12 Hours After

Translator: Khan

Editor: RED

“It was a good meal.”

I patted Choi on the shoulder as I left the door of the soup bistro. Today’s trading was all finished in the morning, so there was no reason to have a separate lunch.

“Well, it’s a lot cheaper than the last meal you bought.”

“No, it was delicious. I didn’t know there was such a restaurant near the company.”

Choi kept his promise to buy lunch on the next payday. He was a little light, but he was loyal and a good guy. I had some time left when I came back to work after eating. I turned on the Internet and searched for Mayor Joo Sung-won.

[Seoul Mayor Joo Sung-won visits Namdaemun Market for a tour of the public welfare.]

[Description of the New City Project, a pledge made by Joo Sung-won.]

[Mayor Joo Sung-won’s lecture schedule at Yonsei University in the afternoon.]

There was no information on ‘Me Too’ yet.

‘Not yet. This is it.’

I tried to close the window. But before closing, I was so curious about the stock price I had bought this morning. I promised myself not to see it today. In the end, I compromised with myself.

‘Don’t turn on the MTS. Let’s search.’

I searched for ‘Endo Biologics ‘ in the search box. At the top was the current stock price.

[Endo Biologics $63.10 (–1.1%)]

Endo Biologics was bearish in the –1% range.

‘How much did I lose? As I bought $540,000, that would be $5,400.’

$5,400 was almost my three-month salary. No matter how much I knew about the future, I felt a little anxious.

‘Oh no, this is the stock to buy anyway. Let’s just get to work instead of worrying about it. Work.’

After lunchtime, I concentrated on my work as usual. I didn’t watch MTS on purpose. I didn’t think I’d be in my right mind if I saw my salary coming and going in a second. The stock would be at the upper limit price tomorrow anyway. It would better to concentrate on my work than to be stressed about it.

—

It was about two hours after lunchtime. Choi, who was waiting for documents to be printed out in front of the old printer, said something to me, “There is a funny story.”

“What’s the story?” I asked him without much thought. He always bragged that it was an interesting story, with nothing really to say.

“Mayor Joo Sung-won is on ‘Me Too.'” This time, he said it for real.

“What?” I was frightened. Of course, it was not because it was surprising. I knew that because I had seen it in the morning. It was the time that surprised me. “Where did you hear that?”

“It has been running around like a rumor in my college alumni’s ‘Katok’ room. Mayor Joo Sung-won touched his secretary’s butt.”

I looked at the clock. It was just past 3 p.m. The rumor was spreading.

“Isn’t the news up?” I asked him again.

“The news isn’t out yet, but it’ll be up in a minute. In one or two hours? The reason I told you this is because the journalist is my classmate, who is working for a media company.”

“… really?”

When I gathered my lips and stiffened slightly, Choi asked, “Why, did you like Mayor Joo Sung-won? Really?”

“No, I don’t. It’s because it’s shocking.”

“You don’t? Me, too. The guy who looked so gentle… They are all the same.”

The reporter knew. That meant that all the big names involved in the manipulation of the stock prices of a political theme were aware.

I handed over the printer I was holding to Choi and said, “Uh… Hey, please go and hand this over to Park for me.”

“Why do you want someone do your job? Am I an NPC? You give me a quest!” And the rewards to go with it…

“I’m in a hurry to go to the bathroom.”

“What?”

“Please.

I left him the job like that, then went into the bathroom like a real urgent person. There seemed to be no one in the bathroom.

“Hoo.” I took a deep breath for a while and turned on the MTS.

[Endo Biologics $83,20 (+30%)]

The upper limit price. It went off. I went into the stock account.

[Endo Biologics

Shares: 8,840

Purchase Price: $64,30 (+0.5%)

Purchase Amount: $542,692

Current Price: $83.20 (+30%)

Current Value: $735,488

Profit and Loss: +$192,796]

Today’s earnings alone were $192,796. I shook my fist a couple of times.

‘That’s it! That’s it!’

