12 Hours After

Translator: Khan

Editor: Aelryinth

I sat cross-legged on the bench and looked up at the sky. The sky seemed to be high today. I felt that autumn was coming.

‘Autumn…’ While I was looking at the sky like that, Crow, who had appeared before me, bowed his head at me. “You called for me, sir?”

It was a perfectly normal greeting. Wearing a plain suit, he just looked like a foreigner on a business trip abroad. At this point, I thought I would meet him elsewhere, where there were a lot of people. I said to him, recommending a seat next to me, “The last survey was really good. The quality of the content, the quantity… was impeccably good.”

He said, with a slight bowing of his head, “Thank you.”

“I have to appreciate it. I’ve been able to handle a lot of things thanks to the data.”

“I’m glad I was of help.” He seemed to be a modest sort.

“What have you been doing for the past two days?”

“I worked.”

“Work?”

“Yes.”

I said with my head tilted, “Really? Aren’t you supposed to rest when you don’t have a request?”

“No. Master Crow doesn’t really like Crows playing. We have to keep working.”

“What do you do?”

At my words, he lowered his head slightly and looked at the ground and said, “Everything that’s going on in the world is our job.”

“Really? Without a break?”

“Yes, we don’t rest, like the world is running nonstop.”

‘Umm… It’s a pity that he can’t rest and work. If I were a boss, I would’ve given him a cool reward vacation.’ Come to think of it, there was nothing I couldn’t give.

“Then I won’t give you a vacation, but would you like a separate reward?”

He smiled, his white teeth exposed at my words. His brown skin made the teeth stand out. “It’s all right. I’ll take only your words.”

I was going to give him about ten thousand dollars. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yes, it’s okay. I can’t even use it if I get the money.”

“You can’t use it?”

“Correct.”

“Then… where did you sleep and what did you eat?”

“There’s a separate sleeping area, and there’s food.”

“Is that so?”

I lowered my eyes slightly and blurred my words, and he said, “Don’t worry, sir. I’m getting enough of a reward for my work as a Crow. No, that’s too much.”

“Enough of a reward?”

He said, looking at the different grasses in Montmartre Park, “Yes. Enough reward.”

“What’s the reward?”

“That’s… that’s not mine to say.”

I guessed I went too far without realizing it. I wasn’t going to pry anymore. “Yes, I see. By the way, I have a new request.”

He looked at me as if he had waited for this. “What is it?”

“The man named Tak Joon-gi, who I asked you to investigate before… He’s dead.”

Crow acknowledged bluntly, as if he had guessed it, “I see.”

I kept saying, “But the death… is a little strange. The media and the police say he committed suicide, but as far as I know, he wasn’t someone to do that. He texted me before he died, and it wasn’t a text that anyone who had decided to commit suicide would send. And the letter he wrote… I’m not convinced.”

Crow was listening to me silently. I went straight to the point, “So, I wonder, if he really committed suicide, and if it’s not a suicide, who killed him? If he was killed, why? And… I want to see if it’s related to me.”

“… Yes, sir,” Crow nodded.

I saw him and said hurriedly as he had a habit of disappearing at the mere mention of a request. “Well, by the way, Mr. Crow.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Is this request going to take a month, too?”

“Yes…”

It was rather simpler than the previous request, so I thought the investigation period would be reduced. I spoke to him, “I see. Okay. Please take care of it. Oh, and…”

“And?”

I said one last thing, “What kind of food do you like? Let’s eat together next time.”

“… I eat anything.”

“What do you like more than just eating?”

“I don’t know. Not really…”

“Then I’ll take care of it. Let’s not meet in the park next time, let’s have a meal together at a restaurant.”

He nodded, “Yes, sir.”

Now it was time for him to disappear. I looked at him for a moment. By the way, he just got up from his seat and walked across the street. I thought it would be one of the two, flying up into the sky, or hiding out into the ground, or something, but it was normal.

‘Huh, that’s… that’s weird… He is gone if I don’t see him, and if I am watching him, he walks away. Is he a spy of Schrodinger?’

There was something mysterious and unknown about him, but there was one thing for sure: he was competent. In a month, I would know the truth about the death of Tak Joon-gi.

—————————–

I returned to my daily routine after I left the job to Crow. Unlike me, public attention quickly faded away from Director Tak Joon-gi. It took only one day to get there, and the stock manipulation incident, which had shaken the Republic of Korea, cooled down in just one more day as he had committed suicide, and written a suicide note in which he had admitted his guilt. No matter how evil he was, it was not in our country to point fingers at a dead person.

The angry public quickly disappeared. Tak Joon-gi, the name went up and down for another day, but that was it. If anyone really killed him, it would be fair to say that he achieved his intended purpose. His death eliminated many things that had to happen. First of all, the investigation of the people on the list was lost. Some of the conscious reporters wrote, ‘The Tak Joon-gi incident didn’t end in death.’ However, it would be impossible to conduct a proper investigation. Even if they were investigated, it was enough to evade in the way of denial…

‘I don’t know.’

