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They say that words will be etched on your skin, and those words will be the first you’ll hear from your soulmate. It’s one of the stories his parents once told him, which Mumbo didn’t really believe at first. He’s a “to see is to believe” kind of person, even though his parents showed him their marks.
Still, Mumbo remains skeptical yet optimistic about it. On one hand, the idea that the universe would just assign you a soulmate sounds ridiculous in theory, I mean, is the universe really that bored? On the other hand, the fact that there will be someone out there who would love him sounds- nice, it makes the loneliness that Mumbo feels a bit lighter, assuming that the soulmate would actually like him, of course.
His parents told him that there's no definitive date on when you’ll get your mark; some studies say the earliest was 5 years old, the oldest being 82 years old. Mumbo does not want to be a part of the population whose mark manifested in his geriatric stage; no, thank you. His parents are more on the lucky side, earning their marks in their early twenties and meeting in their late twenties, which to Mumbo’s opinion, is just the ripe age of meeting and starting a life with your soulmate.
Skepticism aside, Mumbo does wonder who their soulmate is going to be; there's an excitement bubbling in his chest as he fantasizes about what kind of person they’re going to be. He hopes they're nice at least, that’s all he can ask for really. The worst thing that can happen is if they hate him, which his 13-year-old mind is leaning towards; there are a lot of things to hate, actually, now that Mumbo thinks about it. He talks a lot, socializing isn’t really his strong suit, he struggles to sit still- yeah, his soulmate would hate him, groaning as he buries his face in his notebook.
Whatever, maybe Mumbo will hate them in return, maybe they’ll be insufferable or unlikable, but deep down, Mumbo knows he won’t hate them; he doesn’t know where this blind certainty comes from, but he just does. If there’s one thing he’s confident in, it's that he knows he’ll love whoever he’s soulmate is. Maybe this is the universe- or this destiny thing everybody keeps talking about? Mumbo shrugs. Maybe the universe is just as weird as him.
Months pass by, as well as Mumbo’s 14th birthday, wishing to the universe that his mark would appear soon, and god forbid his mark manifests when he’s old, he does not have the patience to wait that long. His parents reassure him, saying that destiny would find a way, and maybe Mumbo’s just single, but that might be the cheesiest thing his parents ever told him. Then again, they found each other, so maybe anything is cheesy in their eyes. Mumbo hopes that he and his soulmate will be just as cheesy as them one day.
Mumbo finds out that school is a really good distraction from your soulmate hunting. When your teachers are giving you assignments and projects like no tomorrow, you too would be thoroughly distracted from your soulmate. He rubs his temples gently, trying to figure out how to solve these math problems. He’s at the age where fractions start getting more complicated, as well as finding the stupid x and y. Granted, it’s not that hard once you study the basics, but it’s just so tedious to do. He wonders if his soulmate would be good at math, Mumbo could teach them, or maybe Mumbo would learn a thing or two from them. It’s something that Mumbo finds himself daydreaming about lately: would his soulmate have the same interests as him? Would they be the complete opposite of Mumbo? Are they also thinking about Mumbo like this?
He sighs, propping his pen on his table, staring at the book report his doing for his literature class. He wonders what kind of books his soulmate would read, maybe they’ll like redstone too? It’s something that Mumbo’s been into recently; he might even be planning to study a course related to redstone in the future.
Mumbo dozes off for a moment, deciding that he’ll finish his book report on a later date, before his eyes completely sleep, he notices a tingling sensation rubbing on his palm as if someone is writing on it using the eraser from a pencil.
He quickly scrambles, feeling more awake than ever as there is only one conclusion on what his palm with reveal. His parents told him, he even scurried the internet for more information, but without a doubt, these are the words that he’ll hear from his soulmate.
Mumbo clutches his palm further, as if the words would be whisked away if he wasn’t gripping it properly. He puts a hand on his chest, his heart hammering so fast it might leap out of his throat. Why is he so nervous? It’s just words, words that Mumbo would forever engrave in his mind, words that’ll hold weight through Mumbo’s lifetime, words that’ll come out from his soulmate.
Yeah! No big deal at all, it’s not like he’s been waiting for this his whole life or anything, ever so slowly, Mumbo releases his palm, revealing the words underneath.
'Hi'
He blinks, once, twice, thrice; he rubs his eyes for good measure. He turns his palm, looking to see if somehow the words got scrambled to a different part of his skin. Mumbo searches his arms, legs, and feet; he even went to the mirror to see if there were more words that were etched on his face, nothing.
He slumps in his chair, reality finally settling on him. That- that’s it?? Just one word? That’s all he’s going to get? Not even a whole sentence or phrase? Mumbo combs his hair, the strands now going everywhere, not knowing how to calm himself down.
