I Randomized My Face and Became Incredibly Handsome
The end-of-semester party was winding down into a restless, scattered mess.
I followed Chaeyeon out without really thinking about it — and saw something I could hardly believe.
"Hah…"
"Chaeyeon… you smoke?"
She looked nothing like the girl I'd always known. Underneath the outer layer she'd worn all night was a fashion choice so bold it felt like a different person entirely.
"If you're stuck in the clown position, at least read the room. Our faces don't even match."
"Huh?"
"You were going to confess today, weren't you? You've been fidgeting all day — it's painfully obvious."
"Huu…"
She exhaled a stream of smoke like she had nothing more to say, then pulled out her phone and started calling someone.
…
There was nothing left I wanted to say, and nothing I could. I turned around and started walking with nowhere in particular to go.
"Hey! Jung Woohyun! You're leaving already?"
"What the hell, without even saying anything…"
"Leave him. He's probably just drunk."
Not a single friend tried to stop me as I walked away in silence. The same guys who'd hounded me about how boring the drinking table would be without me.
I guess I really was only needed for the drinking.
The day after Kwon Chaeyeon hit me with a 0 Confession 1 Rejection.
I started preparing for military enlistment right away.
Fortunately, after grinding through a year and a half and finishing my discharge, I was a completely different person. Unlike the scrawny, poorly distributed body I'd had before, the physique I'd built in the military — where free time was the only thing in surplus — was close to perfect even after stripping away the post-discharge glow.
Riding that wave of confidence, I decided to hit a club alone and try my luck hunting.
I'd get a girlfriend now. A much happier life than before was about to unfold.
…
"Haa…"
Walking the college-town streets in the cool night air, I watched couples hurry past in pairs, each headed somewhere purposeful. I knew where they were going. I didn't want to think about it.
"Excuse me!"
"…Yes?"
A woman approached me alone.
Finally…!
"Live with your current face, or take one billion won and randomize it! Which do you choose?"
"Ah, this…"
I'd seen the bit a hundred times on Reels and Shorts. I'd never actually watched anyone pick the random option. I'd always figured they just cast good-looking people for the flex — but apparently they filmed regular guys like me too.
Fuck…
Before I knew it, she already had a camera pointed at me.
"Live with your current face, or take one billion won and—"
"Give me the billion."
"Sorry?"
"I'll randomize it!!! Isn't that the answer you were hoping for when you asked?!"
I couldn't hold back the anger and shouted it out. The woman who'd asked looked like she'd just found something genuinely interesting.
"Heh… yeah, he might as well spin it."
"Right? Hah."
I could hear the people watching from the sidelines whispering. Shame hit me a beat too late, and I left the scene at a fast walk.
I'd always told myself looks weren't just about the face — that if I fixed my body, things would get better. That wasn't the problem.
It's just the face. That's all of it.
A brutally unfair reality, and one I couldn't do a thing about. I got back to my studio apartment and collapsed onto the bed. The empty room felt colder than the wind outside, so I curled up tight under the blanket.
"Ugh…"
Noise from outside pulled me out of sleep. I checked my phone.
17:30…
Fresh out of the military and already used to it — thinking in twenty-four-hour time was easier than slapping AM or PM in front of everything.
A full day since discharge, and not a single person had contacted me. The only things that kept showing up in CocoaTalk were CocoaTalk Gift and CocoaPay notifications.
"Sigh… go to college, get discharged — still nobody gives a damn about a guy like me."
Just get to university and you'll get a girlfriend. Discharge and you'll be popular. All of it was complete bullshit.
"Fuck… still gotta go, though."
The only thing I could still feel confident about was everything below the neck. After last night's total washout I'd almost wanted to quit everything — but I'd already paid for three years at the gym the moment I got out. Figuring I'd be in the area until graduation, I'd gone for the package with the biggest discount. The cancellation penalty alone would be steep.
No choice.
I drank some water to settle a stomach still wrecked from drinking, then headed straight for the bathroom.
Shhhhhh—
I turned on the shower to buy time for the hot water, then launched into an efficiency play of brushing my teeth at the same time. While brushing, I cupped water in one hand and wiped the sleep from my eyes.
Scrub, scrub—
…
"What the hell."
The face in the mirror looked wrong. The first thing that hit me was the eyes — sharp, roughly twice as striking as before, with pupils so black they seemed ready to pull you under. Matching that presence was a high, straight nose and a clean, sharp jawline.
I'd always figured my face was too big to ever pull off those internet-perfect shoulder ratios. But features this complete somehow made the proportions work on their own.
I hurried out, dug the size-60 beret out of my bag, and put it on — it dropped all the way over my eyes and blocked my vision.
"What is this all of a sudden…"
My face had changed overnight. For a second I wondered if I'd possessed someone like the protagonists in those novels I sometimes read — but there was no mistaking the body I'd checked every single day, and this was definitely my apartment.
…Live with your current face, or take one billion won and randomize it! Which do you choose?
"For real…?"
Thinking back through last night brought up the woman I'd met on the street and her question. I'd definitely snapped and said I'd randomize it. The idea that she'd actually done it made no sense — but I had no other explanation for the face looking back at me.
Ah!
If it was real, the face change wasn't the whole deal — I was also supposed to get one billion won. I had no memory of receiving it, so I opened my phone and checked the internet banking app.
