12 Hours After

Translator: Khan

Editor: Aelryinth

I opened my eyes wider and looked at him. ‘Why did the name Tak Joon-gi come out here?’

So far, his name never came out, like Voldemort in Harry Potter, but now it came out of his mouth. It was like admitting that Tak Joon-gi was a wire-puller for the Bisang Construction.

‘This is news that has not been reported in the established media. It means he is going to take risks, too.’

But he was also mindful of the fact that I designed the plan. I said, without admitting anything. “What the hell does that mean?”

Director Lee Won-jae replied after a moment of silence, “Well… during the incident of Bisang Construction… it was Tak Joon-gi who led the stock manipulation with my younger brother. I received the information indirectly and joined it with a million dollars.”

“… I see.”

As I said that, he hesitated for a moment and asked me, “Didn’t you already know that, CEO Han?”

“Yes. I didn’t know.” I said firmly. The path I got the information from was my girlfriend Lee Ah-young, and then it was from the future news 12 Months After. These were factors that I couldn’t reveal to anyone.

“I see. Anyway, they say that Director Tak Joon-gi lost nearly a hundred million dollars in this Bisang Construction case. He was convinced that the business operator was going to be Bisang Construction… He bought lots of shares for Bisang Construction and made a massive short stock sale for Jinyang Development. He suffered huge losses.”

He spoke down as if the words were very secret, but I knew all about them, too. Only the hundred million dollars was slightly higher than I expected.

‘Someone was greedy for stock and his predictions went wrong, he lost everything he had. He must have been very greedy.’

“Although he has not expressed his anger outside… he’s been looking for whoever uncovered the corruption in the Bisang Construction. He seems to think of CEO Han Sang-hoon as the prime suspect.”

“Me? Why?”

‘He will not find any evidence. To find the evidence from Mayor Joo Sung-won, who exposed the incident, he has to chase down the exposer Cho Sang-wook, who reported the contents of 12 Months After, and find out the delivery man who delivered the data to his mailbox, and a person who made a secret request, hiding his identity. That way, he’ll find out he’s a Chinese. I know that the Chinese man, who came to Korea from Jilin Province to study, is a friend of Seo’s, but even if it’s me, it would be hard to find him!’

“He didn’t find any evidence, but… he’s firmly convinced, because Han Sang-hoon who made the most money from the incident.”

“That’s… That’s right, but it’s just a coincidence…”

“I don’t think he believes in the coincidence. That’s why he thinks Han Sang-hoon planned this… and he is trying to retaliate.”

“To retaliate?”

“Yes.”

“What kind of…?”

“Well, I don’t know, but you have a few companies and he’s trying to scam one of those companies.”

“Ah, I see, I didn’t see Director Tak Joon-gi like that. He is more unusual than I thought.”

“He hates to be a loser, so… after this incident… he seems to think that he has failed, he has lost…”

“Hmm…”

‘I have already told Crow to find out what happened in the incident, and he is going to do it. Tak Joon-gi has bad luck. I don’t know what he is trying to do, but as soon as we get some information from Crow, I will have to take his hands and feet out, before he does anything strange.’

I nodded, “I see… Thank you for the information.”

He added a word to my reply. “CEO Han, be careful. I’ve known him since I was a kid, but he is a man who is really greedy, and could be quite brutal if he wasn’t occupied by his own greed. The hundred million dollars he lost this time was a lot of money for him. I understand he even used private debts, with the shares of Suyeon Travel as collateral this time.”

I wrote down one point in my head here, ‘He used private debts as collateral with the shares of Suyeon Travel.

‘If a major shareholder uses private debts as collateral… if the stock price plummets and the mortgage was short, it will have to be paid back, even by giving up the shares. Maybe I can make a huge profit at the same time that I put Tak Joon-gi in prison.’

I spoke to him, “I don’t know what’s wrong with him, but… anyway, thank you for letting me know. I’ll pay attention.”

“Yes, CEO Han.”

I looked at him. As I had seen him so far, he was a bit pompous, but not a villain like Tak Joon-gi.

‘Maybe he can be my colleague, if he builds up more trust with me.’

As I was thinking of that, he suddenly spoke up again, “Well, by the way, CEO Han Sang-hoon. Our Daily Sports is making a corporate announcement at the end of the year. It’s KOSDAQ.”

“Oh, really? Congratulations!”

“Thank you, but I don’t think there’s going to be any kind of trouble with demand. I think it would be better if CEO Han Sang-hoon invests. These days, Invictus Investment is very popular among investors. The price of the offering will be higher just with the CEO Han’s participation.”

