12 Hours After

Translator: Khan

Editor: Aelryinth

I was rather surprised to see the title of the article. I already knew what was going on in the article. I was probably the first to know that there was corruption involved in the selection process. What was surprising was that Mayor Joo Sung-won, the chief of the Seoul administration, revealed the corruption in person.

‘Well… it’ wasn’t an easy decision to make.’

I was going to click on the article to see more. ‘No, this isn’t the time.’ First, I turned to HTS. Bisang Construction was at the lower limit price in a few seconds. On the other hand, Jinyang Development was hanging around at +14%, the lower limit price was lifted. If Bisang Construction failed to be selected as a business operator, the likely company would be Jinyang Development. It was a simple calculation, but the market participants didn’t know it, or they didn’t have money even though they knew it.

‘I have the money.’ I immediately started buying up Jinyang Development. I didn’t have to look at the stock window of the asking price of the market.

‘$1,000,000.’

‘$2,000,000.’

‘$1,500,000.’

‘$3,000,000.’

I just shot the money in. The stock price went up and turned around thirty seconds after I had started placing the buy orders. Ants were creeping in. I put a buy order of twelve million dollars at the upper limit price. It was the end of Jinyang Development’s price fluctuation. Opportunities wouldn’t go round for those who had heard the news belatedly. There was no one to fight against my twelve million dollars in the first place. With this move, I picked up all the money off the street.

I turned my eyes again, with the article I had seen earlier. ‘What the hell happened?’ I wondered how it was different from the future article I had seen. The future news I had seen a month ago was this.

[They issued an arrest warrant for Jung Gi-woong, president of Bisang Construction. Is the Old City Regeneration Project disrupted?]

I searched for “Jung Gi-woong” by People Search, and in the news of 12 Months After, an article came out. I didn’t know how he got through the competition, but the article said that in January next year, Jung Gi-woong, president of Bisang Construction, bribed Seoul government officials and won the Old City Regeneration Project. It was a typical corruption case in civil engineering, and only the CEO would be arrested, without business interruption.

With this article, it seemed that the forces who entered Bisang Construction would have made money, according to their own scenario. It would have been almost a year since the corruption would be uncovered, but it would take only a month until they disposed of shares at the abnormally-high price. That was why I decided to shorten the period of nine months to expose them.

I scraped the article, memorized it, discarded it, and reconstructed it, like a new article. Then, if I sent the data with a “Q” sign, it was ready to spread to every city government official. I was an anonymous contributor, but I had exposed who had been involved in the corruption scandal, and how the officials received money, and how much they received in detail. The Seoul Metropolitan Government had investigated because the contents were so detailed.

And if they investigated this case on the basis of the submission, they could not deny the question, “Did you ever receive gold bars worth three hundred thousand dollars as a bribe from Jung Gi-woong at the Carlton Hotel in Yeouido around December nineteenth of last year?”

There was no denying it, so this was the result.

[Joo Sung-won, Mayor of Seoul, disclosed the corruption involved in the Old City Regeneration Project business operator selection process.]

What surprised me here was that Mayor Joo Sung-won himself became the main disclosure. He admitted a case where his own men committed corruption. If it turned out poorly, he was bound to be damaged.

I read the article, just picking the important stuff.

[Today I found out that there was corruption in the selection process, and I confirmed who was involved and contacted the media right away… I wasn’t directly involved in the bidding process, but I also felt responsible and…]

According to the article, he chose to make himself clear, even if he was damaged by the fallout. I thought he did a good job. If he came straight out with this, people who doubted him, asking, ‘The mayor is the top official, and is he also someone who took the money?’, would hesitate.

Since the disclosure came out three days after the business operator had been selected, there had not been a significant tax leak. Maybe this would be a blessing, just like the last fake Me Too case. ‘The public’s assessment of a politician’s story is not always as close as 1+1=2, or A, B, C, and D.’

I looked at it and thought, ‘He is a man with good political sense. Maybe he’ll really be the next president.’ I thought I was getting more connected to this guy.

Then, I got a call from Vice President Jang. “Boss.”

“Yes.”

“I’ve got the team running the short stock sale in a hurry… but they couldn’t sell. It went straight down to the lower limit price too fast.”

I said as if I was sorry, “Well, we can’t help it, but it’s okay. Don’t we still have our shares to sell anyway?”

“Yes, we have.”

We were still in possession of the shares we had sold off with a short stock sale since the greedy wouldn’t sell at the double price. But now they were all too impatient to sell it.

“This will hit the lower limit price twice from now on… No… if the results of the police investigation show up wrong… maybe it’s a delisting issue.”

“Yes.”

Bisang Construction was to be pressed down, and Jinyang Development was to be raised. Now, the forces that stuck to Bisang Construction were going to suffer from the situation we had experienced before. The shares of Bisang Construction they had bought a lot were heavily piled up at the lower limit price and they could not sell them, while Jinyang Development, which they had happily put a short stock sale on, was at the upper limit price, and they could not buy it back. Their speed on the road to Hell was doubled.

I made it clear to Vice President Jang. “Pour in all the remaining shares for a short stock sale. Do you understand?”

