Before I could talk to Jimin, I had a long overdue appointment on Saturday morning.

"The first thing I tell people who win the lottery," Mr. Chan, the financial advisor, said as I sat in a big leather chair across the desk from him, "is to change their phone number. Have you done that yet?"

I groaned. "I should've talked to you two months ago."

"So what is your goal with this money? What kinds of things do you need it to do?"

I did want to let go of the things in my life that I couldn't control, but there was things I could. That was part of my personality, to put things in order. And it felt good to do that now. To take this big, seemingly uncontrollable aspect of my life and manage it. "Well, I'm going to Seoul University. So I'll need to pay for school and living expenses. And I want to be able to travel back here from the Bay Area often."

"Okay, so you'll need tuition money, a travel fund, and living expenses. That will not be hard to do. Your money will be generating interest, and I have no doubt you can easily live off the interest and the principal will remain intact."

"That would be great. I do like to help people, but I think I need a max dollar amount I'm allowed to spend on that."

He smiled. "Okay, we'll come up with that dollar amount, and we'll have a special account for that money."

"Okay."

"We need to put this in a trust, and you need to think about what you want to happen with it should the worst happen."

"You mean if I die?"

"Yes, that would be the worst. We could also set up a separate charitable donations trust. That would be for money you'd want to donate to causes . . . like the zoo one year, or a school."

I smiled big. "I'd like that a lot. There's this sloth at the zoo who could use a new exhibit. I'd love to fund that."

Mr. Chan raised his eyebrows. "An sloth?"

"She's the best. Plus, there are other exhibits the zoo-keepers would love to bring to Busan. Like spiders. Lots of spiders."

"You like spiders?" he asked.

"No, spiders are icky, but some people really like them." Jimin. He liked them.

"Okay. Then let's get paperwork together."

A big burden seemed to lift off my shoulders as I signed papers that allocated my money in the perfect ways for me and my future.

When I stood to leave, I said, "Oh, do you have a roll of pennies I could buy? They come in fifty, right?"

Mr. Chan gave me a quizzical look. "I don't have cash back here, but the teller out front will."

"Okay." I had a plan, and it needed to work.

☘ 𝔏𝔬𝔱𝔱𝔬 𝔏𝔬𝔳𝔢 ☘

But before I could carry out my plan, I had one more person to see: my brother.

I knocked on his door and he answered. 

"Hey," I said.

Sangmoon stepped aside to let me in. More work had been done in his house and it was coming together beautifully.

"Did you come to collect your thirty thousand? Because I don't have it."

"I know. And no, I came to tell you that you don't have to pay me back."

He closed his eyes for a moment and took a breath of relief.

"But that's it. I can't bail you out anymore."

"I know."

"No, really. I'm leaving for college. I'm going to Seoul University. I won't be here to bail you out."

He sank down onto the couch. "Got it."

"But like you said, you could sell this place if you're in trouble. Or get a roommate or two?"

"Yeah."

"You will, right, Sangmoon? You'll be fine."

"You worry too much."

"I don't think you worry enough." 

He stood and put his arm around me. "You're my baby sister. Why don't you stick to being that. Not my mom or my loan officer."

"I can do that."

He smirked. "I don't know that you can, but we'll both work on our weaknesses."

"Deal." I looked up at the skylight above us. "Your house really is cool. Maybe I'll have to crash here when I come back to visit."

"I charge rent."

I slapped his arm and he laughed.