12 Hours After

Translator: Khan

Editor: Aelryinth

"Han Sang-hoon. He... he made me do this."

His cousin spoke with his eyes squinted, "Well... Han Sang-hoon... I think I've heard of him."

"It's Invictus Investment. He is a guy who is running a little company."

Now that the Invictus name appeared, the cousin only pretended to know. "Ah, Invictus? Is that an invincible investment or what? I've heard about it, too. They're making a lot of money as soon as they touch something? A game? With that kind of thing, he's an ordinary person?"

An ordinary person? I guessed there were other people who were not ordinary people.

"Yes. He is just a son of a country hick who runs a training center; I don't know how he grew up."

I regretted when I heard it. The last time I saw the news 12 Hours After, I thought, 'If I call now, he might live...' Just for a moment, I had been trying to save him.

His cousin received my name and asked Tak Joon-gi, "How did you end up with that country boy?"

"... It's a long story. I met him the first time at Garden Envy..."

At that, the cousin said with a big smile, "Are you still doing that? The copy show?" He called Garden Envy a copy show.

'Then, is there an original?'

Tak Joon-gi mumbled. He seemed to be angry at his cousin's constant disregard, too. He just couldn't express it.

'He must have had a hard time holding back what he wanted to say when he was acting like a king everywhere.'

"... whatever it is. Yeah. That lowly bastard fucked me up."

"Well, Mr. Tak Joon-gi from heaven has been punished in the information war by an ordinary person… That's strange to me."

"He's hiding something. How did he handle the prosecution, how did he handle the reporters? He knew all the information I thought I was under perfect control."

"Hmm, really? Han Sang-hoon... he's a funny guy. I'll have to meet him, too." His cousin was more interested in me than in the begging Tak Joon-gi.

Tak Joon-gi told him again, "Just save me. I'll pay you back soon. You know I'm good for it. It's just this once... that I made a mistake."

His cousin retorted coldly, "Two times. One at Bisang Construction, and another at Blue E&M."

"The second time... I was in such a hurry. I was blinded by revenge... I was pushing ahead with my work so quickly..."

"Whatever the reason, isn't two enough? What if grandfather was alive and saw you now? For the first one... maybe grandfather would forgive it. Of course, if you were an ordinary person, you'd be out in one shot, but he'd have forgiven it once, but twice... not twice. If grandfather saw this, maybe." He raised his right hand and tapped on his left wrist. "He must have sent me a sign."

Tak Joon-gi's eyes opened wide. I didn't know what it was, but it was likely cutting the relationship or the equivalent.

He went on, "Joon-gi. Grandfather has always won since the Japanese colonial era. He always won against the Liberation Army, the U.S. military, the military dictator, and the democrats. And that's what has made Suyeon Group what it is. We were born with the DNA of victory. But defeat... defeat is only for an ordinary person. Now, you're not the right person for Suyeon."

Tak Joon-gi finally couldn't stand it any longer. He looked at his cousin with a spiteful glance and said, "Stop talking about that floating cloud! You'll help me or not, tell me!"

But his cousin brother didn't bat an eyelid at the sight. He just shook his head and said, "Good lawyer. Seven years including probation. That's it."

"If I can't accept that?"

His cousin replied with a smile, "If you can't accept it, do you have another option?"

Tak Joon-gi said, flashing his eyes, "You know, listen up. You're mistaken if you think I've been digging around for any other company's information. It's our company that I've been researching more closely than any other company over the last twenty years. It's Suyeon. The reason why I raised so much money in the first place was to make Suyeon mine. My last target was Suyeon."

'Ah...' I opened my mouth wide when I heard that. 'Did he try to swallow Suyeon?'

I was spreading my beak because I was in a crow's state. Tak Joon-gi was a man even more ambitious than I thought. It was understandable since he was born in a rich family and raised money like that. It was for the prince's rebellion. If he had truly tried to attack Suyeon, he would have needed much more money in the end.

"But I'll give it up here. I'll give Suyeon's seat to my brother, and I won't cross it again. Just help me this time."

"If I refuse?"

"I'll tell all about the vice chairman of Suyeon Electronics before I stand in court. All I've investigated!"

At the words, the one eye of the vice chairman of Suyeon Electronics, Tak Mun-su, grew larger. He had never revealed his feelings before, and his eye was filled with anger. But it was only for a moment. He came back to his original face and unfastened his arms and approached Tak Joon-gi. Then he slapped Tak Joon-gi on the shoulder and said, "Joon-gi. Let's just say one thing. That's probably why you lost. Talking about how you feel, and shedding all your feelings, you were struck by an ordinary man. You must not be exposed when you have a winning card, or you could face a counterattack."

I suddenly thought of Tak Joon-gi, who had been speaking so openly in front of me. 'Dogs! ' Perhaps, if I hadn't heard that, I would have regarded him only as a third-generation git of a chaebol. Tak Mun-su's words might not be very wrong.

He went on, "It's the same now. If you wanted to threaten me, you should have prepared some more certain measures and then made a threat. Like a rough-and-tumble amateur, if you thrust your sword at me in anger, would I be afraid? It's funny."

After speaking, Tak Mun-su walked up to him and stood opposite him. Then, Tak Joon-gi's secretary, who had been standing motionless behind him, walked over behind Tak Mun-su, like a guard.

Tak Mun-su said to Tak Joon-gi, "The hostility is to show itself in a perfectly victorious state like this."

