12 Hours After

Translator: Khan

Editor: RED

“Will you give me the invitation?”

I gave him the business card. He took something out of his coat. It looked like a laser beam used by instructors of a private educational institute. He looked over the business card and said, pointing to the corridor where the Director Shin was in, “This way, please go in.”

It seemed that the business card would not be returned. I brushed past him. I didn’t know from afar, but when I looked at him closely, I found that he was really muscular. There was also a devil-shaped tattoo on the back of the neck.

‘It’s like a demon guarding a hell gate.’

I passed him and headed into the inner corridor. In front of the curved corridor, this time there was an angel-like beauty.

“Welcome, sir.”

I thought she was slightly younger than I was. In her mid-twenties, her hair was neatly raised like a stewardess, making her little face look smaller. Her features were very so obvious that she looked cocky. She looked at me and said, “Oh, have you come here for the first time? Would you like to come this way?”

She spoke as friendly as a stewardess. Maybe they hired a real stewardess for a while. I approached her. She picked up a black box by the back and said, “All members of Garden Envy use nicknames. If you trust one another, you can use your real names in a private place. However, everyone in the meeting has to use their nicknames. So, you have to decide on your nickname. What do you want to use?”

‘Nickname?’ While I was thinking about it, she took a cell phone out of the black box and held it in her hands, and stared at me. I thought I should decide on my nickname.

‘What shall I use?’ I didn’t have much time to worry about. I gave her my usual nickname. “Duros.” Duros was the name of the dragon in the game Duros De Eternal.

“You’re Duros.” She clicked the cell phone’s keys quickly. It was like she was writing Duros. She finished and handed me the cell phone. “Take this.”

I took the cell phone, a Nebula S9. It was the same model I used. It had only been three months since it came out

“From now on, this phone belongs to Duros. It’s adapted that it doesn’t work as an ordinary cell phone, and you can only receive data with Wi-Fi. If you look inside, there’s an app that they can’t install in a regular market. You can share your information here.”

‘Is she giving me this?’ It was a little surprising, since the device cost a little over a thousand dollars. ‘And this is not a normal reading room, either. They usually require getting paid, but… It gives out money here..’

Giving away such a cell phone worth a thousand dollars meant that they were confident of ripping off more than a thousand dollars from the chat room. I took the cell phone for now. Then she lowered her head, pointing inside the door, and said, “Go in, please.”

I opened the door holding the cell phone. I could hear familiar classical music. I was frightened.

‘How can it be so well soundproofed?’

Just a moment ago, I had no idea there was a song coming from inside. Walking in further, there was a big banquet hall inside, a wedding banquet hall. There was definitely the word “Lease” outside, but the lights were pretty bright. Inside, waiters were traveling around, carrying drinks and various food to the table.

On one side, there was a bar with alcohol. In this way, it seemed like a simple social club. I looked at the people who seemed to be participants. There were about ten people here. They were separated from one another, but there were people who recognized and greeted one another.

“How have you been, Director Shin?”

“Director Kang. How are you doing these days?”

Director Shin was the only one whose background I knew. I approached his back a little and listened to what they were saying.

“Oh, I’ve been asked to come here from China lately, so… I’m going back and forth to China.”

“China?”

“Yes, I don’t want to go, but they keep calling me at a high pay. I’m sure there’s a lot of money in China these days, so I take a plane every weekend. I leave the hospital to the assistant director.”

“How much do you make on your way, going back and forth?”

“They give me about three thousand these days.”

“Oh, I see. Have you improved your Chinese quite a bit?”

“No, no. I hardly speak Chinese. They are looking for a Korean doctor and they prefer to speak Korean. After watching the Korean dramas, they ask me to do the same plastic surgery as a Korean celebrity. We don’t understand each other, and I speak Korean on purpose. The broker likes it better. Communication is done by an interpreter.”

“Ha-ha, I see.”

The person who talked seemed to be a plastic surgeon. Even if it was a secret club, they knew each other’s jobs and their surnames. It had an ordinary aspect.

‘Why did they give me a nickname, anyway?’

I sat alone on the side of the corridor and picked up the phone. There was only one essential app in the mobile phone.

“Garden Envy.”

When I accessed to it, a typical chat application came up. The difference was that a chat room had already been created. The latest message was ‘Mr. Duros is in the chat room.’

I thought I was the newest member. I saw the number of people in it: eighty-two people. I was not sure if it was too much or too little.

‘By the way, why did they give me a cell phone, anyway? If they just installed the application on my phone… Ah…

‘Come to think of it, I recognize that there is a risk of hacking. Especially if it is an app that I do not know what it is. As I have more than $10,000,000 to run by my cell phone, I can’t install this app on it.

‘So they’re giving me a new cell phone. Then I don’t have to enter any personal information… Because they can’t trust one another. Did they create a device like this? That’s a reasonable idea. Who’s the one who planned all this?’

——

By 7 p.m., the time of appointment, people began to come in in ones or twos. There were about fifty to sixty people by eye-count. Some people were a little late, and there seemed to be little sense of duty. I was far behind them and watched them. All in all, they appeared to be in their late-thirties to late-forties. There was no one as young as me.

‘People in their thirties and forties are the main members. In fact, people who are in their forties are dominant?’

I felt a sense of distance for some reason. I watched them, a little apart from them. They greeted each other, got cocktails at the bar and drank. Among them, I could see a familiar face.

