Chapter 4. A Happy Monday
I returned home and lay down on my bed.
Sleep refused to come.
My mind had never felt clearer.
Ten lottery tickets rested on the bedside table as I stared at them in thought.
What if they really won first prize?
In the entire history of more than a thousand lottery draws, I might become the luckiest winner of all time.
The disciplinary committee had been scheduled because of the Sillim branch incident.
If the diary was correct, the result would be a three-month salary reduction.
It was almost funny.
I actually wanted my own pay to be cut.
Because if that prediction came true, then these lottery tickets should also win first prize.
Better to double-check everything before crossing the bridge.
I needed stronger proof of this miracle.
I picked up the phone charging beside me and opened the diary app.
The first test was whether I could communicate with the future.
I pressed record and created a new entry.
[Wednesday, March 4.
A diary entry for my future self.
If you're reading this, I want you to answer.
Today, I refused to give Deputy Manager Kim the lottery ticket.
How will he react when he finds out that he lost a first-prize lottery ticket because he refused to pay 5,000 won?
If you read this, please record what expression he made.]
For once, I hoped this diary that had contained nothing but anger would receive an entry filled with happiness.
Had it failed?
I saved the entry and refreshed the app repeatedly for thirty minutes.
No answer appeared.
Communication with the future was impossible.
The diary app wasn't a messenger.
The present me could only peek at entries written by my future self.
The past could interfere with the future.
But communication was one-way.
The second test was real-time causality.
The Sillim branch incident had shown that my actions could change the future.
Now I needed to know exactly when and under what conditions future diary entries appeared.
Emotional trash can.
I had never recorded happy events.
Only anger, injustice, self-hatred, and the misery of corporate life.
Could I deliberately create that kind of situation?
If this test succeeded, I might be able to prevent every disaster waiting for me.
I needed to do something stupid that future me would definitely regret.
Something painful enough to make me record it...
But still something I could undo.
It was one in the morning.
I opened my messenger app and selected Kim Seokhun's profile.
[Deputy Manager Kim. I'm sorry for acting emotionally even though it's so late. I'll come in early tomorrow morning and make sure every instruction you've given me is handled perfectly. Have a good night.]
My finger hovered over the send button.
Then I deleted the message.
No.
That felt too disgusting.
Next option.
My father.
He woke up very early.
There was almost no chance he would read a message at this hour.
As long as I deleted it before the unread mark disappeared, everything should be fine.
[You got home safely, right? I wanted to ask if you could lend me around one million won. I'll pay you back within a few days.]
Worried that he might somehow read it immediately, I pressed send.
Ding!
Success.
A new entry appeared in the diary.
[Thursday, March 5.
Why the hell did I do that...
Dad saw the message I sent last night and postponed going to work so he could come see me.
One million won he withdrew from an ATM first thing in the morning.
His eyes were full of worry.
You insane bastard.
Payday is almost here, and you couldn't wait a few days, so you went begging to Dad for money.
I seriously feel like dying.]
“...Hahaha.”
A bitter laugh escaped me.
The contents were miserable.
But the result was perfect.
I checked that the unread number beside the message was still there and pressed down on what I had sent.
I deleted the message.
The diary entry disappeared at the same time.
The cause was gone.
So the result disappeared too.
This was real.
This app warned me about future misery created by my actions.
For the first time, I became certain about the lottery tickets sitting beside my bed.
By refusing to give the lottery ticket to Kim Seokhun, I had erased Monday's misery.
All testing was complete.
Now I only had to keep quiet and wait until Monday.
I could spend the time happily thinking about what I would do with the money.
People often said that a 5,000-won lottery ticket helped them endure an exhausting week.
They spent their days imagining how they would use the money if they won.
For the first time, I understood exactly how they felt.
Then I suddenly remembered the tens of thousands of commercial district reports sleeping inside the company's servers.
Properties where investment had been suspended because their future value was uncertain.
Side streets of Seongsu-dong. The edge of Yeonnam-dong. The metalworking alleys of Mullae-dong.
A map automatically unfolded inside my head.
Using corporate information for personal benefit was dangerous.
But what if I used my own intuition and experience on properties the company had already rejected as unprofitable?
Locations that weren't strong enough for a major corporation...
But could become golden geese for a private investor.
Investing there wouldn't violate company regulations or the law.
And if I bought the wrong land?
My future diary would record my regret.
What an insane ability this diary app had become.
Friday, March 6.
The disciplinary committee I had been waiting for finally met.
Three-month salary reduction.
Exactly as predicted.
Something that absolutely had to happen had happened exactly on schedule.
Thanks to that, I could wait for Saturday evening with a much calmer heart.
I closed the curtains, turned off the living-room lights, and sat in front of the television.
