2
# Chapter 2
Woojin kicked off the blanket irritably.
It was because of the smartphone vibrating madly beside his head.
Without even being able to open his eyes properly, he fumbled around until he grabbed the phone. The moment he turned on the screen, a flood of notifications appeared along with the painfully bright light.
[Team Leader: Assistant Manager Jung, did you organize the purchase order details I mentioned yesterday? Just leaving a message to check.]
[Team Leader: We need to use them right away at Monday morning’s meeting, so send me the file in advance.]
The time displayed at the top of the screen was 10 a.m. on Saturday.
For an ordinary office worker, it was the time to be enjoying the sweetness of sleeping in.
But Woojin’s weekend had been brutally shattered by two messages from his team leader.
“Ah, seriously. Give me a break.”
Woojin groaned as he sat up. The back of his neck was stiff. Since he had collapsed into bed without even showering after work yesterday, his body smelled stale.
[Choi Minseok: Assistant Manager! It’s really okay for me to take a half-day Monday morning, right? I saw the team leader talking about the purchase orders in the group chat earlier, and thank you so, so much for taking care of my missing information!]
There was even another oblivious private message from his junior.
“If you’re so grateful, take care of it yourself, you bastard.”
Cursing into thin air changed nothing.
He could ignore the message and not reply, but then it was obvious his team leader would start breathing down his neck the moment he arrived at work on Monday.
[Yes, I’m organizing the file now and will send it by email. I fixed your missing information, Minseok, so just check it again when you come in Monday afternoon.]
Woojin mechanically typed the reply and pressed send.
He staggered toward the bathroom. After washing his face with cold water, he looked in the mirror and saw a man with hollow, exhausted eyes staring back at him.
“Is this what you call living?”
He roughly dried his wet hair and turned on his old laptop.
While waiting for the painfully slow boot-up process, he opened the refrigerator, but the only thing he had to drink was half a bottle of leftover bottled water.
And so Woojin spent the entire Saturday afternoon crouched on the floor of his cramped one-room apartment, wrestling with Excel.
He ate the cheapest fried rice from a Chinese restaurant ordered through a delivery app.
Even though it was the weekend, his mind was filled with thoughts of client deadlines and inventory quantities.
It wasn’t until evening that he finally managed to send the file by email, after which he collapsed onto the floor.
And just like that, the weekend melted away without much meaning.
Sunday night, 11 p.m.
Even the noise of cars passing outside the one-room apartment had quieted down.
Tomorrow, he had to go back to the hellish company.
Just that fact alone made Woojin feel as if a heavy boulder had been placed on his chest.
On the television, the variety show had ended, and a gloomy news signal was playing.
“Haa. I really don’t want to go to work.”
With the blanket pulled up to his chin, Woojin stared blankly at the ceiling before suddenly slipping a hand into his pants pocket.
They were the comfortable pants he had been wearing instead of the coat he had taken off yesterday.
His fingertips touched a crinkly piece of paper.
It was the Lotto and Pension Lottery tickets he had bought at the convenience store on his way home Friday night.
Normally, he checked the results on the subway during the Monday morning commute from hell.
It was a pathetic defense mechanism to keep from ruining his weekend.
But now it was Sunday night.
His mood was already at rock bottom, and the thought of having to go to work tomorrow was practically suffocating him.
“They’re going to be losers anyway. I’ll just check now.”
Woojin turned on his smartphone and typed Lotto into the search bar of the portal site.
This week’s winning numbers appeared on the screen in large letters.
[7, 14, 21, 28, 33, 40]
He unfolded the crumpled Lotto ticket and placed it on his lap.
Five automatically generated games. A, B, C, D, and E.
His eyes moved down from the first line, A.
“7... not there. 14... not even close.”
As always, he had missed everything right from the beginning.
The same was true for lines B, C, and D.
One number might match, but everything else was completely off.
“Of course. What did I expect from my life?”
Woojin snorted and glanced at the final E line.
E automatic. 7.
“Huh? There’s a 7.”
14.
“14 too.”
Woojin’s back slowly straightened.
His sleepy eyes opened wide.
21.
His gaze stopped.
His breathing gradually became shallow.
28, 33, 40.
“......?”
Woojin stopped breathing.
Unable to believe the numbers he had just seen, he rubbed his eyes hard.
The numbers written on the yellow, blue, and red balls displayed on his smartphone screen were exactly the same as the black numbers printed on the crumpled piece of paper.
“Wait. Just wait.”
His hands began to tremble.
Woojin placed his smartphone on the floor and grabbed the lottery ticket with both hands.
Worried that he might have seen it incorrectly, he stared intensely at the numbers.
7, 14, 21, 28, 33, 40.
They were all there.
All six numbers, lined up in one row.
“Is there an error? Did the internet display it wrong?”
His heart began pumping like crazy.
The sound of blood rushing through his ears pounded loudly.
Woojin hurriedly accessed the official lottery website.
He checked the draw number and winning numbers displayed on the main screen again.
They were the same.
That wasn’t enough.
He went to a video-sharing platform and searched for the drawing broadcast from the previous day.
The few seconds it took to skip through the advertisement felt like hours.
Soon, a smiling announcer appeared on screen, drawing the balls one by one.
“Now, the first winning number is... number 7!”
The number 7 appeared on the screen.
“The second is number 14!”
14.
Woojin couldn’t even breathe properly as he watched the video all the way to the end.
The result did not change.
All six numbers matched.
He had won first prize.
“Holy shit......”
Woojin’s hands trembled violently as he clutched the lottery ticket.
When he checked the prize information section, it showed the total first-prize winnings and the amount each winner would receive.
There were twelve first-prize winners this week.
Each person would receive approximately 2.04 billion won.
