BMGSN 1

It’s the Lotto, the Lotto

“Isn’t this seriously a huge jackpot?”

Jinki stood in front of the mirror for a long time, clapping a hand over his mouth. His heart trembled at the sight of the sparkling face reflected back at him. Just like Joo Unyoung, Choi Jinki also possessed an appearance that barely seemed human. He really was a character from a novel. Jinki touched his long limbs and solid muscles, his lips twitching.

“He’s seriously handsome…?”

Kim Hyeyeon’s words floated into his mind, the ones about how a main gong had to lack nothing and have nothing impossible about him. There truly was not a single thing missing. He was smart, came from a wealthy family, tall, and good-looking. Surely that part would be big as well, right? 

Jinki briefly lowered his gaze, then forced himself to stop. Even if this body was his now, he did not have the courage to check. She said he was the top, so it probably was big, right?

He put his bag away at the back and changed his clothes. Even the pajamas, made of soft, silky fabric, felt unfamiliar. Maybe because he had always slept in worn-out T-shirts, the very existence of proper pajamas felt amazing.

Jinki flopped onto the bed and stared at his phone screen. It was the latest model, the kind he had only ever seen in advertisements. The display was pristine, without a single scratch, practically brand new.

Suddenly, his face appeared reflected on the dark screen. His face, pressed against the pillow, looked blunt and expressionless. His eyes were half-lidded, and his double eyelids became distinct every time he blinked.

“This is insane…”

His skin was smooth, with no visible pores, and the mole beneath his lips created a subtle, intriguing air. The faintly red corners beneath his dark eyes, his straight nose, and his neat lips. He was the very embodiment of the “handsome man” Jinki had always admired and envied.    

When he carefully turned on the phone, face recognition unlocked it immediately. On the home screen, the date and time appeared clearly.

“July 3rd… No wonder it’s hot.”

Only the default apps were installed on the phone. He searched through it, wondering if he could find any records, but there was not even a single common game.

When he had read in the novel that the character only exercised and studied, he had brushed it off, but seeing it in reality was a bit fascinating. If he were from a rich family, why was he living so diligently? Jinki grumbled as he tossed the phone far away.

Then he turned over and buried his face in the bed. The mattress was made of cooling material, and the room was chilled by the air conditioner, yet his chest felt strangely tight.

Back in high school, he had cut down on study time to work part-time jobs. From barbecue restaurants to hard labor, he had done anything he could. After graduating, he had not even dared to dream of college and instead went straight to work at a small, mediocre company. And in that place that claimed not to care about academic background, he had been treated as less than human.

“…It’s different now, so it’s fine.”

As he brushed his hand over the blanket, the realization that this was truly real sank in.

It was not a dream. The basic common knowledge vividly embedded in his mind proved it. His parents’ faces, the route back home, and even higher-level education he had never studied before surfaced in his thoughts, making it even clearer.

Was my life so pitiful that God decided to give me a gift?

Jinki closed his eyes and hugged the pillow tightly. Even though he knew this was reality, his heart pounded wildly. Everything had been pulled forward by four years. Along with a complete background, an opportunity had arrived.

It was not that he had wanted to stop at graduating from high school. Back then, he had dreams of becoming something. At the very least, someone who could be useful to society, someone who could become a hope to another person.

Now, he could live however he wanted. Even if new hardships came crashing down on him, life had always been like that, and Jinki had more than enough courage to face it head-on.

When he shut his eyes tightly, a strange wave of fatigue washed over him. Even though he had done nothing all day, it felt as if his previous life itself had exhausted him, and sleep dragged him under.

* * *

When he opened his eyes, it was five in the morning.

Normally, this would have been a time when he was nodding off, yet for some reason, his eyes were wide open and clear. Jinki squirmed around in bed before finally getting up and looking around his room.

It was a clean, neat room straight out of a television show. With not a single piece of clutter, the room was arranged like a model house, containing only a bed, a desk, drawers, and a wardrobe.

Jinki pulled out the chair and sat down carefully. He glanced at it, wondering if even the chair was expensive, then let out a long sigh.

So it really is not a dream. This is real.

Yesterday, he had been nothing but happy, but today felt a little different. That was because he now fully understood that this was inside a novel, and that he was a character destined to be involved with a “soo”.

First of all, Choi Jinki and Joo Unyoung start dating in the latter half of volume one. The one who fell in love first was Choi Jinki, and it was Joo Unyoung who pulled him in when he hesitated because they were the same sex.