‘Who is he…?’ I was sure it was a man I had seen in a historical drama. When the king spoke, the middle-aged actor cried out, “We are honored, Your Highness!”

He was an assistant actor, but I knew his face.

‘This looks like a very normal social club…’ But then, someone approached me.

“How are you?” A man. Surprisingly, he was in his late twenties. His face was slightly red, his eyes large and sharp, with a big hooked nose.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Kaiji. Your nickname?”

‘Kaiji? He got it from a Japanese cartoon.’

I thought he was like Kaiji. I replied, “I’m Duros. Nice to meet you.”

It was a little embarrassing to say the nickname.

“I think you were here for the first time. How old are you?”

“29.”

“Oh, I see. I’m 28. I was invited here, but there’s no one my age. I thought I shouldn’t come to the meeting. But there’s finally someone who’s about the same age today.”

He was a year younger than me. I wanted to be alone, but I got a colleague. I nodded.

“Oh. Nice to meet you. I didn’t know who to talk to, because it was my first time here. How long have you been here?”

“I’m in my third week. I’m not used to it, either.”

This person was not that old either. Still, I asked him because he had been here for two more weeks than I was. “What the hell are they doing here? What’s the purpose of the meeting? How do they share information?”

“Oh, that’s…”

At the moment Kaiji was going to say something, someone came up to the podium. “How are you, Garden Envy Members!” He looked like a man in his early-forties.

“Welcome to the new people today. This is Garden Envy. It’s where investors share information and exchange.”

I looked at him and wondered, ‘Is he the host of this meeting?’

“I’ll put the topics right in for those of you who are here today.”

As soon as he was done speaking, there were phones ringing in the meeting.

They all picked up their cell phones. I also picked up the new cell phone. In the application that I was unfamiliar with, the three topics of this week were written.

[Sept. 5 – Could there be more than ten million tickets for the zombie movie, Train To Seoul? – Future Media.]

[Sept. 8 – Asthma Therapy Effect scheduled to be announced by the San Francisco Society – Jinyoung Pharmaceutical.]

[Sept. 9 – Who will Incheon Airport Duty-Free shops go to – Baekje Hotel, Xian Tourism, Elder DF, Shinyoung Department Store, etc?]

The man on the podium came straight down from the place, leaving his words behind. “Please enjoy the party today.”

Kaiji looked at the cell phone and muttered, “Well, we have three questions today.”

‘Three questions. This is not the place where they pick the stocks that will rise and tell them the answers to attract, like any other stock reading room. The rich are full of doubts.’

‘In other stock reading rooms, they usually leave a message, “Buy A stock. It’s going up. Buy B stock. It’s soaring.” However, when they see the message, they are bound to be suspicious. “Isn’t this an attempt to sell off his shares?”‘

‘On the other hand, if they throw up the topic and let them talk, they’ll think about it and decide whether they will buy it or not. This is much better.’

I asked Kaiji, “Do you usually throw the topic out this way?”

“We don’t expect anything to go up or down, but we try to gather information like this.”

I watched what others were talking about. The subject of conversation was quickly shifted to the stock story.

“Doctor Jang, do you know much about this new drug?”

“Lungs are not my specialty… One of my juniors works for Jinyoung Pharmaceutical. I’ll ask him about it.”

I cut myself into the conversation. I thought if I didn’t get involved in the conversation, I wouldn’t get a benefit.

“I think Incheon Airport Duty Free is bigger than Jinyoung Pharmaceutical. They can make hundreds of million dollars in sales if this is passed. I’m sure institutional investors are also focusing on it.”

“It’s practically put a straw in and to suck up for years… How should I approach this?”

“You have to contact the government officials.”

“There’s a patent screening committee for duty-free shops at the Korea Customs Service, and they’ll decide there. But I don’t think it’s easy. These days, officials haven’t opened their mouths easily.”

‘A patent screening committee for duty-free shops at the Korea Customs Service.’ I remembered the name. However, no more accurate information was available.

A lady, who was more likely to weigh herself than I did, said, shivering, “So, government officials have become too strict under this administration. They are sparing themselves. Enzi, do you have any information? You said your girlfriend was a deputy director.”

The tall man, called Enzi, said with a smile. “Well, I will ask her about it.”

“If you get any information, please contact me first. I’ll pay you for the information.”

“Yes, Do-joon’s mom.”

I realized that some people would get the answer to this question, but they would not say it here.

‘They will say it after they buy the stock.

‘If they have certain information, they will buy the stock first. Then they need to release the information so that they can maximize their profits. The place where the information is released is the application.’

I picked up the new cell phone. There was no dialogue on the application yet.

‘This meeting is… just… fantasy?”

At the moment, that Kaiji beside me came up to me and asked, “What do you think? The source they give us here is not bad. It’s often linked to actual earnings.”

But then, he lowered his voice and added a word, “But there’s no real sharing of information. It’s a place where they can compare their money with each other and say useless things. Sometimes they tell real stories, but… that’s just a few times. Practical information exchanges will be made on the application later, when the market is open.”

I was right. I asked him the thing I was most curious about. “Who, by the way, created this meeting?”

“Oh, haven’t you met him yet?”

“No.”

Kaiji pointed to a corner of the meeting. “That guy. Master T”

I turned my eyes that way…