12 Hours After

Translator: Khan

Editor: Aelryinth

I opened my eyes, finding that Ah-young was not in the bed. I got up from it and walked out of the bedroom. The sharp smell from the kitchen irritated my nose. I rubbed my eyes and said to the kitchen. "You woke up early, didn't you? Is it kimchi stew today?"

I could hear Ah-young's voice from the kitchen. "Yes. I'm trying tuna kimchi stew today. Wash yourself and eat."

"Yes." I was about to head to the shower when I suddenly looked outside. Thick snow was falling from the sky, blanketing Seoul in white. I looked at it silently with my arms crossed.

Ah-young touched my shoulder and asked, "What are you thinking?"

"No, I just... thought it was snowing a lot."

"It will be spring soon."

I repeated Ah-young's words, "Is it going to be spring…?" It seemed that it had not been long since the New Year's countdown took place, but it was already mid-February. "Did it happen already?"

As I said that, Ah-young patted me on the back and said, "Mr. President, you've been so busy lately that time seems to be running faster."

I had indeed been a little busy lately. As the year changed to 2021, I worked harder than usual. I finished the sale of the FutureSync, checking the subsidiaries. However, the knowledge that there was a tsunami coming soon, seemed to make me nervous. In any case, all the work settled in a cool way. I sold a 51% stake of FutureSync to Amazon for 1.2 billion dollars and took the cash. As a result, my company had nearly five billion dollars in cash.

The media wrote such articles.

[About five billion dollars in cash alone. What's the next step for Invictus Investment?]

[CEO Han Sang-hoon, preparing for some giant M&A, will load five billion dollars into bullets.]

[What's the next target for CEO Han Sang-hoon? Is it about to acquire a global pharmaceutical company?]

But I had not moved, not touching the money. It was not the right time yet. Besides, I couldn't move easily, as there were many eyes watching me these days.

'The more information is spread, the less valuable it becomes.'

I was about to move quietly so that others could not notice. I asked Ah-young, "What are you doing today? If you don't mind, shall we go somewhere today?"

"I'm going to go shopping with your mother and sister today."

My eyes popped wide. "Oh, really?"

"Yes, I told you two days ago. Your mother will come up today and I will be attending to her by going shopping."

Come to think of it, I might have heard it. I asked, "Then... shall I come with you?"

"No, oppa, don't come. If you don't come, I can become better acquainted with them."

I looked at her and nodded, "... yes."

Ever since she had visited my parents' house, Ah-young had been quietly getting into my family. Fortunately, both sides liked one another. We were gradually moving toward marriage, although we didn't mention the word 'marriage' directly.

'If lovers have faith in each other, as always, they don't have to take it out of their mouths and say it.'

I made up my mind to get married later this year or early next year, when the incident in the summer was over.

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At 8:30 a.m., I took the elevator down to work in the president's office. "Good morning."

"Good morning, boss!" Secretary Park greeted me.

"How's it going?"

"Oh yes. Nothing much. We got a call from MBE. They want you to appear in 'Meet the Super Ant' again. Viewers' requests are pouring in."

I could guess the story roughly. They bought Changhae Food and Songhae Brewing along with me, but the price went up slightly and it didn't go up any more, so they'd like to ask me why.

"Tell them it's difficult. I'm so busy."

"Yes, I see, boss."

To be honest, I wasn't too busy to go on the show again, but I said that for now. The only thing the public wanted to hear from me was that Changhae Food and Songhae Brewing would go double or triple.

But to tell the truth, it would be good if both stocks did not fall. Even the price that had gone up after the people bought these stocks was likely to vanish. It was better to shut up when I couldn't talk. Moreover, I was didn't want to see the announcer with bobbed-hair who had tried to seduce me by giving me her phone number.

Before going into the president's office, I told Secretary Park. "Ji-hoon is coming today, isn't he?"

"Yes, he is."

Seo Ji-hoon, who had worked as a secretary until last year, had phoned me and said, "I will drop by your company. It's not for any matter, but for a startup interim report and a New Year's greeting."

"Yes, it's been a while since the three of us have had a meal."

"Yes."

Entering the president's office, I read the future news, searched for news in my name, and turned on the HTS to activate the automatic trading algorithm, as usual. The computer brought in more money by trading stocks, as I had programmed it.

To praise myself, I'd made a lot of donations to children who had cancer, soldiers who had been disabled while serving in the military, or children who gave up college because they didn't have money. I had started this because of my reputation, but now that a few billion dollars had come into our company, I was doing it because I thought I had to. It was noblesse oblige.

