One More Lottery Ticket!
One More Lottery Ticket!
Inside the shabby semi-basement room, the screeching squabble from upstairs still echoed faintly, and the precarious tent that had pitched inside Jihoon's pants was crushed beneath the weight of miserable reality, completely slumping down before he knew it.
Jihoon let out a deep sigh while resentfully staring at the lotto papers taped haphazardly onto the wall.
"Ehyu... There's no way it'll win, no way at all. In the life of a guy like me, what kind of..."
Even while spitting out such self-deprecating words with his mouth, the human brain was truly cunning.
The moment the premise of 'If I just win!!' flipped a switch in his head, the happiness circuit inside Jihoon's brain began operating at full throttle with a fierce roar.
'Yeah, if I really just hit the 1st prize jackpot this week!'
In his imagination, Jihoon was already kicking away this sickening, musty, mold-smelling semi-basement room without a single regret.
He would instantly buy a luxurious Gangnam apartment overlooking the Han River in cash!
Inside that spacious home, he had to set up a perfect 'Man Cave' exclusively for himself.
The fantasy of displaying figures worth millions of won and limited-edition collectibles on one wall, filling another wall to the brim with top-spec gaming PCs, console devices, and top-tier fishing gear that he could take off with every weekend.
Home appliances wouldn't be rattling, old junk either, but completely replaced with the latest models.
A robot vacuum cleaner that sucks up dust on its own! An all-in-one washer-dryer combo where a single button finishes everything from washing to fluffy drying! And a large dishwasher that wouldn't let a single drop of water touch his hands!
And what about a car?
He could get a top-of-the-line American self-driving electric car that rolled quietly and solidly without worrying about gas prices, letting go of the steering wheel and cruising leisurely down the highway.
When he walked into a bank to withdraw money, not a teller clerk, but a high-ranking executive on the level of a bank branch manager would rush out breathlessly and bow until his waist broke at a 90-degree angle.
"Aigo! VVIP customer-nim! Welcome! Please let me escort you to this VIP-exclusive room!"
Imagining himself sitting on a top-grade sofa, receiving groveling service while directing asset management, the corners of his lips twitched uncontrollably.
However, the final destination of those numerous happiness circuits, and by far the ultimate highlight, was 'women.'
'Yeah... if I have money, I should bring a woman into the bedroom too...! And in that bedroom...!'
The massive master bedroom inside Jihoon's imagination.
Right in the middle sat a massive king-sized bed large enough for three or four adults to roll around in comfortably.
A top-grade mattress that was fucking great for pounding away, remaining unflinching no matter how much he tumbled like a beast and slammed his hips.
And lying on top of it, stark naked, was that woman he saw in his dream earlier—the blonde Russian beauty, Yevgenya.
Without a single stitch of clothing on her completely nude body, she would surely be writhing lewdly on top of the high-end silk sheets.
Over her dazzlingly pure white skin, two massive watermelon-sized breasts swelled as if ready to burst, sloshing heavily whenever she tossed and turned, while her stiffly erect, dark red nipples stood firm as though begging for a man's lips.
Yevgenya gave a seductive eye-smile and spread her two honey-smooth thighs wide in an M-shape.
The secret valley hidden beneath the soft blonde pubic hair between her crotch was already dripping honey-like arousal fluid, desperately waiting for a man's thick cock.
The clear, sticky slick soaked her flushed labia and trickled down the crevice of her buttocks, soaking the silk sheets in a circle.
In his imagination, she inserted fingers into her own wet pussy, squelching as she thrust them in and out, while beckoning Jihoon by crooking the index finger of her remaining hand.
"Yeobo-o-ot~♡ Seobang-nim, come quicklyyy..."
A sweet, lewd nasal voice tickled his eardrums.
"My pussy... is waiting for Seobang-nim's big, hard cock and is already so soaked I feel like I'm going crazy... Please hurry and come, pound me hard like a beast so that this wide, plush, massive bed breaks... Shoot tons of Seobang-nim's cum deep into my womb until I get pregnant...♡"
The fantasy of voyeuristically watching the blonde beauty's lewd figure rubbing her own clitoris while popping her hips, then kneading her massive breasts atop that wide bed, plunging his meat rod all the way to the root into her wet, hot pussy, and mating like a beast all night long.
A perfect sex life going completely out of control until sweat, fluid, and cum mixed together to turn the bed into a total mess!
The tent inside Jihoon's pants swelled up ready to burst once again, letting out a trickle of precum from the tip of his urethra.
And finally, at that exact moment of absolute climax when the imaginary Jihoon unzipped his pants and prepared to dive right between her wet crotch!
Kwaaaaang-!! Jjaenggeurang! Peo-eok!!
A massive blasting sound as if the ceiling were collapsing and the sound of something shattering into pieces slammed against his eardrums.
It seemed the fight between the upstairs couple had reached an extreme, and they had thrown a large home appliance or a glass cabinet.
"Kyaaaaak! You crazy bastard, smash it all, smash it!!"
At that insane roar and murderous squabble, Jihoon's fiercely spinning happiness circuit shattered to pieces at the same time.
