Chapter 21: A Broken Flower, Part I

Translator: Khan

Editor: RED

Friday morning. I finished washing and was ready to go to work as usual. I put my shoes on and went out the door.

‘Oh, wait a minute.’ I picked up my cell phone as if I had forgotten something. What I did was automatic after I picked it up. I turned on the MTS to check my account balance.

[Account Balance: $187,156]

$187,156. My yearly salary was $ 30,000 now. Considering my yearly salary was gradually increasing, I had to collect money without eating or wearing anything for six to seven years to match it. In reality, it was a large sum of money I would normally have to collect for ten years. I made it in just two weeks. It did not make much sense, but the numbers in my account were real. I put my cell phone in my pocket and left the door. I felt good.

——————-

I went into the company. It was 8:30 a.m. I had thirty minutes until the regular rush hour, but the company was well off. It was because everyone came in time. I understood because I did, too. Who would want to come to this company early, which only wanted to make profits by squeezing all the last drops of human strength and mental strength? But on the other hand, I’d rather deserve to work in a company these days.

When I thought, “I should be here,” every day tasted like death. Thinking, “It’s okay to leave anytime,” I felt like a company job was a game quest for time. I also enjoyed the gaze of Heo, who was always staring at me, as if he could eat me.

‘What are you complaining about, man? Tell me if you have any complaints. You’re the slave of the company, not me.’

My account was full, so I thought I was a little generous.

‘Yes, Heo has been rolling here like a dog for over ten years, so he’s got to be like a dog.’

But I thought about it for a while.

“No, if he thinks about the other way around, the better he can be for his juniors, right?’

Park, who joined Manchester United through the teams of a domestic secondary school and a university in Korea, and grew up to be a world-class soccer player, was beaten when he played soccer in school, and promised himself that he would never beat his juniors.

Heo could have done it by saying, “I will stop the bad habit of a boss squeezing his juniors.” However, he did not. As soon as he was stressed out by his superiors, an executive director or a board member, he passed it to his successors. In the end, that was how much a man’s bowl was worth.

‘Bah, he is probably doing it as a ten-thousand-year-old manager. As expected, one should do well to others, whether it is good or bad.’

If he had been good and played the role of mentor; if he at least liked me; even if he respected me, but told me, “Han, cheer up, even if it’s a little hard. You are young and have a future. If you work hard now, I’m sure you’ll see the bright future later,” I might have given him a good piece of information before leaving. ‘Sir, this is Jiwoo Entertainment. Buy some before 9:10 today.’

Heo came to work around the time I thought about it. He looked at me. ‘Why is he coming to work so early these days?’ He looked at me with a glance and went off to his seat. He kicked off his chance today as well, with an eruption of Mt. Fuji. Bye! It was 8:54 while I was thinking about it, almost time to get the email. I locked my fingers together and then stretched a little. I made money yesterday, but I had to earn more money today. The email came in at fifty-five minutes and I checked it out.

[Silver Class Member Mail, Subscription Period left: 11 days.]

The first thing that stood out was the remaining subscription period. 11 days. I had to extend it in a little while, paying ten thousand dollars. It was not a big deal now, but it was still expensive at the price. Ten thousand would be one hundred thousand, one million, and ten million.

‘I’m going to have to increase my money as soon as possible. I don’t want to feel that ten thousand is expensive. I have to get to Gold Class quickly, too.’

‘Gold Class has a subscription rate of one million dollars. If I pay one million dollars, I need at least three million dollars or more to think about the subscription. If I have the information to know the future and I don’t have the capital, I’ll have to suck my fingers.’

‘Yeah, with at least two to three million dollars, Gold Class is possible. I don’t know what’s good for the Gold Class.’

I clicked on the Economy, thinking about it. An article came out, with an economic analysis.

[The National Tax Service says that half the employees are paid less than $2,000 a month, but top 1% are paid $20,000 a month.]

‘Oh, really? Are Half of them paid less than $2,000 a month?’