Now it was like the lion biting the gazelle’s throat. Jang would pile up sales on the asking price so that the stock price of Bisang Construction would never rise. He would do it until the operational forces were completely out of breath.

Vice President Jang, who had been depressed only a few days ago, spoke in a lively voice, “Yes, sir! I’ll do as you order!”

——

After I finished talking to Vice President Jang, I thought of a few faces for a moment: Master T. Tak Joon-gi, Newsmaker Kang Joo-hyuk, Kaiji Lee Won-jae, and his brother, who looked similar to Lee Won-jae.

By now, their faces were probably as red as the stock window of Bisang Construction.

‘You will have to vomit up all the money you have earned from sending others to Hell so far… You not only have to vomit everything you’ve eaten, but you’ll also have to squeeze out the gastric juice, too. Not only me, but other institutional investors and foreigners are anxious to complete a short stock sale.’

I picked up my cell phone. If I could, I’d like to call and tease them. ‘Ha-ha. Who’s the loser now?’

Well, come to think of it, there was no reason I couldn’t call. Kang Joo-hyuk and I weren’t enemies on the surface. We were rather close friends, an informant and an investor. Even his advice was correct, “I think you should invest in Jinyang Development.”

‘Well, then, let’s get on the phone.’ I picked up my cell phone and pressed the call button to him. It was not out of line to thank him. Recalling the conversation he and I had, of course, I should thank him. There was a crisis, but I hit a grand slam to turn the tables around.

Tiriri… Tiriri… Tiriri… Tiriri… The call tone kept going on around twenty seconds.

‘Is he not answering the phone on purpose?’

I didn’t know why he did not answer the phone, but I was sure there would be a big fuss going on over there. I stopped calling his phone, just leaving a text message.

– Have you seen the news today, reporter Kang? I’m very lucky. I thought I’d lose a lot of money three days ago, but on the contrary, it’s a big profit. Please call me sometime. I’ll buy you a good meal.-

I texted him like that, but after sending him the text, I suddenly thought, ‘No, by the way… if I buy a meal, can he even eat it? Because of this incident, reporter Kang Joo-hyuk may lose not only money but other things.’

As far as I’d been dealing with Bisang Construction, I felt the operational forces had put in at least thirty million dollars here. Considering their short stock sale of Jinyang Development, it seemed that they were running around with about fifty million in capital. At this rate, they wouldn’t get half of half of their money. The money might be from Tak Joon-gi or the equivalent of a big hand in the shadows.

‘They must be going insane after losing thirty or forty million dollars, because until just now, they thought they would make that much money. After they lost the money, the shock will be added. If someone has to take responsibility for the swing of sixty to eighty million dollars, maybe the arrow will go to the man who made the news.

‘Where did this information leak out? How did you handle it? Did you bet on the other hand? Did you want my money?’ That might be the case.

‘Well, if that happens… These are people who think human lives are worthless. He may be buried in one of the nation’s numerous mountains where no one knows, or he may have a swift suicide caused by the stock investment failure, and hang himself. Of course, someone else will stand by with a knife in the process. But what can he do? He gets what he deserves.

‘Because of his manipulation, others have already hanged themselves. There is Lee Kang-san of the president of Go-young Food, Lee Ah-young’s father. In addition, how many people across the country will die after their stock investments fail?’ When I thought of that, I didn’t feel sorry for him. It was only natural for a devil to go to hell.

But then, my cell phone rang. It was none other than Kang Joo-hyuk.

‘Did he see my text now?’ I wondered while I was lowering my cell phone for a moment. I didn’t know what to say at first.

Saying, ‘Poor reporter Kang’, would be overly chatty. Or, saying, ‘Thank you, Mr. Kang’, I could get right to the point.

I pressed the call button and held it to my ear. But, unexpectedly, an urgent voice came out of him, “CEO Han, please spare me.”

‘What is it in such a hurry?’ I could roughly guess, but I pretended not to know, “What’s wrong with you, Mr. Kang?”

He spoke in an unbecoming rambling way. “No, this announcement…”

“You mean the corruption of the business operator?”

“Yes. Isn’t that what you… planned?”

“What?”

He used his power of reasoning as a Newsmaker. “No… you put a short stock sale on Bisang Construction… After all, you’re the winner.”

But there was no evidence. “No, I just… I heard what you said, and I thought Jinyang Development has a high possibility and I did it…”

He took a breath for a moment, then told me, “Are you serious? You prepared a short stock sale of nearly twenty million dollars just after listening to me?”

I answered calmly, “Yes, I thought Jinyang Development was a strong candidate. I just found out that there was corruption in Bisang Construction. As you know, the only companies we have are a game company, an entertainment company, and a private broadcasting station.”

He clicked his teeth and replied, “Ah… yes, I see. I see…” He seemed to be frightened.

‘At least… now that it’s gone wrong… he knows a problem is coming.’ I thought at this time, ‘If this guy’s dead, is that an ending? That’s a little bad ending. The main body of this case is in a deeper side: Daewon Daily News and Suyeon Group.’

I pressed the recording button on my cell phone and said to him, “Well, what’s wrong? Please be honest with me, Mr. Kang.”