A/N: if you didn't read yesterday's update, make sure you do! :) love yall

The first thing that hits me when I get to Lucy’s house is the delicious aroma wafting in from the kitchen.

“Are you making something?” I call, throwing my bag down.

Lucy snorts. “Yeah, a microwaveable meal. Welcome to Lucy’s Fine Dining. Feel free to help yourself.”

I open up her fridge. To my shock and dismay, there’s absolutely nothing inside.

“What the hell?” I exclaim. “Dude, what do you eat?”

“The microwaveable meals are in the freezer.”

“Do you only eat those?!”

“I can’t cook.”

“Oh my god.” I facepalm. “Okay, I’ll take care of cooking. You’re going to die of sodium poisoning.”

“Is that a thing?”

“Probably!”

One hasty Instacart order- thank god for technology- and half an hour later, Lucy’s fridge and pantry are stocked with fresh ingredients. I quickly get to work.

“Chop these,” I say, fishing a few carrots out of a grocery bag and tossing them to Lucy. She’s caught off guard- instead of fumbling them, the carrots freeze in mid-air. My eyebrows shoot up.

“Wow,” I say. “You really have control over your magic.”

Lucy smiles. “I think I have the full extent of my powers unlocked. The hard part has been getting my concentration and stuff in check so I can control them. I’d sneak up to Jimin’s library while he was asleep and keep reading how to exercise my magic.”

I shake my head. “And then he caught you.”

“Yup.”

“Wow. Regardless, I can tell you’re a natural.”

I remember what Meena’s words about Lucy.

She was one of the most powerful, promising sorcerers in this division. Insanely destructive and completely dangerous.

We prepare the vegetables while making casual conversation about our day. I finally give her the whole story about what I told Taehyung the day I left.”

“Wow,” she whistles. “That’s terrifying. I’m happy he still doesn’t know about your involvement with the Hado.”

“Yeah. Jimin definitely suspects something, though.”

Lucy sharply looks up at me. “What?”

“When he set that stupid snake on me, he was asking how I got to the level of control that I did. I told him I read books or whatever- a pretty weak cover, but it’s all I could think of saying. He doesn’t know you have your magic back, right?”

Lucy shakes her head. “Thank god he doesn’t. But we need to figure out a plausible excuse for you to give him.”

I sigh. “What a pain.”

“I can’t wait for the day him and his stupid group of friends leave this place.”

“Lucy,” I say. “If you get your memories back, and you remember how you were best friends with Taehyung and Laila and Evan and them... would you still be friends with them?”

She pauses, biting her lip.

“This might change once I get back my memories,” she says slowly. “But no, I don’t think so. I was in their circle again this last semester, and honestly... it . They were superficial as hell, mean, judgemental, boring... I can’t believe I used to be one of them.”

“You didn’t. Meena said you were really rebellious and loud.”

“Me?”

“Please. What’s more surprising is that you were probably best friends with Jimin.”

Lucy lets out a harsh laugh. “No. Definitely not.”

“Huh?”

“The one thing I know for sure is that Jimin always hated me. Even before he wiped my memory.”

“How do you know?”

“Remember seeing those pictures of me and the Kado members? How the only picture of me and Jimin was one where we looked like we wanted to kill each other?”

“Maybe that was a coincidence.”

“Nah. Call it gut instinct. If we’d been friends before, he wouldn’t... he wouldn’t act the way he does.”

I don’t ask her to elaborate. But my mind is whizzing with questions. Why would Jimin get so fiercely defensive over Lucy? Why would he continue that type of... relationship with her? From what I gather, they almost seemed unhealthily codependent. Why would he care so much for someone he’s hated for years?

The only person who knows the full story is Jimin himself.

Lucy is amazed when the vegetables we have been preparing have- surprise!- been turned into a thick, creamy soup. Her eyes are wide with wonder as I open the Crock-Pot.

“Voila. You made this.” I tell an astonished Lucy.

“Holy crap.” She grabs a spoon from the silverware drawer and takes a sip. Her eyes widen comically. “Holy crap!”

“You could’ve made this instead of a microwave meal. I’ll teach you how to cook.”

“Please do.” Lucy proceeds to serve herself a bowl of soup filled to the brim. “Oh, this is so good!”

“You, too, can learn how to make vegetable soup.”

“Hell yeah.”

I’m about to go to sleep when I hear the faint murmur of conversation coming from downstairs. Is Lucy watching TV? Curiosity gets the best of me, and I tiptoe out my room and peer over the banister.

What I see almost causes me to gasp in surprise. I bite my lip to stifle any sound threatening to come out of my mouth as I watch Jimin and Lucy stare each other down by the door to the house. Lucy looks as cold and threatening as I’ve ever seen her look.

