_________

•••
"Yeah,
maybe I loved
a little insane,
but at least I
had the courage
to lose myself in
something I
truly wanted"

-faraway
•••

___________

Cassia's POV
__________

A gasp left Cassia's lips once Marla had rolled in the silver rack of dresses and outfits, carrying an abundance of shoes with her.

"Don't tell me all of those are for me" Cassia coughed, eyes wide and lips parted in awe.

"They are" Marla smiled. "I didn't know which ones you would like so I brought a few more than needed"

"A few more?" Cassia laughed. "you brought more clothes than I own, Marla" the words tumbled out of Cassia's mouth before she could think twice about them, quickly clasping her hands over her mouth, Cassia shook her head with an apologetic smile.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound disrespectful. I'm very grateful you're doing all this for me, it's just- y-you didn't have to- um- I would've been fine just wearing my own clothes" Cassia mumbled, scratching the back of her head in embarrassment, cheeks tinting a rosy pink again.

"Don't be silly. We're at Fahion Week Paris, sweetheart. Of course you can't just show up there wearing whatever! Don't forget about all the aftershow parties as well, you-"

"Aftershow parties?" Cassia felt her mouth go dry. "W-What? I thought we were just gonna go watch them walk the runways and-"

"Oh didn't V tell you?" Marla raised an eyebrow in disbelief. When Cassia didn't answer Marla shook her head with an amused smile.

"Oh dear, my sweet summer child, there's much more to Fashion Week than just the runway shows! Aftershow parties, press interviews, get togethers, all the networking, I mean just the street style at Fashion Week is it's own thing" Marla rambled own, running her fingers over the rack of clothes, pulling out a few dresses here and there, giving them a glance and hanging them back.

Cassia was about to open her mouth when they heard a knock on the door. Cassia sent Marla a confused glance, all the models were already gone, getting ready for the show, they were practically alone at the hotel by now so who..?

"Oh that must me Claire and Patrick!" Marla smiled, running over to the door and letting two people in Cassia had never seen before.

"Who are-" she mumbled to herself but Marla beat her to it.

"Cassia, may I introduce you to Claire and Patrick! They'll be doing your hair and makeup this week" she brightly smiled, expecting a reaction out of Cassia who just stood there frozen.

Everything was happening so fast, all she had wanted was to watch Tae model and now here she was getting her own stylists? She felt like she was drawn back into the world she had once known. Her father's world of perfection. Why were they making such a big deal out of Cassia's appearance? She planned on staying in the background as much as she possibly could, the less attention the better.

"Hi" Cassia smiled at them and bowed when she had collected herself. "My name's Cassia, nice to meet you"

Claire, was a short, dark skinned woman around her thirties, dressed in all black, dreads twisted up into a big bun. A silver lip ring glimmered on her lips as they formed a bright, beaming smile. She hugged Cassia as soon as she sat down her supplies. Her hug felt warm and oddly comfortable. Cassia felt her racing mind calm down.

"I'm Claire, it's my pleasure" she smiled. She must've noticed how comfortable Cassia felt around her because she immediately brought her hand up to run her fingers through Cassia's wavy hair.

"Wow, I love your long hair. It looks really healthy" Claire smiled. "This is not your natural hair colour though, is it?" the stylist noticed as she took a glance at Cassia's dark roots. Cassia shook her head.

"I already have so many ideas popping up in my head, come sit down, love"

Cassia let herself get pushed down into a chair, Claire immediately began running her fingers through Cassia's long hair, pulling out a comb from her belt and brushing out the ends. Cassia looked at her reflection in the mirror in front of her and played with a strand of her coloured light brown hair.

"It's naturally a deep black" she heard herself mumble. "I dyed it for the first time about two years ago but recently I have stopped touching up the roots" Cassia explained, pointing to her dark roots that were about an inch long. She held back the reason why she dyed it in the first place. She loved her black hair and even missed it now that she had much lighter brown to caramel coloured hair but when she ran away from home she had thought it to be necessary to change up her appearance.

Along with colouring it a light, caramel colour she had also chopped off about half of it. Her hair that was now stopping just above her chest had once fallen down to her lower back.