That was true. Now that Invictus Investment was on a roll of success, if our company bought some stocks, there were investors who would buy them.

“Well, maybe I will.”

“So, I’d like you to go over it.”

I looked at him. ‘Yeah, well, you want me to spend some money… you think you have given me a lot of information.’

Unfortunately, I also knew most of it already. It was a little short of being favored. However, it was true that a name, which no one had brought up, was on the table, so it might be appreciated. I nodded, “Please send us a proposal. We’ll check it out.”

He bowed his head, “Thank you, CEO Han.”

Finally, we got up from our seats.

“I’m sorry I took so much of your time. I was going to come and talk to you about this in person around next week, but I happened to meet you in a place like this.”

“No, that’s okay. I came here to see a car because I had time to spare. I’ve already chosen one. Please have your time and take a look around.”

“Yes, CEO Han.”

——————

Two more days had passed since that day. I went to work two more days in a row, checking the subsidiaries. I was wondering if something strange might happen. But there were no signs of that. Fantasy War Ground was cruising on and on, and “I’m Going to See You Tomorrow” starring Oh Hyun-joo was on the rise. My subsidiaries’ stock prices were also a bit on the rise. I didn’t smell anything strange.

‘What can he do if he gets busy?’ Although Tak Joon-gi was a third-generation chaebol, he was behind in his succession process. If the entire Suyeon Group, which had a combined market capital of fifty billion dollars, moved on, it would hard for me to handle, but the one who controlled only Suyeon Travel was no match for me. My assets were already heading toward a billion dollars… of what was known. He used to look pretty strong, but it was just because he was with the name Suyeon.

‘He was no match for me in the first place.’ I decided to spend a little more time thinking about it. In a month, Crow would bring the information. Then I would get him out of the capital markets completely.

‘Lee said Tak used private debts with his own shares. Well, then I’ll press the counter-deal again.’ I picked up the phone and called Secretary Seo.

“Yes, boss.”

“Please call Vice President Jang to come see me.”

“Yes…” Secretary Seo tried to answer me, but changed his words, “Ah, Vice President just came by.”

“Oh, really? Please let him in.”

“Yes.”

Over the telephone, I heard him say, “Come in.”

Jang came in with a knock. I told him, “I was going to call you, this is good.”

“Oh, were you? I have something to report, boss.”

As he told me he had something to report, I thought, ‘What happened to the other company?’

Vice President Jang asked me politely, “What do you have to say?”

“No. Tell me first. What report?”

When I asked, he held out the report he had brought to me and said, “I haven’t been looking for a long time, but recently, a good sale came to the market and I wanted to let you know.”

“Really? What is it?” I accepted that and there it was written: Report on Jiwoo Entertainment.

‘Jiwoo Entertainment?’ It was an unforgettable name to me. The company that had once been sold to a Chinese company and given me a huge return when I started getting the news 12 Hours After. It was an orphan adopted by a chaebol family.

‘Did I make about a hundred thousand dollars?’ Now it was a small sum of money, but it had been a huge sum for me, who had been unable to pay back my student loans at that time. It was one of the first contributors to my quitting the company.

I pretended to know something, “But wasn’t this company sold to a Chinese company? Is it on sale?”

“Yes, sir. It was sold to the BEU last year, but the situation in China is not good, so I guess it came back on sale.”

Fortunately, it did not seem that there was anything strange or wrong with the company. “Oh, really?”

“Yes, from the BEU standpoint, they were going to create synergy in both the Korean and Chinese markets with this company, but… the situation in China is so complicated these days… they’ve decided to reduce their overseas investment and collect the amount invested.”

“But in only a year?”

“I don’t know anything about it, but they are showing a rush to sell it regardless of the price. That’s why I said it was a good opportunity, since Jiwoo Entertainment is stronger than OH Entertainment in boy and girl groups. I thought it would be nice to buy it and connect it to OH Entertainment.”

The Chinese financial market was fluctuating these days. There were strange signs here and there in the wake of the prolonged trade war and exchange war with the U.S. The BEU seemed to be trying to dissolve the adopting an orphan a year after it did so.

“First of all, I’ll review it.”

“Yes, boss.”

I accepted the report. In the meantime, Jang added another word, “Boss, by the way.. what were you trying to say?…”

Come to think of it, I had something to say to him, too. “Ah… you’re right. We still have a team for short stock sales, right?”

“Yes, boss.”

“Please get the team ready again.”

As I said, Jang blinked for a moment, then bowed. “I’ll do as you say, sir.”