12 Hours After

Translator: Khan

Editor: Aelryinth

I carefully took the soup to my mouth. I was a little nervous, as I was not very good at lying. But if I ate it, I had to say it was good whether it would taste good or not. By the way, I said it from the bottom of my heart, “It’s delicious!”

Lee Ah-young, who was watching my face carefully, smiled brightly, “Really?”

I said, nodding my head, “Yes, where did you learn to do soybean paste soup while you were in America?”

“I just learned from the Internet.”

I’d been living on my own for almost ten years. ‘It never tasted like this when I tried…’

She certainly seemed to have been born with a gold hand in cooking. I had breakfast with a simple side dish, including soybean paste soup, sunny-side-up fries, and kimchi.

“It’s all good. Did you learn all this by yourself when you went abroad to study?”

“No. I bought most of my food when I went abroad to study. I liked the American style. But when I came back to Korea, I remembered the home meals my mom used to cook… and I’ve tried this and that.”

“Well… I see.”

I had breakfast with her like that. It was good to have a girlfriend right next door. Of course, sometimes it was a little burdensome. I even drank coffee from her mixer. In the meantime, the alarm went off. It was 8:50 a.m.

“I’ll go. It’s time to work.”

“Can’t you just take a day off and hang out with me?”

I shook my head, “No, I can’t.”

‘If I don’t work, I miss a few hundred thousand dollars a day. Even though I’ve already become wealthy, with hundreds of millions of dollars, I can’t afford to let go of my work. Will I be able to give up this even if I become worth a few billion dollars? Probably not…’

Consoling her, as she was slightly downcast, I said, “When the market ends, let’s go to the movies in the afternoon.”

“Really?”

“Yes, the movie theater is right next to us anyway.”

“Then what will we see? What kind of genre do you like, oppa?”

“Anything. I don’t care much.”

“Then I will choose what I want to see.”

“Yes,” I agreed thoughtlessly, then left her room and came back to my own apartment. The computer was already on. I sat down and accepted the email, 12 Hours After.

“Umm…” These days, I did not take the news 12 Hours After into account much. The running money was so big that I didn’t pay much attention to the short-term news 12 Hours After. These days, my main focus was on the news 12 Days After or 12 Weeks After. They would give me enough time to analyze the power of the news and to gather more shares.

I was humming and pressing the news 12 Days After. By the way, some interesting news came out.

[Politics – The constitutional amendment should not be delayed any longer. A proposal was made for a simultaneous vote with the general election.]

[Economy – The stock price of Hyun Young Pharmaceutical surged according to the change in the largest shareholder.]

[Society – An intensely hateful society. What’s the problem?]

On the Economy category, there was news about Hyun Young Pharmaceutical.

“It’s our news, isn’t it?”

I clicked on it.

[Hyun Young Pharmaceutical has been on a sharp rise on news that it will change its largest shareholder. Invictus Investment (CEO Han Sang-hoon), a mid-sized investment company, recently completed a large-scale stock purchase, followed by a third party-allocated paid-in capital increase to become the largest shareholder of Hyun Young Pharmaceutical…]

I could see my name in the news, too. I grinned. ‘Now I’m also in the future news.’

I felt like I was becoming the main character in the world. If I made ten, twenty, fifty, and a hundred companies that I could rule here, I would be on the news even if I didn’t like it. If I searched for myself in People Search, I might be able to get some news like [CEO Han Sang-hoon’s business trip to China…] and [CEO Han Sang-hoon’s investment is on the right track again.]

‘Not only that, right now I am young, and I see only 12 Months After, but when I get older, if I receive the news 12 Years After, I may get the news like [Chairman Han Sang-hoon dies of lung cancer.]

‘Then, twelve years early, I can take a lung cancer test, prevent it first, or have surgery. In the case of lung cancer, the survival rate is more than seventy percent if found in Stage One, but less than five if found in Stage Four. I’ll live a few more years than I originally could. It’s easy to avoid a traffic accident by simply changing my schedule for that day.

‘All right. All right. It’s going well.’ I also typed in my name in People Search, with that idea.

[Han Sang-hoon, the representative of a party, says the Blue House has to show willingness for the constitutional amendment.]

However, I was still behind a politician Han Sang-hoon. In terms of recognition, he seemed to be a mountain which I needed to cross over.

‘A politician versus a businessman… I can’t help it, but… As a CEO of a company, if I were compared to the representative of a party, I will have to become a chairman of the nation’s top five conglomerates. Will it take ten years?

‘It won’t be that far. No, ten years is just the time it takes in light of what I have in terms of my current Diamond Class. The higher the class, the shorter the time it will take to establish my empire.

‘All right, two weeks from now, it will be done.

‘The contract will be concluded next week, and the paid-in capital increase will be completed next week, too. When I consider the last time, when I got to Diamond Class, I will receive a “Class Notice” twelve hours from the time the stock is fully transferred. I’ll be stronger when I get the Master Class.’

———————————-

“All right, here… I am going to buy six hundred thousand dollars worth at the closing price, and it’s over.”