"You know I could dye it for you if you wanna go back to black" Claire offered, running her comb through Cassia's hair.

"Oh my god, Claire. Can you slow down for one second" another voice groaned. Cassia's eyes landed on the man, walking up to Cassia, placing his huge makeup bag onto the hotel room table. Cassia smiled up to him from her sitting position, letting her eyes wander over his appearance. He was tall and stick thin, short platinum blonde hair gelled back and dressed in all black, like Claire. So he must be the makeup artist.

"Hi doll, Patrick" he smiled, shaking Cassia's hand with a smile. "lovely to finally meet you"

"You too" Cassia weakly smiled, still feeling slightly overwhelmed with the whole situation.

"Can't believe, V never introduced you to us" he scoffed playfully. "We've been working with him for ages"

"Pat, stop. It's his choice how much of his private life he wants to share with us" Claire scolded him, plugging in a curling iron.

"Still" Patrick muttered, unpacking his makeup brushes. Cassia bit down on her lips, eyes darting to Marla for help but the assistant was busy looking through the dresses and shoes. Cassia didn't know what to say to that. Tae had never mentioned them to her before.

"So!" Claire clapped her hands together, making Cassia flinch. "What look are we going for today?"

"How much time before you need to leave?" Patrick asked almost at the same time.

"We have another two hours" Marla said, checking her rosé gold watch. Cassia wanted to laugh and ask why they were starting to get ready now if they still had this much time. Apparently, however, Claire and Patrick didn't seem to agree.

"Oh my god, two hours! Okay, okay we have no time to loose then. Alright what look are we going for?" Patrick blurted out, his hands motioning for Marla to hurry.

"That's not decided yet. Cassia hasn't seen any of the dresses" Marla said, pulling out a few hangers.

"Oh my god" Patrick groaned, slapping his forehead before taking a deep breath. "It's fine, I'll just start with the base then" he mumbled, holding up bottles of foundation to find Cassia's shade.

"Okay Cassia, look over here. What do you think about this one?" Marla smiled holding up a tight black dress with a low neckline and long, sheer sleeves. Marla also held up a pair of dainty black, strappy heels and a plain cream coloured clutch.

Cassia's eyes widened at the dress. "I don't think I'm quite confident enough to wear that" she nervously stammered, playing with her fingers. At the club? Maybe. Attending Fashion Week with hundreds of people, numerous celebrities and cameras all over the place? No, thank you.

"Do I have any other options? Something a little more low-key, maybe?" Cassia apologetically smiled up at Taehyung's assistant. She started to feel bad for asking for different options. They were doing all thsi just for her and here she was complaining about their choices.

"I really don't want to draw any attention to myself" she muttered as an explaination.

Claire and Patrick exchanged looks before blurting out into laughter.

"Sweety, that's not how Fashion Week works" Claire smiled. "The more daring, the better"

Cassia gulped, not able to bring herself to join in on the laughter. "Well" she mumbled, looking to Marla again, eyes pleading for help. "I'm not really the daring type, I'm afraid"

Her eyes wandered over the other dresses hanging from the rack, some of them even shorter than the black dress Marla was holding up. She noticed extravagant detailing on some dresses, sexy cut-outs, more sheer material, metal rings and chains, glitter, lace..

"Do you maybe have something more Spring like?" Cassia hesitantly asked. "You know, flowers or light colours?" If it has to be extravagant, maybe she could at least wear lighter colours and flower detailing istead of cutouts or chains.

Marla went over the rack again, pulling out a baby blue dress that was completely back-less and a pretty pastelle pink one with lace flower detailing.

Cassia immediately pointed to the pink one. "That one!" she happily smiled.

Marla smiled at her eagerness. "Come try it on"

Cassia felt relief flowing through her once she had slipped the dress on on the bathroom and walked back out to show them.

Cassia spun around, looking at herself in complete awe in the full-length mirror. "This dress is so beautiful" she breathed, watching the fabric sway as she kept turning. The neckline was still pretty low but the lace covered her knees and almost reached down to her ankles. The dress was tight around the waist and had thin straps running over the shoulders. This wasn't too bad, Cassia could work with the fit of this one. It wasn't too daring.

