When I Returned, a High School Romantic Comedy Began

9 – Lottery

“I’ll have to ask around…”

It was the weekend.

Alone in the park as the sun had nearly set, I was lost in thought while sucking on some candy.

Most people greet this day with smiles, but the past few days I’d been sighing over a nagging dilemma.

‘I’ll have to buy dozens of lottery tickets, the flyers won’t be enough.’

The plan that came to mind thanks to Chae Rin was this:

The winning lottery numbers next week will probably be all straight.

However, I don’t remember the exact numbers.

So…

‘I just have to buy all the possible straight number combinations, right?’

Such a simple solution.

Since the numbers will be consecutive anyway, I just need to calculate and buy all the combinations.

It’s not a small cost, but negligible compared to the jackpot.

Easily earned with some hard work this week, so no reason not to do it.

‘The biggest issue is who will buy them for me.’

I’m underage, so I can’t purchase lottery tickets myself.

At first I considered asking my mother. But if I suddenly tell her I’m going all in on straight number lotto tickets with the rent money…

[Joo In, you’ve had it hard lately…? I’m sorry…]

…yes, that method is hopeless.

Then who can I ask for help?

‘Manager at the part-time job? No, if I win he might find out and who knows what would happen. The homeless guy sleeping on the bench? Nah…’

If I ask someone, the news will obviously spread like my memories when I win.

If the person who bought the tickets sees that, it could become dangerous.

‘Even the kindest person could snap over money.’

I’d seen many stories online about lottery winners being threatened using their winnings as leverage. So I had to be careful in choosing who to ask.

“But I can’t just keep worrying forever…”

There must be someone decent.

A grown adult with no will to live, just bumming around.

“Why do you keep trying to make me work… I don’t wanna~”

Not greedy for money, or at least from a rich family so less likely to threaten me.

“If I just inherit daddy’s buildings I can live comfortably.”

Plus small in stature, less physically imposing.

“People look down on me and bully me for being short and weak at part-time jobs…”

“…”

Is there someone like that?

As if reading my mind, mumblings matching my criteria drifted from the next bench over.

I turned to look, and there was a woman with messy just-got-out-of-bed hair, sprawled out even though it was night.

Her fashion, sweatpants and a hoodie, made it easy to guess her occupation.

Eyes devoid of even a glimmer of hope.

Short, probably barely 150cm, and skinny just as she’d said.

“Awesome…”

An utterly perfect combination.

After finishing my examination, I shot up and rushed over to cautiously speak to her.

“Excuse me.”

“I don’t believe you.”

She cut me off before I could even finish.

Thinking I was some religious solicitor, I explained again to clear up the misunderstanding.

“No, that’s not it.”

“I won’t buy anything.”

That would be problematic.

In order to meet her eyes, despite her lack of trust, I bent my knees and spoke to her.

“Could you please listen to what I have to say?”

She, not even making eye contact and coldly rejecting me, waved her hand in annoyance and casually responded.

“I’m from the neighborhood over and don’t even know my way around. Just ask someone else.”

“…”

She has no intention of listening to me at all.

No matter how impersonal society has become, her outright rejection made it difficult to continue the conversation.

‘Oh well.’

Since she has no intention of listening to me anyway…

There’s no use in trying to continue talking in this situation.

I just need to show her through action.

“Here.”

Along with a short statement, some bills subtly placed next to her on the bench.

She, not even making eye contact, was surprised to see the amount on the bench and looked at me.

I smiled as gently as I could and said,

“Could you please grant me a small favor?”

“…”

A few seconds of silence passed.

She looked at me briefly, then took out her phone to call someone.

‘Why the sudden call?’

After the ringtone rang a few times, she spoke in a trembling voice once the call connected.

“Hello, police? There’s a man here demanding I perform s*xual acts for money…”

“What the hell!”

I urgently snatched away her phone and immediately ended the call.

Seeing this, the woman shivered her already frail-looking body and shouted.

“Eek! Don’t do this!”

“That’s not what this is!”

While it was an act to divert her attention, it was ripe for misunderstanding.

If an unfamiliar man approaches and shoves a stack of bills at you, isn’t this the natural reaction?

Frustrated, I raised my voice, which only scared her more as she began to cry.

“S-Sorry. Please let me go…”

“Ugh…”

It looked like it would take a lot of time to correct this distorted situation.

*

“You want me to buy a lottery ticket?”

“To be precise, I’m leaving this money here and you use it to buy a lottery ticket before placing it back on the bench and leaving.”

Only after backing ten steps away from the bench could Juun have a proper conversation with her.