I got up from my seat with my last order today. I was supposed to go out with Lee Ah-young after the market closed: a movie theater date. I opened the door right away and rang the doorbell next door, Lee Ah-young’s. In fact, I knew her password thanks to her friend Sarah, but I didn’t let her know that because she had never told me directly.

“I am done with my work today.”

“Really? Let’s go right away. It’s a 3:50 movie.”

“What kind of movie?”

“It’s ‘I’m Going to See You Tomorrow,’ a romantic movie.”

When I heard it, I said, slightly opening my mouth, “Ahh… I’m Going to See You Tomorrow…?”

“I’m Going to See You Tomorrow” was a film starring Oh Hyun-joo. A few days ago, it was mentioned by President Kwon Oh-hyuk at the regular report. He reported that the preview was good. Oh Hyun-joo was my favorite actress and I said to President Kwon Oh-hyuk, “I’ll make sure I see it.” But for some reason, I felt uncomfortable going to see it with my girlfriend, Lee Ah-young.

Lee Ah-young, who looked at my eyes, said to me, “Don’t you like romantic movies?”

“No… No. It’s okay. Let’s go see it.”

“Uh…” She looked up at me like I was strange, but she didn’t ask me any more questions.

——————————–

Oh Hyun-joo was up on the big screen. She looks back at the male main character with a pure face and speaks her lines, “Tomorrow… I am going to see you tomorrow.”

I watched the movie without touching the soda I had bought. I had two thoughts while watching the movie.

‘First, Oh Hyun-joo’s beauty is great, and she’s really good at acting. I’ve known her since she was unknown, but she seems to be doing better recently. She plays the main character of the tragic actress, and she seems to have become the character herself.

‘The second thought is rather a snobbish one: “No, this…Who is the production company? If it’s a listed company, the stock price is going to jump.” This is definitely a big hit. Just as I benefited from the zombie movie “Train to Seoul” in the past, I can earn a few million dollars if I invest in the production company. Oh’s agency, OH Entertainment, is also likely to rise a lot, before the surge of Idol Manager 108. It’s amazing.’

After the movie, the lights came on and the ending credits went up. I saw Lee Ah-young sitting next to me. “That’s funny, isn’t it?”

However, she was not able to answer at all. She was covering her mouth and crying a little. I looked around, found a napkin that came with the nachos I had bought when I came into the theater, and handed it to her. She wiped it around her eyes and told me. “It’s so… moving, oppa, isn’t it?”

“Sure.”

I thought I was being a little bit parched. With a tragic story of lovers, a touching reunion, and a break-up again, the wonderful story, I just thought about who the production company was…

‘Now I can’t cry at anything…’ I waited for her to stop crying, thinking about it. After a while, I left the theater with her arms crossed. She still didn’t seem to be out of touch.

“It was really fun, oppa!”

“Yes, let’s come and see it again.”

“Yes!”

It was only 5:30 now that the movie was over. Now we would have to go to dinner.

‘What shall we have for dinner?’ I was thinking of it, but she asked me. “By the way, the actress was really good at acting. What’s her name, oppa?”

“Ah… Oh Hyun-joo.” For some reason, just saying the name to a girlfriend next to me made me feel a little guilty. Maybe it’s because she was my ideal type.

“Really? I’ve only seen her in commercials… and I’ve never seen her act before, but she’s quite good at acting.”

I nodded. “Uh… she’s famous.”

“Really? What else did she shoot? Do you know her well?”

I already knew her personally and I decided to speak frankly, “Oh… That’s right. She’s actually a member of OH Entertainment, our subsidiary. The old drama, ‘The Uncle of You and I’ is also famous.”

Of course, I did not say either she was my ideal type, or that I had saved her from danger.

“Oh, I see… She is from your company. The Uncle of You and I? I’ll have to see that, too.”

I nodded, then quickly turned the subject around. “Yes. By the way, where are we going to eat today?”

————————————-

A week later, a public announcement was finally made.

[The third party-allocated paid-in capital increase is completed, accompanied by a change in Hyun Young Pharmaceutical’s majority shareholder.]

At the same time as the disclosure, the stock price of Hyun Young Pharmaceutical jumped twelve percent. I went to the stock bulletin board.

– Wow, is this investment of Invictus Investment real? Let’s go to the double.-

– Who is Invictus Investment? What is it?-

– This is the company that earned a lot with the reverse betting on Bisang Construction.-

– They had a big hit with Kai Games. That’s great.-

When we took over a company before, they used to say -Who the hell is this company we have never seen and heard about?-

And the stock price did not go up, but it fell. Compared to now, it had totally changed.

– Is this the company run by the stock genius, CEO Han Sang-hoon, right? It’s already fixed to earn double.-

-Han Sang Hoon must have smelled money again. But it’s not a game company or an entertainment company, but a pharmaceutical company?-

– He’s a real genius. He doesn’t seem to care about what the company is.-

There were many comments praising me on the bulletin board. Now, my reputation seemed to be spreading to stock investors as well. It should be, because Invictus Investment was becoming an investment company which had never lost since I first set it up.

‘OK, now I’m slowly gaining fame.’ I laid back a little in the chair while watching the bulletin board.

———-

A week later. I finally got it: the Master Class Guide!