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"She wears strength and darkness equally well, the girl has always been half goddess, half hell"

-Nikita Gill
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Cassia's POV

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Monday was hell. Cassia had a horrible headache up until noon and barely managed to keep the food Jin made her, inside of her tummy.

"You know you brought this upon yourself, right?" he chuckled.

Cassia just groaned in response, sounding like a dying whale.

"I almost forgot what a hangover feels like" she muttered, rubbing circles on her temples.

Jin shook his head, a grin taking over his lips. "Well, next time I want to be part of the fun. We haven't gone out in ages, I almost feel betrayed you had fun without me but you are forgiven this time since you actually made friends for once"

"Shut up, Jin. I'm actually quite likeable. You'd notice if you weren't constantly complaining about my introverted self not sozialing enough" Cassia huffed. "Pe proud of me for once"

"I am!" Jin turned around, acting offended.

"Cassia Natasha Amber Kourtney Williams-" he began.

"Not my name"

"- I am officially proud of you for not being a complete couch potato like you usually are when it comes to going out and having fun, even though it was with colleagues from your work and you didn't actually approach new people but-"

"Jin, Jin.. JIN! You should've just stopped at the part about being proud of me. I'm gonna act like you didn't say anything of what followed after that, so THANKS and please for the love of god shut up now, my head is killing me"

"Whatever" a smile krept onto Jin's face.

"As much as I love playing your caretaker, I have a ton of work waiting for me and I'm actually tutoring someone in like an hour so-"

"You're tutoring..?"

"Yes and you shouldn't act so surprised, you know I'm a genius, Cassie, we've been over this. I'm tutoring someone in English Literature by the way, which you're taking as well so if you wanna join just let me know"

"I don't think I could afford your master tutoring" Cassia smiled, Jin always managed to cheer her up, he was like her own little ray of sunshine, no matter how big the darkness.

"You're right about that" Jin laughed his signature wind shield laugh, which was so contagious that Cassia couldn't help but fall into a small giggle herself.

"You're the best, Jin. Now leave before I drown you in my kitchy words again, I still remember parts of our conversation last night. I'm done with kissing your butt for a while now"

"Whatever you say, Missy. Byee, drink plenty of water and take care of yourself. See you tomorrow? Tuesday, ah noo I'm really busy at college that day. We'll see, I can't stand not seeing you for too long anyway so I'll probably just burst through your door at some point. Byeeee" Jin was gone as fast as he usually showed up.

He gave her headaches but Cassia couldn't care less because just the thought of not having Jin already caused her much greater pain.

~~~

There was no use in trying to still make anything productive happen that day. Cassia attempted to work on a paper for her history class but after blankly staring at her laptop for a few minutes and thinking about how much she didn't want to do this she gave up.

She still had all of Tuesday to be productive anyway because she didn't have any shifts at the theatre again until Valentine's Day which was on Wednesday.

Thinking about being single on Valentine's Day didn't really trigger any emotion within Cassia. She had never celebrated it anyway and the one boyfriend she had had so far had not been the romantic type at all. His name was Caleb. Yep, Cassia and Caleb. The two Cs.

Maybe she had just dated him because their names sounded pretty together.

No, that wasn't true. Cassia had dated Caleb because he had been the first boy to show some sort of interest in her. At least in his own way. With Caleb it had always been hard to tell what he was truly feeling. And of course there had been Jungkook and her father.

Jungkook, even though he was the same age as Cassia, had always been very protective of her and even more so  when it came to boys. He hated Caleb and since Cassia and him met up in secret, he was making it even more difficult than it had already been. Threatening to tell on them. Caleb's parents weren't the problem, they couldn't care less about who their son was fooling around with. Cassia's parents were, especially her father. That was a whole different story though.

Cassia and Caleb..they were dating..what? Three years ago? For Cassia it felt like a lifetime ago.

She was still in South Korea back then, living with her mum and no place to hide from her father. Miserable. Desperate for someone. Desperate for..what? Affection? Love?

Nah, Caleb never loved Cassia but he cared for her. At least more than most other people close to her had and at the time, that had been enough.

That was a thing of the past now though, long gone. Now she had Jin who truly loved her just not in a romantic way and she still always had Jungkook, he was just very far away most of the time.

Jungkook..

He hadn't called in quite some time so Cassia called his number before she could think twice about it.

Voicemail..huh..

Something was up. She texted him.

Cassia
Hey Kookie, u alright?

And after staring at her phone for a few more minutes she tossed it aside. He surely was just busy right now..