Of course, she was still suspicious and kept 911 ready on her phone, but at least he could explain his purpose.

“If you need a lottery ticket, why don’t you just buy it yourself?”

“Because I’m underage…”

“…”

Seeing her expression of utter disbelief, Juun took out his student ID from his wallet to show her.

“Here’s my student ID.”

“…Isang High School?”

The school he had attended and where his younger sibling currently went.

There was no reason to fabricate a student ID, and it was identical to the one he had at home, so he was somewhat able to dispel her doubts.

Instead, curiosity began to arise.

‘But why does an underage kid want to buy a lottery ticket?’

While it’s understandable to want to buy out of curiosity, wouldn’t he normally ask his mom?

Asking for cigarettes or alcohol would be suspicious, but understandable.

He didn’t ask adults to buy those for him, but had tried them himself at that age, like most kids do at some point.

But what was this kid’s scheme? Glancing over, the boy seemed to notice her suspicion and started to explain.

“My mom said she wouldn’t doubt it was for me if it was your face buying it. But when I went, she gave me a thorough interrogation…”

“Hmm…”

While it was a bit odd for a mother to send her son on a lottery errand, she could believe it for a boy that size.

But the situation still didn’t fully convince her.

‘Hmm…’

Noticing her briefly contemplating, Juun smiled as harmlessly as possible and said,

“If you buy it for me, I’ll just give you the change back. What could go wrong?”

An offer that wouldn’t work on most adults.

However, based on what I had heard about her situation earlier, since she was currently unemployed and just lazing around at home, it was possible she was short on cash.

“…Really?”

That prediction was right on target.

She was currently in her third year of being a NEET, living off an allowance from her family.

Fed up with this, her parents had cut off her allowance to force her to find a job. So she was currently strapped for cash.

That’s why she had been grumbling about how she couldn’t buy the limited edition skin and maybe she really did need to find a job.

So my offer was incredibly enticing to her.

‘The bills he pulled out earlier were a lot…’

Thinking back on the denomination he had taken out, at least 20.

She sneakily glanced at the wallet in Juun’s right hand, falling deep in thought.

‘It’s a bit suspicious…’

Since it sounded too good to be true, she remained doubtful.

Seeing her indecision drag on, Juun added reassuringly,

“If you can’t trust me, we can walk to the lottery store keeping this distance between us.”

“…Fine, I’ll buy it.”

Having made her decision, she agreed thinking that they’d maintain distance walking there and if anything seemed dangerous, she could immediately text 911 which she had ready.

‘Yes!’

Juun cheered internally and arrived at the lottery store keeping his distance from her.

Feeling a bit relieved now that they were somewhere bright, she slowly approached Juun and asked,

“So just random numbers?”

“No.”

Handing over the money from his wallet, Juun said,

“From 1 to 6, 2 to 7, 3 to 8, and so on, all the way from 45 to 5.”

“…Huh?”

Perplexed by the overly specific request, when she asked, Juun simply smiled.

“My mom said her intuition told her to get those numbers.”

“…Right, well it’s not my money anyway.”

Without further comment, she took the money and bought Juun’s specified lottery numbers.

“Thank you.”

When Juun happily expressed his gratitude, she spoke hesitantly,

“So…I can really keep the change?”

“Yes, I already said you could earlier right?”

“I guess so…”

“My mom gave me the change as allowance anyway so it doesn’t matter.”

Honestly it was a bit of a shame, but if they won the tens of billions, he could easily part with this much as a tip.

But she still seemed uneasy, as she frowned her pretty eyes obscured by dark circles, and forced half the remaining change into my hand.

“Here, take it.”

“No really, it’s fine.”

From noble mtl dot com

“Just take it, this much is enough for me.”

No matter how much a NEET, she still had a shred of pride left in her it seemed.

She felt awkward taking all the allowance from her junior.

‘This much is enough for the skin I wanted.’

Ignoring my insistence it was okay, she grabbed my refusing hand and shoved the bills into it.

“There, take it.”

“Ah.”

“I’m leaving now.”

Saying that, as if worried I’d grab her, she darted across the street and disappeared like lightning.

“Well, looking at his student ID, he was a first year…”

Since her sister was also a current first year, they might know each other.

‘Should’ve asked if she knew him.’

With that meaningless thought, before I knew it I had arrived at the convenience store in front of my house.

As I went to open the door to buy a gift certificate, someone called out from behind.

“Sis!”

I turned around. There was my sibling with long bangs and similar build to me.

Hayan was brightly looking my way.

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