The Gangnam penthouse, the bank branch manager bowing at 90 degrees, the blonde white beauty spreading her legs in temptation on the spacious king-sized bed... everything scattered like grains of sand slipping through his hands, evaporating from his head in an instant.
In the place where his fantasy broke, only terribly vivid reality remained.
Where Jihoon blinked his dazed eyes and placed his gaze, instead of a blonde beauty's wet pussy, stained wallpaper covered in pitch-black mold took its place.
The sour smell of sweat poking the tip of his nose, and the damp moldy reek.
The dreadful heat of the old semi-basement room sweltering like a steamer without even any ventilation.
Jihoon's lower half, which until just a moment ago had swelled as if ready to burst again through his happiness circuit, rapidly cooled down like a crashing stock price under the weight of miserable reality and the unpleasant sweat trickling down his spine, shriveling pathetically.
"Haa..."
Jihoon let out a deep sigh and swept back his sweat-drenched bangs.
The air inside the room was so sultry and sticky that it stifled his breath.
He wanted to switch on the air conditioner remote right away, but looking at the yellowed, old wall-mounted air conditioner, this month's electricity bill stamped with progressive tax felt like it was choking his neck, causing his reaching hand to flinch.
"Ehyu... Fuck, electricity bills are such a fucking waste, I can't even turn on the air conditioner comfortably..."
Jihoon scratched inside his soggy, worn-out boxer briefs and stood up from his spot in despair.
He felt like he would truly go crazy if he kept lying quietly in this hot, annoying mold den listening to the sound of the fight upstairs.
"Let's just go outside. I should go to the convenience store and pop open a cheap beer..."
He roughly picked up and threw on a shabby short-sleeved t-shirt, dragged his sweat-soaked slippers, and left the gloomy semi-basement room.
As he opened the front door and stepped out, the sweltering humidity and lukewarm air of the midsummer night washed over him, but it was a hundred times better than the corner of a semi-basement room echoing with a musty mold smell and the bloodcurdling squabbling upstairs.
Jihoon dragged his slippers and moved his steps toward the entrance of the alleyway.
At the end of the gloomy alleyway where streetlights flickered, he saw the sign of a 24-hour convenience store pouring out bright fluorescent light.
Jihoon smirked self-deprecatingly while looking at that light.
"If nothing else... it's fucking awesome that the convenience store is right within spitting distance. And one that sells lotto tickets, no less."
Though it was a dog-shit semi-basement rented room where water flooded in when it rained and not a single ray of sunlight reached, its sole advantage was being right in this 'lotto station-adjacent area.'
The fact that right before 8:00 PM every Saturday evening, he could drag his slippers, run out in just one minute, and buy the hope of a life reversal.
That single thing was the petty comfort that allowed him to endure this shitty neighborhood.
'Ttang-lang-'
As he opened the convenience store door and stepped in alongside a cheerful bell sound, the cold, dry air of the air conditioner instantly cooled his sticky sweat.
"Welcome~"
The youthful female part-timer sitting at the counter spat out a mechanical greeting while staring fixedly at her smartphone screen without even raising her head once despite a customer entering.
Snickering sounds even leaked out, as if she were wearing wireless earphones and watching a video.
However, Jihoon wasn't angry at the part-timer's attitude, nor did he care.
Rather, this indifference where nobody paid attention to him was far more comfortable for a bottom-tier life.
He headed straight for the alcohol refrigerator deep inside the store.
The moment he opened the refrigerator door and was about to pick up a cold can of beer, Jihoon's brow furrowed upon seeing the price tag.
"Damn it... prices went up again. Crazy bastards, everything goes up except my fucking salary, seriously."
Imported beers that used to be four cans for ten thousand won had gradually raised their prices, and now buying them individually made even the price of a single can feel burdensome.
Jihoon picked up a single can of beer and fiddled with a few crumpled bills and coins inside his pocket.
After paying for the beer, the remaining cash was exactly 5,000 won.
Jihoon's gaze naturally drifted toward the pink lotto terminal placed beside the counter.
'Ha... exactly 5,000 won left. Buy one more lotto ticket? Aside from the one taped back in the room, should I just get five thousand won worth more on auto?'
A conflict began inside Jihoon.
With 5,000 won, how many packs of ramen was that, how much round-trip bus fare? Normally, he would have picked up a lotto paper without hesitation saying 'What is there to life anyway,' but this month circumstances were different.
The small-to-medium enterprise Jihoon worked for wasn't a black company that maliciously drained the marrow of its employees.
Rather, the boss was someone who ran around breaking a sweat on the soles of his feet trying to save the company somehow, and usually tried his best to pay salaries punctually without delays.
The problem was the recent economic situation.
As payments from business partners were delayed one after another, the company's financial lifeline dried up, ultimately causing an unprecedented situation where half of this month's salary was pushed to next month.
'I need to somehow cut down living expenses until the rest of my paycheck comes in... Can I really afford to blow five thousand won into thin air?'
After holding his halved paycheck envelope, paying room rent, and paying utility bills, the money remaining in his hands was literally just enough to put food in his mouth.
If he threw 5,000 won into the lotto here and ended up with a dud, he might have to tide over his meals with convenience store triangle gimbap for a few days.