TGMC 22

chapter 22

It really happened.

Kim Jihyun.
Thirty years old this year.
An office worker at a mid-sized company, now in her sixth year.

She was pretty, had a decent figure, and strong pride. She was also very ambitious.

Maybe because of that.

She steadily built her career at work, and she wanted to marry a great man—someone she could look up to and learn from.

Two years ago—no, now that she thought about it, almost three years ago.

She met Song Minwoo on a blind date set up by a friend. He matched her ideal type fairly well.

Tall, good-looking, working at a mid-sized company.

After meeting about three times, they hit it off and started dating.

But after continuing the relationship for two years, she learned something.

He wanted to move to the countryside.

Not after getting old and retiring.

He wanted to quit his job and move to the countryside while he was still young.

She didn’t like that at all.

When it still wasn’t enough to change to a better company or get promoted to earn a higher salary—moving to the countryside?

That was when their relationship started to crack.

They even thought about marriage after one year and had both families meet.

But around the two-year mark, she started to feel anxious.

The moment that small screw called “moving to the countryside” came loose.

That screw began to feel uncomfortable.

Every time they met for dates, she stopped looking at his good points and started looking for flaws instead.

Unlike two years ago, when her heart used to race even the day before meeting him.

Now, she felt no excitement at all.

So she boldly asked to break up.

Two years of memories turned into the past in less than a day.

A few days after the breakup.

Saying you forget people by meeting new people, her friend arranged another blind date.

That’s how she met someone new, and now she was dating a man who worked at a large corporation.

Maybe because it bothered her that she started a new relationship only days after breaking up.

Out of guilt, she made a multi-profile and hid the fact that she was dating from her ex.

She also didn’t want to be misunderstood as having a rebound relationship.

But maybe it was just her own unnecessary worry.

She never received a single message from him after the breakup.

So she continued her work with a light heart, preparing for marriage with her new partner.

But one day—

A close friend shattered her peaceful daily life.

—Jihyun, isn’t this your ex-boyfriend? It is, right?

A DM her friend sent.

It was a video from Kim Hajoon’s YouTube channel “I’m Gonna Eat!”, which had over two million subscribers.

The title read: Uljin Famous Restaurant – Happy Restaurant.

When she first watched the video,

She doubted her own eyes.

‘Why is Mom’s restaurant there?’

She prided herself on having picky tastes.

The food she had eaten there before was, at best, average.

Not bad enough to complain.

Just a common Korean buffet you could find anywhere.

But in Kim Hajoon’s video, he reacted as if it were some incredible restaurant.

Saying the rice tasted like honey, that the stir-fried pork was a masterpiece.

‘Is this for real? This looks like obvious viral marketing…’

Since she had actually eaten there, she couldn’t help but be skeptical.

Then a man briefly appeared in the video—Song Minwoo.

Come to think of it, the voice was his too.

‘Did he really quit his job and move to the countryside?’

Her confusion didn’t last long.

She sent a message to her ex-boyfriend through the multi-profile she had made.

‘He didn’t block me… right?’

As she stared intently at the chat window,

The number “1” next to the message disappeared.

It meant he had read it.

But there was no reply.

She waited for a long time, but it was pointless.

In the end, she called him from the break room.

As soon as she called, an automated message played.

[The number you have dialed is not available. After the beep, you will be connected to voicemail…]

She frowned.

Anyone could see what this meant.

He had blocked her.

No, even if they broke up—

She contacted him out of goodwill, and he blocked her without hesitation?

Feeling upset, she returned to her seat and scrolled up the chat.

Among the intact conversation history, one message caught her eye.

—2, 22, 7, 28, 19, 39. That’s fine, right?
—Yeah. Thanks.

‘Oh, right. I did give him lottery numbers once.’

He insisted on getting numbers even though there was no way he’d win, so she just said some randomly.

But looking again now, the numbers included her birthday and his.

‘Did it… win?’

Now that she saw it again, she became curious whether it had won.

The way to check was simple.

Just enter the six numbers online and see if they had ever won.

‘There’s no way it won—…wait, what is this?’

Her eyes widened.

An article on the screen.

<Lottery 1st Prize: 2.6 Billion Won – Numbers: 2, 7, 19, 22, 28, 39>

About two months ago.

The exact numbers she had casually given had won first prize.

“…Th-this can’t be real.”

Staring blankly at the monitor, she checked the draw number and the store.

The day before she asked to break up.

There was one record of a manually selected first-prize ticket sold at a lottery shop near Minwoo’s workplace.

Anyone could see it.

Minwoo had clearly won the lottery.

Suddenly, something from two months ago came back to her.

—Jihyun, I have some good news to tell you…

The day she asked to break up.

Minwoo had tried to tell her something good.

But their words overlapped.

And she never found out what that good news was.

‘Don’t tell me… he was trying to say he won the lottery?’

Her vision went dark.

“Assistant Manager Park, are you okay? You look pale. Did something happen?”

A coworker sitting next to her looked at her with concern.

She waved her hand.

