Chapter Text
Riley itched her wrist, where “선” was written in beautiful black strokes. She didn’t know what it meant. She dared not try to find out, either. She knew whatever this was was trouble. If she went digging for answers, maybe the hex would resurface, and she couldn’t face that…
Sun hated that she had seven names on her skin. How was she supposed to go through seven different people when she had never had a relationship before? She couldn’t care less about romance. She pondered the possibility that these people were soulmates in another sense, but she couldn’t work out why there were so many. And none of them, apparently, were Korean. Sun sighed and looked at the “Wolfgang” on her ankle, made visible by her dress. What kind of name was “Wolfgang”?
When Wolfgang’s first name, “Will” appeared on his skin, he freaked out. He was terrified of being gay, because his homophobic assrag of a father would surely beat him for being a faggot. He hid the name for months and refused to change in front of anyone else in case they saw his soulmate’s name in loopy handwriting on his shoulder. When another name, Nomi, appeared, he was relieved, yet confused. It wasn’t unheard of to have two names, but it was uncommon. When he got the fifth name, he started refusing to wear anything but his long-sleeved leather jacket and jeans. He didn’t even let Felix see what he was.
Will wasn’t posotive exactly what the threat was, but he was positive that having seven names was abnormal. In a dream, he had seen a woman in a white dress with the name “Jonas” sideways up her neck. When Will had woken, he had spent the day subconsciously caressing the tattoo on his own neck. It said “कला” in thin but neat handwriting. He had managed to find out that it translated to “Kala”.
Kala wasn’t sure what it meant when she had seven names instead of just one, but her biggest concern was that Rajan was not one of them. If the man she was to marry was not one of these strangely named soulmates on her skin, she had to business being betrothed to him. Unfortunately, when the young man had proposed to her, not only had her parents been too happy for her to turn him down, Rajan also showed her that her name was inked onto his left arm. She hadn’t known that a person could be someone’s soulmate without them being their soulmate back. As her family celebrated her engagement, she rubbed the patch of skin where it said “Capheus” in neat writing on the side of her abdomen.
Capheus showed all seven of his names to Jela with pride. To him, this was a clear sign that he would have many, many friends. Platonic soulmates were something he had always wished for. Jela’s name wasn’t on his skin anywhere, but he supposed that was because his soulmate was Eleana. Seven! None of them were native names either, so maybe that meant he would travel to far-off places! He twisted in the mirror so that he could see the name on his lower back, “Lito”.
Lito was always confused by the girls’ names on his skin because he knew for sure he was gay. He tried not to think about the sheer quantity of names he had been given, because there was only one of the eight that stood out to him: Hernando. When he met his future boyfriend for the first time, he had been self-conscious about having so many soulmates, but he soon realised that of all the names tattooed on his skin, it was Hernando that he was destined to be with. He also had the strangest sense that he was going to have a connection with Nomi when they met, whenever that would be.
Nomi had vowed to never hide her body again, and she didn’t break that promise when eight inky black names appeared on her skin, although it hadn’t been what she’d had in mind at the time. The name of her long-term girlfriend Amanita was written in an autograph-like scrawl on Nomi’s collarbone. When Amanita had seen it for the first time, she had laughed and joked, “I bet you had a hard time deciphering my handwriting, huh?” Nomi’s name had a matching place on Neets’ collarbone.