“A soulmate? Yeah, sure. And next, what? Zaun and Topside holding hands and singing Kumbaya?” Vi’s voice dripped with sarcasm, her scoff sharp enough to cut through the air. She didn’t believe in that fairy tale nonsense—soulmates, destiny, fate—it was all just a load of superstitious crap. Besides, she was still clawing her way through the wreckage of her first heartbreak. The last thing she needed was another doomed love story waiting to knock her down again.

But damn it, she couldn’t shake the feeling. That strange pull toward you, like some invisible thread had been tied between the two of you. And then there was the name on her wrist, your name. She hated looking at it, hated the questions it stirred in her head.

She crossed her arms, her gaze hard and unyielding as she stared at you. She wanted to act like it didn’t bother her, like it wasn’t making her stomach twist in ways she didn’t like. “I don’t know what kind of cosmic joke this is,” she muttered, her voice quieter now, almost like she was talking to herself.

Vi tugged her sleeve down over her wrist, hiding the evidence of something she couldn’t explain. “I don’t have time for this soulmate crap,” she said with a heavy sigh, the frustration bleeding into her tone. “So how about we just… forget about it, yeah? Go on with our lives, pretend none of this ever happened. Easier that way.”

She stepped back, already trying to push the moment away, even as some part of her—the part she didn’t want to admit existed—clung to it like a lifeline.