12 Hours After

Translator: Khan

Editor: Aelryinth

I picked up the phone. “Secretary Park.”

“Yes, boss.”

“Come in for a second.”

“Ah, yes.”

Soon, Secretary Park opened the door and came in. I handed him a piece of paper, which read, ‘Hello, are you the wife of Hong Yong-pyo? Your husband will be in trouble in the near future. We can help you to some extent. Please think about it and let me know.’

Secretary Park said, lifting it, “This is…”

“Send this to the number written next to it. And if you get a reply, you can patch it through, and… she’ll reply in two or three days. She’ll contact us in a week, at the latest.”

Secretary Park put the paper in his pocket and replied, “Yes, boss.”

———

The next morning, the Daewon Daily News published a super-specialized edition, featuring the article, ‘We dug into the controversy over Tak Woo-kyung’s death, and the hidden truth.’

It contained information about the VIP room on the top floor of Suyeon Foundation Hospital, which Crow had been investigating for two months: the time when Tak Woo-kyung had actually died, the names of the doctor and the nurse who had confirmed he was dead, the reason why Suyeon’s Future Strategy Team kept it a secret and pretended he was alive, and so on.

Almost instantly, the Internet was going crazy.

– Wow, is this a true story? Did they turn a dead man into a living one?-

– By the way, is this even possible?-

– It’s possible. In Korea, if a doctor does not declare death, he is not legally dead even if he can’t breathe and he has no heartbeat.-

– Although he was biologically dead, a doctor can make him alive physically.-

Of course, there were people who predicted this story.

– This kind of rumor has been around for a long time, and that’s the way it is. Isn’t this what everyone used to hush up?-

– Everyone knew all about it, but since Suyeon was so powerful, they kept quiet.-

– The Suyeon group has tried to take off some of Tak Woo-kyung’s assets and then they would declare him dead. However, the Daewon Daily News disclosed it first.-

– Tak Woo-kyung’s check recently paid to repair Tak Mun-su’s house. What does this mean?-

There were other such stories, too:

– Isn’t Daewon Daily News a hound of a big company dog? Why did they publish this article?-

– Suyeon might be fighting with Susung or Mirae. I don’t think Daewon Daily News would have worked alone.-

– Suyeon is being investigated for tax scandals by the independent counsel; they seem to be in someone’s bad books.-

– I don’t know who that someone is, but Suyeon is in big trouble. I’m afraid Suyeon Group will be disintegrated in midair.-

I was shaking the nation’s political and business world behind the dark curtain. I would split the Suyeon Group in half and disintegrate it in midair, as written in the comments. I would take only the good companies there. I would kick out anyone with the surname of Tak.

After the article was published, public attention was focused on Hong Yong-pyo, head of Suyeon Foundation Hospital, the doctor of Tak Woo-kyung, who was responsible for all of this. He did not confirm or deny the report, but remained consistent with no action taken. I knew it was going to go that way. He was a professor at Seoul National University’s medical school in Korea, but this was a matter worth a billion dollars. It wasn’t something he could handle on his own.

‘Maybe he’s under a lot of pressure from Suyeon Group.’

According to Crow’s investigation, he was supposed to receive a large sum of bribes from the Suyeon Group in return for keeping the secret. He had already received six million dollars in cash, and then he would get another four million dollars a year to keep Tak Woo-kyung ‘alive’ in the hospital.

The money paid to the doctor was four million dollars a year, so hundreds of million dollars a year were designed to somehow be transferred from Tak Woo-kyung’s wallet to Tak Mun-su’s.

I was about to ask Crow to investigate that, if Hong Yong-pyo, the head of the hospital, finally denied it. But things didn’t go that way.

The very next day, Secretary Park told me, “I got a reply from the doctor’s wife. She is asking what she should do and how we could help.”

I said, nodding my head, “Please put me through.”

“Yes, boss. I’ll go and connect you.”

“Okay.”

Soon, Secretary Park brought me a smartphone. “Press the call button and you’ll be connected.”

I glanced at him, then pressed the call button. Soon someone answered the phone. “Hello?”

“Hello.”

She spoke in a rather cautious voice. “Well, are you the one who contacted me two days ago?”

“That’s right.”

“I’m sorry, but can I ask you what you’re doing?” She seemed to be in a pretty tight state. The public eye was focused on her husband.

“It doesn’t mean much now, does it? The point is on whether your husband will survive or not. Isn’t that right?”

“That’s right, but…”

“The news doesn’t have a specific amount right now, but the media already has the information about your husband receiving six million dollars. If I am willing to expose it, the prosecutor will trace the source of the money.”

She voice quavered at my words. “It’s not six, but four million dollars. I just received the money and have kept it.”

