Using DataStore in ViewModel not properly saving and retrieving data

Question

I am currently trying to save simple data (pin and recovery email) into data store. This is so my app knows how to behave at launch. I have decided to make a data store class to handle my data store through out the whole app. I am sure that the functions are being called at appropriate times thanks to the toast message. The main issue is that the pin will always hold the value "tutorial" despite finishing the pin setting phase and seeing a toast that the pin has been updated.

Current Problem Solving:

• It seems that the context being passed isn't the issue as it appears to be the same every time it is launched.

LaunchActivity.kt

class LaunchActivity : AppCompatActivity() {


    private val dataModel by viewModels<LaunchVModel>()
    private var pin: String? = null
    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {

        installSplashScreen().apply {
            setKeepOnScreenCondition {
                !dataModel.isReady.value
            }

            setOnExitAnimationListener {
            // code removed for brevity
            }
        }

        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)

        if(pin == null) { // no pin option set, start w/ tutorial
            replaceFragment(TutorialFragment())
        }

        else if(pin == "tutorial") { // user chose not to have a pin
            switchActivity()
        }

        else { // user has a pin
            replaceFragment(PasscodeFragment())
        }

        dataModel.pin.observe(this) { // update the pin
            pin = dataModel.returnPin()
            Toast.makeText(this, "Pin val in View Model...$pin", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show()
        }
    }
}

Basic Data

class BasicData (context: Context) {
    private val Context.dataStore : DataStore<Preferences> by preferencesDataStore(name = "LaunchSettings")
    private val dataStore = context.dataStore

    suspend fun set(key : String, given : String) {
        val dataStoreKey = stringPreferencesKey(key)
        dataStore.edit{ basics ->
            basics[dataStoreKey] = given
        }
    }

    suspend fun retrieve(key: String) : String? {
        val dataStoreKey = stringPreferencesKey(key)
        val preferences = dataStore.data.first()
        return preferences[dataStoreKey]
    }

}

ViewModel

class LaunchVModel(application: Application): AndroidViewModel(application) {
    // needed for the pause on splash (launch) animation
    private val _isReady = MutableStateFlow(false)
    val isReady = _isReady.asStateFlow()
    private var dataStore = BasicData(application)
    var pin = MutableLiveData<String>()
    var email = MutableLiveData<String>()
    var skip = MutableLiveData<String>()

    // immediately execute the splash delay
    init {
        viewModelScope.launch {
            var temp = dataStore.retrieve("pin")
            if(temp != null) {
                pin.value = temp!!
                _isReady.value = true
            }
            else {
                pin.value = "tutorial"
                _isReady.value = true
            }
        }
    }

    fun returnPin() : String? {
        return pin.value.toString()
    }

    fun data(item: String) {
        viewModelScope.launch {
            dataStore.set("pin", item)
            pin.value = item
        }
    }
}