5
# 5 : The Goose and 11.7 Billion Won
Saturday morning arrived, and the moment Dohyun got out of bed, he checked his phone first. The six numbers in his memo were still there. He looked at them again and again, even worrying absurdly that the numbers might have somehow changed overnight.
He washed his face and changed into his cleanest clothes. As though he were preparing for some grand ceremony, he carefully straightened his appearance. Then he checked the memo one more time and counted the five thousand won in his wallet.
He was ready. Dohyun left the apartment.
The lottery shop was a little distance from his neighborhood. Normally, it was a store he would have passed without a second thought, but today it felt almost like a place of destiny, and Dohyun's steps trembled strangely. No, his legs were actually shaking from nervousness.
With only five thousand won in his hand, he was going to make the biggest gamble of his life. No, it wasn't a gamble. For him, he was simply on his way to collect an outcome that had already been decided.
When Dohyun arrived in front of the shop, he paused to catch his breath.
A faded banner reading "Lottery First-Prize Winning Shop" was hanging on the glass door. Dohyun chuckled when he saw it. There was a chance another line would be added to that banner today.
He pushed the door open and entered. The shop was quiet.
Perhaps because it was Saturday morning, Dohyun was the only customer, and the owner was sitting behind the counter watching television with sleepy eyes.
Dohyun picked up a lottery marking sheet from the side and took hold of a pen. His hand trembled.
He opened the memo on his phone and placed it beside the sheet. Then he began marking the numbers one by one, comparing them carefully.
He found the box corresponding to the first number and filled it in completely. The second number. The third.
With every box he filled, Dohyun alternated between looking at the memo and the sheet, checking several times to make sure he hadn't marked the wrong box or confused any of the numbers.
After finishing one game, he started over and marked the same numbers again.
The second game. The third. The fourth. The fifth.
Five lines with the exact same numbers. Dohyun was being so careful that it seemed he wouldn't tolerate even a single mistake. It took him more than ten minutes just to mark all five games. Sweat had soaked into his back during that time.
Finally, he took the sheet to the counter.
"These. Please."
Dohyun held out the sheet and spoke in a trembling voice, but the owner accepted it without much interest and fed it into the machine.
Bzzzz.
The sound of the machine reading the sheet was brief, but to Dohyun, it sounded like the opening of the gates of fate.
Soon, the lottery ticket was printed, and Dohyun accepted it.
A single piece of paper with five lines of numbers printed on it. It was only the size of his palm. But to him, it was the heaviest piece of paper in the world.
"Five thousand won."
Dohyun took out coins and bills from his wallet and placed them on the counter. Five one-thousand-won bills. The last of the money he had scraped together by searching every corner of his room the night before.
The owner casually took the money, and that was it. The transaction was over just like that.
Dohyun left the shop with the lottery ticket in his hand. The sunlight outside was dazzling. He looked at the ticket one more time before carefully placing it deep inside his wallet, treating it as though it were a fragile treasure.
Now all that remained was to wait.
For the lottery draw that night.
The afternoon felt like an eternity to Dohyun.
After returning home, he couldn't concentrate on anything and was restless. He turned the television on and off, wandered aimlessly around the room, and repeatedly opened his wallet to check the lottery ticket.
He was afraid he might lose it. Afraid someone might break in and steal it.
He compulsively checked the ticket's existence again and again.
Time passed painfully slowly.
One o'clock. Two o'clock. Three o'clock.
Every time Dohyun looked at the clock, he sighed. There was still a long time until the draw. He tried to calm himself, but his heart simply wouldn't settle.
When evening came, Dohyun cooked a packet of ramen. He hadn't been able to eat anything all day, so he needed to put something in his stomach.
But once the ramen was cooked, he couldn't bring himself to eat it. He simply picked up and put down his chopsticks as the noodles swelled until they became completely soggy.
It was because of the tension.
His mind knew that his ability had never been wrong, so this time should be no different. But his heart couldn't accept it.
Having lived his entire life in poverty and misfortune, Dohyun couldn't easily believe that something this good could happen to him. He kept being tormented by an ominous feeling that something would go wrong at the very last moment.
What if he was wrong?
What if, just this once, his ability failed him?
Dohyun shook his head, trying to drive the thought away, but the more he tried, the deeper his anxiety became.
And so the fateful hour approached.
Night came. The lottery broadcast was about to begin, and Dohyun sat down in front of the small television.
He tuned to the channel and adjusted his posture. Then he took the lottery ticket out of his wallet and held it tightly in one hand. In the other, he opened the memo on his phone and placed it on his lap.
At that moment, a chill ran down Dohyun's spine.
This scene.
He had definitely seen it.
In his dream the previous night. Sitting right here, in front of this television, holding the lottery ticket and staring at the screen.
This exact scene.
The narrow studio apartment. The small television. The phone on his lap. The lottery ticket in his hand.
Everything was exactly as he had seen it in his dream.
Not a single thing was different.
Dohyun's heart began pounding as though it would burst.
Then the numbers he had seen had to be correct as well.
The broadcast began on the screen. The host greeted the viewers, and the lottery machine appeared.
Inside the transparent chamber, balls marked with numbers began spinning around.
Dohyun held his breath. Sweat began to gather on the hand gripping the lottery ticket.
Eventually, the first ball rolled down the tube, and a large number appeared on the screen.
With trembling eyes, Dohyun looked down at the ticket in his hand.
