12 Hours After

Translator: Khan

Editor: Aelryinth

‘What…!’

Lee Ah-young’s room was more of a mess than I thought. On the sofa were dizzying amounts of clothes, and on the table were bags of cookies and bread.

‘She’s been acting like she’s cool… but she’s worse than I am.’

But there were some things that made the room more chaotic than such junk; the paintings in the room, which appeared to be figures, things, metaphysical modern arts. I had no idea of what the pictures were or what they meant. On one side were white canvas and oil paints. All of them seemed to have been painted by Lee Ah-young.

‘Was she once a painter, or just a hobby?’

It was too good to say it was a hobby. I was thinking about it when Lee Ah-young, who was on my back, groaned.

“Uhhhhhhhhhhh.” With the smell of alcohol, hot breath came into my ear. My face was burning red.

‘Damn it.’ I was angry somehow. ‘What’s the matter with her? What is she going to do when other men see her?’

I found the bed. As I lived next door, I found the bedroom without difficulty; the structure of her room was the same as mine. I put her down on the bed.

“A Young, are you okay?” the blonde beauty asked, touching her forehead. Ah-young kept fidgeting about her neck, as if the Polo T-shirt she was wearing was uncomfortable. The blonde beauty grabbed her T-shirt and stripped it off. At the same time, her voluptuous chest and the dark green bra surrounding it were revealed. I turned my head away to keep my manners. By the way, there was a mirror on the other side of the bed.

‘Is it a cultural difference?’

The white lady didn’t care much about whether a man was in the same room or not. She even unwrapped Lee Ah-young’s skirt and dropped it down her legs. A dark green, colorful set of panties with black stockings and bras was in sight.

For about three seconds, I unconsciously saw it, but this was torture. I closed my eyes and put my hand up there. Then I could hear Lee Ah-young’s voice. “Well, it’s cold…”

I thought I didn’t need to be here anymore. I said to the white woman, “I’ll go.”

She replied, “Ah, okay.”

I opened my eyes as I couldn’t leave the bedroom with my eyes closed. Fortunately, the white lady pulled up a blanket from the tip of Lee Ah-young’s foot to her neck. I could look at her without guilt.

Lee Ah-young looked at the white lady with her slightly loose eyes and spoke in English and Korean mixed words, “Well? Jessie? Why are you here?”

It was a typical voice of “I’m drunk” with a slight rise in the end. I looked at the blonde and said, “Please take care of her.”

Then I left the bedroom, leaving the words behind. But, behind me, I heard another voice from Ah-young.

“Huh? It’s Oppa next door?”

I opened my mouth wide. ‘What?’

She’d been weird since we first met.

‘Hi, how are you?’

‘Did you buy a new car?’

‘Please send the monthly rent to this account.’

She was a woman who was just too businesslike to say these words, but she called me “Oppa”.

I left her room and went right into my room. I untied my tie and sat on the couch. I repeated what she said. “It’s oppa next door?” I was so…

I thought there was something very fragile about her now. Above all, it was too dangerous to drink to the extent that she could not control herself. The fact that such a beauty did not put much attention on herself meant that anyone could take her.

‘She’s been walking around like that… what’re her parents doing? She’s a very rich woman at that age… living alone away from her parents. She has a white friend… then… is she a kind of black-haired foreigner?’

It was odd at any rate…

—————————————–

The next day, I turned on the HTS to clear up the shares I had held. It was no more, no less, just $10,000,000. It was the day to pay the subscription fee due in two days.

This month’s performance… I earned about $35,000,000. This was a record update. It was helpful to get two pieces of information from the news in 12 Weeks After. Perhaps next month, the rise would be even steeper. With the news from 12 Weeks After, the news in 12 Months After would be provided in the calendar application, too.

‘All right, let’s increase the investment for Invictus as soon as next month, add two more subsidiaries, and run straight to the Master Class.’

—-

After the stock sale, I returned to the mailbox to do the rest of the work. What was left was People Search. I could pick a time zone just twice a day, and search for people’s news. I looked back at the list that Secretary Seo had sent me last time and typed search words “Kang Hyun-woo: 23, an actor and model” in the news 12 Months After.

He looked handsome.

‘But… the name is so common…’

I tried it once again with that thought.

[Kang Hyun-woo’s second half Super Save.]

There was a goalkeeper with the same name. The unknown was the problem. The news was stolen by someone with the same name. I went on to see the next profile.

[Eun Soo-min: 22, a would-be Idol.]

‘A would-be idol… 22?’ She was a little late for an idol at 22. I typed it with my head slightly cocked. But the following news came up. [Eun Soo-min took the stage with an amazing groovy rap in the Idol Manager 108.]

‘Oh!’ I clicked on it.

[Eun Soo-min, 22, received attention for her great rap skills on the popular idol management program “The Great Nation’s Idol Management Program, the Idol Manager 108.” In the personal mission, she perfectly performed FutureY’s “White Happiness” to captivate judges and viewers. Her performance was so overwhelming that she was chosen as the clip of the month on the Internet and was ranked seventh in the vertical rise.]

‘Idol Manager 108 is a famous program. It is a popular survival program that brings together would-be idol members from each agency and makes their debut as a girl group. It’s great to have won seventh place here. Keeping this ranking will make her debut as a project girl group and virtually guarantee her success.’

