Faced with such a massive number, Haruto who had never once considered the possibility of actually winning felt shaken to his core. He sat in silence in his room, unable to resist pulling open the drawer again and taking the lottery ticket into his hands. He stared at it for a long time, his mind tangled in thought.
First of all... until the redemption period began, he absolutely couldn't tell anyone about this.
It wasn't simply a matter of trust. With that kind of money, if word ever got out, it wouldn't just endanger him but everyone who knew.
This wasn't a matter of a few hundred thousand yen, or even a few million. This was money measured in the billion.
Holding the ticket up, he reached for his phone, switched to selfie mode, and snapped a picture of himself with it. Then, carefully, he placed the ticket back at the very bottom of the drawer.
He sat staring at the photo on his phone in silence.
"A person should be happy about something like this… and yet, all I feel is unease. Ridiculous..."
A gnawing sense of insecurity clung to him, as if faceless strangers might appear at any moment, rip the ticket from his hands, and vanish. Rubbing at his temples, he stood abruptly and crossed to the window, lifting the curtain to peer into the night.
Only darkness. Not a soul in sight.
After checking the lock twice, he finally let the curtain fall and returned to sit on the edge of his bed. He lay back, trying to will himself to sleep, but his pulse refused to settle.
It's nothing. Just a slip of paper. I...
He tried to soothe himself, but the more he tried to ignore it, the heavier it pressed on his mind.
Ding-dong.
The sudden chime of the doorbell made his heart jolt violently, his breath catching in his throat. He pressed his tongue hard against the roof of his mouth, forcing himself to breathe slowly as he crept toward the door.
Not daring to look through the peephole, he secured the safety chain before carefully cracking the door open.
"Good… evening?"
Sayu stood there, her expression caught between awkward and surprised as she saw him peering out, brows furrowed.
"Haruto?"
Relief washed through him as he recognized her. Undoing the chain, he stepped aside and let her in. The moment she passed, he quickly shut the door behind them.
He poured her a cup of tea and sat across from her, forcing himself to appear casual, though his thoughts kept circling back to the hidden ticket. He stared into the tea's surface, at his own dim reflection, and asked lightly:
"So, what brings you here this late?"
"Nothing in particular. I just saw your light on and wanted to check in. Yesterday, you weren't home?"
"Mm? No, I was. Just got back late."
He lifted the cup, blowing on it before taking a sip. His eyes flicked to her.
"You were with Yuka yesterday?"
"Yes. During the day too. And you... were you with your… girlfriend?"
"Yeah."
Their conversation carried on evenly, his answers calm, but beneath it, Haruto's mind churned. He couldn't stop wondering: If Sayu knew about the ticket, how would she react? Would she change? Would she still look at me the same way?
The thought stirred a storm in his chest, his gaze lowering again as unease warred with guilt.
"Did you reach out to your family for New Year?"
"I texted my brother."
"That's all?"
"Yes."
Her short reply carried a weight she clearly didn't want to unpack. The memories tied to Hokkaido weren't happy ones. Or rather... they once had been, but those days were gone. What remained were dark, heavy shadows: friends lost, bullies unpunished.
Seeing the shift in her expression, Haruto felt his own tension go away. For the first time that night, his heartbeat slowed.
"Any plans for tomorrow?"
"I thought about going back to work… but after what happened last time, I just can't. I don't want to anymore."
In truth, Sayu didn't need the income. Her brother had paid a full year's rent upfront, and with the 150,000 yen allowance she received every month, she was more than secure.
"Have you told Yuka?"
"Not yet."
Her lips twisted with unease. She didn't know how Yuka would take it. She dreaded disappointing her... dreaded letting down one of the few friends she'd found again.
"She won't care about that. Even if you tell her, she won't think any less of you."
Haruto caught her troubled look immediately, reading her thoughts without effort. He knew how much Yuka's opinion mattered to her, how precious that friendship had become.
"Really… you think so?"
Her doubt lingered, soft and fragile.
Haruto closed his eyes briefly, then stood. Crossing the small space between them, he rested his hands gently on her shoulders.
Sayu looked up at him. Then, almost instinctively, she leaned back, letting herself sink onto the soft, warm carpet.
"Trust me."
"Mm…"
With Sayu by his side, Haruto rode that rush of passion until the early hours of the morning. Around three o'clock, exhaustion finally caught up with him. He closed his eyes, wrapped in the warmth of the girl beside him, and drifted into a heavy sleep.
The moment his body hit the mattress, the anxiety about the lottery slipped from his mind. His thoughts didn't circle back to that ticket. He slept on and on, until noon the next day.
The sound of the doorbell rang again and again, dragging Haruto from his dreams. He opened his eyes reluctantly. But by the time he sat up, the ringing had already stopped. Slowly, he turned his head and glanced at Sayu, still lost in her slumber. With a hand pressed to his temple, he muttered under his breath.
Five more days.