It was the same number.
His hand began shaking violently.
The second ball rolled out, and a number appeared on the screen.
Again, it was the same.
Dohyun swallowed dryly. His mouth had gone completely dry.
The third ball.
The same.
The fourth ball.
The same.
Something hot began welling up in Dohyun's eyes.
The fifth ball rolled out, and the number appeared on the screen.
The same.
Tears streamed down his cheeks.
Now there was only one left.
The final one.
The sixth ball slowly rolled along the tube, and Dohyun stared at the screen as though he could see through it.
It truly felt as though time itself had stopped, with only that one ball moving slowly.
Eventually, the final number appeared on the screen.
Dohyun checked the lottery ticket in his trembling hand.
It was the same.
The exact number he had marked.
All six.
Not a single one was wrong.
Dohyun froze where he sat, still clutching the lottery ticket.
He couldn't move.
He couldn't even breathe.
He could only alternate between staring at the screen and looking at the ticket.
It was correct.
All six numbers were correct.
He had won first prize.
On the television, the first-prize winnings for that draw appeared across the screen.
Dohyun stared blankly at the number.
It was an amount of money he had never even held in his hands, let alone dreamed of possessing. Money he couldn't have saved even after working for twenty years straight. Money that would be more than enough to pay off every debt crushing him, with plenty left over.
Dohyun's hand holding the ticket began trembling uncontrollably.
And then something inside him broke.
He pulled the lottery ticket against his chest and began to cry out loud.
Something he had been holding back for so long had burst out all at once.
Like a little child, he sobbed.
Alone in his five-pyeong studio apartment.
So many emotions were mixed into those tears.
Joy. Relief. And sorrow.
Only a few days ago, he had been a man merely enduring life because he couldn't bring himself to die. A man who had been abandoned by the family to whom he had devoted more than a decade, buried beneath debts he couldn't tell anyone about, and on the verge of being forced out of his company.
A man who had no doors left open to him, who had been stubbornly enduring each day in a five-pyeong room while eating soggy ramen.
And finally, light had entered his life.
The ability he had spent his entire life dismissing as déjà vu. The strange sense of familiarity he had believed to be useless.
At last, it had pulled him out of this hell.
Dohyun cried for a long time.
How long had he cried?
When his tears finally began to dry, he slowly raised his head.
He wiped his tears with the back of his hand and looked at the lottery ticket once more.
Six numbers.
Six numbers that had saved him.
Outside the window, the lights of the city glittered.
Until yesterday, those lights had seemed cold and indifferent. But today, somehow, they looked warm.
As though they were blessing him on the beginning of a new life.
Dohyun slowly rose from his seat.
And then he realized.
This wasn't the end.
It was the beginning.
Paying off his debts was merely the first step. He possessed an ability that no one else in the world had.
The ability to see tomorrow.
As long as he had this ability, there was nothing he couldn't accomplish.
Until now, all he had thought about was using this ability to escape, endure, and survive.
But things were different now.
With this ability, he could accomplish anything.
Dohyun placed the lottery ticket back into the deepest part of his wallet.
This time, his hand was no longer trembling.
It was firm and steady.
He walked to the window and looked down at the city lights.
Then he murmured softly, but clearly,
"Now. It begins."
A spark that had been extinguished for a long time was burning once again in Dohyun's eyes.
And this time, it would not be easily extinguished.
From the moment he confirmed his winnings on Saturday night, Dohyun couldn't eat anything.
It wasn't because he wasn't hungry.
He simply couldn't eat.
The number 11.7 billion won filled his mind completely, leaving no room for anything else. He merely sat on the floor, continuing to stare at the lottery tickets in his hand.
Five tickets.
The same numbers.
All first-prize winners.
He looked at them again and again.
Afraid that he might have seen them incorrectly, or that the printing might somehow have been unclear, he couldn't sleep until dawn.
Even when Sunday morning came, Dohyun couldn't bring himself to make even a packet of ramen.
Normally, he would have instinctively put water on the stove, but that day he even forgot to do that.
His stomach churned.
He couldn't tell whether it was from excitement, anxiety, or simply because his stomach was empty.
He wandered around the room all day.
He put the lottery tickets in his wallet, then took them out again because he was anxious. He hid them under his pillow, then took them out and held them in his hand because he was anxious again.
What if someone stole them?
What if there was a fire?
What if they got wet?
All sorts of worries tormented him.
In the end, Dohyun put the tickets inside a plastic bag, then wrapped them in a zipper bag as a second layer of protection. Only after placing them in the pocket against his chest did he finally feel a little reassured.
Even when night came, sleep did not.
Dohyun lay in the darkness, staring at the ceiling.
His mind was filled with calculations.
The first-prize winnings for this draw were 2.34 billion won per winning ticket.
He had five winning tickets.
So, multiplied by five.
Dohyun counted on his fingers in the darkness and calculated it over and over.
2.34 billion won multiplied by five.
11.7 billion won.
One hundred and seventeen billion won.
Even saying the number aloud didn't make it feel real.
At first, even the 2.34 billion won from a single ticket had seemed unreal.
But five times that amount?
It was money he could never have touched even if he had been reborn several times and worked himself to the bone for his entire life.
And so Dohyun endured Saturday and Sunday for two whole days on nothing but a few sips of water.
Without eating.
Without sleeping.
Holding on only to the lottery tickets in his hands and the numbers inside his mind.