For the past few years, a young man that you can call Mr. Lee has been helping the ahjummas in his community clean the Han River in Seoul. 

Why is this important, you may ask? Well, hang on for a while. For a few more minutes, let's make the main character of this story Mr. Lee.

Mr. Lee comes from a normal, middle-class family, where he was taught that hard, honest work will bring the best reward. He graduated with average grades and works in any average old company, which helps him get by in his humble apartment space.

One of the ahjummas smiled at him as she stretched out her aching back. "You're too kind to help us every single day, Mr. Lee. Shouldn't you be spending your Fridays taking out some pretty lady?"

Mr. Lee laughed as he crushed an empty water bottle that had been floating in the river. "Park ahjumma, somebody has to help before any of you hurt yourselves. Would you and the others like to finish up early? I can take it from here, we only have a bit left to do."

"Would you do that?" the ahjumma asked gratefully. "Thank you. You're a kind, hardworking boy."

Mr. Lee smiled and said goodbye to every ahjumma who left. They all praised him as a good young man.

Mr. Lee turned back to the river, looking up at the bank on the other side. For a moment, he thought he saw someone staring back at him. Then he blinked, and the person was gone. He must have been imagining it.

Mr. Lee sighed, bent down, and continued his community service work.

The bus ride back home was a strange one. It was very late at night when Mr. Lee finally finished cleaning the last section of the river. He had underestimated the time it took to do the work by himself, and every muscle in his body hurt.

The bus was completely empty, which was an odd thing to happen on a Friday night in the middle of Seoul. The only other person on the bus was another boy. Mr. Lee ignored him and took a seat on the opposite side, staring at the nighttime scenery as it rushed by.

For a long while, neither of them spoke. Then, the boy suddenly said, "I saw you out on the Han River, picking up garbage with those ahjummas. That was a very kind thing for you to do, sir."

Mr. Lee started and looked at the boy. He was very handsome, and had twinkling eyes and a hint of a smile on his lips. His clothes were cheap, ragged things, the kind you'd see at a tiny nightmarket stall or dollar store. A dirty old backpack lay on the seat next to the boy.

"Thank you," Mr. Lee said cautiously. He wasn't very comfortable with strangers talking to him, and turned away, hoping the boy wouldn't continue the conversation. Unfortunately, the boy did.

"My name's Kai," he offered. What a strange name. Was it even Korean? "It really was a nice thing, sir. I appreciate it. It's my job, you see. My job to find people who do nice things."

"Really?" Mr. Lee chuckled nervously, wondering if the boy was crazy. He decided to play along, in case the boy got violent. "And what kind of job is that?"

"I'm known as the Miracle Doctor," Kai explained, puffing out his chest proudly. "I zap around South Korea, see, and if I find people who do good things to help others, then I will consider granting them a wish. Any wish. I can make miracles happen."

"That's ... er, that's very nice, Kai." Mr. Lee wondered if he should just leave the bus before Kai did anything weird. But he wasn't very keen on the idea of walking the next six blocks home, so he decided to wait it out as patiently as he could. "But that's a bit hard for me to believe."

"Ah, that's right, I forgot." Kai chuckled a bit to himself. "People these days are so hard to convince in the existence of magic."

"You can do magic?" Mr. Lee wondered exactly how drunk or drugged this boy must be. "I'm sorry you can't convince anybody. Do you think you can use a bit of your magic to show me? So I can believe you fully?"

Mr. Lee expected Kai to say some bull line about how he was under the strict oath of the Pavilion of Lords or something equally stupid to not use magic in front of humans. Or maybe to just flat-out try some sort of crazy magic trick like levitating and fail due to his current sanity.

What he DIDN'T expect was for Kai to snap his fingers and suddenly appear right next to him.

Mr. Lee gasped loudly, just short of screaming, and scrambled backwards. Kai snapped his fingers, and he disappeared, only to reappear a moment later at the very end of the bus. Then he snapped his fingers once more, and appeared in his original spot next to his backpack.

"Sorry for scaring you back there," he added. "I got a bit excited. I like showing off to new people -- the look on their faces is priceless."

Mr. Lee struggled to regain his proper heartbeat, breathing heavily. His mind was racing all over the place. Kai just transported himself around the bus. There was no way he could have faked it, not with Mr. Lee right there. One second he was across from him, the next -- POOF! Right beside him!

"You ... are real ..." Mr. Lee struggled out. "You can do magic."

"Of course," Kai said simply, staring at him as if he was crazy. "Why would I lie?"

"And you're offering me a wish. Any wish."

"I'm the Miracle Doctor. It's my job to grant miracles." Kai gave him an impish grin and waited patiently while he collected himself.

Mr. Lee, you must realize, was a young man. He wasn't too old that he could flat-out refuse to believe anything he doesn't agree with. Instantly, his mind wrapped around the idea of magic and opened a whole world of possibilities.

He could wish for anything. But what would he wish for?

This was when the dark side of humanity appeared in Mr. Lee's soul. Remember, in the beginning of this little story, he was a kind, honest man who worked hard in everything he did. But this was a wish. A MAGIC wish. The easy way out.

The possibilities were endless. And the more Mr. Lee mulled over what he would wish for, the greedier he grew. In the beginning, his wish was for a proper miracle: a cure for cancer, no more war, peace between the North and the South. No violence. But those thoughts all disappeared as more selfish miracles appeared in his mind. A super-rich, super-hot girlfriend to dote on him. A promotion to the very top of the company. Good looks. A penthouse apartment flat all to himself.