The calendar on the wall displayed2015/1/2. One day gone already. Five more to go before he could claim the prize. And yet, instead of relief, a wave of unease rippled through Haruto's chest.
He sat in silence, staring at nothing, considering how to survive these days without losing his mind. Should he go on the 7th, the very first day the claim office opened, and get it over with? Or should he wait a little longer, hide his intentions, and move more carefully?
He reached for the cup of tea sitting nearby, sipped at it absently, and leaned back. His thoughts tangled like loose threads, restless and distracted.
In the end, he decided to do nothing at all. He sat down at his computer, letting videos run in the background while his mind wandered elsewhere to investments, to secrecy, to all the ways his life was about to change.
Originally, his dream had been modest: to buy a small house in Bunkyō ward. That alone had seemed almost impossible. But now, with ten billion yen about to land in his hands, that dream was almost trivial.
Three hundred million yen was once his target. Now he could surpass that sum many times over without even trying.
With a small sigh, he closed the video tab and opened a new one. Typing in "buying a house," he was met with a flood of listings and real estate agencies. After browsing a few, he clicked into a site called Suumo.
The homepage immediately asked for a region: Kanto, or Kansai.
"Kanto," he murmured, clicking without hesitation.
New condominiums. New detached homes. Second-hand condominiums. Second-hand homes.
He lingered on the choices for a moment, then clicked into "new detached homes." The screen filled with maps and diagrams, offering him two filters: region, and rail line.
Prefectures scrolled past: Gunma, Tochigi, Saitama, Ibaraki, Tokyo, Chiba, Kanagawa.
Of course, he chose Tokyo. Beyond that, he had little preference for a train line transport in the city was convenient enough. Still, his lips pressed into a thin line as he remembered what had happened four months ago. Quietly, he clicked into region.
Tokyo–City Center.
Up came the names of the heart of the capital: Chiyoda, home of the Imperial Palace. Chūō, the political hub. Minato, a center of commerce. Shinjuku and Shibuya, bustling and fashionable. And of course, Bunkyō, known for its schools and quiet refinement.
Other wards weren't even worth considering.
Eastern Tokyo: Taitō, Kōtō, Sumida, Arakawa, Adachi, Katsushika, Edogawa.
Southern: Shinagawa, Ōta, Meguro, Setagaya.
Western: Nakano, Suginami, Nerima.
Northern: Toshima, Kita, Itabashi.
Not bad places, but not his home. After years in Bunkyō, he couldn't imagine relocating to somewhere so foreign. And beyond the 23 wards... cities like Hachiōji, Musashino, Tachikawa... they were practically suburbs. Yes, the trains could get him into the city in half an hour, but the thought alone made him grimace. It would be madness to choose such inconvenience.
Clicking through new detached homes, he frowned. Most listings were nothing but blueprints... projects yet to break ground.
"…So even if I bought one, I couldn't move in anytime soon?"
Closing the tab with a sigh, he switched to condominiums instead. In Bunkyō ward, there were eighteen new developments. He clicked through them, only to be met with more concept art and unfinished models.
Patience wearing thin, he moved to the second-hand condominiums.
This time, the photos were real. Concrete walls, hardwood floors, actual kitchens. In Bunkyō alone, there were 890 listings. A dizzying number.
The first that appeared was "Gakuen Hill Heights," a 37.82-square-meter unit priced at 24.8 million yen. A decent studio apartment... about a third bigger than his current place. Fine for one person, but cramped for two. Not what he wanted.
Pass.
Returning to the search page, he changed the filter to sort by size, largest first. One entry immediately caught his eye: a condominium priced at 178 million yen.
Once, Haruto wouldn't have even dared click it. But now, he had the courage.
The listing revealed a 3LDK unit... three bedrooms plus living, dining, and kitchen. 179.37 square meters, not including balcony or shared spaces. On top of that, a 14.08-square-meter balcony, and a 129-square-meter private garden with no additional fees.
Leaning back in his chair, Haruto closed his eyes and let out a long breath.
"So… this is how the wealthy live. Hah."
His original dream of a 30 million yen home seemed laughable beside this near 200 million yen apartment.
A small, bitter laugh slipped out.
He opened his eyes again and continued browsing, scrolling through opulent properties that once would have been material for daydreams, or so far beyond his reach he never even imagined them.
By the time evening fell, he'd lost hours wandering through those glossy pages. Standing up, he prepared a quick dinner, though his appetite had faded into nothing.
Most of the condominiums had been built in the 1980s and 90s. Only a fraction... maybe a fifth were from after the year 2000.
Still, he saved the ones that caught his interest, bookmarking them carefully before closing his laptop.
Dragging his feet to the bed, Haruto collapsed backward with a sigh that seemed to drain all the strength from his chest.
"…"
And so the night passed.
~~~~~~~~~~
You can support me by subscribing on Patreon and read up to 10 chapters ahead.
patreon.com/Ranabir_20