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Weiss despised swimming because fate had a cruel sense of humor.
Not because she couldn’t swim. She was actually quite proficient in that. But because of the mortifying words etched across her back in inescapable letters.
“Oh crap, you’re hot.”
It wasn’t small. It wasn’t subtle. No, fate had decided to tattoo her soulmate’s first words in a font large enough to be read from orbit. Anyone with a pair of eyes would immediately know what it said.
So Weiss, being a rational person, did what any reasonable person would do — she covered it. Always.
Jackets in the sweltering heat? A necessary sacrifice.
Beach trips? Sundresses were her salvation.
Tank tops? Absolutely not.
She had mastered the art of layering no matter how impractical. If the weather refused to cooperate, then she simply stayed at home. Her friends often questioned her stubborn refusal to dress for the season, but she always had an excuse ready.
And the worst part? She wasn’t even sure if she was flattered, embarrassed, or annoyed. She could have something poetic, something meaningful — something normal, at the very least. But no. The universe, despite its infinite wisdom, had tethered her to someone who took one look at her and promptly forgot how to function.
Frankly, Weiss wasn’t sure if she wanted to meet them or throttle them.
Ruby had always resented the single word scrawled on her arm.
“Hello.”
That was it. That was the grand, mystical proclamation of her soulmate’s first word. No clever quip. No quirky phrase. Not even something mildly interesting. Just a generic greeting that any random stranger could say at any given moment.
It was absolutely unacceptable.
So Ruby, being a rational person, took matters into her own hands.
Ever since she was old enough to grasp the concept of soulmarks, Ruby made it her personal mission to never, under any circumstance, say hello first or back. Instead, she perfected the art of crafting the most bizarre, unhinged, and unforgettable greetings imaginable.
Examples?
“Salutations, fellow carbon-based lifeforms!”
“Honk, honk, I’m a goose.”
“Have you accepted our Lord and Savior into your life?”
“Hi! Can I have your name, bank account, and your social security number?”
“Pspspspspspspspspspspspsps.”
People learned to avoid her very quickly. This was why she didn’t have many friends to begin with.
Yang tried to stage an intervention. She sat Ruby down for what she could only describe as an exorcism, or self-improvement. On the other hand, Blake outright refused to introduce Ruby to anyone new.
High school had been rough, to put it mildly. Ruby had spent the majority of it walking the fine line between an amusing oddball and a social pariah. But it was fine, really. She didn’t mind. Because once her soulmate said the cursed hello, her bizarre greeting streak would be over. She just needed to survive until that moment.
When she entered college, things got a little easier. At least in terms of hello’s. College students were far more introverted — content with their headphones, their books, and their social bubbles.
People didn’t greet each other nearly as much, and that meant Ruby had one less ridiculous greeting to mess up. She found a rhythm. She made friends. She could almost pretend that she was leading a normal life.
Until one fateful afternoon.
Ruby stood in the elevator while her attention was glued on the notes she was reviewing for her upcoming lecture. She was doing last minute preparations, like any good student who secretly thrived on procrastination. She barely noticed the soft ding of the elevator as the doors opened to allow another passenger inside.
Ruby barely spared a glance, but in that instant, their eyes locked.
The woman who stepped in was impossible to miss, her silver-white hair catching Ruby’s attention immediately. It didn’t take long for Ruby to recognize her — Weiss Schnee, one of the student body representatives on campus.
Ruby only recognized her because Weiss' face was everywhere. It was plastered across posters as some kind of advertisement — or threat — urging students to make good moral choices and decisions in school.
Weiss offered a polite, passing smile and greeted Ruby with a perfectly timed, “Hello.”
Ruby’s brain couldn’t figure out how to properly… brain. She had some off-the-wall greeting lined up, but her thoughts tangled together. Her brain mixed the words she meant to say with the ones she’d rather keep locked away.
“Oh crap, you’re hot.”
The words tumbled out before she could stop them.
Ruby clapped a hand over her mouth. She wanted to shove the words back in, but it was too late. A strangled noise, something between a groan and a squeak, escaped her. She instantly regretted every decision that had led her to this moment.
Weiss’ expression went from polite indifference to pure disbelief in the span of a heartbeat. She didn’t react to the flattery, but her eyes narrowed as she pointed an accusing finger at Ruby.
