12 Hours After

Translator: Khan

Editor: Aelryinth

Tiriri tiriri tiriri… The alarm went off. I woke up, my eyes opened, I took a shower, shaved, and dried my hair. I walked to the kitchen, but suddenly I thought I would like to eat the cheesecake. There was some chicken porridge and side dishes that Ah-young had left together yesterday when she had made chicken, but I turned around and headed straight to the dressing room. I got dressed up for work, and headed to the elevator inside the house. Pressing the down button, I waited for a moment, and soon the elevator came and opened.

Ding-dong. I got in there. And when I saw the button on the elevator, I got in trouble for a while.

‘First floor or thirtieth floor?’ I soon finished my worries and pressed the first floor. The elevator went down and stopped on the first floor.

The door opened, and some of the employees who saw me said. “How are you, sir?” Some others stuttered in amazement, “Hello, bo… boss.” Some people greeted me calmly and neatly.

I raised my hand. “Yes, hello.” After receiving their greetings, I headed to the cafe on the first floor. I usually sent a secretary to buy rather than come down like this, but I stopped by once in a while. I wanted to check that business was going well. Fortunately, the cafe was crowded even in the morning.

‘With this, the offices are not going to be vacant, because their business is going well.’

There was a line at the place where the order was received. I stood in line without a word.

“Did you hear that? Section Chief Park applied for a housing subscription and got it.”

“Really? Where?”

“Sungsu-dong, he can only see the tip of the Han River in the kitchen, but the premium is $300,000.”

“Really? A big hit!”

“That’s why he stopped nagging the employees these days.”

“Really? Well, that’s good, then?”

“But maybe that’s why he is not really interested in things these days, and he doesn’t have much enthusiasm. We are also losing strength… I’m not sure if this is good.”

I thought as I listened to it, ‘Who’s Section Chief Park?’ Our company had grown to a considerable degree and we had many section chiefs. I would find out if I looked it up.

“Mr. President!” One of the female employees, who was chatting, was surprised at me being there. The woman next to her also stepped back, covering her mouth, “Uh.” She was surprised that the president of her company was lined up behind her.

I raised my hand to greet her. “Hello.”

The women stepped aside for me. “We want you to make an order first, Mr. President.”

“No, it’s your turn now.”

The two looked back. There was no one in front of them. They bent their heads and ordered what they wanted. Then it was my turn. In front of me was a young part-timer who seemed to have just graduated from high school. She didn’t seem to know I was the owner of this building. Just seeing that the female employees who were older than me greeted and called me, “Mr. President,” she seemed to think I was their superior.

“I’d like a piece of cheesecake, and a glass of white chocolate mocha Grande, please.”

“Yes.” After I finished my order, I stood in the cafe for a moment and waited.

Meanwhile, a handsome man with combed hair came and said hello. “I’m Kwon Hyuk-jin from the overseas investment department. I greeted you at the last welcoming party for new recruits.”

“Oh, you look familiar. Are you adapting to the company?”

“Yes, boss.”

But after that greeting, a woman with a strong perfume came to me and said hello, “I have seen you for the first time, Mr. President. I am Kang Soo-jung from the real investment department.”

“Oh, yes…”

I was greeted constantly. Thanks to that, there were two lines in the cafe. I was a little embarrassed, but not too badly. I usually stayed in the president’s office to analyze the news and trade stocks, so I had employees who hadn’t even seen my face once. It wouldn’t be bad to show my face like this from time to time. Shouldn’t I let them know who was paying their salaries? With countless greetings, I got back on the elevator and arrived on the thirtieth-floor president’s office.

“Are you here?”

“Are you here, boss?”

Two secretaries welcomed me as always. One of them would quit within a month, but I asked Secretary Seo implicitly. “How are your preparations going?”

“They are going well, boss.”

I stared at him, then turned to Secretary Park. “Secretary Park.”

“Yes, boss.”

“Don’t quit.”

At my words, Secretary Park smiled and said, “Yes, boss. I don’t earn as much as Secretary Seo and I can’t quit.”

Park was quite close to Secretary Seo, and knew that Seo had bought stocks after me with the salary he had received and become a rich man worth tens of millions of dollars.

I laughed and said jokingly, “Don’t quit, even if you’re richer than Seo. He’s going to have a hard time starting a business. When he leaves home, he will know how valuable home is.”

Secretary Park giggled at my words, and Secretary Seo slightly lowered his head.

I said, hitting him on the shoulder, “I’m kidding, man. Try hard.”

Only then did Secretary Seo speak with a slight smile, “Yes, boss.”

I’d known him since his school days; he had enough ability enough to go out and succeed. I believed in him. He would certainly succeed, and the four million dollars I’d decided to invest in him would come back double.

‘If it doesn’t work, I’ll make it work.’ To be honest with myself, I had the power to make something impossible to work succeed, unnoticed.

“Then do your work.” I was going to go into the president’s office with the cheesecake and coffee I had just bought, leaving the words behind, and said one more thing, “Ah! Secretary Seo.”

“Yes, boss.”

“By contacting Director Jung, tell him to check if there is a section chief who recently signed up for a housing application in Seongsu-dong. Let Director Jung go and give him a shoulder massage, and ask if he doesn’t want to work because of the apartment.”

“Oh, yes.”