He asked his parents and the internet for the technicalities of this whole soulmate thing because Mumbo found it weird how open-ended it is.
You will receive a mark, revealing the first words you’ll hear from your soulmate.
That’s the official words that the government used to describe it. Mumbo focuses on the “first words you’ll hear.” He searched everywhere about it, and the people said exactly what he was thinking.
You don’t have to meet your soulmate per se; rather, all you need to do is be in earshot of them, and that would count. He heard many stories about it, how this one person met their soulmate by eavesdropping on a conversation, or how this other one met theirs when their soulmate started singing a song.
Why did the universe decide to be so complicated? The universe could’ve added “first words you’ll hear when you meet your soulmate,” but no, it just decided to make everyone’s lives be difficult. Seriously, how on earth is Mumbo going to find his soulmate? Everybody says hi! That’s a common greeting term that literally everybody uses every single day! He probably already brushed past his soulmate at this point
He complained about it with his parents the other day, saying that the universe is out to get him, that he already missed his soulmate. He tries not to think about it, he tries not to overthink the fact that out of the billions of people on earth, his soulmate is probably on the other side of the planet, just because he didn’t know that they already said “hi” in his vicinity. It’s a dumb thing to be upset about, but Mumbo is trying very hard not to feel devastated, thinking that he already missed his chance at his soulmate.
“There's not a single day that passes that people don’t say hi to each other. I probably missed them,” he sulks to his mother, as he throws another toy for Kubo to fetch.
“But Mumbo, your soulmate has your words too, if you’re trying to find them, I’m sure they’re trying to find you too,” His mother says, washing the vegetables.
Kubo brings back the toy bone to Mumbo’s lap, his tail wagging as he pets the dog in return. Right, his soulmate, Mumbo is so fixated on the words on his palm that he forgot that they have their own words too. Is that what having a soulmate is all about? Both of you trying to find your way towards each other? Maybe Mumbo’s not knowledgeable about this whole soulmate thing as well as he thinks he is.
“Don’t worry, dear, I’m sure fate would find a way if all else fails,” his mother reassures him.
There it is again, fate, universe, destiny- all these cosmic or otherworldly terms that really spike up Mumbo’s skepticism on the whole concept. His parents believe in it- a lot of people do, and it confuses Mumbo because why are people blindly putting their trust in fate? Is he really just that pessimistic, or is he just skeptical in nature? He looks up to his palm again, seeing the words etched out. There's this rush that Mumbo feels every time he looks at it that throws all his skepticism away.
He wants to meet his soulmate; this Mumbo is sure about. He wouldn’t be whining about how he missed his chance with his soulmate if he didn’t believe in the concept. So maybe he does believe in fate, only a little though, maybe a smidge.
Graduation is only weeks away, and still no sign of Mumbo’s soulmate. Well, it’s not like there's anything he could do about it, really. If old people could still get their marks, then Mumbo could be waiting for a long, long time. It’s- okay, not really, but again, nothing he could do about it. He glances at his room, seeing that the door is closed as he silently lets his palm out on his desk and just stares at it.
“Hi,” The words stare back at him.
“Hello,” Mumbo whispers, “Would I say that to you, or would I say something even more embarrassing?”
“Talking to my palm makes me look insane, but I heard that some people say that it helps- kind of, maybe not actually.” Sometimes Mumbo just says things to his palm, which he admits makes him look totally crazy, but hey- some people can be bored, and Mumbo considers talking to his mark as a past time as odd as that sounds.
Or maybe he’s just lonely, yeah, that’s probably it.
He wonders if his soulmate is just as lonely; he hopes they don’t. He wants his soulmate to be much happier than Mumbo, at least then, one of them gets to live a much nicer life. And that’s good enough for Mumbo, as weird as it sounds, if his soulmate is happy, then he’s happy too. Even though he never even met him.
He clenches his fist and groans. His soulmate is definitely gonna think he’s an absolute weirdo.
Days flew by, and Mumbo is already in college. The university says there's an assembly in the hall, along with the other departments. “This assembly better be freaking fast,” Bdubs says as they both sit in the spare seats. Countless students are already flooding in, along with much idle chatter that fills the room. Well, his soulmate better not be in here because Mumbo can’t decipher anything with all this noise.
Bdubs just pulled a sketchpad out of his bag, mindlessly sketching already. If it’s not horses, then he’s most likely sketching the architecture of the room. He’s fun to hang around with. Mumbo met him when he was waiting for admission in the lobby, asking how in the world Mumbo had infinite gems in his mobile games. Mumbo asked him if he wanted his games to be like that, which he happily obliged, so he modified the coding of his games, and they’ve been friends ever since.