Tak Joon-gi alternated between Tak Mun-su and his secretary in amazement.

Tak Mun-su now spoke frankly, "Have you ever thought it was strange? Why did the vice chairman of Suyeon Electronics intentionally come to the rooftop of the Suyeon Travel building? Because of you? Because I feel sorry for my cousin who was going to be in court?"

He shook his head and said, "No. I haven't liked you since I was a kid. If you don't want to roll in the dumps, you'll have to go to the next world. Goodbye."

After he finished speaking, he gestured to Tak Joon-gi's secretary who was standing next to him, the very hand gesture of his right hand tapping on his left wrist. The big man walked straight toward Tak Joon-gi.

Tak Joon-gi alternated Tak Mun-su and his secretary in amazement. "No... well, this is... you..."

Nevertheless, his secretary continued to walk toward Tak Joon-gi.

"Bo... Bosung, come on. You're my secretary, you're my bodyguard. Why…?"

Tak Joon-gi took a backward step, but his secretary caught him by the neck and lifted him up. He grabbed him and brought him to the railing.

Tak Joon-gi spoke to him in a voice that didn't come out very well, "Bo... Bosung... please… please."

But then, the secretary said just one word. "Let me say one thing too, Mr. Director. When did you ever treat me like a man?"

"Ah..." Tak Joon-gi tried to say something, but the secretary threw him over the safety bar on the park's rim without waiting for more.

"Aaaargh!" A high scream reverberated through the air, then quickly subsided. It was a terrible thing.

Tak Joon-gi's secretary came back to Tak Mun-su and lowered his head. "I've taken care of it, as you ordered, Vice Chairman."

"Yes. I saw it, too. Good job. You sure you turned off the camera?"

"Yes. I've checked it several times."

"What about a suicide note?"

"I've prepared it."

Tak Mun-su clapped him on the shoulder and said, "Yes. You've been working hard as a secretary under such a bastard. I'll compensate you properly."

Tak Joon-gi's secretary bowed to Tak Mun-su. "Thank you, Vice Chairman."

"Now, let's get out of here before it gets noisy."

"Yes, sir."

Tak Mun-su started to turn his head. Then, he looked at me and stopped for a moment. "Huh?"

Tak Joon-gi's secretary asked him, "What's wrong, Vice Chairman?"

Until now, I didn't think he saw me. But then he asked, "No, why... is a crow here?"

I realized then that he was looking at me. I opened my eyes wide with astonishment, and at the same time, I fell out of bed.

------

Thumping… I gasped, my heartbeat sounded in my ears. I took off the eye patch, and I swore without knowing it, "Oh, my... fuck." Maybe it was the shock of seeing the murder with my own eyes, or the side-effect of the eye patch. I looked out the window and the darkness was subsiding outside. I picked up the cell phone on my bedside and looked at it. The time was 6:48 a.m.

At 10 p.m. I'd tried to fall asleep, so it was about seven hours' sleep. I lifted the eye patch. 'It's... it's real.'

I didn't know if it was real or made, but it was a really vivid dream, to the point of being indistinguishable from reality. I recalled the phrase that was written in the manual. 'If reality is a dream, and a dream is reality, all that remains human is a story.'

I got up from my seat, shivering. Then I picked up the bed sheet and lifted Crow's report under it. 'Report on the death of Tak Joon-gi.'

There was a self-written version of what I had just seen.

'The person who ordered the murder, Vice Chairman Tak Mun-su of Suyeon Electronics.'

'The person who executed the murder, Jung Bosung, secretary of Director Tak Joon-gi.'

'Killing place. - On the roof of the Suyeon Travel.'

'The time of the murder...'

Not only that, but all the conversations were recorded like a script in a movie.

---

Tak Joon-gi: You know, listen up. You're mistaken if you think I've been digging around for information on other companies. It's our company that I've been researching more closely than any other company in the last twenty years. It's Suyeon. The reason why I raised so much money in the first place was to make Suyeon mine. My last target was Suyeon.

Tak Mun-su: Joon-gi. Let's just say one thing: that's probably why you lost. Talking about how you feel, and shedding all your feelings, you were struck by an ordinary man. You must not be exposed when you have a winning card, or you could face a counterattack."

-----

By all appearances, this was too dangerous. It not only listed the facts, but this document was too detailed, as if looking at the situation and recording it.

'This document... may bring a deadly threat to the viewer.' I decided to dispose of this document. I picked up my cell phone and only wrote down the key things, specific places, and times in the notepad, and brought it to the kitchen. I lit a gas fire on the stove and ignited the document. Before the smoke came out, I ran to the bathroom with it.

I turned on the ventilator and waited for the burning document in front of the toilet. The fire that had started on the top of the document burned it all down. I held it until it was all burnt and threw it in the toilet when only the tip was left. I went back to the bed, having handled the document with speed.

The eye patch was still on the bed. I lifted the eye patch. On the surface, it was just a rustic eye patch. I looked at it for a long time, and put it in a drawer.

"Whew..." I didn't know why, but I had to sigh. I burned the report away, but what I had seen in my dream was not so easily forgotten. I picked up my cell phone and unconsciously typed in 'Tak Mun-su.' It came up right away.

'Vice Chairman Tak Mun-su of Suyeon Electronics. Suyeon Group's first heir.'

It was a photo of the man who had directed the killing with an indifferent face. I looked at the face and suddenly remembered what he had said: 'Hmm, really? Han Sang-hoon... he's a funny guy. I'll have to meet him, too.'