A private weekend movie began inside my rooftop room in Guro-dong.
A masterpiece meant only for me.
On the faded brown floor sat a can of beer, some peanuts, and ten lottery tickets spread out like a fan.
“Lottery Draw Number 1,291 begins now!”
The host appeared with cheerful opening music.
Dozens of balls spun loudly inside the machine.
I had become confident after the salary reduction was confirmed.
Yet now that I was watching the actual draw, my palms were soaked with sweat.
“Now! Let's reveal the first lucky number!”
It took less than a minute for the numbers that would completely change my life to appear.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Insane...
My hand shook violently as I circled each number.
Only one remained.
1.
2.
I squeezed my eyes shut and clenched my teeth, listening to the announcer.
“And the final number is... 23! Number 23! 35, 7, 42, 14, 31, 23. Congratulations!”
I couldn't open my eyes.
Had I turned into ice?
All I could hear was my own heartbeat.
Slowly, I forced my eyes open.
A crumpled lottery ticket entered my vision.
I must have squeezed it without realizing it.
A piece of paper worth more than a billion won.
“...Hoo.”
I released the breath I had been holding and looked at the television.
Every number matched.
The lottery ticket that should have gone to Kim Seokhun was in my hands.
And I had ten copies of it.
“This draw has a total of twelve first-prize winners!”
The host's excited voice continued.
Twelve.
Eleven of those tickets belonged to me and my father.
I couldn't stop shaking.
“The total first-prize pool is 24.6 billion won! Each winner will receive 2.05 billion won!”
Two billion.
Some people complained that even winning first prize wouldn't buy an apartment in Gangnam.
That was true when you had one winning ticket.
Including the ticket inside my father's wallet, our family owned eleven.
Would taxes take something like five billion won?
For a moment, I became jealous of Japan's lottery system.
Didn't they say you couldn't tax a dream?
I had absolutely no desire to become a citizen of that country.
But their lottery policy was certainly romantic.
No.
In Korea, lottery taxes were supposedly used to help people in need.
Maybe that was even more romantic.
Sharing luck.
I had practically monopolized the luck through an unfair method.
But I would also find different ways to share some of it.
Of course, I would spend the largest portion on myself.
Now that the win was certain, all the ideas I had considered over the past few days began expanding.
The properties I had researched while waiting for the lottery drawing.
And one building in particular.
I opened my laptop and pulled up a report I had written three years ago.
[Mullae-dong Commercial District Analysis Report]
Three years earlier, I had personally prepared this report while Seongun Group was choosing a site for a fashion outlet.
Because compensation problems connected to redevelopment became complicated, the group eventually chose another area.
But I still had strong confidence.
Mullae-dong would never be cheaper than it was today.
Every time I passed through the area, I thought the same thing.
If I ever had extra money, I wanted to invest here.
Redevelopment had been delayed again and again, driving people into despair.
But because of that, buildings that could be bought cheaply were hidden everywhere.
There was only one concern.
Company regulations.
Every employee in the Integrated Development Division was prohibited from secretly purchasing real estate.
But that wasn't a serious problem.
I simply had to follow the procedures written in company policy.
Buy the factory building I had marked in Mullae-dong for under seven billion won.
Then construct my own building there.
That would be reassuring.
Monthly rent many times greater than my salary would flow into my bank account.
And with that money, I could freely pursue whatever I wanted.
I gathered the ten lottery tickets and pressed them against my chest.
I had never realized paper could feel this warm.
I couldn't stop smiling.
And what made me happiest of all was that this had originally been Kim Seokhun's lottery ticket.
I giggled like a madman.
Then I rolled around on the floor and burst into laughter.
“Hahahaha! Kim Seokhun! The lottery ticket you threw away because you didn't want to pay five thousand won is worth fifteen billion! Fifteen billion won!”
I was so happy I nearly cried.
Ten years of humiliation.
My father's bent back.
Every time I had lowered my head and swallowed my pride.
They flashed through my mind like scenes from a film.
It was over.
No.
It was beginning.
People said that as you grew older, you only dreamed about things that could realistically happen.
Winning the lottery had completely changed the scale of my dreams.
Two words floated immediately into my mind.
Quit job.
I could leave whenever I wanted.
I was confident I could multiply the money by constructing buildings across the country.
I could also use rental income to run my own consulting company.
Of course, if I continued using Seongun's resources, I could influence a much wider area much more easily.
And without spending my own money.
The problem was Kim Seokhun, who used every dirty trick available to keep his grip on the team leader's seat.
I didn't know how he would react from now on.
But I no longer needed to bow my head to him.
If things became unbearable, I could leave.
And if I resigned, I would definitely write "incompetent direct superior" in the reason section.
Still... staying at Seongun a little longer would probably be useful.
