The female clerk was trembling. She hadn’t yet completely recovered from the shock; she was clearly confused and shaken.
However, there was one thing she desperately wanted —
for the police not to be called.
If someone reported this, she felt as if her own ruin would soon follow.
“It’s fine. I didn’t actually call anyone,”
Ji-hyun said, trying to reassure her.
At the same time, he quietly collected and stored every piece of information about her within himself.
Realizing that the situation was more serious than he first thought, Ji-hyun let out a sigh and asked,
“What exactly happened? Why was that man acting like that?”
He already knew everything, of course, but he asked as if he didn’t, to calm her down.
“Ah… that man, um… I’m not sure if I should be saying this…”
The clerk stammered, still trapped in confusion.
It couldn’t be helped — any normal person would be shaken by what had just happened.
Ji-hyun patiently waited until she calmed herself enough to speak.
“I’m sorry. I still can’t think straight. That man… he was actually a hired hand, sent by someone who’s trying to take over this lottery shop.”
She sighed deeply after speaking.
“As you can see, this is one of the few places in the neighborhood that actually makes some money. Someone wanted to buy it, but since we refused, this is what happens.”
Her words were true.
Through the information he’d already absorbed, Ji-hyun confirmed that she wasn’t lying.
Of course, he also knew there were deeper circumstances behind it all.
“Then why not report it to the police?”
he asked calmly. He already knew the reason, but it didn’t hurt to ask.
“Ah, well…”
She hesitated, then as if realizing she might not get another chance, she began to explain.
“They said if I reported anything, they wouldn’t leave my family alone. My father’s already in the hospital from a car accident…”
Ji-hyun’s expression shifted as if surprised.
Even though he knew the details, hearing them aloud still hit differently.
“That’s rough… you’ve been through a lot,”
he said gently, watching her face.
At those words, tears began to roll down her cheeks.
“I don’t know what to do anymore. I don’t even understand why this is happening. We’ve lived here all our lives, and my dad just used his retirement money to start this shop…”
Her voice broke as she cried harder, unable to stop once she’d started.
Without a word, Ji-hyun handed her a handkerchief and waited silently until she calmed down.
He had only come to buy a lottery ticket, and now he was tangled up in something else.
It would have been easier to just buy what he needed and walk away.
But… something told him he couldn’t do that.
Maybe it was because he remembered what had happened to him not long ago.
The scammers had driven his father into the hospital from stress and had nearly done unforgivable things to his sister.
If he ignored this woman now, who knew what might happen to her?
You can’t save every person in trouble —
but when it happens within your reach, that’s different.
Helping those in front of you is simply the right thing to do.
Ji-hyun wasn’t so cold that he could just ignore that.
And since he already knew everything about her, he could tell she was telling the truth.
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So he made up his mind to help her.
If he walked away now, he knew he would regret it.
“Let’s clean this up first,”
he said, standing up and starting to tidy the mess.
At first, the clerk looked surprised, but soon, touched by his gesture, she joined him.
Before long, the shop looked presentable again — thankfully, there hadn’t been too much damage.
“So… what brings you here today?”
she asked once things settled. Normally it would be obvious, but right now, the question felt different.
“I came to buy a lottery ticket,”
Ji-hyun answered casually.
After obtaining the ticket he wanted, Ji-hyun spoke with the clerk — whose name, he learned, was Hye-yeon.
“So, Ms. Hye-yeon, you want to protect this place no matter what?”
“Yes. It’s hard, but I want to keep it. Even if I closed down and moved somewhere else, I wouldn’t have anything else I could do,”
she replied, adjusting her glasses.
After failing to find a job after university, she had helped her father run this lottery shop.
It wasn’t glamorous, but it was stable — and that stability meant everything.
“Still, the biggest problem is that you can’t turn to the police,”
Ji-hyun sighed.
If she had the courage, she could’ve used legal means to fight back against whoever was trying to seize the shop.
But Hye-yeon had lost her mother early and lived alone with her father — threats like that were hard to ignore.
She didn’t know how they had disabled the CCTV, but that was how her father ended up in the hospital.
And though she had ignored their demands so far, she didn’t know how long that would last.
It seemed that tools capable of neutralizing CCTV had become more widespread lately — a dangerous sign, Ji-hyun thought.
But for now, Hye-yeon’s problem came first.
“They said they’d kill my family if I told anyone. They said even with CCTV around, they could still kill me. They call every day… I honestly don’t know what to do anymore,”
she said, sighing deeply.
Ji-hyun could only remain silent.
If she still trusted law enforcement completely, she might have reported it.
But even though the CCTV had captured her father being hit by a car, the vehicle itself wasn’t visible on the footage.
Anyone would be terrified after seeing something like that.
“For now, here’s my number. Call me if anything happens,”
he said, handing her his phone number.
She blinked, surprised.
“But… we just met. Why are you going so far for me?”
It was a fair question. To her, Ji-hyun was just some customer — maybe a kind one, but still a stranger.
“My family went through something similar recently,”
he said, briefly explaining his own situation.
Hearing that, Hye-yeon couldn’t hide her surprise.
“I’m glad things worked out for you in the end, though.”
Her tone softened — she was beginning to understand why he wanted to help.
Ji-hyun didn’t even need to explain much —
the conman scandal he’d been involved in had made national headlines, even drawing in prominent figures from politics.
If the man standing before her was connected to that case, anyone would be surprised.
“Well, something like that. I just can’t see it as someone else’s problem,”
he said with a light smile.
Hye-yeon’s tense expression relaxed slightly.
“Then let’s take it one step at a time. Whatever it takes,”
Ji-hyun said as he stepped outside.
He couldn’t do anything more just by staying there — but the thought of having another task ahead of him filled him with a strange excitement.
“Oh my goodness…”
Ji-hyun’s mother couldn’t hide her shock when she saw the lottery ticket her son brought home.
Astonishment — no, something beyond that.
“This should cover the immediate expenses — Dad’s hospital bills, daily costs, and the kids’ tuition,”
he said.
A first-place scratch-off win.
It was a new ray of hope for their family’s future.
“Oh… I can’t even believe this…”
his mother murmured, staring at the ticket, lost for words.
His siblings were no different — the uncertain future suddenly looked a little brighter, and joy spread across their faces.
“I’ll use a little for myself, and the rest for the family,”
Ji-hyun said, and his mother nodded.
“Right. With this much, we can finally buy a few things we need.”
People say sudden fortune isn’t always good —
but in times like this, it was nothing but a blessing.
She readily agreed to her son’s suggestion.
“So, what should we eat tonight?”
Ji-hyun asked, scrolling through the delivery app.
It wasn’t a jackpot, but still a hefty amount — enough to ease the constant pressure they’d felt for so long.
Each of them picked something they wanted, and they decided to celebrate.
“How did you even think of buying it?”
his younger brother Ji-hyuk asked.
Ji-hyun hesitated — he couldn’t exactly explain.
“Probably had a lucky dream or something,”
Ji-soo joked, laughing.
She’d been so stressed about college entrance exams, but now, with this, even taking a gap year didn’t seem so bad.
“Well then, let’s eat something good tonight. We’ve all worked hard enough,”
their mother said, placing the order.
Ji-hyun smiled warmly.
There was nothing better than hearing his siblings laugh.
A few minutes later, the doorbell rang.
As the delivery arrived, the family gathered around the table.
They laughed, talked, and for the first time in a long while —
they simply enjoyed being happy.