“You haven’t been answering my texts or calls, I haven’t seen you the entire day- I’m completely justified in finding you,” Jimin utters.

“I’m going to tell you this once,” Lucy responds in a cool, measured voice. “I don’t want to see you anymore. We’re done. Now. Get. Out.”

Jimin’s lips curl up into a twisted smile. “This is the- what, tenth time you’ve said something like this? Eleventh? And in the end, you’re always the one that comes back to me.”

Lucy’s hands curl into tight fists by the side of her body. “This time, I’m serious,” she says. “What you did to Joo today was a wakeup call. You almost killed her.”

“If she couldn’t kill the demon, I was going to step in. But I knew that wouldn’t happen-,”

“And what you did after she killed the demon?”

Jimin looks away, his jaw clenched. They are silent for several long moments.

“I-,” Jimin looks down at her, and for a second, I catch a flicker of raw emotion on his face.

The sight causes a jolt of surprise to hit me- I have seen Jimin grinning, fuming, fighting, but that single expression he made seemed more real than all of those combined.

“You what?” Lucy says.

“I’m trying to protect you,” he finishes, steely facade back in place. “You know I’d do anything.”

“Yeah, because you ing stole my memories in the first place? I’m in this whole situation because of you.”

Jimin is silent. Lucy stares up at him, waiting, anticipating something.

“Are you not going to say anything?” she finally whispers.

“What do you want me to say?”

“Where my memories are. Why you were the one that stole my memories and made everyone forget about my existence. Who I was. Where my parents-,”

Lucy’s voice cracks on the last word. She looks away, her composure momentarily gone. Jimin stonily looks down at her, refusing to slip up again.

“I can’t tell you that,” he says. “And I told you that night. Don’t try to look for your memories.”

Jimin’s words cause Lucy to glare at him once more.

“Okay, and I told you five minutes ago. Get out of my house.”

“Lucy-,”

“Leave.”

He stares at her for a few moments, half in disbelief.

Finally, when Lucy refuses to waver, he opens the door and strides out without another word.

Lucy and I trudge to school the next morning, both of us a little sleep-deprived.

“I’ll put my stuff up, and then meet you guys in the courtyard,” I yawn.

“Sounds good,” Lucy replies tiredly.

I tiredly walk to my locker. Everyone is still talking about yesterday’s “mysterious” explosion.

“They haven’t caught anyone yet,” someone tells their friend. “Apparently, the video footage is somehow gone...,”

“That sounds so sketchy,” their friend utters. I stifle a snort. Sketchy does describe the situation pretty well.

“Hey. Are you okay?” Jin says behind me.

I turn around, blinking up at him. “H-Hey. Sorry. Just exhausted. How was Kado training last night?”

He snorts. “Complete show. Taehyung and Jimin ended up being paired for a sparring session... it wasn’t good.”

Despite myself, I can’t help but ask, “Who won?”

Jin grimaces. “Jimin. Taehyung caught him off-guard yesterday afternoon. Jimin’s a better fighter than him by far.”

“Seriously? Is Taehyung okay?!”

“He’s alright. Just extremely bruised up. Jimin can get real... rough when he’s angry.”

A shudder runs through me- I recall the malice in his eyes as he pinned me up against the wall. “I can definitely believe that. Is he the strongest amongst you guys?”

“Yeah.” Jin leans back on the lockers. “He’s Junior Vice Captain, actually.”

“Junior what?”

“You know how the Hado’s broken up into divisions? The Kado’s the same. A Captain and a Vice Captain are at the head of every division.”

“So... Junior Vice Captain’s like an apprentice Vice Captain? Who’s Junior Captain?”

Jin shakes his head. “It doesn’t work like that. Usually, people go from being Junior Vice Captain to Vice Captain, and then to Captain.”

My eyebrows shoot up. “He’s basically going to be Captain, then.”

“Mhm. Unless a way stronger person somehow shows up. Which isn’t going to happen.”

“Wow. Has Jimin always been the strongest?”

“As long as I can remember.”

I am about to zone out and switch into exhausted-autopilot mode when my brain suddenly snags on a tiny detail.

“Wait. Jin. As long as you can remember?”

He gives me a strange look. “Uh... yeah.”

Memories flash through my mind. Lucy’s extreme control despite the fact that she just regained her magic. The picture of Jimin and Lucy at the Kado achievement banquet. The incomprehensible, tense anger Jimin holds against Lucy; like he’s constantly trying to prove his superiority over her.

“Hey,” I breathe. “I think... I think I have a theory.”