emotions at the same time. “I also wanted to have a word with you, but now I reckon is not a good moment.”

She looks at the floor in a useless attempt not to give anything away, but as soon as she feels Gary’s preoccupied gaze linger in her, she realizes that he knows that she’s not alright. His warm hand stays on her shoulder, soothingly, being comforting in some way.

“What’s wrong?” he asks.

Minni shakes her head, not looking at him directly. “Well, I… mate, I don’t know,” she mumbles. “It wasn’t a good Recoupling, I guess.”

Despite that the girl is making an effort to put barriers between her and Gary as to not to show him how bummed out she really feels, she reckons it’s pointless to keep that façade for so long. Now the only thing she wants to do is to tell him everything, to bury her face onto his broad chest and let him embrace her until she feels better, but she holds back and bottles up her feelings even more if possible.

“Talk to me, love,” Gary says, softly. He surely doesn’t like seeing her this distressed and now is more focused on making sure that she’s okay rather than to express himself.

The young student lets out a breath. “I’m not feeling well, that’s all. It all was a mess,” she finally admits, giving in. “It was so evident back there that I wasn’t of Lucas’ choice and I totally understand that. I’m not his type and he’s not my type either, but nobody forced him to pick me. There were still Chels, Lottie and Marisol left,” she rants, her unhappy sight meeting his gentle stare. “And I felt so embarrassed after knowing that his lazy speech was for me. He didn’t mean any of it and it showed.”

With murky notions and insecurity stuffing her judgment, plus this entire competition and game getting to her head, Minni feels like all of the sudden nobody wants to be coupled up with her— she doesn’t even guess that the boy who wants her the most is standing right in front of her, not knowing how to confess that to her.

“I’m just… I’m mostly frustrated because I wasn’t even his second choice, you know,” she finishes, downplaying her worries.

Gary sighs and brings the hand he had on her shoulder to scratch the back of his head. “I’m going to be honest, I really didn’t see the Recoupling going the way it did. Chelsea wasn’t one of my top choices either,” he recognizes, his shoulders slumping down.

Minni sighs after pondering his words. She just thinks that he wanted to recouple with Lottie and is upset because Ibrahim got there first. “I guess nobody ended up with who they wanted, then. Just ‘Shangri-La’ bloke over there,” the physics student comments to lighten the mood, while nodding at Jakub, who is chatting with Priya, Noah and Chelsea far away at the lawn.

Her unanticipated joke makes Gary let out a soft chuckle. There’s a tranquil silence for a moment, whereas he expects her to keep talking, but she doesn’t. The blue-eyed girl has a permanent pout on her lips that does nothing but to show that even after letting a bit of her concerns out in the open, she’s still not feeling better. The last thing Gary wants her to think is that nobody was planning on picking her tonight to be in a romantic couple with her. His heart aches to make her feel wanted, appreciated.

“You were my first choice today,” he blurts out abruptly.

His unpredictable phrase catches Minni by surprise. Her eyes open wide, small hands clutch her water bottle nervously, and she lifts her sight from the floor to look up at the man in front of her, worried that he’s just bantering. But, contrary to finding him with a jokester smirk or holding back a laugh, she sees sincere crystal blue eyes staring back at her, almost timid as he waits for her reaction.

“W-was… was I?” the brunette girl stutters, hurriedly analyzing his face in search for clues that she might heard the wrong words, as not to embarrass herself with the illusion that he wants her. “I mean, am I?”

Cautious, Gary nods. An imaginary weight is lifted of his shoulders as he comes clean, he feels more like his usual confident and open self now. “I wanted to pick you tonight, but I wasn’t sure if you wanted us to be more than mates. I reckon I still would’ve chosen you if I would’ve had the opportunity, though.”

Minni blinks a couple of times, processing it all. She opens her mouth to say something but no words come out. She closes it again, takes a breath and tries to speak one more time. “You… you want us to be more than mates?” she asks.

“I think so,” the crane operator responds, shoving his hands on the pockets of his ripped jeans and maintaining eye contact. “Just if you want to.”

He’s still not sure of how is she going to respond to this, as the only thing she has done so far is ask questions rather than rejecting him or accepting his proposal. The only emotions the muscular man sees in her face are surprise and confusion, until the brightest beam he’s seen so far in her beautiful face spreads across her glossy, pastel pink lips.

“We could try, yeah,” the girl replies, in a quiet and sweet voice.

Gary grins, barely able to contain his excitement. His chest puffs unconsciously while he enjoys looking at Minni’s blue irises twinkle, her smile reaching her eyes. He guesses it’s mutual, then.

“If things go well, we could couple up in the next Recoupling,” he suggests, grounding himself and being realistic. They have to take it slow if they want this to work.

The only thing Minni can do for now is nod, as the turmoil of both new and old emotions leaves her out of words. The change from being so upset and thinking that she was less than other girls in the Villa, to now feel on top of the world at the knowledge that Gary still fancies her and that she was his first choice becomes a lot for her to take in. She doesn’t want to think of anything, she doesn’t want to start jumping into conclusions like she always does— she wants to have the opportunity to simply enjoy the moment. Not knowing what to do next, the young woman throws herself onto Gary’s body, wrapping her arms around his waist, just like she did days ago when she didn’t know how to express her feelings properly.

Although he is startled by her gesture at first, the blond man understands. He didn’t expect all of this either and is glad that the feelings are mutual. While he gives Minni time to sort her emotions, he returns the hug, one hand going up to cup the back of her head.

“I reckon all of this Recoupling mess is a lot to deal with,” he says, comprehensive. He places his strong chin on top of her head as he envelopes her small back in his arms, his hug being cozy and reassuring. “We can talk more about this tomorrow, alright?”

Sinking onto him, Minni leans her forehead on his chest, smelling his minty scent and feeling the vibrations of his deep voice when he speaks. “That sounds good,” she agrees. The girl waits for a couple of seconds before lifting her face up to look at him. “We could talk first thing in the morning.”

“Of course, Mins,” Gary says, looking down to meet her eyes. He offers her a soft smile. “Now let’s go get some sleep. We need a good rest and I’m sure you’re quite knackered,” he adds, gently brushing some chocolate-brown strands away from her face. “We can talk tomorrow.”