“You…”
“Wait—wait!” Ruby scrambled to salvage what was left of her dignity, her words stumbling over one another. “I — I can explain.”
Weiss held up a hand and firmly cut her off. “You cannot fix this.”
Ruby tried to figure out how she had managed to make such an utter fool of herself in a short amount of time. But before she could come up with anything remotely useful to say, Weiss wasn’t finished with her.
“That was it,” Weiss said incredulously, as if she couldn’t quite believe what she had heard. “You said it. You said those… those words.”
“What words?” Ruby managed to stammer out, though genuinely confused.
Weiss’ patience reached its limit. She let out a small, exasperated sigh and shrugged off her jacket in one frustrated motion. Ruby hitched her breath. The movement was so sudden and so unexpected, she instinctively raised her hands to cover her eyes.
The last thing she wanted was to accidentally witness some scandalous reveal in the confines of the elevator.
“Look,” Weiss said pointedly, pulling at her own jacket.
Ruby peered through her fanned out fingers. She didn’t know what kind of disaster was unfolding before her eyes, until she saw it. Emblazoned on Weiss’ back in perfectly legible words was a phrase so undeniably absurd, “Oh crap, you’re hot.”
Ruby blinked, rubbed her eyes, then blinked again. She opened her mouth to apologize, but all that came out was a mixture of nervous laughter and disbelief as she tried to process the situation. “Oh my goodness…”
Weiss’ glare simply intensified. Ruby was so sure that she was going to get throttled by her soulmate inside the elevator where no one could see. But instead of sending her to the great beyond, Weiss rolled her eyes and pulled her jacket back over her shoulders, letting out a frustrated huff.
A small, sheepish smile curled at the corner of Ruby’s lips.
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry.” Ruby finally apologized, but the laugh that came with it didn’t help with the convincing. “But… like, hey, look, I get it. I know it’s embarrassing. But just — just let me show you mine.”
Before Weiss could object, Ruby was already rolling up her sleeves. She revealed her own soulmark, and Weiss blinked. Her eyes darted down to the small, simple words. It was plain and stamped. Just one word, “Hello.”
A beat of silence passed. The frustration that Weiss had shown earlier seemed to dissipate as she stared at the unimpressive mark. “I—wait,” she began, blinking once more in confusion. “You’re telling me that… that’s the first word?”
Ruby gave a sheepish shrug, the corners of her lips pulling into a crooked grin. “Yep. Hello,” she said with exaggerated cheer. “So, uh, I kinda go overboard with all the weird introductions every time I hear a ‘hello’.”
Weiss stared at her for a long moment, baffled. Then, finally, she let out a soft laugh — something small, something real, something warm. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” she said.
Ruby laughed along with her, the tension from their awkward first meeting fluttering away. “I wish I was. You’re not going to kill me over this, right?”
Weiss tilted her head, as if she was genuinely considering it, before shaking her head with a smile. “No, not when I just met my soulmate,” she said lightly, and then she added a smirk. “But I am forcing you to have coffee with me. You owe me that much.”
Ruby grinned, scratching the back of her neck. “Okay — coffee. Yeah. That’s fair. Coffee definitely sounds great.” Then, almost as an afterthought, she added, “Oh, and — for the record? You really are hot.”
Weiss rolled her eyes, but her smile didn’t fade. “Yes, I gathered that much, thank you.”
The elevator chimed, and its door slid open. It was a clear invitation or unspoken cue to step out, to move on. But neither of them did. They lingered, caught in the space between action and hesitation — as if they were waiting for something… or for each other.
Ruby was the first to break the silence as she cleared her throat. “Do you… Do you wanna get coffee right now? I can skip my next class. Or should we, like, exchange numbers first?”
Weiss hummed in consideration, then suddenly, she reached for Ruby’s hand. Before Ruby could fully process what was happening, Weiss pulled a pen from her bag and neatly scrawled her number across Ruby’s wrist. Her fingers lingered — just long enough to be intentional.
Ruby didn’t move, didn’t breathe. She stopped functioning, stopped processing. The world narrowed to the warmth of Weiss’ touch and the ink on her skin.
Capping the pen, Weiss slipped it back into her bag and met Ruby’s dazed stare with a knowing smile. Then, just to make sure Ruby completely unraveled, she winked.
“Text me.”