I almost clicked on it. It was because, despite its lack of money, it was quite an interesting article. However, I only saw the title.

‘Such an article will be read in twelve hours, if it is written by another media. In this email, I can only read articles that are of future value.’

I then clicked on IT/Science.

[In a few days, the giant Super Moon will rise. People in the global community are interested.]

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I looked at the article in slight disappointment. IT/Science. I thought something was going to come up, something like Jiwoo Entertainment’s acquisition, but nothing came out.

‘I’ve been clicking for over two weeks, but I can’t keep track of what I want. If I fail to produce results like this, I will have to consider different categories. There might be something in Politics, in Society, in the World, etc.’

I last clicked on the Entertainment article. It was a natural choice for me, having tasted it with the Jiwoo Entertainment case. This time, the entertainment article caught my eye again.

[The actress was stabbed by an unidentified person in front of Choo Hospital in Gangnam, southern Seoul.]

‘Hmm?’

It was not a money-making article. But the name that came out there, Oh Hyun-joo, caught my eye.

‘Was Oh Hyun-joo stabbed?’

Oh Hyun-joo was an actress who competed for the top spot as my favorite female celebrity. With her egg-shaped face, neat eyes, a sharp nose and slightly thin, long lips, she had not risen in years since her debut, despite her dazzling beauty. She showed excellent acting skills in the recent drama “Me and Your Uncle,” which had seen a surge in her profile.

Since then, she was rediscovered with her colorful beauty, which had recently taken up several CFs and started to raise her value. But she was stabbed at a time like this. It was like a flower that had just begun to bloom was broken.

‘What the hell…?’

There was no article to make money today anyway. I clicked on it.

[About 8:50 p.m. today, actress Oh Hyun-joo was attacked by a man in front of Choo Hospital in Gangnam. Oh Hyun-joo, who visited Choo Hospital on the same day, was reportedly assaulted by an unidentified man while on the street in Nonhyeon-ro, where her manager’s car was waiting for her.

The suspect, wearing a mask, approached Oh Hyun-joo, stabbed her upper abdomen a couple of times with a sharp knife, and ran away. The police, who checked the CCTV, are investigating him, citing the fact that he was standing near Unju Station before the crime, and that he was involved in the crime when he saw the manager’s car arrive by the roadside in Nonhyeon-ro. They believe it was a deliberate crime by her acquaintances.]

‘She was stabbed in the upper abdomen a couple of times. Is she all right?’

The story was in the article below.

[She was taken to the emergency room of Choo Hospital, with the help of the manager who was waiting for her and the citizens who were passing by the near street, but her life was reported to be in critical condition because of severe bleeding and fatal wounds.]

“Huh.” I groaned, unknowingly. It was quite a shocking article for me, a long-time fan of Oh Hyun-joo, that the nation’s actress was attacked by an unidentified man, and her life was in danger there. I read the article two or three more times from top to bottom.

‘Huh, what kind of a crazy bastard he is!’

I wanted to deny the contents of the article, but all the articles sent by 12 Hours After were real. The writer and the sender were anonymous, but it was clear enough that they had never published an article that was not true.

‘Ha, how did it happen?’

But that was the time. As I was reading the article with a sigh, a strange idea came to my mind.

‘Wait a minute, what will happen if I stop this crime?’

The crime did not happen yet. The crime was simply what was going to happen in twelve hours. But if I was involved in it, maybe the future would be different.

‘Would it change anything if I call 112 before the crime?

‘If it’s Choo Hospital in Gangnam, it’s just in front of Unju Station. It’s a block away from my company near Yeoksam Station. It’s very close. It takes five minutes to get there.’

It was then that somebody in the company shouted, “Let’s cheer up again today!”

“Fighting!”

“Fighting!”

It was the beginning of work. I could not keep looking at the email anymore. I checked again the timing of the crime in the article.

‘At 8:50 in the evening.’

I checked it once more and then closed the email.