‘That’s a one-sided claim.’

‘Tak Joon-gi did it by himself.’

It was not like they could take a dead person and ask him questions. The stock price of Suyeon Travel also rebounded. Tak Joon-gi’s death was a good cleaner. The stock market was such a scary place. It was ironic to think that Tak Joon-gi himself was a man who shook stocks while shaking others’ lives.

I thought about the stock price of Suyeon travel, which plunged -24% yesterday, but was able to rebound by +15% today. ‘If Tak Joon-gi himself saw this, what would he say?…’

The short stock sale volume would have been repurchased by the team in a moderate way. We didn’t get much profit, but it was okay. It was one of those devices meant to fuck up Tak Joon-gi, rather than make money in the first place. The man who I was about to shaft was dead. There were a variety of opinions about this on the stock bulletin board.

– Wow, I’m glad Tak Joon-gi that son of a bitch is dead.-

– I sold it yesterday. I had to last just one more day.-

– The bet I had yesterday at the closing price went off. Honey.-

– But he had a conscience, since he was dead and he preserved the shareholder’s value.-

– No, he wouldn’t have done it in the first place if he had had a conscience. The son of a bitch was a dog. It’s a clean ending because he killed himself.-

There were many stories about Tak Joon-gi. There was such a story in the middle of it.

– By the way, who’s going to get his stake in Tak Joon-gi? He’s not even married.-

– I’m a little curious about that. I’m not sure of the correct answer. Maybe the Suyeon Group has taken it back. He was a son of the Suyeon Group anyway.-

There was such a story written. It was natural to think that way. In the first place, they threw a travel agency at Tak Joon-gi, who was low in the order of succession of Suyeon Group.

In addition, the official announcement was also made in Suyeon Travel.

[Suyeon Travel has nothing to do with the deviations of Director Tak Joon-gi. There will be a public announcement soon regarding major shareholders.]

That was about it. I looked at the announcement and thought, ‘…This is how it ends. Is it…?’

That was how the world seemed to forget him in just one day. I didn’t forget. The day Crow would return, in just a month, would be the twenty-ninth of September.

—————————-

The last two days of August, I visited Incheon International Airport for two days in a row, to greet those returning home. First, on August thirtieth, my family returned home. My family gave me gifts that they had bought from all over Europe.

My mother had bought a perfume from Italy. “Son, this is the one most Italian use. Italian men are the most popular in Europe. So I bought it.”

“I’ll try it, Mother.”

My father had bought a wine bottle from France. “They only sell it locally, so we couldn’t buy it in our country even if we pay. I bought this because I thought this would be good for my rich son.”

“Thank you.”

And my sister gave me a soccer uniform that she had bought in Spain as a present. “My brother, this is a Real Madrid uniform. I got the best-looking one, Gareth Vale.”

“… I like Barcelona.”

“Hmm? What’s the difference?”

In any case, I was glad they returned safely. Tak Joon-gi, who had been a threat, was dead, so my family would be safe.

———-

On August thirty-first, the second day, Ah-young also returned home. She had bought a pair of luxury sunglasses for me. “I bought these from a duty-free shop… because I thought they would look good on oppa.”

“Yes, thank you.” She had bought something just as nice as a rich daughter.

Come to think of it, there was also a present I had prepared for her. “Oh, Ah-young. I guess you didn’t know because you were in America… about him.”

“Who?”

“The last remaining one, Tak Joon-gi, is dead.”

Ah-young covered her mouth with both hands as her eyes grew bigger. “Why?”

“At that time, he got away in the spring… but this time a scandal sheet exposing all his past evil deeds came out. So he jumped from the roof of his building and killed himself.”

I excluded mentioning what I had done. As usual, Ah-young didn’t need to know everything. It was rather good for her.

“Really?” It must have been a little strange for her, too. “Oh, he… he didn’t seem to die… but he killed himself.”

“No matter how bad a man is, if his sins are exposed to the world… By the way, there was a story about Go-young Food. The police are also going to re-investigate.”

“Really?”

“Yes. If it goes well, you’ll get your parents’ honor back.”

When she heard that Tak Joon-gi had died, she didn’t look happy, but at the remark, she had a pretty bright look. “Yes… That’s great… good!”

Ah-young’s father had written such a will after he died: ‘I’m innocent, my daughter.’

It was a suicide note, which, if I thought of it now, was truly desperate, unlike Tak Joon-gi’s. When the results of a re-examination of Go-young Food came out, everyone would know that what he had said was true.

As I left Incheon International Airport with my arms linked with Ah-young, I thought, ‘It is a natural result.’