~~~

Tuesday came and went. Cassia managed to actually get school work done but after being productive for most of the morning she just sat on her bed, bored. This was new to her.. Not being busy for once. Just one side job to think about and her paper was completed. Well, what now?

Jin was busy, Jungkook wasn't answering her texts and Yoongi and Leia..well. They were most likely busy too, right? Were they even her friends? Could she call them that after one night out together? She opened her phone again and texted Leia.

"Hi. What are you up to?" She typed, looked at it and deleted it again. No, that sounded really nosy.

"Hi! What's up?" Was this any better? Ehh..

"Wow" Cassia whispered to herself. "Why do I suck at this so much"

"Hi:)" she typed and quickly sent it this time.

Leia:
Hey ,  Cassie!  💕
Did u get home okay  Sunday?

Cassia:
Yep! My best friend picked me up.  What about u guys?🙈

Leia:
Fell asleep right after Yoongi dropped me off, haha.
Had the worst hangover yesterday though..

You  feeling okay? Ready for Valentine's Day?😏😏

Cassia:
Me too😅
I'm good now though, thanks. Haha, of course, my pink shirt is ready.💞

Cassia hesitated. "Just do it, worst case scenario is she just says no" she told herself.

Cassia:
Hey, Lee umm..
Would you maybe want to hang out, grab some coffee or something? If you're busy right now, we could do it some other time^^

Leia:
Suree,  where to? Text me where you live,  I'll pick you up ☺️

Cassia's face lit up with a smile. I'm doing it, making friends. She thought.

She texted Leia her adress and grabbed her favourite purse. Jin would be proud.

Not long later and Leia was already honking for Cassia to come outside.

"Hii, girly" she hugged Cassia from across the driver's seat. "Let's not get starbucks, I know a really cute café close by"

"Sure. Thanks for picking me up" Cassia smiled.

"Course" Leia's long blonde hair was tied up into a bun and she was wearing a cherry coloured blouse and red lipstick.

"Ready for Valentine's" she said, pointing to her matching heart earrings.

"Wow, haha. Are you doing anything on Valentine's Day before work, I mean do you-"

"Have a boyfriend? Nope" Leia interrupted before Cassia could finish.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to-" Cassia cringed thinking she upset Leia.

"No, no! It's fine, it's just..well my mum just asked me something like that as well and I'm sort of over it. I mean Valentine's Day is cute and all but just because you're single doesn't mean you're miserable. At least I'm not." Her smile was genuine.

"What about you?"

"Oh, no I'm not in a relationship right now. But either way I don't think I'd do much on Valentine's Day, it's just a day like any other to me." Cassia said.

~~~

The café Leia picked was indeed really cute. It wasn't too big and had a very soothing athmosphere with round, wooden coffee tables and forest green plush covered chairs.

Cassia sipped on her chai latte and softly drummed her fingers on the wood of the coffee table, the music the café played was right up her alley, soft acoustics.

"Yoongi said you were still in college" Leia began.

"Yep, my major's English. Wait, aren't you as well?"

"No, I turn 26 in three months" Leia chuckled.

"Ohh, I thought you were my age! I just turned 21" Cassia exclaimed, raising her eyebrows in surprise.

"So did I, that's why I was so shocked when Suga told me you're still in college"

"Wait, how old is Yoongi then?"

"25. He went to school in South Korea though and came here to pursue a career in music" Leia's eyes lit up with light when she was talking about Yoongi.

"Oh yeaahh" Cassia now remembered the songs he had drunkenly played for them Sunday night.

"Might just be because I was super drunk but his songs sounded really good. He definitely has talent."

"Yup. He does. The only thing that's holding him back now is that the music industry hasn't noticed yet. He works really hard, when we first met I always tried to hang out outside of work too but he was so busy. Running from one record label to the next, producing new music, polishing his older tracks...just..trying to make his dream come true. I really admire his dedication. I'm not as persistent with mine." Leia sighed.

"What's you dream?" Cassia asked, eager to learn more about her and Yoongi.

"Fashion" Leia shrugged, Cassia could tell that she was getting shy.

"I know it sounds kinda pretentious bu-"

"No, it doesn't. Never say that about something you feel passionate about. If it brings you joy, if it fills your heart with light, pursue it" Cassia said.

"That's so nice of you to say. I usually get a very different reaction when I mention that I want to design clothes for a living" Leia blushed but met Cassia's smile with her own.

"You're pretty cool, Cassia"

Suddenly it was Cassia's turn to blush. Cassia was sure of it now

Leia and her had become friends.