It feels nice to have someone who doesn’t mind Mumbo’s ramblings. Bdouble00 rambles a lot too, which Mumbo doesn’t mind at all; he’s just happy to be there.
Assembly was simply boring, nothing but formalities, welcoming the new freshman- all the usual announcements that you would expect to hear. “I still don’t get why Math is part of our credits when I’m supposed to be studying law,” Bdouble00 says as he and Mumbo stand up, ready to leave the hall. “Math’s not that hard, I mean it’s really quite simple,”
“Dude, you need to stop saying that to things that are very much not simple.” Bdubs says, lightly smacking Mumbo’s arm. “Oh yeah, I need to get my form from the admissions, so go ahead without me,” Mumbo says, waving goodbye to Bdubs.
The university is really packed with students, as Mumbo tries to navigate back to the admissions office. Luckily, there are hardly any students at the office as Mumbo goes to the free window, politely asking for a copy of the form. Heavy footsteps suddenly make their way beside him, startling Mumbo.
He glances beside him, looking to see who it was. It’s a guy with wavy brown hair that falls on his glasses, bright green eyes that matched his checkered polo with a white shirt underneath, and scars trailing from his face onto his neck, etched onto his tanned skin.
Whoever this guy is, he’s drop-dead gorgeous, but Mumbo tried his best to remain composed so as not to freak this guy out. He gestures at the free window slot, assuming he’ll use the admission office. The guy just stares at him for a moment, with slight sweat on his forehead, his eyes wide and dazed, his cheeks feverish as he’s currently catching his breath like this guy ran a marathon.
He breathes in and out, adjusting his glasses before finally replying back to Mumbo.
“Hi”
“Whoa there, Scar, my good pal, what's got you so worked up?”
“Bdubs! I- uh,” Scar searches through the assembly hall, keeping an earshot in case he’ll hear his voice again,
He sighs, might as well get Bdubs in on this too, his soulmate was here, he heard it, he’s sure of it, and he’s not letting this chance slip by.
“Okay, this might sound crazy, but I think I heard my soulmate here,”
“What? Here? In the hall?” Scar nods back
“Well, spill, what did they say?”
“Oh, jeez- I didn’t hear it properly, but I know it was him, uh, something about things being quite simple?” Scar says, trying his best to recreate the words he heard,
“Quite simple?- Oh- Ohhh!” Bdubs says, realization hitting as his eyes sparkle even more, which Scar wasn’t sure was possible. “Go to the admission office, and find someone who has black hair and a glorious mustache, quick before he goes home!” Scar nods, shouting a thanks to Bdubs before booking it and rushing towards the office.
They say that once you hear your soulmate’s first words, you’ll be hit with a certain finality, a complete feeling of certainty that makes you say this is the one. Mumbo read about what people experienced upon meeting their soulmate, and all of them unanimously point to one conclusion.
Once you hear it, you’ll know it’s them
“You!” Mumbo points, almost accusatory to the guy in front of him. “ You-you’re my soulmate?” Mumbo whispers, half hoping and half in disbelief, like the universe is playing a dirty trick in front of him, like he could be in a very nice dream right now.”
The man smiles, all teeth at Mumbo’s antics, as he pulls out his arm to show Mumbo. Mumbo does the same and holds out his palm.
‘It’s really quite simple’
‘Hi’
Mumbo stares at the scarred arm in front of him, all uncertainty thrown out the window as he sees the words of his soulmate for him. They stood still there for a moment, not knowing what to say to each other. Mumbo’s the first one to break the silence.’
“I-I can’t believe this- all this time I thought- Actually, wait, I have a bone to pick with you-“
“Me?”
“Yeah! You! Couldn’t you have said anything other than hi? Did you know how many conversations I had to look out for just to catch that?”
“Well- not like you’re any better, who even says 'it’s really quite simple’?”
“Hey! I take offense to that, at least it’s unique and different from anybody else.”
They both glare at each other before bursting into a pit of laughter, and oh- that’s a really beautiful laugh from his soulmate that makes Mumbo’s heart leap a bit.
“I’m Mumbo, by the way, Mumbo Jumbo,” Mumbo held out his hand before he forgot to actually introduce himself.
“Nice to meet you, Mumbo. I’m Scar,” Scar says, taking Mumbo’s hand and shaking it, “You know, I was debating on using the PA system if I couldn’t find you.” Scar chuckles, and Mumbo just howls with laughter. Oh, this guy is charming.
Mumbo makes a mental note to thank the universe later, just this once.