Total assets: 400,000 won. Precious money I'd carefully saved from my military pay — but after expecting a billion, it looked pathetically small.
"Fuck. What is this?"
I dug through every account app I had. No billion anywhere. Out of pure frustration I kept swiping through pages with nowhere left to look. The only thing with a notification badge was CocoaTalk, so I opened it on autopilot.
The chat list looked exactly the same as when I'd checked first thing after waking up. At the very top sat CocoaPay. I tapped it.
The sender can cancel until you accept.
The second I read the message, I slammed the accept button.
One billion won, loaded into CocoaPay. With shaking hands I transferred a hundred million into my main account.
…
Total assets updated to ₩100,400,000.
Confirming the deposit actually went through, I immediately moved another three hundred million, then a hundred million into a different account. Five hundred million left in CocoaPay. Something about it still felt unstable, so I decided to use only half for now and leave the rest. I could pay directly with CocoaPay anyway, and five hundred million out was already more than enough.
"Huh…"
I actually had one billion won. Still unable to feel it as real, I opened the camera app and checked my face again.
Click—!
"Holy shit…"
Even a casual shot on the default camera app radiated handsomeness. If anything, the cool, unbothered vibe of someone who didn't care about looks made it hit even harder.
One billion won and a randomized face. Normally I would have stuck with the original — the random option could have landed something worse — but last night I'd figured nothing would actually change and picked it out of pure spite. The result was a near-lottery jackpot of a face, plus a billion on top.
I spent an hour accepting the situation and studying my new face. Even with the change, my life wasn't going to transform overnight. One billion was serious money, sure, but it wasn't quite perfect financial freedom either — and I still planned to finish the university I'd been attending. At most, it meant I no longer needed a part-time job to scrape by until I re-enrolled.
For now, I was just heading to the gym on my original schedule.
Ding—
Just looking at my reflection in the elevator mirror was enough to lift my mood on its own. The urge to quit everything that had flickered last night was completely gone. My steps toward the gym felt impossibly light.
Maybe my face had gotten smaller and shed some weight. Who knows.
The gym I'd prepaid for was a large fitness center a fifteen-minute walk from home. After training on the pathetic equipment in the military fitness room, resisting the siren call of modern machines and a clean interior had been impossible.
Ziiing—
The moment I reached the entrance, the doors recognized me and slid open on their own. Compared to the military gym doors that stuck so badly you had to put your weight into them, even this tiny detail felt like luxury service.
"Hello~"
A pretty voice from the info desk.
"Hi — I paid online yesterday. It said to check in with staff on your first visit."
"Ah, one moment~"
While I waited I snuck a glance. The woman behind the desk was no joke. Near-perfect features, hair tied back in a way that read clean and put-together. The kind of face that must have been everyone's first crush in school.
"You're all set! Starting today through June 5th, three years from now! Would you like a tour of the facilities?"
She stepped out from beside the desk, offering to show me around.
Don't get the wrong idea.
Hope flared for a second. I crushed it and asked calmly,
"Is that standard?"
"We usually do the tour before payment, but since you already paid and came in, I'm happy to help if you'd like!"
Out from behind the desk, she was dressed surprisingly casually — and still, every place that should go in went in, every place that should come out came out. A genuinely exemplary female physique.
"Then please."
A year and a half of experience meant nothing when it was limited to a military fitness room. Even a glance to the side showed modern machines I'd never seen before, packed wall to wall.
"Yes! Right as you come in, towels and member uniforms are available! Please limit yourself to two towels!"
I grabbed the largest member uniform on the rack and followed her.
Damn…
Walking ahead of me, her plump, full hips pushed their presence straight through the denim.
"This is the locker room! Go ahead and change first."
I knew the smile was professional. It still felt good. So this was why front desks hired beautiful people.
I nodded and stepped into the locker room.
Spacious.
Somehow the locker room was bigger than the entire military fitness room. I picked a locker closest to the showers, stowed my things, and changed.
There'd been a time I'd considered muscle-fit workout clothes or tank tops, but the thought of daily laundry killed the idea fast. My apartment had a washing machine but no dryer, and nowhere decent to put a drying rack, so I mostly used coin laundromats. Not much of a choice.
Swallowing the regret, I pulled on the member uniform and checked the mirror.
"Oh…"
They say the face completes the outfit. The uniform was an awkward size and washed soft from heavy use — and my face covered for all of it.
Satisfied, I stepped back out. The staff member was waiting.
"You changed clothes?"
She'd swapped her ordinary street clothes for leggings and a tight crop top built for working out. My eyes kept drifting to the firm abs just barely showing.
"Hehe… it's right at the end of my shift! I'll show you around and then work out myself. Let's go!"
She walked me through machine locations and amenities with cheerful thoroughness. Male members' eyes followed her every time we passed — she seemed used to it, completely unbothered.
…
"This is the cardio zone! During peak hours we recommend a one-hour max — please be considerate! That's the full tour. Feel free to use everything!"
I felt a twinge of regret, but this wasn't the time for idle thoughts. Evening rush — the place was packed.
"Thank you~"
I'd already spotted an open flat bench, so I moved quickly to claim it. The staff member I'd been admiring like a work of art moments earlier was already forgotten.