The first person to say something to me Monday morning at school was a girl with pigtails and braces. She'd looked at me as we passed in the hall, then did a double take. "Hey! I saw you last night. Congratulations!"

I waved in confusion and kept walking.

The next was a guy from my math class two years ago. His name was Yoongi. "They said you went to our school. I didn't believe it. But here you are. Can I borrow five bucks?" He laughed at his own joke and turned to face me as I kept walking.

Then my phone started dinging with notifications. People from school were tagging me with congratulatory messages. My followers on each of my accounts were increasing exponentially.

I ducked around the first corner I came to and dialed my mom.

She answered on the fourth ring. "Hey, baby, I'm at work so be fast."

"Did the news run the story?"

"What?"

"That news reported that called you? You told him I didn't want to do the story, right?"

"Yes, of course."

"I think they went ahead with it anyway."

She let out a little grunt. "Oh no. I'm sorry. I didn't think the fact that they might run it without the without the interview."

"Why did they wait a week to air it?"

"I didn't watch the piece. Maybe they did other interviews and had to coordinate those, or follow up with their facts to make sure they were correct. I don't know. Are you okay?" Mom asked.

"Yes, I will be. I think, I was just surprised."

"I have to run. We'll talk more about this at home," she said.

"Okay."

I hung up and texted Irene and Jisoo: Meet me in the library. Stat.

Two more people called out "Congrats!" to me on my walk to the library. I kept my head down and practically ran.

Both Irene and Jisoo were waiting in the tiled entry when I walked in.

"Is everything okay?" Jisoo asked.

"Did you watch the news last night?"

"No," Jisoo said.

Irene shook her head.

"I think they did a story about me."

"What kind of story?" Jisoo asked.

"Is that a real question?"

She scowled. "About the lottery?"

"Yes."

Irene grabbed my hand in support. "What makes you think that?"

"The half dozen people who've said hi to me this morning."

"That's not normal?" Irene asked with a laugh.

My phone dinged again with an Instagram message. It was a picture of the back of me, taken minutes ago in the hall. The caption: The lottery winner goes to my school!

I held up my phone so they could both see. "Guys, I'm freaking out here."

Irene forced a serious face. "Sorry."

"Let's talk this through," Jisoo said. "Let's say they ran a story about you last night. What's the worst thing that can happen?"

"I don't know," I said, shaking my phone. "The entire school starts talking to me."

"That's the worst?"

"Or maybe someone kidnaps me and demands I pay them millions of dollars to let me free."

Irene nodded slowly. "That's a better worst-case scenario."

"Do you think that's ever happened to a lottery winner before?"

Jisoo scrunched her nose. "I have no idea. But I don't think that's going to happen to you. This is what is going to happen: You'll be this interesting story around school for a little while and then something new will happen and people will forget about it.

"You think so?"

"Yes. And in the meantime, Irene and I will be your bodyguards."

"If my bodyguards weren't always busy doing other things, I might feel better."

"You could hire a real bodyguard if you're that worried," Irene said.

I knew she was semi-joking but I thought about that possibility. Was I scared enough to hire a bodyguard? I really wasn't. It was just unexpected, going from invisible to suddenly not. I'd be fine once I got used to it.

☘ 𝔏𝔬𝔱𝔱𝔬 𝔏𝔬𝔳𝔢 ☘

A large envelope waited on my desk when I got home. The return address read Gangnam University. My heart thumped wildly in my chest. All my countless hours of preparation had led to this. I carefully opened the flap and slid out the stapled pages inside.

A cover letter, my name at the top, greeted me. I read each word carefully.

"Accepted," I whispered. I'd been worried for nothing. Seoul wasn't my top choice, but I had a choice now. And a way to pay for it.

I called Jisoo.

"Hello," she answered on the second ring.

"Let's go dorm room shopping."

"It's March. We have like five months."

"But I just got my first acceptance letter and I won the lottery and I want to buy things."

She laughed. "Most girls would go on a makeover shopping spree if they won the lottery."

"Oh." I stopped when I realized I was petting my acceptance letter. "Well, we can do that when I officially have the money if you want."

Jisoo just laughed.

"No, seriously. Will you go shopping with me tonight?" There was something about the whole school knowing about the lottery now that made it more real. I might not have officially had the money in the bank yet, but it was finally sinking in. I was a millionaire. I'd done the math. I could spend over a thousand dollars every day for the rest of my life and never run out of money. And all I had bought were a couple of cell phones. It was time to change that.

"Sure. I have some things on my dorm room list that I need to buy," Jisoo replied.

"Do you think Irene will want to come with us?"

"She told us not to leave her out of college stuff, remember?"

"True. I'll call her."

☘ 𝔏𝔬𝔱𝔱𝔬 𝔏𝔬𝔳𝔢 ☘

IKEA was huge and we'd only covered a quarter of the store, but my cart was already half-full. I held up a strand of decorative patio lights. "Do you think this would drive a roommate crazy?"

"Are you even going to have a roommate?" Irene asked. "You can afford a private room. Or you could buy your own apartment in whichever city you end up in."

"I want her to be my roommate," Jisoo said. "At  Seoul. And yes, those lights would drive me crazy." She took them from my hands and put them back on the shelf. 

I snatched them back up and dropped them in my cart. "I'm going to Busan."

Jisoo gave me a playful growl.

"Did you get your Busan acceptance letter yet?" Irene asked.

"Not yet. But I will." Busan was the school I'd prepared my life around.

Irene held up a large black-and-white Song Hye-kyo print. "Maybe I should major in acting. Do you think I'd make a good actress?" She tried to mimic the face Hye-kyo was making in the photo.

"You'd be an amazing actress," I said.

"I would, wouldn't I?"

"I thought you were going to major in nursing," Jisoo said, studying a Big Bang print.

"No, I realized I hate blood. I think nurses have to love blood, right?"

I laughed and pointed at the Hye-kyo picture. "Do you want that?"

"What?" Irene set it back on the shelf. "I don't need decorations. You know I'm not moving into a dorm room." She raised her hand in the air. "Community College group right here."

"That doesn't mean you can't give your bedroom a dorm room makeover. I'm buying that for you." I put the photo in my cart with the other things.

"Oh, Kal-El, you spoil me."

"Kal-El?"

"You know Superman's real name, Kal-El."

I laughed. "I think I like Superman as a nickname better." I picked up a picture of a ballerina. "We should line your walls with all your possible career choices."

Jisoo raised her eyebrows and held up a Back to the Future poster. "What about a time traveler? Is that on the short list?"

"Why wouldn't it be?" Irene asked, taking the poster and putting it in the cart.

"Your room is going to be the weirdest mishmash of ideas to ever exist," Jisoo said.

"Kind of like my brain," Irene said, adding a picture of a row of construction workers sitting on a beam high in the air.

I tilted my head to get a closer look.

"What? I could be good with a hammer. I've never tried."

I laughed and pushed the cart forward. "You know what I've always wanted but could never afford?"

"What?" Irene asked.

"One of those hanging chairs."

"The kind that look like a cocoon?" Jisoo asked.

"Yes, my turn-into-a-butterfly pod. Do you think they have those here?"

"They have everything here," Irene said, throwing out her arms and spinning a circle in the wide aisle. "This is the place where dreams are found."

I let out a whoop. "The let's go find some more dreams."