The weekend passed in its usual blur.

Saturday morning, her daughter woke up hungry. After breakfast, her husband asked what they were having for lunch. Once lunch was eaten and cleaned up, her daughter wanted to go outside.

Sunday wasn't much different.

Seoyoon completely forgot about the lottery ticket she had bought on Friday.

Monday morning.

After dropping her daughter off at kindergarten, she came home.

She straightened the shoes by the entrance, cleared the breakfast dishes from the table, and vacuumed.

While folding laundry, she noticed a folded piece of paper at one end of the dining table.

The lottery ticket.

Seoyoon paused with a towel still in her hands.

(Seoyoon): “Oh. This.”

She took out her phone and searched the winning numbers.

The first number.

Match.

The second.

Match.

The third too.

Seoyoon put down the towel.

Fourth.

Fifth.

Sixth.

Every single one matched.

She looked back and forth between the phone and the ticket.

Then checked from the beginning.

Once.

Again.

And one more time.

First prize.

Estimated payout after taxes: about 3.2 billion won.

Seoyoon sank into the dining chair.

Her fingertips began to tremble.

(Seoyoon): “This is insane...”

Even saying it aloud didn't make her laugh.

It didn't feel real.

The first person she thought of was her husband.

She opened KakaoTalk.

[Seoyoon: Honey]

She stopped there.

Tell him this over KakaoTalk?

She erased the message.

She wanted to tell him in person.

Maybe over a nice dinner, looking straight at his face.

Instead, she called her mother.

(Seoyoon): “Mom, can you watch her for a little while tonight?”

(Mom): “All of a sudden? Are you going somewhere?”

(Seoyoon): “Yeah. I just have something tonight.”

Her mother said yes, then naturally started talking about Seoyoon's older sister.

(Mom): “Your sister's working late again today. Trying to work and raise a child at the same time—she's running herself ragged.”

Seoyoon didn't answer.

She opened the refrigerator and checked the dinner side dishes as she spoke.

(Seoyoon): “I marinated bulgogi earlier, so I'll cook that before I go. I'll make rolled eggs too. You just have to heat everything up for dinner!”

Then they talked about Seoyoon's daughter.

(Seoyoon): “She's talking so well these days. Her teacher says her vocabulary is really advanced.”

(Mom): “Of course. It's because her mother is raising her herself. She's such a sharp little thing. But your sister barely has time to pay attention to her kid after work. She's the same age as Seoyi, but honestly she seems almost a year behind. Your sister even forgets things the kindergarten asks them to bring.”

It was praise for Seoyoon's child.

Her mother hadn't meant anything bad by it.

But for some reason, it bothered Seoyoon today.

Her sister and brother-in-law earned far more together than Seoyoon's household did. They had moved to a more expensive home and taken on a bigger loan to do it.

Because of that choice, her sister couldn't simply stop working.

Seoyoon had made a different choice.

Yet in the family's eyes, her sister always seemed to be “the daughter working herself to death while raising a child,” while Seoyoon felt like “the daughter who gets to stay home comfortably and raise hers.”

Seoyoon went quiet.

I feel suffocated sometimes too...

But to everyone else, I must look like someone with an easy life.

The thought made her a little sad.

But not for long today.

Her eyes landed on the lottery ticket on the table.

She thought,

It's okay.

I have 3.2 billion won.

As soon as she hung up, she searched for a restaurant.

Normally she would have checked the prices first. Today she looked only at the reviews and atmosphere and made a reservation.

For the first time in a long while, she wanted to look pretty for her husband.

Seoyoon didn't even own a proper dressing table.

She opened the sliding cabinet in the bathroom and stared in silence.

There was barely anything you could call makeup.

One lipstick she mostly used like lip balm.

One five-thousand-won compact from Daiso.

(Seoyoon): “That's it?”

She had thrown away most of her old eyeshadow and blush when they downsized.

There hadn't been any reason to use them anymore.

Then she opened the closet.

That was even worse.

Clothes for kindergarten drop-off and pickup.

Clothes for the supermarket.

Clothes for the café near home.

Almost everything was sweatpants and casual wear.

There was nothing to wear to a restaurant.

After a long search, she pulled out a pair of jeans.

And a Polo short-sleeved shirt she'd bought before quitting her job.

Among everything that wasn't loungewear, it was the best she had.

She stood in front of the mirror.

Strangely, she wasn't sad.

She had liked the years she spent with her daughter. She had almost never thought of her life as unhappy.

She had simply realized, for the first time, that she didn't own clothes for going out.

When was the last time I bought clothes for myself?

She couldn't remember.

Seoyoon put on lipstick and looked at herself once more.

It was fine.

Today, it really was fine.

No nice clothes.

No makeup collection.

It didn't matter.

Seoyoon had 3.2 billion won.