I searched ‘OH Entertainment Eun Soo-min’ on YouTube. There was a video. It was like a freestyle rap on a stage, and despite being a woman, the powerful voice and clear pronunciation were impressive. All the comments were complimentary.

– Wow, when is she going to make her debut? She’ll chew on all the fake rap kids when she comes out.-

– That’s amazing. She has a pretty face… and she’s good at rapping.-

I read more articles.

[Rap teacher Leo praised Eun Soo-min’s rap and said, ‘There is no problem for her to be a solo rapper. After leaving her agency OH Entertainment, Eun Soo-min, who had been practicing alone as a private trainee, ended up crying over the compliment.]

‘Hmm? Did she leave her agency?’

I did more searches. The next season of ‘Idol Manager 108’ would be held early next summer.

‘Did she leave in the meantime?’

I picked up my cell phone and called President Kwon right away. Kwon answered my phone immediately, “Yes, boss.”

“How are you?”

“I am fine.”

I exchanged a few clichés and went straight to the point.

“By the way, isn’t there a trainee named Eun Soo-min?”

“Yes, sir, do you know her? She’s a trainee.”

“Yes. I’ve been interested in her personally, and I looked into her through YouTube and the like.”

“Oh, did you?”

“Yes. But she’s quite old. Didn’t you have her debut?”

“No, that’s not true. She’s good enough… Last time, she was on the verge of debuting, and the project was up. It’s been two years.”

“So… you don’t have a new contract with her?”

“On the basis of her ability, I’d like to renew her contract… but she seems to be a little tired. She’s been practicing here for almost seven years as a trainee, but… her debut last year was canceled.”

“Well, I think she has some star quality…”

“Do you see that?” As I said before, Kwon believed that I had a strange foresight.

“Yes. I saw her on YouTube. I’d like to keep her in our company a little longer.”

“Is that so? If you think so, I’ll consider it as well.”

“Yes, please.”

I finished the call and returned to the mailbox of 12 Hours After to read the article again. By the way, there was another mail in the mailbox. It was none other than the correction news. The future seemed to have changed with a word I said to Kwon.

[Eun Soo-min, who had been practicing for eight years at OH Entertainment, ended up crying over the compliment.]

‘Hoo, she’s crying at the end of the day.’

The story was a little different, but there must be a lot of things in it. Anyway, it was okay because she got seventh place as a member of our company. The young woman would be one of OH Entertainment’s next stars.

‘That’s good. I got one.’

I was using the People Search for characters like this, because I was looking for news for OH Entertainment every day in 12 Months After. I had two slots and two more months, and I would be able to search for all our artists, but the Ranking News was becoming a little bit jittery. Since I had won the lottery, I’d had a chance to use it. However, today, I was a little disappointed by the news, which had only many view counts.

[Politics – The sex scandal between the current party leader and his female secretary.]

[Economy – Government announcement of 9.10 measures in the newly selected overheated area.]

But this month, I still had hope in the 12 Month After and Ranking News. The hottest news in 12 Month After might be something of money, because the category I chose was IT/science, and if I had any new technology news, I might be scraping up money. However, the most watched news was ‘Fantasy War Ground’.

[Fantasy War Ground rewrites a new history of the game. It is the second best-selling PC game ever.]

‘It must have been a big hit! This little company got second place in game history. I absolutely have to take it over. I will ask him once more when Vice President Jang finishes the meeting and comes back.’

——–

That evening at six o’clock, as I had been waiting, Jang called me, “Boss, I am in Shanghai. I finished my first meeting today.”

“Oh, really? What did they say?”

“They were all so eager to sell it and I put it off for a day. I’m going to see them tomorrow and take the negotiation to our side.”

“Well, well done, but don’t push too hard. After all, it will be in our hands. Pull it hard when you pull it. I really want to buy this company.”

“Yes, boss, don’t worry.”

‘The deal is going to work as expected, because we know their weaknesses, no matter how expensive it is, and they won’t be able to keep overbearing us out of the way.

‘Okay, then, let’s add Sapphire TV here… if the three things such as entertainment, personal broadcasting, and games are combined, it will be synergistic.’

I applauded myself and thought about it, but the doorbell of my room, which did not ring frequently, rang.

‘Who is it? I didn’t give do anything for a courier.’

It wasn’t obvious until I turned the doorknob.

‘Oh, the landlord.’

When I opened the door, I saw Lee Ah-young standing there. She was wearing a big T-shirt with training pants and a comfortable outfit. But apart from that, yesterday’s sobbing figure was nowhere to be seen, and she again greeted me with a restrained, provincial look.

“Hello.”

“Oh, yes. Hello.”

She opened her mouth with a little shame, though. “Well, I heard from my friend yesterday that I was on your back…”

I nodded and said, “Oh, yes. The white girl asked for help in the parking lot, so I carried you home.”

“Thank you. How can I thank you?”

“Don’t mention it. It’s okay. If there’s anything we can do to help our neighbors, we should help.”

Lee Ah-young answered politely with her head down. “No, thank you. I’ll give you a separate thanks. Thank you again, anyway.”

‘I don’t need thanks…’ But before I could say anything more, she left with those words and went back to her room. I looked at her back for a moment. I recalled what she had just said, “I’d come home on your back…”

It was very different from yesterday.

‘You? Where’s Oppa going?’

I closed the door with that thought. I added ‘strange’ to her category: rich, beautiful, glamorous.