1945; Love during War

Chapter 19: The Research

A lot of unanswered questions and curiosity woke Taehyung up at 5 in the morning and after grabbing quick slices of bread, he headed to the town. The library would be the best place to research on all the stuffs he needed. After waiting for an hour, the library finally opened and he ran to the stack of old newspapers. It was going to be a very hectic job but he knew the library held answers to many of his questions. He dug out newspapers of last year given how Jessie had shared the chain of events taking place in the same year. He doesn't know if it was luck or coincidence, the 5th paper he pulled out had an article about Jimin which read "Local man gets arrested for helping Jews". There was a very blurry picture of the man who had been arrested and this was the first time Taehyung got a glance of how Jimin looked. The article was completely against Jimin and how he was labelled as a traitor to the society. Taehyung's heart knew it was wrong.

After a quick scanning of the paper, he went on to articles after the day of Jungkook's previous fight with Jay Park. There was another article which was titled "Two men arrested in a street fight". Taehyung immediately knew that it was Jungkook but he had no idea that he had been arrested. He wanted to inquire further about it but to his dismay, none of the articles have seemed to cover it later.

After hours,the search made him so tired &between the pile of papers, he rested his head on the shelf and started rubbing his temples. As he slowly opened his eyes, one of the article caught his attention. Something about the article seemed to have grabbed his attention which was titled, "A German Commander's Daughter and a local man's forbidden love story". The article was dated way back after Jimin's arrest but to Taehyung it seemed he had unlocked another answer. As he read the article, the names of the individuals were not mentioned but he remembered when Jessie had said about him falling in love with the wrong person.

The article also talked about an had been arrested afterwards for helping Jews and the trace of the daughter had just disappeared. This article didn't speak bad of Jimin or the woman. Taehyung was adding the pieces of the puzzles when a idea popped into his head, the writer of the article could give answers to his questions. He quickly scanned for the name of the author and fortunately, it was given as Park Bo Gum. Taehyung knew this man could answer a lot of his questions so he rushed out of the library to see Jihoon. He knew others would double question him about his investigation so he decided Jihoon was the safest option. He rushed to their shop without holding his breath and entered in. Jihoon was sitting next to his grandfather and helping with the chores.

His entry rung the door bell and the pair looked up to see a man catching his breath.

"Hey Tae" Jihoon rushed and hugged him. Mr. Hitman too got off and came to greet Taehyung.

"How have you been boy? It seems like ages since I last saw you" Mr Hitman said. It was quite surprising how they had gotten so close with Taehyung over such a short span.

"I still have two weeks left Mr Hitman." Taehyung smiled showing his boxy smile.

"Oh that's even great. By the way, you are coming to the gathering tonight right?" He asked.

"Well about that, I don't know about. I don't think if Mr Park wants me around" Taehyung said sadly.

"Are you silly? She doesn't mind and don't mind her, she can be rude at times but she would love our company as well."

"You think so?" Taehyung asked.

"I know so" Mr Hitman said with assurance.

"Alright, I will be there. And for now, can I take Jihoon with me for awhile?" He asked sweetly.

"What for?" Hitman asked.

Taehyung wasn't prepared for an answer. So after a little stammering he came up with a lie, "Uhmm, I-I wanted to sight see the place. I hope that's fine with you"

He was internally shouting for him to say yes and after careful thinking Mr Hitman replied, "Well why not. In fact, you guys can come together in the evening."

"Great" Taehyung said squealing and pulled Jihoon out. After they reached a quiter spot, he turned to Jihoon and said, "Alright Jihoon, I have a small favor to ask you. But you have to promise me, that you won't tell anyone about it ok?"

Jihoon was unsure but decided to agree on.

Taehyung took out the newspaper article and showed it Jihoon, "Do you think perhaps this article is talking about Jimin?"

Jihoon knew it was about Jimin as soon as he read the title. But he was shocked how Taehyung had figured it out. After a little hesitance and looking around, he said, "Yes, but where did you get that Tae?"

"That's not the point Jihoon. The main point is can you help me find whoever this Park Bo Gum is who wrote this article" Taehyung said with pleading eyes.

Jihoon didn't want to give in but Taehyung had been nothing but sweet with him so he decided to help him. "Alright but pinky promise me you won't mention this to anyone, especially Jungkook Hyung. He will kill me."

Taehyung locked his pinky with Jihoon and promised. Jihoon held Taehyung's hand and took him to the house of the journalist.

As they stepped outside the house, Jihoon and Taehyung took a long breath and rang the door bell. Nobody came out even after a minute which was resulting to Taehyung's disappointment. Nobody answered on the second ring too . The duo were sad and about to return when they heard footsteps rushing towards and the door. The door opened revealing a handsome man in his late 20s who smiled and asked, "How can I help you Sir?"