Of course, even if I would take a shower at home with a bunch of money, or would spend it around the entertainment district in Gangnam, the email of 12 Hours After would come, and Customer Service would not say anything. However, I felt that if I did not return this money to society after making money through great luck, it would not make sense somehow. I had enough money for the rest of my life, and I was sure I'd make more in the future.

Around lunch time, the telephone rang. I picked up the phone in anticipation of the loud voice of Secretary Park. But what I heard was Seo Ji-hoon's voice, which was slightly higher than his.

"Mr. President, I'm here." He must have picked up Park's phone and said it himself.

"Come in," I said with a smile.

Soon the rather frivolous Seo came in and greeted me. "How are you?"

I clapped him on the shoulder, and said, "I'm always fine. By the way, you've lost a lot of weight."

"I've been so busy lately that I don't have time to eat."

"Yes, you should be busy, as you are working with my money. Sit down."

Seo Ji-hoon took a seat in the president's office.

"So, are things going well?"

"Yes, we've got all the manpower we need, and now we're starting to develop. Please take a look." He handed me a few sheets of A4.

'Chat apps with big data collection and utilization.'

This was one of the ideas I used to think about when I had been preparing for a start-up with him in college.

"Do you really want to try this again?"

"Yes. I have enough capital this time, so I'm going to try it again."

"Well... the problem at the time was capital and regulation."

"Even advanced countries, which value personal privacy, have recently removed restrictions under the condition that they should have with a user's consent. Wouldn't Korea follow them?"

"Well, I feel that Korea is a bit conservative in regulation..." As I was saying that, I suddenly remembered that I would be able to make some adjustments to domestic policy. So I corrected what I was going to say and said to him, "But since a new president will be chosen this year, a little change might be made. Try hard first. Only those who are prepared can take the chance."

"Yes."

I put the report aside. "So where are you going to set up your company?"

"It's in Pangyo. There are a lot of people with abilities sitting there."

"Hmm, I see."

"Oh, that's what I wanted to ask you."

"What is it?"

"We are thinking of buying an office. The rent we're about to pay is very high, and it's better to start by buying an office with a few hundred thousand dollars than to pay for fixed expenses..."

"Wouldn`t it be better to do it on a short-term lease?"

"Shall we?"

"Yes. In my opinion."

He said, nodding his head. "Hmm… as expected."

"As expected?"

"No, there's been a rumor going around these days; you have been just disposing of all the stocks you have and holding cash only. Therefore, I think the economy is going to be a little bad."

I nodded and looked out of the window. "The nature of things is really fun. It's like every new thing that happens, but if we look into the past, there's definitely a similar thing, so history repeats itself, I think it's true."

When I suddenly came up with a history story, Ji-hoon listened to me quietly. I kept talking. "When the economy is in a boom, people get wet with sweet dreams. House prices go up every day, and stock prices go up. The factories are running fast, and a new building is just around the corner. But when that dream doesn't come true, when the products from the factory aren't sold and they pile up in stock and the new building's empty, it becomes a nightmare."

I said with my hands on my chin, "But nevertheless, people repeat it. Looking at modern world history, it's all the same. In any country, they've all experienced it once, especially in Northeast Asian countries. They're very similar. They're diligent, their enthusiasm for education is high, and their culture is too much alike. They're basically manufacturing-based, export-based countries. When a buyer disappears, they will be hurting soon."

I swallowed and kept talking. "Japan had its peak in the 1980s as they crossed to the U.S., but after the Plaza Accord, they lost thirty years. Korea copied Japan and its chaebol-dominated government grew with great success, but growth has been stunted since the IMF hit the country in the 1990s. The captain didn't let that happen."

Ji-hoon asked me, "The captain?"

"Yes. America. Needless to say, the United States is the current head of the economic system." I asked him, "Think about it. Where will that happen next?"

Japan, South Korea… the next country was obvious.

Ji-hoon saw the answer right away. "Do you mean China?"

I kept talking, looking out the window. "The Plaza Accord was a blatant U.S. attack on Japan, and the foreign exchange crisis was also done at the connivance of the U.S. In the first place, the lack of foreign exchange means using dollars. And that's exactly what China is like now. When Deng Xiaoping died in 1997, he told his successors that they should crouch in front of the U.S. for the next hundred years. But do you think his will is being followed now?"

Ji-hoon shook his head at my words.

I told him, "Go rent an office for now. The owner of a building will not be comfortable."