“I-I’m fine. I’ll just… go to the restroom for a moment.”

“You look really unwell. If you’re sick, you should take sick leave and go to the hospital.”

Inside the restroom.

Her face in the mirror was deathly pale.

But only for a moment.

She bit her lip.

Then she grabbed her phone and made up her mind.

“I’m the one who gave him the winning numbers. I contributed too.”

Proof?

The messages were still there.

She had personally sent him the six lottery numbers.

‘Should I look into it?’

Before consulting a lawyer,

She anonymously posted a question online.

If an ex-boyfriend bought a lottery ticket using numbers she gave him and won first prize, could she get a portion of the winnings?

She also wrote that she had message proof of sending the numbers.

Then she waited for responses.

Soon, a reply appeared.

She checked it with high expectations.

And frowned.

—Unless you demanded a share of the winnings when giving the numbers and your boyfriend agreed to it, legally the lottery ticket and prize money belong entirely to the purchaser. Whether you were dating or broke up is irrelevant. There is no obligation to share. You must have proof of an agreement to split the winnings.

“…No. That can’t be right.”

She collapsed to the floor.

It was a literal jackpot.

Word spread through YouTube, and hundreds of customers poured in every day.

They didn’t come only in the evening.

There were quite a lot of customers at lunchtime too.

That caused a problem.

“Business is good, but there’s no place to sit.”

“I haven’t even used all my meal tickets yet…”

When we reopened the restaurant after remodeling.

The construction workers who used to come every lunchtime for the buffet.

They had even bought meal tickets, but now they couldn’t use the restaurant.

So, inevitably, we decided to reserve about half the seats during lunch.

Only customers with meal tickets could use the reserved seats.

We couldn’t just turn away ticket holders because there were no seats.

About two weeks after Happy Restaurant became famous through Kim Hajoon’s YouTube.

We got through lunch safely again today.

After that, there was a break from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., and during that time I headed to the backyard.

The stray cats had more or less established their hierarchy.

I planned to play with them and also finish filming, which I hadn’t been able to do because I was busy.

My own YouTube channel was still stagnant, but I couldn’t just leave it like that.

I needed to keep filming and uploading new videos.

Meow.

As soon as I stepped outside, Samsek ran over and rubbed his face against me.

He had completely turned into a friendly cat.

Not just Samsek—I’d also gotten much closer to the other two kittens Jumsuni had given birth to.

On the other hand, the other stray cats were still very wary.

Except when it was feeding time, they never came close.

“I should get them neutered too…”

I couldn’t just keep them like this forever.

Considering how short stray cats’ lives were, it would be better to neuter them sooner rather than later.

Still, I didn’t know how they would take it.

So I planned to ask Hoya about it soon.

“Ah, this is nice.”

The weather was slowly warming up.

It was still chilly, but during the day, it was warm enough to enjoy sunbathing.

‘When spring comes, I’ll plow the garden and plant things.’

Cucumbers, lettuce, chili peppers, perilla leaves, kohlrabi, chicory, spinach, carrots, chives.

Dumdum and Bangul.

I was excited to see how the crops blessed by those two would grow.

♪ La la la ♪

I found myself humming.

No stress, customers enjoying the food, and warm sunlight.

Everything was perfect.

As I sat in the rocking chair, petting Samsek on my lap and looking at my phone—

A post on a popular board caught my eye.

—“Did you see the post saying ‘My ex-boyfriend won the lottery—can I get a share?’”

The title alone was unsettling.

Thump thump.

With a pounding heart, I tapped the post.

It turned out to be a screenshot of a question posted online.

The content matched the title exactly.

—I recently found out that my ex-boyfriend, whom I broke up with two months ago, won first prize in the lottery using numbers I gave him. I gave him the winning numbers, so doesn’t that mean I contributed a lot? I honestly think he should give me a certain amount—half of it, even. If he refuses, I’m thinking of hiring a lawyer and holding him legally responsible. Is that possible?

The post was ridiculous.

Demanding half the winnings.

Even threatening legal action.

I scrolled down to the comments.

—At this point, the ex must’ve been a helmsman on Admiral Yi Sun-sin’s ship in his past life. If he’d told her about the win, she definitely would’ve demanded a share.

—His ancestors definitely helped him. How else could the timing work out so perfectly?

—I don’t know law well, but can she actually get the money?

└Don’t talk nonsense. Unless the ex promised to split it, there’s no reason to share.

Somehow.

Reading the comments made me feel a bit relieved.

That aside, given the timing and circumstances, I had a good idea who the anonymous poster was.

“Don’t tell me, Jihyun… you posted this?”

Then I saw the most upvoted comment and couldn’t help but laugh dryly.

—What if the boyfriend was trying to tell her he won the lottery, but she broke up with him before he could say it? That’d be hilarious. LOL.

Maybe because it sounded too absurd.

Replies quickly followed.

└Come on, even drama writers wouldn’t write that.

└That’s way too unrealistic. Say something that makes sense.

Yeah. No.

It really happened.