Crow even investigated the fact that Hong Yong-pyo, head of the hospital, had a young lover in her late twenties at the Apgujeong-dong OfficeTel.

“Ah, two million dollars would have gone to the young lover. The prosecutor is going to look there, too.”

“The young lover?”

“Yes. Your husband did not receive four million dollars. It was originally six million dollars. If you dig in, it’ll all come out.”

“Is that… is that so?” At this point, her voice changed slightly. Inside the fear, a strange voice came out with a slight mix of anger.

“Yes, the tenant of Apgujeong Blueville OfficeTel 405 is a young woman, right? She’s not just a tenant, but your husband’s lover There’s two million dollars in that safe.”

She didn’t question who I was, how I knew it, or any more about it.

“Is it really…?

“Yes. As I know, you planned to invest in the Officetel.”

“Yes, that’s right. What a prick she is,” she said, as if she were going to the Officetel right now and rip off the young woman’s hair.

I said, calming her down, “Ah, you’re so excited, whatever may become of your husband, your son and daughter should not be harmed by this.”

The son was attending Harvard and the daughter was attending Stanford.

“Of course, as you have the basic assets, there would be no problem, but this is a money matter of a billion dollars. If your husband is accused of breach of trust or perjury, would you be able to pay tuition to the United States?”

“What? A money matter of a billion dollars? My husband just accepted their request.”

“Yes, I know, but that’s how the law works. Do you know that the Suyeon Group is saving hundreds of million dollars in taxes because of your husband?”

“…” She couldn’t talk for a moment.

“The circumstances are already revealed, and the prosecution will come to your house soon. You know that Suyeon Group has been hit by both the prosecutors’ investigation and the tax investigation. Convince your husband to turn himself in, and he will be treated decently. He’s going to get a good sentence. Let him say, ‘I couldn’t help it under pressure from the Suyeon Group. I couldn’t refuse.’ That’s how it is.”

“Then… will that happen?”

I answered right away, “Yes.”

But to be honest, I didn’t know about the legal work. But nevertheless, I said so, because I didn’t want Crow to go back and forth for another month or two. It was the cleanest thing for me if the head of the hospital would turn himself in. It would not be bad for him. If he denied it anyway, I was going to reveal some more details through the Daewon Daily News and Crow.

However, she said, “I’ll think about it.”

So I said one more thing, “I’ll give you a week. Turn himself in, or he will be plastered with news on the Internet. I’m also moving the Daewon Daily News. You know the English version of the Daewon Daily News comes out in the United States…”

“Yes, I understand. I’m sorry.” When I talked about her son and daughter, she immediately changed her words defensively. I had a rough guess after receiving Crow’s report.

“Well, it’s a week. Please do it as soon as possible. I can’t stop all the reporters.”

“Yes.”

After that, I looked down at the cell phone for a moment. The cell phone was an old-fashioned one, which seemed to be rather heavy. I lifted it up and asked, “Is this…? I asked Secretary Park.

Park replied as he bowed his head, “It’s as you expect.”

I handed the cell phone over to him and said, “So I’ve never seen this.”

He said, putting it in his arms. “Yes, boss.”

Ever since this day, the battle for the truth of Tak Woo-kyung’s death had continued. Some of the brave press had made follow-up reports, and Suyeon Group did some media play, ‘It’s a biased report, it’s defamation.’ But it was really funny in my eyes. No one in Korea could lie to me, no one could escape my eyes.

————

Two days later, Hong Yong-pyo, the head of the hospital, finally turned himself in. “I’m sorry to betray the doctor’s duty. However, while serving as the head of the hospital, it was impossible to reject the offer from the Suyeon Group.” In this way, he cut his tail as much as possible while making Suyeon Group bad guys.

He didn’t really look good, perhaps because he was so harried by his wife at home. In any case, he exposed the inside story of Tak Woo-kyung’s death, including the time of his death, the reason why he had died, and those who were there.

The doctor was interviewed by the media and said, “The patient is dead”, and it led to a public death declaration. Now, Tak Mun-su and other heirs had to pay inheritance taxes of five billion dollars, half of ten billion dollars of Tak Woo-kyung’s assets. President Joo Sung-won and the National Tax Service would move fast, as they were struggling with insufficient tax revenues due to the Chinese financial crisis.

Shares of Suyeon Construction and Suyeon Electronics, which were heavily owned by Tak Woo-kyung, fluctuated after rising and falling, since they didn’t know whether his death was a boon or a bad thing. However, I already knew that Tak Mun-su would dispose of his shares in electronics and construction for the tax payment, and I bought the fluctuating stocks at low prices.

I smiled as I watched the operation to disintegrate Suyeon Group proceed as planned.