And then I couldn’t control the excitement, so I hit the tile of the bathroom hard.

“Uggggh!” My fist was hurt, but it was good. I was so happy that I didn’t know what to do. I hit the tile a little softer a couple more times. Bang, bang!

‘$192,796 in a day! About ninety months in salary? A hundred months? How many years is in a hundred months? 8 years? 9 years?’

I stopped my mental arithmetic. There was no point to calculate with my salary now. What did those pennies matter now? I went to the bathroom sink and cried out silently, looking at my face. ‘Han Sang-hoon, you’re rich now!’

But then, suddenly, a door opened from one of the bathroom compartments, and Heo, the enemy, walked out of it. “What are you doing?”

For a moment, I imagined hitting Heo on the chin with my fists, saying “Call me for alimony!”. But I did not, because I was generous enough to forgive anyone.

He asked me again, “Why were you hitting the wall of the bathroom?”

At the remark, I said with a smile, “I have no idea.”

When I reacted like that, Heo’s face stiffened. I was sure it should be because I laughed and said, “I have no idea”. In his eyes, I looked like a madman. He looked at me again with a pale face, but I didn’t care and said, smiling, “Have a good day, section chief!”

———————

$409,952.

I looked at the amount in my account. $409,952. A month ago, I split my salary, paid monthly rent, paid communications, cut food cost, and paid back my student loan. However, it now contained $409,952. I couldn’t feel it. But this wasn’t the end. Because Endo Biologics was ready to go to the upper limit price tomorrow. The Internet was a mess after the media made an announcement at around 5 p.m. today.

[Wow, Joo Sung-won’s words are so damn good, and he is such an idiot.]

[That’s what politicians usually do. They pretend to be clean in front of the public and sexually harass a girl who is like a daughter in the back.]

[Isn’t it funny if it’s real? If Mayor Joo Sung-won won re-election, he’d be the president in the next presidential election. He took the secretary’s ass one time and blew the president’s seat off, right?]

[He should have called a prostitute. I don’t understand why he touched a woman who did not like it?]

[It’s because he can’t be politicized if he’s not caught in the act. In any case, living as a politician is not easy.]

In the meantime, some cold comments were seen.

[It hasn’t been confirmed yet, so why are you already making a fuss?]

[Mayor Joo Sung-won, he’s not that kind of man. The secretary seems a little weird.]

[This is political maneuvering by Lee Hee-chul. It’s a dirty ploy to win the Seoul mayoral election.]

[The truth always comes out. We’ll see.]

The political parties were also in turmoil. As the facts were still unknown, the other mayoral candidates Lee Hee-chul and Jung Kwan-soo remained calm, but their party spokesmen were not calm and blamed Joo with an official statement.

“Mayor Joo Sung-won will have to answer for his sexual harassment honestly and clearly in front of ten million voters.”

“Is it really appropriate for someone who is involved in such a messy scandal to become Seoul Mayor, an international city in the global era? Smart voters…”

Mayor Joo Sung-won hurriedly held a press conference as informed in the advance in 12 Hours After and issued a statement saying, ‘I didn’t do it,’ but it was not enough to settle the issue.

‘People are bound to go crazy about the story that a popular person has fallen.’

The situation was a month before the Seoul mayoral election. The sex scandal of Mayor Joo Sung-won, the most likely candidate, was enough to heat up the Internet. The political news section had been painted over with the story of Mayor Joo Sung-won. Even in the Society section, an article like ‘A message about the Me Too movement’ popped up.

In Life/Culture, articles like ‘A woman who is sexually harassed in her daily life. A new novel that tells the story of the socially weak,’ came out.

There were many such articles. This was not different from the entire nation being swept away by the Me Too movement. Stock prices also reflected this tendency, especially when it hit the upper limit price, when the fire was set.

‘That’s enough. We’ll have to go to the upper limit price one more time, right?’

I spent the whole day looking around the political news and the Internet community, thinking that way. It might be a hobby for others, but for me, it was all a collection of data to determine the best time for selling.