"I think we found the one" Marla nodded at Cassia's reflection.

Cassia's eyes were still glued to the dress when Patrick's voice snapped her out of her daze.

"Great, now get changed back out of it and come sit down for hair and makeup. We don't have all the time in the world!" he clapped his hands together, motioning for Cassia to hurry. With a shy smile and quick nod she walked back into the bathroom to change out of the dress and into her leggings and a loose shirt.

~~~

By the time Claire and Patrick finally dropped their hands from fixing Cassia's hair and makeup for the one hundreth time, Marla was nervously glancing at her watch every other second. Cassia changed back into the pastelle pink lace dress and slipped on the dainty rosé golden heels Marla held out for her.

She admired her makeup in the hotel room mirror. Copper, bronze shimmering eyeshadow, soft brown eyeliner and pretty pink lipstick to match the colour of the dress. Her caramel hair was curled into glossy curls, flowing down her shoulders, the front pieces braided back.

"Alright, we really need to get going now. Our driver has been waiting for five minutes already" Marla called out to Cassia, gently pushing her out of the hotel room. Cassia quickly tossed her phone, id and some money into her clutch before waving goodbye to Patrick and Claire.

"Thank you guys so so much" she smiled, bowing her head again.

"No problem, doll" Patrick smiled, packing up his makeup brushes.

"See you tomorrow!" Claire waved as Marla pulled her out of the room and closed the door behind them.

"They're both really nice" Cassia mumbled once they were on their way to the venue.

Marla nodded, eyes busy running over Tae's and Jimin's schedules. She looked up to smile at Cassia.

"Glad you're feeling comfortable with them" Marla said.

Cassia seemed to understand Tae's attitude towards his assistant less and less. Yes, Marla could get stressed out easily and constantly remind everyone to hurry but she was just doing her job and trying to make sure everything went according to plan. Cassia could see that she cared about Tae, more than on an assistant level, she truly cared about his wellbeing and for that she felt eternally grateful to Marla. Tae might not always notice but he was really lucky to have an assistant like her. He shouldn't take her for granted.

"There's going to be more cameras" Marla's voice broke her out of her thoughts. "Without V and Jimin it's likely that most of them will leave us alone but you're still going to get photographed"

Cassia nodded, glad that Marla was warning her. "I can handle it" she replied, confident.

"I know" Marla nodded. "Just know that I'm here and if things should get too much for you we can take a break, okay? Leave and get some air, you just need to be open with me and communicate if something is bothering you, understood?"

There it was again. Marla's voice was stern, back to business but she couldn't fool Cassia, she still felt the warmth behind Marla's speech. Cassia smiled.

"Understood. Promise I will tell you if it's getting too much" she said and Marla nodded in approval.

"I don't know who you'll be sitting next to but things should be fine. You're under V's name so look for 'Kim'. I'm almost certain that it's the second row somewhere in the middle, I can help you find it if you want"

Cassia's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Are you not sitting next to me?"

Marla smiled a pitiful smile. "I'm the assistant, Cassia. I don't just get a front seat at Fashion Week. I'll be somewhere in the back"

Cassia suddenly felt bad. She bit her lip in embarrassment.

"We're here. Are you ready?" Marla unbuckled her seatbelt and Cassia felt the anxiety build up in her stomach again.

"What do I do when the show ends?" she muttered, suddenly getting nervous about this whole thing.

"I'll come get you and we go backstage. I think V wants to show you around. After that we watch the Armani show and then in the evening we go to the aftershow party. Well, I won't be going but that's the plan" Marla said, her hand on the door. "Ready?"

Cassia sucked in a breath and nodded.

Showtime.

______
A/N: I'm back!! I just had my last big exam and I'm so excited to get back to updating and writing again💕

ALSO FREAKING 5K READS, how did that happen?? Thank you all so soo much you have no idea how happy every single read/vote and especially the comments make me!! Ily so much, get excited for more updates❤️❤️

xx Umi