Chapter 16: Last Week

[Bodam’s dream]

“Customer number 15, please come to the window.”

After an eternity of waiting in the lobby chair, he erased his expression and walked to the counter.

With each step, it felt like the surrounding gazes were converging on the first-place winner.

‘Stay calm, stay calm. You’re just here to buy ramen at a convenience store. That person is a convenience store employee dressed in the head office uniform, and I’m the 46 billion won lottery winner who came to buy my usual ramen… Ha.’

“How may I help you?”

The bank employee, who looked to be in his mid-thirties with neatly slicked-back hair, seemed very experienced.

‘Good. I’m relieved.’

Bodam, who had been soaking the numbered ticket in his trembling hand with sweat, calmly replied, “I’m here to claim my lottery winnings.”

“Wow. Congratulations. You must be so happy.”

‘Why is he asking something so obvious? Is he after my prize money?’

He spouted a lot of information about having a lot of debt at home and how there wouldn’t be much left after paying it all off, and then gave the lottery numbers.

He didn’t forget to wear the expression of someone with enormous debt, letting out deep sighs.

He was thoroughly following the code of conduct for first-place lottery winners that he had looked up on the internet.

“Please wait a moment.”

His racing heart calmed for a moment at the elegant and serene smile of the employee, but then,

“You did check the winning numbers before coming, right?”

He swallowed dryly at the gentle voice and nodded.

He tried his best to soothe his slightly wavering, anxious heart, but the bank employee’s head tilted slightly to the left.

‘He must have a stiff neck.’

“Hmm.”

‘He must have stopped talking because his neck hurts. Let’s wait, Yoon Bodam. Wait.’

His hands trembled so much that the numbered ticket rustled.

The bank employee’s face, which had seemed so kind, now felt scarier than Team Leader Han Seung Ho’s.

“Customer, could you please check the lottery numbers one more time?”

The employee, smiling with crescent-shaped eyes, said with a gentle, shining voice.

Bodam, who struggled to hide the feeling of his throat closing up, couldn’t even manage a fake smile.

‘Let’s not overreact. A re-check for 4.6 billion won is a must, of course.’

Even though he had already checked the winning numbers dozens of times, he said, “Yes, yes… yes…” and took out his phone.

When the black screen lit up, a meme of a big-eyed, big-eared elf holding two pistols with the caption ‘Dobby is free!’ appeared.

Feeling as if the muzzles were aimed at him, he gathered saliva that wasn’t there and swallowed, then unlocked his phone.

And then followed Gayoung noona…

“Could you please read me the numbers?”

The question, mixed with a bright smile, made his heart pound more than Attack Team 3’s curses.

“Just a moment,” he said, as his thumb, trying to press the gallery icon, kept missing.

“You can take your time.”

Suppressing the urge to ask, “Can I not do it?” he went into the most recently taken photos folder.

For a moment, he even thought about just running away, but then he remembered he was there to claim his prize money and called out the numbers.

“Three, fifteen, twenty-five, twenty-nine, thirty-six, forty-two.”

Bodam, who had placed the six-digit number on the guillotine with a frail voice, finally heard it.

The kind bank employee’s “Oh dear,” filled with pity.

“Customer.”

‘Should I bolt now? Let’s just go home and come back tomorrow. Tomorrow, to a different employee—’

“Those are the winning numbers from the week before last.”

***

“Stop.”

Bodam muttered.

After checking the winning numbers countless times in the taxi, he finally cut off his idle thoughts.

If he cut them off, they would connect again, and if he stopped, a myriad of new possibilities would arise and take over his mind.

“Stop thinking… stop. Yoon Bodam.”

Bodam, who wiped his chest, thinking he would have really gotten into an accident if he had driven, praised himself for choosing a taxi even though he didn’t have a car.

He emptied his mind, looking at the people dressed in bright clothes walking on the sunny sidewalk and the signs of various commercial buildings.

‘Let’s try not to imagine… a bank robbery. Please.’

Bodam had a weak heart.

It wasn’t that he had a health problem, but he was easily startled, and his heart would pound even at small things.

His relatives, seeing Bodam flinch at even Bomi’s stretches, would often say things like, “How can a kid with ‘dam’ in his name be so timid?”

They would tease him relentlessly, saying Dami had a small ‘dam’ (guts) and was short.

It was to see the reaction of the small Dami, who would puff up his cheeks and deny it.

That young Bodam had acted bravely for the first time in his lower elementary school years, on the day he picked up a yellow piece of paper on his way to school.

When he unfolded the paper, which was a dull color rather than a pretty yellow, with numbers printed on it, my goodness.

