12 Hours After

Translator: Khan

Editor: Aelryinth

Behind Secretary Seo, a middle-aged man appeared. I stared at him with a dryly; he had long, raised hair, sideways slanting sharp eyes, and pale skin. He looked just like a lizardman, a lizardman. I tried to think of his name for a moment. I couldn’t remember the name, but I did remember the nickname Lee Ah-young had told me: Newsmaker.

I was thinking about that, and he extended me his hand and said, “Nice to meet you, CEO Han. I am Kang Joo-hyuk.”

Just at that moment, I thought of that name: Kang Joo-hyuk.

“Ah… Yes.” I held his hand and shook it a little reluctantly.

‘Jaeil Economy? That’s not going to be the Daewon Daily News. By the way, why is he…?’

At the moment, he smiled and said, “First of all, congratulations on your award!”

“Oh, thank you.”

“Well, I have to interview one of the winners of this award… I really wanted to interview the CEO, so I was talking to your secretary. Would you be able to take an interview?”

Behind him, Secretary Seo had a triumphant look on his face, as if he said, “I’ve got one, boss.”

Well, he deserved it, because I’d been saying to Secretary Seo for a long time: let me be exposed to as much media as possible, whether it’s our company or my name.

But the problem was that the person he had brought was a very, very dangerous person.

‘Secretary Seo doesn’t know what this guy is doing.’

I turned to reporter Kang Joo-hyuk and said, “Why did you think of me… there is like Director Tak Joon-gi, of Suyeon Travel.”

“Ahh… Director Tak Joon-gi? He’s from Suyeon Group, so he’s a little…” Kang nudged his face at me and spoke with his voice down, “These days, readers don’t really like the way a man born in a rich family is posted. We can’t have click counts on it. Besides, I heard he is a tough guy.”

‘I know Kang has been working with Tak for four or five years.’

They had been colleagues from the time they broke down Go-young Food. This man lied without a blink of an eye. It was an amazing skill, in a way.

I also told him as naturally as I could. “Oh, that could be, because these days are a time of relative deprivation.”

“Yes, and I wanted to get an interview with CEO Han, not someone else. I heard you were talking to the mayor earlier. You are from a poor family, right?”

“Yes, well, yes.”

“That’s good. I guess. Rather than saying that the third generation of chaebol won a prize for spending money, it would be better for the CEO of a poor family, who is thirty years old, winning the prize for hiring a lot of young people. Isn’t this a good picture, CEO Han?” he said to me with a rather stupid smile.

I looked at him for a moment. ‘This guy… is the one who’s been ordered to come by Tak Joon-gi, though he thinks he has not been found out.’

I knew his true identity through Lee Ah-young: the Newsmaker who makes news to sway stock prices and extort money from ants. As I knew he was an assassin, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to listen to him.

‘It is possible to avoid daggers or trajectories just by looking behind you. If I’m good, I can make a counterattack.’

“It sounds like… that’s a good story. All right. Let’s do the Interview.”

He bowed to me and said, “Really? Thank you, CEO Han!”

Secretary Seo behind him opened his thumb. I looked at it and thought inside, ‘Huh… it’s not an eel you’ve caught, man. It’s a viper.’

“What do you usually see when you look at stocks?”

“I’m more likely to see their future growth potential. Stocks are what grows after eating dreams. I tend to try to predict the future as much as possible.”

“Oh, I see. But isn’t the future unpredictable by people?”

“It’s not just impossible. Don’t you think that futurologists like Alvin Toffler are amazingly predicting the future? I don’t think it’s impossible, but I’d like to say it’s very difficult.”

“It’s very difficult?”

I said, nodding my head, “Yes. But if I succeed in that difficult thing, the profit is very high.”

“Oh, that’s a good word.”

He wrote down as he listened to what I was saying. That looked very familiar. I was sure he’d been working as a reporter for a long time.

“And finally, please say something to the young people at this time.”

“Me?”

“Yes. tell some kind of blessing or some prickly advice to the young men of this age, as a successful man in your thirties.”

At the words I stroked my chin for a moment and said, shaking my head. “No. I don’t want to say that much.”

“Then…?”

“I just want to cheer them up… that’s all I want to tell them.”

The reporter, Kang Joo-hyuk, stared at me for a moment and said, “But why don’t you tell them something a little bit specific? You’re a good predictor of the future. Tell them, ‘Don’t waste your life. What about designing your future? For example, how about learning Chinese? Or why don’t you learn coding?’”