After taxes, around 1.4 billion won would be deposited into his account.
“I... I won first prize?”
He couldn’t believe it.
Just moments ago, he had been pathetically lamenting his Monday commute and cursing his miserable life.
And overnight, he had become a rich man with a huge amount of money.
He wanted to jump up from his seat and scream.
He wanted to open the window, release all the stress that had built up over the years, and shout in celebration at the world.
But the only thing that came out of his mouth was a rough, animal-like breath.
What came first wasn't joy, but a strange sense of fear.
What if someone finds out?
A one-room apartment with a ten-million-won deposit.
A place where even the walls weren’t properly soundproofed, so he could hear the man next door snoring.
If he screamed here that he had won first prize, it felt as though strangers would start knocking on his door tomorrow morning.
No, he even began imagining someone breaking in with a knife.
Woojin hurriedly stood up.
He ran barefoot to the entrance and rattled the door lock to make sure it was properly secured.
He even locked the secondary lock with a sharp click.
That wasn’t enough.
He approached the window, carefully lowered the blinds, and firmly pressed the window lock.
The room had once again become a perfect sealed space.
“Hoo... hoo.”
While trying to calm his ragged breathing, Woojin stared down at the lottery ticket.
This thin piece of paper was worth 1.4 billion won.
If it were torn or soaked with water, his dream of turning his life around could disappear in an instant.
He rummaged through the kitchen drawer and took out a clean transparent zipper bag.
Carefully, as though he were handling an explosive, he placed the Lotto ticket inside the zipper bag and sealed it.
Then he looked around the room, wondering where to hide it.
He was afraid to put it back in his wallet in case he dropped it on the way to work or got pickpocketed.
His eyes landed on a thick business administration textbook sitting in the corner of his desk.
He hadn’t opened it even once since his university days.
Woojin opened the book to a page in the middle, slipped the zipper bag flat between the pages, and closed the book.
Then he placed three other books on top of it like heavy stones.
“That should do it. For now, that’s the safest place.”
Even his muttering voice was trembling.
Woojin sat down on the floor and rubbed his dry face with both hands.
It still didn’t feel real.
He had spent seven years working himself to the bone on a monthly salary of around 2.5 million won, and all he had managed to save was a mere 40 million won.
And yet, with a single piece of paper, he had suddenly gained several dozen times that amount.
Woojin took a deep breath and pulled the laptop lying on the floor toward him.
Out of habit, he opened the messenger window.
The team leader’s instructions that had tormented him throughout the weekend and Minseok’s whining messages were still displayed on the screen.
Until yesterday, those messages had felt like ropes tightening around his neck.
The fear of survival that told him if he didn’t respond, his salary might immediately be cut off and he could end up homeless.
But now it was different.
[Team Leader: Set up the meeting room by 8:30 tomorrow morning. Print plenty of copies of the materials too.]
The moment Woojin saw the team leader’s message from several hours earlier, the corner of his mouth twitched.
What are you going to do if I don’t? Fire me?
Something hot surged up from inside him.
He immediately imagined slamming his resignation letter down and, instead of heading to the company headquarters tomorrow morning, confidently going straight to the main NongHyup branch.
But Woojin slowly withdrew the hand he had placed on the keyboard.
He hadn’t received the money yet.
Until he saw the huge amount actually appear in his bank account with his own two eyes, he couldn’t be certain of anything.
Besides, if he suddenly quit or started behaving differently, the people around him would obviously find it suspicious.
If word got around that he had suddenly come into a fortune, troublesome things would swarm around him like a hive of bees.
The horrifying things he had only seen on the news might suddenly become his own problem.
“Stay calm. I have to act like I normally do.”
Woojin bit his lips tightly and composed himself.
On Monday, he would go to work wearing exactly the same expression as always.
He would set up the filthy meeting room, endure his team leader’s nagging, and spend the day as the easygoing Assistant Manager Jung who handled Minseok’s work for him.
The only difference was that now, none of it was an unavoidable obligation.
It had become a choice he could walk away from whenever he wanted.
Just that one fact made the hellish commute seem a little ridiculous.
[Yes, understood. I’ll come in early tomorrow morning and have everything set up.]
He sent the reply calmly and closed the laptop.
It was well past midnight.
Woojin turned off the light in the room.
Even in the darkness, his gaze remained fixed on the desk where the textbook was sitting.
The ticket that would change his life was in there.
He decided not to search the internet for information about claiming the prize or anything else.
He didn’t want to leave unnecessary traces.
Lying in bed, Woojin glanced sideways at his old wallet tossed beside his head.
Inside that wallet, there was still one Pension Lottery ticket that he had bought along with the Lotto ticket.
The Lotto is first prize. There’s no way I’d win the Pension Lottery too.
He let out a hollow laugh.
He didn’t even feel like checking the Pension Lottery numbers right away.
Just dealing with the reality that he had won first prize in the Lotto was already enough to make his head feel like it was going to explode.
If he became greedy enough to hope for that too, he somehow felt as though he might bring bad luck upon the fortune he had already received.
Woojin tightly gripped the blanket and closed his eyes.
Tomorrow morning, when the alarm rang, he would wash up as usual, put on his tie, and take the subway to hell.
There was no need to rush to check the Pension Lottery ticket in his wallet.
He could take his time and check it after work tomorrow.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Using the sound of his heart, which refused to calm down, as a lullaby, Woojin desperately tried to fall asleep.
Tomorrow would be a completely different Monday.
“I’ve got to go to work, fuck.”
Woojin cursed pleasantly, a smile spreading across his lips.
Without knowing what kind of miracle the Pension Lottery ticket sleeping inside his wallet still contained, the night grew deeper.