‘F… fifty thousand…’

Bodam, who had picked up a golden bill with a beautiful portrait drawn on it, clutched his heart.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

It was a huge sum of money that could buy the Lego set he wanted and still have enough for tteokbokki topped with a potato hot dog.

He tucked the huge sum, which he had never properly touched in his life, into the innermost corner of his backpack.

While thinking he should go to the police station, worrying about the person who had lost such a large amount of money, his hand was carefully zipping up his backpack.

He had learned clearly in ethics class that you shouldn’t just take money you find.

‘After school… I’ll go.’

He had absolutely no intention of keeping it.

Since he had to go to school right now, he decided to go straight to the nearby police station after finishing all his classes and being dismissed.

‘I have enough allowance to buy a potato hot dog, so I’ll stop by the snack shop on the way. My remaining allowance is a bit tight for tteokbokki. And of course, I don’t have enough money to buy a Lego set…’

‘…’

As he arrived at school and the classes began and ended one by one, Bodam’s complexion started to grow darker.

Even when his friends joked around with him, he would just lie on his desk with no reaction, sighing like someone on their second life.

“You guys are lucky,” he would mutter, guarding the side of his backpack with a troubled face.

And then eventually.

‘Teacher. Bodam says his stomach hurts.’

He even left school early due to a stress-induced stomachache, worrying his mother.

Bodam, who melted at his mother’s warm voice asking what was wrong, finally burst into tears.

He had even cried harder at the anger of the pig, Bomi, who was eating snacks next to him and squawking, “Who bullied my older brother?”

“Haa…”

Bodam, whose thoughts had spiraled from one to another, even recalling the ‘50,000 won incident’ from his childhood, leaned against the window frame and chuckled.

He had confessed to his mother and decided to go to the police station to report the lost property, but in the end, he couldn’t.

Because the money had disappeared.

This time, he took a deep breath, reconfirming the lottery numbers he had taken a picture of on his phone, knowing there was no way it would disappear.

The incident of losing the 50,000 won he had tucked away in the very corner of his backpack, as if by a ghost, would never happen again.

Never.

One such surprise in a lifetime was enough.

“We’re almost there. Calm down.”

“Huh? Ah, yes. Thank you. I’m going to be questioned because I fell for a voice phishing scam. You should be careful too, driver.”

Bodam diligently made up a reason for setting his destination as the police station next to the Seoul Bank headquarters.

He was afraid that the driver, who might have noticed he had won the lottery, would do something drastic while holding the steering wheel.

Right now, even the elementary school students crossing the crosswalk looked like people waiting for a chance to rob him of his huge sum.

He was half-crazy.

“Yes, yes. I told you to be careful earlier too.”

“Ah, did I… haha…”

Bodam, who gave the driver an awkward smile, closed his eyes to calm his trembling hands as he saw the building getting closer.

Once he entered that building, 4.6 billion won would be in his hands.

Even after taxes, a sum of several billion.

For me.

All the delusions that had been gripping his mind fell silent in an instant.

When the blue and green sign came into view, his ears felt completely blocked, as if he were wearing noise-canceling earphones.

Arriving at the destination and paying the taxi fare, Bodam was startled by the kind-faced driver who smiled and said congratulations, and he jumped out in a hurry.

Of course, he didn’t forget to say thank you.

For Bodam, who had managed his expression and followed all the rules for a first-place winner found on the internet, it was a very embarrassing situation.

‘Am… am I that obvious?’

Arriving in front of the Seoul Bank headquarters, Bodam hesitated and took off his glasses.

The glasses seemed a bit excessive.

Thanking his lucky stars that he hadn’t brought a mask, as the hat alone covered more than half of his face, he started walking.

He walked, imagining the most natural actions and appearance.

“Ah…”

Bodam, who walked briskly into the main entrance, swallowed a dry breath.

He had thought there would be fewer people since it was in the afternoon after lunchtime, but there were actually more.

‘Is it because it’s Monday?’

Having only been to his local bank, he was automatically intimidated by the sight of employees in work attire, instead of grandmothers and grandfathers waiting with numbered tickets.

He quickened his pace, approached the information desk on the first floor, and first cleared his throat.

“How may I help you?”

“Ah… um…”

The short and concise answer he had simulated countless times in his imagination got caught on his tongue.

“Yes, um… I, uh…”

The employee, who waited for Bodam with a moderately friendly face, placed the pen between her fingers down on the desk.

The light ‘clack’ sound landed in Bodam’s ears.

As if smiling and saying, ‘Get a grip, my friend.’

“I’m here to claim the first-place lottery winnings.”