Quitting overnight would be stupid.
Especially when I didn't intend to simply sit around doing nothing.
If I wanted to build a business, I needed preparation time.
I needed more information.
Could I start a franchise business right now?
If I were only opening one small chicken shop, maybe.
But I now had enough money to open hundreds.
I needed to think bigger.
Running a consulting company was the same.
Having money didn't automatically earn customers' trust.
I needed at least one year to plan and prepare my business properly.
Until then, staying attached to Seongun would be beneficial.
These were thoughts I never could have imagined having before.
The little thing that had completely changed my life.
I picked up my phone from the floor and opened the diary app.
Nothing was written in the future.
Good.
Winning the lottery wasn't going to make me miserable.
The future waiting for my family would be nothing but gold.
But why was my father so quiet?
Suddenly nervous, I jumped up and called him.
“Jinhyeok?”
Completely calm.
Apparently, he didn't even know what day it was.
“Where are you?”
“Where else? Home.”
“Didn't you watch TV?”
“TV? Did something happen?”
Ha...
He had missed the glorious moment of going insane while watching the winning numbers appear live.
What a shame.
“I told you I had a good dream. You still have that lottery ticket, right?”
“Huh? It's still in my wallet. Why? Did it really win? What prize? Third? No... Don't tell me second?”
“Dad, seriously... Mom's next to you, right?”
I first confirmed that someone was there to stop him from collapsing.
Then I told him the truth.
“...R-Really? First prize? It won first prize?”
“I'm telling you, it did. Even after tax, it's worth more than 1.3 billion won. Hand in your resignation immediately, Dad. Pay off every loan, and take Mom on that trip she's been talking about forever.”
“Huh...”
A long silence came through the phone.
“Dad? Are you listening?”
Then I heard my mother's voice.
“Jinhyeok? What's wrong with your father?”
“Mom? What's Dad doing?”
“I don't know. He threw the phone onto the sofa and ran into the bedroom. Did something happen?”
Her voice was full of worry.
I should tell her the good news too.
“Hahaha. Bring him a cup of cold water. He's just too happy. The lottery ticket I gave him won first prize.”
Thud.
Dadadadada.
Strange noises came from the other side.
Apparently, Mom had also thrown down the phone and run into the bedroom.
How long passed?
Maybe they had completely forgotten they had been talking to their son.
Neither of them picked up the phone.
They simply started talking to each other.
“This is really the ticket Jinhyeok gave you?”
“I told you, it is. He said he dreamed about a dog that used to bite him running away or something. Anyway, he says this really won first prize. It's more than 1.3 billion won.”
“Really? Then you don't have to keep doing that job anymore? Could we start the restaurant again?”
Apparently, Mom felt the same way I did.
The happiest days of my father's life had been when he watched customers smile while eating meat he had carefully marinated.
“Let's think more about the restaurant.”
“Okay. But can we really keep this money? Maybe we should only pay off the debt and give the rest back to him...”
“That might be right. He'll inherit everything eventually anyway. No point creating inheritance tax later...”
“Are you going to keep working? I really wish you'd stop doing night shifts...”
“Hahaha. I told you, I'm fine.”
This was ridiculous.
They had completely forgotten I could hear them.
I shouted several times, but no one picked up.
I hung up and called again.
“Oh! Jinhyeok!”
“Ha... No matter how shocked you were, how can the two of you just start talking to each other in the middle of a call?”
“Hahaha. Right. I was talking to you.”
“It's fine. I heard enough to know exactly how both of you feel. Don't worry about me. Use that money for your retirement.”
“Hmm... No. This money should...”
“I didn't buy only two tickets. So stop worrying about me. Go travel or something. And don't forget your promise to manage my building.”
Silence again.
Apparently, this conversation needed to happen face-to-face.
Even after paying off their debt, my father should have at least seven hundred million won left.
That was more than enough retirement money for the two of them.
They weren't people who would throw it away on nonsense.
I had nothing to worry about.
After ending the call, I stretched my entire body.
Had stretching always felt this good?
Every joint cracked happily.
So this was what people meant by suffering ending and happiness beginning.
And then Monday morning arrived.
I hummed while glancing at all the drivers wearing miserable expressions as they fought through morning traffic.
For some people, Monday morning felt like being dragged toward a slaughterhouse.
For me...
It was the happiest Monday morning of my life.
I decided to delay the resignation letter.
For now, I'd only take a half-day off.
Most importantly, I absolutely wanted to see Kim Seokhun suffer from jealousy.
Should I write "collecting lottery winnings" as the reason for my half-day leave?
And list my destination as Nonghyup Bank headquarters?
This was fun.
For the first time since joining the company...
Monday morning was absolutely wonderful.