Coming into the president’s office, I turned on the computer while drinking coffee. The last computer in the president’s office cost a few thousand dollars, but the new computer cost nearly fifty thousand dollars. It was a supercomputer set with three monitors. Of course, it was all about surfing the Internet or working on it, but I did it anyway. The information that came and went to this computer was worth a billion dollars.

‘Especially the information that’s coming in today… how much is this? I can sell it for tens of million dollars to anyone who wants to know who will be the next president.’

I recalled the Banquet of Dragons last year. The members who had a secret party on the Bukhan River would probably be very sensitive about who the next president was and what their policies would be. They would modify their group strategy according to that.

‘I can’t sell it, and I don’t want to sell it.’ I watched the time while eating cheesecake. It was 8:40. There was still about fifteen minutes left.

‘Who will be…’

I once again took out the list I was investigating. ‘The ruling party – Joo Sung-won; the opposition party – Han Sang-hoon, Lee Soo-won and Jung Kyung-wha; the second opposition party – Kwak Ji-won, Ahn Sang-jin.’

I had found out the deadly weaknesses of Han Sang-hoon, Lee Soo-won, and Ahn Sang-jin, one by one, using Crow. If I made up my mind, they were the ones who I could destroy. If any of these people were elected, I’d blow their chances without hesitation. They had a history of committing corruption and lying to the people.

On the other hand, there had been bad rumors about Seoul Mayor Joo Sung-won, who had an acquaintance with me, and about Jung Kyung-wha and Kwak Ji-won, but it would be strange if there was no such thing for politicians l. All of them were found to have been truly innocent by the investigation of Crow.

‘I wish one of Joo Sung-won, Jung Kyung-wha, or Kwak Ji-won will be president. Then, I don’t have to change the President with my own hands. Frankly speaking, changing the president with my hands is a little onerous. If the new president doesn’t manage the country’s affairs well, I’m responsible, too. Of course, politicians who are full of corruption and pretense should be hanged, but at least, I hope a good president will be chosen by the people’s choice.’

At 8:55, an email came. As soon as I received the email, I went to 12 Months After and wrote down three of the most likely people, ‘Joo Sung-won, Han Sang-hoon, Kwak Ji-won,’ in the People Search. When I saw the news, it was just one news with all three names on it.

[Joo Sung-won topped the list with 40.7% of the votes, becoming the twentieth President of the Republic of Korea. Second-ranked Han Sang-hoon, 33.1%, third-ranked Kwak Ji-won, 20.1%.]

I muttered at it, “Oh, this… this is it.”

In fact, it was more surprising to me that Rep. Han Sang-hoon would run for president than Joo Sung-won’s election. Lee Soo-won and Jung Kyung-wha of the same party were also powerful people, but becoming a presidential candidate after defeating them, he was a politician with potential. There were a lot of crumpled corners behind him, but I thought of the actions I had to take right away seeing this result.

‘I should have a closer relationship with Mayor Joo Sung-won on the grounds of those things… but I will punish Han Sang-hoon immediately. Although Han Sang-hoon fails in the upcoming presidential election, he is still in his late fifties. It is not unusual that he will have a second chance to be a presidential candidate then. I’m going to punish him here so that he can’t make a full comeback.’

To punish him, I had prepared a complete scenario. The beginning would be a sexual affair with a female secretary. Disclosing that he had been filming the sex at the National Assembly office in Yeouido would give the first blow. Of course, Rep. Han Sang-hoon would not stay still. I was sure he would guard all over the place. But then, I would expose the list of Goo Soo-gil and completely destroy him. When the two were combined, it would be hard for him to stop them. Both cases had clear evidence in the first place, so it would be hard to get out of them unless he covered the eyes of the people.

‘All right, then…’ I picked up my cell phone and looked at the call number of Lee Won-jae, who was now the head of a listed company. He had helped me in the last incident of Tak Joon-gi, had been invested in by me and had a strong relationship with me. I phoned him.

Tiriri, tiriri. By the time the phone rang twice, he answered, “Hello, CEO Han Sang-hoon.” The head of a company received a phone call faster than any secretary. Of course, he must have been surprised to see my name.

I asked him with a big smile, “CEO Lee, are you okay to run the company?”

“Yes, I’m in a good position now. What’s the matter?”

“I’m trying to bury a politician…”

“Who… do you mean?”

“Rep. Han Sang-hoon, with the same name as me.”

“Oh, he’s… but he’s one of the presidential candidates, isn’t he?”

“That’s why I called CEO Lee Won-jae. Will you do that for me?”

He hesitated for a moment, then told me, “Could you send me the source?”

I lifted the phone for a moment and looked at it. ‘This guy…’ Then I told him once more, “You have to tell me if you will do it or not. Then I’ll send it to you. Are you going to make this a trial?”

When I went strong, he dropped his tail right away. “… No, I will, CEO Han. Please send me the source in my email. When should I write it?”

“As soon as possible.”

“Yes, sir.”

When I finished my call, I sent him an email with the file I had prepared. The email for Rep. Han Sang-hoon was a complete declaration of death as a politician. But after sending the email, there was another email for the correction news.

I saw it and thought, ‘Ah, I see. If the Daewon Daily News blows it up here, Rep. Han Sang-hoon will not be a presidential candidate.’ I read the correction news, thinking about it.

[The correction news: This morning, the article of Joo Sung-won who was elected the twentieth president was changed due to the involvement of the subscriber.]

I slowly read it, but there was something in it that was different from what I had expected.

“Eh?”