Wild For You

10. Finding The Key

Taehyung felt himself getting drowsy as he waited for Namjoon to lead the first woman past where he was hiding. However, his eyes immediately snapped to attention when they heard his voice. Taehyung's eyes tracked Namjoon's walking by with the first woman before looking down to see that he still had paws. This happened with the next three women as well. It had made the two hours of lying there seem like an eternity.

'Come on,' he thought as he felt himself get drowsy again. 'You can sleep later.'

With each failed attempt, Taehyung couldn't help feeling like last night might had been a fluke; some odd quirk in the curse that gave him one final taste of humanity before making him lose it forever.

"Right this way."

When Taehyung heard Namjoon's voice talking to the fifth and final woman he called, Taehyung shifted to pay attention again. This woman was wearing a baggy blacksweat shirt; her ginger brown hair tied back into a messy bun on top of her head. Her smile lit up her face as she nervously chuckled at Namjoon gesturing grandly at the nearby book shelves.

"Well...if you're into romance, this is the section that would best fit you."

'She's into romance' thought Taehyung as he shifted a bit in his position to get comfortable again. It was as he shifted that he noticed he had human arms and hands.

His eyes started to make things hard to see as he blinked back tears. It wasn't a fluke after all. Something was happening and it was for a reason. The reason had to do with her. He felt his hands shake as he tried to shift under the blanket to grab the clothes Namjoon had left hidden for him. He slipped them on with trembling fingers, trying to dress while laying on his back under the blanket. He hadn't had to wear clothes in so long that he struggled terribly with slipping them on for a moment. He cursed under his breath as he tried to tug his shirt down, making sure the sweatpants were hiked up before sitting up and letting the blanket fall away.

The blanket falling away and onto the floor was as if someone had lifted the lid from off his coffin. He took a look about him as he sat there for a moment. He turned his head to the side to see that Namjoon and the unknown female were still standing nearby. However, neither of them could see him from where they were standing. He moved his body so that he could place his bare feet on the wooden floorboard of the bookshop. Feet. He had human feet again. Taehyung sat there looking down at his toes for a moment, curling and uncurling them before standing slowly.

'Take it slow,' he thought when he felt his legs start to burn from not being used in so long.

Taehyung took a few steps forward, but only managed a half step or so before he felt his body stumble forward. He cursed under his breath again as he threw out his arms to break his fall. His fingers caught hold of a nearby bookshelf. He held tightly to it to stay half leaning and upright. A book or two had fallen free and onto the floor though as he collided with it.

"Umm...excuse me for a moment,"  said Namjoon to the woman. "You keep looking at the jackets, and I'm just going to check on something."

Taehyung turned his head off to the side to see Namjoon walk down the aisle. Soon Namjoon came fully into view so that the two of them were face-to-face. Namjoon froze and they just stared at each other silently for a beat or two.

"Can...can I?..."

Taehyung wasn't quite sure what Namjoon meant, but nodded his head. Namjoon reached out a hand towards him, touching his arm gently.

"So you're real then? This is real?"

Taehyung smiled softly, nodding his head. Namjoon soon smiled too, moving to pull the other away from their leaning perch against the bookshelf to hug him gently. Taehyung hugged him back.

"Hi Namjoon..." Taehyung whispered; the first words he had spoken in decades.

"Hi Taehyung," Namjoon said in return.

They stayed like that for a moment more before Namjoon released Taehyung from the hug.

"I just can't believe how much you look like the photo...You really haven't aged a day since..." whispered Namjoon before shaking his head. "Anyway, we can talk about it later. We need to focus now on the matter at hand. She must be your key, so we have to figure out why. You need to go talk to her."

Taehyung knew that, that would be the next step suggested to him, but he shook his head in response. All Taehyung could picture was his last horrific date when he had been a beast before he had been cursed as one. He realized that he treated all the women he interacted with like that. He didn't know how to act like a gentleman.

"No? What do you mean no?"

"I don't know how to talk to women," said Taehyung in a hushed response.

"What do you mean? You must have surely talked to them in your past."

"Yeah, and I was a dick then that only thought with it."

That answer made Namjoon fall completely silent as he studied the other. Taehyung's face was flushed. He was ashamed to admit it, but it was the truth. With Taehyung's luck, he was worried he would go out there and say something offensive to the woman that held the key to his curse.

"I'll help you," said Namjoon softly, grabbing onto Taehyung by the sleeve. "I'll be right there beside you to make sure you're not an idiot. No is not an option for you."

Taehyung half heartedly fought against Namjoon as he tugged him down the aisle to where the woman stood completely oblivious to everything that had happened. As they both rounded the corner, she still had her face buried in a book she had deemed interesting enough to start reading the first chapter of.

"Gemini," said Namjoon as he popped out of the aisle; still holding Taehyung's sleeve tightly like a kind of leash. "I have someone I'd like you to meet."