12 Hours After

Translator: Khan

Editor: RED

“I ate well, thanks to you. I’ll buy for you next time. Bang-bang!” Choi made a gun with his finger and shot me a couple of times.

“That’s okay. Did you ever buy for me after you said you were going to buy?” I laughed at him.

“Hey, what do you think who I am? I’m going to buy for you next payday.”

Next payday. I was not sure if I would stay at this company until then, but I said I knew for once,

“All right. Go in first. I’m going to go to the bathroom and return.”

Choi leaned in and said to me. “Ah, do your business, chairman.”

He made a fuss since I bought a meal once. He was a funny guy. Somehow, I stopped by the company lobby bathroom after sending him up first. I settled in the toilet and took out my cell phone. Then, I turned on the MTS. The stock price of Yuhwan Securities was fluctuating between –3% and -4%.

‘The article said it ended at -3%… Then don’t be greedy and let’s sell it now and get out of here. Even if it’s a dividend accident, even if it’s a day’s happening… It’s bad news for the company. It may fall for the next few days.’

‘Don’t bet your game where you’re not sure. It is a famous gambling maxim. In particular, it is dangerous to be greedy for a day or two when you have a full bet at the margin…’

‘Then I will sell it without hesitation.’

I sold all my shares at a reasonable price. My account, which had only twenty-six thousand dollars in the morning, had increased by thirty-two thousand to fifty-eight thousand dollars.

‘That’s it.’

This would pay off all my debts and secure a monthly subscription of ten thousand dollars. This meant that I stood on a lever to raise money at a single queue.

‘If this is the way it is, it will be quick to raise ten million dollars… What do I do when it is done?… I’ll move to a nice house… A foreign car, I’ll have to pick one of the best. No, no, no. Do I need to pick just one? I have to have two or three. Those famous hip-hop stars live like that, right? And… oh, yes, I should raise the grade to the Gold Class.’

The Silver Class I was getting was not bad, but if I went up to the Gold, there might be something else where I could earn more money. After I sold the stock, I looked at my watch. There was still about ten minutes left for lunch.

‘I don’t have to go back to work early, breathing the same air as Heo.’

I got out of the bathroom and bought coffee from a nearby vending machine. Then I touched my mobile phone and went to the Yuhwan Securities community on the portal site. There were countless postings in the community. They deserved it, as eight hundred million dollars worth of shares were sold in just one day.

[Wow, what was that? Order mistake? Which rich man put in the wrong number?]

[As if someone accidentally sold it to the low limit price. Only the one who bought at that time might get rich.]

[Who are you? The fool who sold $40 for $28?]

So far, people did not seem to know that it was an accident due to a mistake in dividends. I looked up the news, and even they were on the wrong foot.

[Shares of Yuhwan Securities are trading near the low limit price. Hidden bad news?]

[A sharp fall in Yuhwan Securities is found to be due to a mistake in ordering.]

They were generally aware that someone simply clicked the wrong price or misplaced the sale price. It was not common, but it happened sometimes. In Japan, a securities company sold 610,000 yen worth of stocks to the market, selling 610,000 shares for 1 yen, causing a huge loss. I’d read more.

[I should’ve bought it when it went down the low limit price. That was the best chance of my life. I didn’t get it. Damn it.]

[Hehe, I – I bought some when it was -15%.]

[I, –7%… I should’ve seen it earlier.]

Some people were saying they liked it because they bought it cheap. To be honest, it was a bit of a laugh.

‘Ha-ha. I picked it up at the low limit price and sold it already. You bastards.’

I read more comments. There were some people who were calm in this mess.

[It’s usually hard to pick it up at the low limit price. If not for the strong of heart, it might be because of some bad news.]

[That’s right, if you pick the wrong one, not only will it hit the low limit price on the day, but also the next. I heard that they are going to close the list, but the person who bought will eventually be the winner.]

[Why don’t you just buy now? It’s -3%… If you earn 3%, it’s honey.]

[It is too much. We don’t know yet what kind of hidden bad news it is.]

People talked about what happened today, but no one knew exactly why it happened as a whole. It was like touching an elephant’s leg with their eyes closed and calling it a pillar, touching the waist and calling it a wall, touching the tail and calling it a rope. They would have to wait a few more hours to learn the whole story out of this case.

‘This is… that’s why they are ants… Just looking right in front of their nose… they can’t see the sky.’

Actually, they could not help it. Ants were just ants. Few ants could look up at the sky like I did now. It would have been impossible for me, too, if it were not for the strange fate.

‘Looking at this stuff, I did not see anything when I was a university student… It was so reckless…’

Lunchtime ended while I was eyeing the stock community. I threw an empty coffee can into the wastebasket, turned off the MTS, put my cell phone in my pocket and tried to go up to work. But the cell phone rang once more.

‘What is it?’ I picked my cell phone. There was a text on it. The sender was my mom.

“Tomorrow is Sun-young’s first birthday party. I will go up to Seoul with your dad and stop by your house first.”

Here, Sun-young was the daughter of my cousin. It had been a while since I went to my cousin’s wedding, but she already had her first birthday.

‘It’s been a while. Since I’ll see my mom tomorrow… That’s great. If I’m going to leave the company anyway, I’m going to tell my mom and dad… I’ll have to give them a hint tomorrow.’

I came back to work with that idea.

——————–

The next morning…

“Ugggggh.” I woke up early in the morning without an alarm. Usually, sleeping late on Saturday was my basic setting, but strangely today I woke up early.

‘What’s wrong with me?’

Coming to think of it, it had been from last week to receive an email.

‘Oh, I see.’

For some reason, I was not tense today. Thinking of it, I used to be. The stock market was not open on Saturday and Sunday, so I couldn’t have fun there.

‘… People who bet on the horse races have fun only on the weekend of the game and not on weekdays… Why don’t I race on the weekend? Well, if I think about it, the results of the race will be in the article… Where can I get tickets for the horse races? Culture? Life? Sports?’

Now that I was thinking about this side, I felt like I was only thinking about gambling.

‘Hoo… Am I going to get into trouble like this?’

But if I thought about it, that was right. My life had to be a big deal. Otherwise, I would be kicked at work until I died at the company.

It was not just me. It was the case for all the people who were born with a plastic spoon in their mouths in Korea. Without this kind of life, they could not get out of a lower-class life by paying off a student loan, mortgage loan, and interest on those loans. In a capitalist society, they could not live as a master of their lives and had to die doing other people’s work.

I decided to change my mind.

‘Yes, I’d love a big deal. Besides, I received a strange fate. I’m going to change my life with this. From working as someone’s slave, to being a person who manages someone else.’

Thinking of that, I sat down in front of the computer.

‘Today, the stock market does not open, so what should I look at?… I’ll give a click on the Lotto in Life/Culture…’

When I was thinking about that, the studio doorbell rang. I remembered then that my parents were supposed to come today.

‘Ah, just about when I’m about to do business.’ I dressed quickly in a sweat suit and headed to the door.