12 Hours After

Translator: Khan

Editor: RED

“Take it.”

My dad lifted the bottle of Soju. I held out my glass for a drink. The glasses were all full and we hit the glasses briefly, then drank Soju at the same time. The scent of the pungent Soju poked the tip of my nose.

“Ch…”

Tonight, I drank with my dad in the living room after a long time. My dad put chili paste on eggplant and said, chewing hard. “Are you having such a hard time working?”

‘What should I tell him?’

I opened my mouth for a moment, then closed it, and managed to open it again.

‘It’s tough. I can stand the hard times, but I can’t stand the pointless work. I do the same thing all the time, and all I learn is to curry favor with my boss. It’s a life I have been born and lived once, and it is so hard to be a slave to my paycheck…’

In my unconscious mind, I was about to say all that, but I was quick to correct it.

“It’s awful.”

“Well…”

My dad looked down at the empty glass without saying much. I was sorry to see him while I was whining. Besides, he had done the same thing for decades, and I’d only done it for a year. I spoke up again, filling the glass with Soju, “Dad.”

“What?”

“How many years have you been working in the training center?”

“Well… I started it when your mom had you… It’s thirty years this year.”

“What if you put together the time you worked as a coach?”

“Thirty-five years, considering the length of time I worked as a coach.”

‘Thirty-five years is a long time. It’s more years than I’ve lived. My dad has been sweating and teaching others in the training center for such a long time.’

I asked my dad out of pure curiosity. “How did you do the same thing for so long? Aren’t you tired of it?”

My dad looked at the glass of Soju, which was filled to a full extent, and said, “I couldn’t work if I thought I was sick of it. I just thought that this is my karma and I did it.”

This life. My karma. I thought of my job for a while.

‘Is this my life? Is this my karma? If I think so, the answer will come soon. No. It’s right to quit the company. Even if I didn’t get a special fate in 12 Hours After, I’d probably be out of the company. Of course, I would have worked in the company for a few more years because of my debt.’

I asked my dad, “Dad, haven’t you ever wanted to quit?”

At my question, my dad put a full glass in his mouth at once. Perhaps the act said more than words.

“Why not? I wanted to quit dozens or hundreds of times. When parents came and grabbed my neck collar when an elementary student got a nosebleed, or when a bunch of gangsters came and busted up the training center… You remember that, right?”

I answered with a nod. “…Yes.” I remembered some big events because I had been in my dad’s training center since I was young. The scene of parents coming and screaming, the scene of a group of gangsters with tattoos coming and quarreling with my dad. That was just what I had seen, and there must have been a lot of other things.

My dad went on talking. “No, the gangsters were rather cute. If I called the police, they would back off. It was the building owner who was more fearful than the rascals. If I had more trainees, he was going to ask me to raise the rent. At any rate, I wanted to shoulder throw the building’s owner, and use choking techniques… then, I wanted to quit my job, and it was not once or twice. Haha!”

I laughed aloud with my dad for a moment. At that time, he went on to say one more thing.

“But every time, whenever I wanted to beat him coolly, you and Su-jeong came to mind. Well, I didn’t even want to hit him, then.”

At the words, I nearly choked up. I filled my dad’s glass without a word and took my glass and took a one-shot. In the midst of the rising effects of alcohol, I suddenly thought of the question and answer I had with the Customer Service.

– Why do you send me this?’

– Think of yourself.

‘I have never committed a great sin and have not lived doing great good deeds. If there is a reason why I got a special fate, it may be because of my parents’ honesty and sincerity. It’s a special fate that the two should have received, and it seems like I got it instead. If I make money, I will be more filial.’

I once again said to my dad, filling his glass. “You’ve done a great job, dad. Now Su-Jeong and I…”

But that was the time.

“Brother!” Suddenly Su-jeong opened the door and shouted out.

I was so touched by my dad’s words that I was getting drunk, so why was it so much? “What?”

But Su-jeong couldn’t say anything right. “Brother, brother, brother!” She was just calling over and over again.

My dad who drank, and my mom who took the garlic out of the kitchen, looked at her with a kind of a glance. ‘What’s wrong with her all of a sudden?’

I also looked at Su-jeong like that. Suddenly, I saw a wall clock hanging in the corner of the living room. The time was just past nine in the evening.

“Brother, brother!”

I knew what she wanted to say. ‘Did she memorize the numbers before?’

But I said, frowning ignorance. “What’s wrong with you, like a crazy bitch?”

Su-jeong said what she wanted to say. “The Lotto!”

“What Lotto?”