I shook my head strongly and said, “I don’t want to. I’ve been successful at an early age, but… that’s because I’ve had some luck, too. It’s not entirely my ability.”

That was not a word of humility. Without the news of 12 Hours After, I wouldn’t have been able to do this.

I went on to say, “They all have their own reasons, and to tell an unspecified number of people to do this or that, I… I think it’s arrogant. I think it’s irresponsible. So… I just want to cheer them up, no matter what the young people do. I want to say that.”

He quickly typed with his hands. “Then do whatever you want, and do it well?”

But I didn’t like it. “No, I don’t want to say, ‘if you work hard at anything, it will be done.’ I think that’s a lie, too. Some things don’t work, even if we work hard. Of course, sometimes it’s helpful to step back and rest.”

Reporter Kang Joo-hyuk stared at me.

I went on to say, “So I just want to say, ‘Whatever you do, I cheer for you. Cheer up. There are times when luck comes to life.’ That’s all I want to say. I got a little bit of wealth at this age, but… I think that’s largely due to luck.”

“Hmm,” Kang Joo-hyuk raised his lower lip and said as if he were somewhat dissatisfied, “Is that so? I see.”

I didn’t know if it was because he didn’t have enough for an article, or because it was different from what he thought.

“Then I’ll finish the interview with this. The content of the interview will be adapted to the best possible level, and it’ll be on our weekly magazine and Internet site in about a week.”

I nodded, “Yes.”

Reporter Kang Joo-hyuk put his laptop in his bag.

I was looking at him. ‘What is this? Is that it?’ I thought so. As soon as I broke up with Director Tak Joon-gi, he asked for an interview, and I thought something was going to come up with a strange offer, but there was no such thing.

‘… is he just here to see me today? Is this a pre-investigation?’

But just then, he said, “By the way, this is a personal question…”

I opened my eyes wider. “Tell me.”

“Who do you think will be chosen as the Old City Regeneration Project maker of Seoul City?”

I said with my eyes blinking, “… what?”

“Don’t you know Mayor Joo Sung-won’s pledge?”

“Aha… the Old City Regeneration Project.”

‘It was the biggest, number one pledge of Joo Sung-won. Such a pledge is to rejuvenate the Old City spirit by demolishing old buildings in Seoul City, creating new buildings and new commercial districts. To be honest, there are no good pledges like development or redevelopment. It’s the kind of commitment that the real estate agents like, the residents like, and everyone likes.

‘That’s why Dong-bo Construction, in which he was an outside director became a leading stock at the time of the Seoul mayoral election. Usually, most political theme stocks focus on who will be elected before the election, and what the elected will do after the election. It’s a so-called policy theme. Now that it’s been a little over half a year since Mayor Joo Sung-won was elected, it’s time to start the engine.’

I asked him, “Has it been under way lately?”

“Oh, didn’t you know that?”

Frankly speaking, I didn’t know. There was no such news in the future news. Even without such news, my calendar application was already covered with a treasure map made of initials, so I didn’t think to look for it.

“As soon as he was elected, everyone has asked him to keep his promises. It’s been a radical development lately, the first redevelopment project in Jung-gu… They’re even close to selecting a business operator.”

“Aha… and does it include Dongbo Construction?”

“No, Dongbo Construction was not on the list, because the mayor used to be an outside director there… I think he just left them out, as he was afraid of preferential treatment.”

“Huh.”

‘These days, if they have connections, it might be a negative factor since the people around watch that carefully.’

“Then…?

“About five have been nominated… ” He took a piece of paper out of his sleeve.

‘Oh, now you’ve revealed your true mind.’

I could see the paper as a dagger, not the paper itself, but a dagger trying to stab me.

“The most likely ones are Bisang Construction and Jinyang Development here. It’s compressed by these two…”

I asked him, “Where did you hear that?”

“Haha. Well, I could hear things here and there… while I was working as a reporter. It’s a rumor. Haha.”

‘A rumor? Not one you made up?’ I didn’t think the nickname “Newsmaker” was made for nothing.

I furtively said, “Oh… so I’ll have a good chance if I just pick one here. Isn’t that going to be pretty easy?”

He said with a real smile, “Of course!”

Maybe he thought he nearly got the fish, he seemed to be laughing like that. However, I was not a person to be caught easily.

‘Pah! Can you hook me up?’

I thought how to sink this guy under the sea, below the surface of the water. That way, he would probably not even be able to shed tears of grief.