In volume two, the two of them share sweet moments of push and pull that are not quite push and pull, enjoying a budding relationship, until the appearance of three sub-gongs plunges them into hardship and adversity. The sub-gongs do everything they can to tear the two apart, and Joo Unyoung repeatedly falls into traps or has to run away.

Choi Jinki uses his wealth and power to drive off the sub-gongs and save Joo Unyoung. Then, at the beginning of volume four, with Choi Jinki’s heartfelt confession, the two become inseparably close and officially date, bringing the story to an end. In the final epilogue, on January 1st, when they turn twenty, they carefully press their lips together under the dark moonlight.

In truth, that novel had failed miserably. Since he did not really know much, he had only offered comments about the characters or dramatic developments, so Kim Hyeyeon, unaware of what she was getting into, published her first work like that.

And the last memory from his previous body was comforting Kim Hyeyeon, who had been hurt by countless malicious comments and had drowned herself in alcohol, then walking her home. After that, he returned to his tiny studio apartment and went to sleep.

“First… First, it would be best to distance myself from Joo Unyoung.”

The scene he experienced yesterday felt like something from around the latter half of volume one. That meant it was now time for the push and pull with Joo Unyoung, the ambiguous flirting stage, and for the sub-gongs to slowly begin making their presence known. Jinki took out a notebook that looked brand new from the drawer and neatly organized the situation. His gaze, boring straight into the paper, was extremely serious.

He had been given a new life. He felt sorry toward Joo Unyoung, but since their relationship had not progressed that far anyway, it needed to be wrapped up. Jinki had no intention of foolishly letting this opportunity slip away.

However, this was the point where Choi Jinki had already made the first move, and Joo Unyoung had begun to waver. There were two methods.

First, act in a way that would make feelings cool off.

Second, pretending that he had only been bored and decided to toy with him, deliberately acting like a piece of trash.

“I already rejected him, though… Hmm.”

Maybe it would work if he postponed dating for as long as possible while doing ugly things that would make affection fade. The second option was something you should not do to a person, even if they were a character in a novel. Still, he had never met a gay person in his life. Because of that, he had to think long and hard about what they might hate.

If I were gay, then… if I were gay? He probably would not like someone who had been seeing men left and right. And then, well, Choi Jinki had been a ‘gentle gong’ up until now, so what if he started treating Joo Unyoung like a caught fish and acted careless and half-hearted?

At the bottom of the page, Jinki wrote, ‘Solution 1. Become the bad Choi Jinki’. He could not predict at all how this novel would unfold from here. Since not all three sub-gongs were trash, Joo Unyoung’s heart might end up leaning in their direction.

He remembered that the sub-gongs were all handsome, tall, lived diligently, and were extremely obsessed with Joo Unyoung. Two of them, in particular, were so attentive and kind that they might even be better than himself.

One thing that worried him was that he had told Kim Hyeyeon at the very end that it would be nice if the villain character were a little worse, that it was fine as it was, but why not make it more dramatic?

In real life, someone just a bit worse than that would have been a criminal headed for prison. He had only recommended something more provocative because it was a novel.

“…She probably published it as is since it would have been hard to revise everything, right?”

He had not seen the manuscript after it went through the publisher’s editing process, which made things a little troubling. Jinki moistened his dry lips and tore the page out of the notebook. Then he folded the paper four times and shoved it deep into the drawer.

After that, he went downstairs, thanked the people who quietly prepared his meal, ate a hearty breakfast, and put on his school uniform. The feeling was very strange. It was a uniform he had thought he would never wear again.

Even though it was early, Jinki left the house. As if it were the most natural thing in the world, a black sedan and a man in a suit were waiting outside.

…Wow, insane. No matter how rich this school is, did he really ride something like this so openly? It is not even that far.

“Um, would it be okay if I walked from today?”

“Understood.”

At his cautious question, they immediately nodded and stiffly stepped aside. Jinki needlessly adjusted his bag.

The distance from home to school was not that far. It was about three bus stops, which, to the Jinki who had lived in the countryside in the past, this distance was no different from a short walk.

As he trudged along, the air carried the distinct smell of dawn. After becoming an adult, he had been too busy commuting to work to remember it, so the scent felt oddly welcome.

“Jinki.”

At that moment, a heavy voice called out from some distance away. When he turned his head, a name naturally surfaced. Go Yeol. Jet-black hair, a low voice that sounded rough and gravelly, a tall build that looked well over 190 centimeters, and thick eyebrows that strongly asserted their presence.

Eyes with a visible sclera beneath the irises stared silently in Jinki’s direction.