12 Hours After

Translator: Khan

Editor: RED

I handed over the prepared report to Heo. He scribbled on the report with me. I mumbled my lips a little.

‘If you say something bad, I will beat you and quit the company. Be quiet in a month or two, I want to walk out on my own, so just say okay.’

Heo said, nodding his head as if he had telepathically read my thoughts, “Yes. Return to your seat.”

I looked at the clock. 7:50 pm. It wasn’t official overtime today, but I had a little extra work to do. It was almost three hours after the closing time, 5:00 pm. It was a common occurrence while working for a company.

Getting ready to come back to my seat, Choi came to me and said, “Hey, Han, it’s a TGIF, so let’s go for a drink.”

To be honest, his proposal was very attractive. Since I had not had dinner yet, drinks and side dishes such as Soju, pork belly, Makgeolli and pancake, beer, spicy sea snails with thin noodles, flashed through my head. But I turned down the offer. “Oh, sorry. I have an appointment today.”

Choi frowned for a moment, then suddenly gathered his lips and told me. “Oh, yeah. Sorry, I’m sorry. You have to go, so go!”

I guess he still misunderstood that I was meeting someone. I left him like that. It was more comfortable for me. After leaving the company today, I walked toward Choo Hospital in front of Unju Station, where the crime would take place today.

At first, I thought I would call 112 and check on TV or the Internet at night, but I changed my mind. It was because I felt like I had to check with my own eyes whether what was going on in 12 Hours After was a definite fact, or something could be changed by other variables.

This was a matter of great importance, I thought. It was clear, if not right now, that my assets would swell enormously in the future. In a world where money was a force, a lot of money would bring great power, and in the future, my decisions would have a big impact on the world.

‘What I do, what I say, might be on the news.’

‘There are still “people who make news” in reality: big names in the political arena, such as the president, chief secretaries and the head of the ruling party, and people at the top of the business pyramid, such as the chairman of the group and the board of directors. Each one of their own decisions is on the news and is publicized.’

If I grew up likewise, I would end up in that position. If so, I had to make sure the news from 12 Hours After could be changed by someone’s intervention.

And, apart from such rational thoughts, I also wanted to protect Oh Hyun-joo as a fan. I had known her beauty and liked her since her days of anonymity, when nobody noticed and liked her. It was too bad that such an accident was happening, as she was about to become popular. Even if today’s happening was inevitable, I wanted to resist that fate a little bit.

As expected, it didn’t take long to reach Choo Hospital from the company. After about ten minutes, I walked to the front of Choo Hospital in Gangnam, but I was hungry. I hadn’t eaten dinner and worked overtime.

I looked at my watch; it was eight o’clock. It was about an hour before the crime took place. There was still room. I stopped by the visible ‘Highway Sandwich’ nearby. Perhaps because it was evening, the store was quiet. I approached the clerk and placed an order quickly.

“Please add bacon and cheese to honey oats and some jalapenos to the vegetables, mainly lettuce. I’ll have the sweet onion sauce and the mayonnaise, and the side menu with cookies.”

I took the sandwich I ordered, and sat by the window, where I could see Choo Hospital outside. I sat there for a moment and looked around Choo Hospital. There were people coming and going at Exit 6 of Unju Station, and countless cars were moving up and down on Nonhyeon Road. It was a plain view of Gangnam.

‘Is that what really happens there?’

It was a little hard to imagine there was a crime an hour from now, that someone would stab someone. But the article that 12 Hours After sent me was very clear.

‘Yes, I have to stop that.’

I pressed the call button and dialed the number. The numbers 112 were very easy and simple. However, coming to think of it, the problem was afterward. I hesitated for a moment with the call number 112 on the screen.

‘What should I say to the police? An hour from now, an unidentified man appears and tries to stab Oh Hyun-joo with a knife?’

‘I can’t do that. It’s too specific. How can I make such a report without knowing in advance what’s going to happen in the future? If the police receive such a report, they will first doubt it is a false report, and secondly, even if they think the report is real, they will think that the reporter is someone who knows the crime plan, or at least knows the criminal.’

‘If I call 112, they’ll have my phone records, right? That will make me so tired. Even I am a caller, they may think I’m a weirdo. In the worst scenario, I may be treated an accomplice.’

That was not very good. I erased the 112 that I had written on my cell phone, and I thought of another way.

‘Shall I go find a public phone booth and call them?’

But that was difficult, too. These days there were CCTVs and car black boxes everywhere, so calling from a pay phone booth located on the side of the boulevard was no different from calling with my phone.

I kept on agonizing over the sandwich. When I finished eating, I looked at my watch and it was just about to pass 8:10. The remaining time was forty minutes. I had to do something now to stop the crime.

‘What shall I do?’

Right then, while I was in agony, someone passed in front of the sandwich shop where I was sitting. He was 180 centimeters tall and wore a hat and a black mask. When I saw him, I knew instinctively, ‘That’s him.’