I took the Lotto out of my wallet and put it on the table proudly. Su-jeong looked at it and said with slightly trembling lips.

“2 6 15 22 36 41… Oh, my God, it’s true.”

I acted awkwardly under the influence of alcohol.

“Are you sure it’s true?”

My dad, who had been solemnly telling the old story, also said with his eyes round, “Really?”

———————–

Two days later, Monday…

I left the bank with the door open. And as soon as I did, I called my dad.

As soon as the dial tone disappeared, my dad asked, “Did you get it?”

“They’re in the bank. They don’t even ask for this and that.”

“That’s a relief. But don’t talk about it anywhere. When you say you have a lot of money, you’re bound to get some weird people. We’ll take care of our mouths and Su-jeong.”

“Yes, don’t worry.”

“I hope you’ll finish your work well.”

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll hang up.”

I stopped my dad trying to cut off the phone. “Dad.”

“Yes, why?”

“If the owner of the building wants to raise the rent again, let me know. I’ll buy the building.”

“Haha, yeah, I got it.”

After the call, I opened my account that received the winnings through my mobile phone app. The total sum of the Lotto was $4,730,000, and after the 33% tax, there was $3,155,160 in my account.

“$3,155,160.”

It was the first time that I had received such a large sum of money at once, although I had often touched a hundred thousand dollars recently. I made a big uppercut with my fist on the road, like a soccer player who had scored a goal.

“Ch…!” Score, it was another score. The money in my stock account was $156,7300. When the two were combined, it was approximately $4,200,000. $4,200,000 was my new net worth. With that money, it seemed that there was nothing that I couldn’t do in the world.

“Wow…”

I looked up into the sky, whistling. The blue sky looked like it was going to be in my hands right now. I had become a really rich man. I beckoned a visible taxi as I was going down the road. “Taxi!”

The taxi stopped next to me soon. I said my destination in the back seat. “Go to Yeoksam Station, please.”

———————

I entered the office of the company in blue jeans and a colorful polo shirt. Everyone else was surprised to see me. Everyone was frozen in amazement, but Choi, a close friend of mine, approached and asked. “What is it, Han Sang-hoon? It’s your annual paid holiday today. Did you leave something behind?”

Strangely, that was correct. I left something at work.

“Oh, I’ve left something behind.”

I passed him by and approached my seat. I then took out my resignation, which I had kept in the drawer.

When the white envelope came out of the drawer, Choi was surprised. “Uh… you… that’s… no way!”

I passed the frozen Choi, and went to Heo’s desk.

“What are you doing? Why are you here? Did you suddenly get caught in your conscience after applying for your annual paid holiday? By the way, what’s with that look? What the hell?”

“I’m here to talk to you about something.”

“What is it?”

I put my resignation before him and said, “I’m quitting this company today.”

“What?”

I could feel all the eyes in the office on me.

Heo also looked at me with a slight surprise.

“Are you… are you serious? You hit the bathroom wall all of a sudden, huh? You seem to be out of your mind lately, so you are quitting all of a sudden? Is the company a joke? You won’t live long in society with such a mind. Huh?”

That was terrible. He was even saying bad things to someone who said he was leaving.

“If you quit here, you’re done, huh? You can’t stand it here, so where do you think you will be working from now on?”

I didn’t want to hear any more.

“Mr. Heo Young-sik!” When I called his name, he looked at me in surprise.

“Tell me straight, I’m not a person in this company anymore. I’m not your guy. Now that we don’t know each other, who are you talking down to?”

Heo was so surprised that he couldn’t say anything more.

“Let’s see. Maybe… you’ll use honorific language for me the next time we meet. Please do a good job of dealing with my resignation.”

I left the word and turned back. People in the office were staring at me with a slight grin. It must be refreshing to many people, but they still read Heo’s countenance. It was the playful Choi that showed me a little thumbs-up.

‘He is a funny guy.’

I laughed and went to my seat, then stepped out of the company door with only my personal stuff. When I walked out again, I saw the crosswalk where everything had started. I looked up into the sky this time, unlike the time when I had been late and staring at the ground with a sigh. There were countless buildings under the sky in Gangnam. I mumbled at the buildings. ‘How much would that be?’

It would cost tens to hundreds of million dollars. But somehow, even those buildings were likely to come into my hands soon.

However, what section chief Heo Young-sik said moments ago came to my mind. ‘You’re done.’

But he was wrong. He had been so wrong so far, so he was staying in that position.

“No,” I said, shaking my head as if he were in front of me. “I’m starting from now on!”