Finally, Mr. Lee opened his mouth. But quickly, Kai interrupted him.

"Before you wish for a miracle, sir, I'd just like to warn you of the consequences," he said.

"Consequences?" Mr. Lee frowned.

"My magic doesn't come free," Kai warned him. "There's a price tag attached. When you make a miracle, my magic will take it literally, so be careful of how you word it. You won't believe how many people I've worked for who made a wish too quickly, and ended up getting something they didn't wish for at all. As well ..." here, he turned very serious, and the light faded in his eyes. "The amount of happiness you get out of this miracle will ultimately be equal to the amount of grief that this magic will cause. There is no way you can escape it. There's a balance to everything in the universe, and this is just one of them. So be very careful with your wish."

Mr. Lee thought it over briefly. But really, how bad could it be? 

The Miracle Doctor was just being selfish with his magic, Mr. Lee thought sourly.

"I wish I won a very large lottery!" Mr. Lee burst out.

Kai's eyebrows furrowed together. "That's your miracle?"

"Yes!" He said quickly.

Kai looked disappointed at that, and sighed. "All right, I suppose. If that's your miracle ..." 

There was a hum of light and blue sparks began to flash in Mr. Lee's eyes. A strange feeling of being dunked in ice-cold water came over him. Almost as soon as it begun, it stopped.

"Did it work?" He demanded.

Kai shrugged infuriatingly. "We'll see." He grabbed his backpack and snapped his fingers, promptly disappearing.

"W-wait!" Mr. Lee shouted, standing up.

"What's going on back there?" The bus driver shouted from the front.

"N-nothing, sir, sorry," Mr. Lee stammered, blushing, as he sat back down. As he reached his stop and entered his house, he wondered if everything was just a dream.

He entered his small apartment and the lights ... then stopped dead.

Right there, in the middle of his living room table, was a lottery ticket. 

Mr. Lee ran over to it and picked it up with trembling fingers. The numbers were already scratched away, matching up perfectly with the top prize of ... 114 235 000 000 won?!

"Good god," he mumered to himself weakly, sinking to the floor and clutching the ticket to his chest. "I'm a multimillionaire."

And with that, he immediately dashed to the nearest 24/7 convenience store he could find and cashed in the ticket.

News articles were printed, the media in his town exploded. Mr. Lee had become an instant celebrity overnight.

He found himself surrounded by flashing lights and cameras, as he accepted the cheque for the millions of won from the head of the company.

The first thing he did was quit his job. And he did so quite spectacularly, renting a plane to fly out and write the words I QUIT in vapor trails right in front of his boss' window. Then he purchased an expensive, roomy penthouse.

For Mr. Lee, this was his life for at least a week. Bars full of gorgeous young women starving for a rich man threw themselves at him the second they discovered who he was. He was treated like a hero in his small community. And almost immediately, Mr. Lee forgot about helping the ahjummas clean up the river. He was filthy rich now; who wanted to hang out with some arthritic old ladies and muck around in a messy river every day?

"Son, I'm happy for you, I really am," his father said over the phone to him one day, "But I'm worried about the effect it's having on you. You're letting the money get to your head."

Mr. Lee hung up on him.

And so Mr. Lee lived in a dreamland for a week or two, until he got the fated telephone call.

"What did you say?" He demanded. "Umma, I can't understand you. What's wrong?"

His mother choked back her sobs as she said, "Your father got into an accident. He got hit by a c-car, and he's in very serious condition. Oh, god, I don't think we can afford this! The hospital bill alone will take out every single cent of our retirement fund, and more! How are we going to pay our rent?"

"Oh my god." Mr. Lee covered his eyes with his hand. "A-and what was that about noona?"

"Sooin got s-scammed by some sort of travel agency. She's thousands of won in debt. She's going to get fired from her job, she'll get kicked out of her apartment. Oh god, son, she'll be homeless!"

"Umma, I need you to calm down. A-and what about hyung?"

"I don't know! The stocks he had massive shares in suddenly crashed, for no reason last night! He's in debt for millions! We're in serious trouble, son. I don't want to ask you for help, b-but ... your father is lying in critical care with a massive bill on our hands, your siblings are facing the streets ... I don't know what to do."

Mr. Lee felt dread pierce his heart. He realized now what Kai meant when he said there must be balance.

Balance must exist. 

The amount of happiness must equal the amount of despair.

"I'll pay for everything," Mr. Lee whispered, his suddenly dry lips. "I-I'll pay for everything. Send me all the bills."

Even before he got them, Mr. Lee knew instinctively how large the total bill would be.

Exactly the amount he had left from the lottery after everything he spent.

His hand shook as he signed the individual cheques to save his parents and siblings. For a brief, wild moment, he imagined tearing up the cheques and running off with his lottery money, living somewhere else in happiness.

Hard, honest work will bring the best reward, son.

He would not abandon his family.

Trembling, Mr. Lee bit back his regrets and disappointments as he signed away every last won of his lottery money left. 

He was now humble, poor, and had no job.

He would have to start from the top all over again. 

Mr. Lee tried to find Kai again, but knew the Miracle Doctor was long gone. That brief show of magic was over and done with.

Sighing dismally, he looked away from the riverbank where he first saw the boy and his magic, and walked back to the Han River, where the ahjummas were fishing out garbage. He had a lot of hard, honest work to do.

Kai stretched, sitting on a bridge railing near the river. It was farther away, but he could make out Mr. Lee helping the ahjummas. He snapped his fingers, and disappeared. 

"What are you trying to do, ruin my daughter?"

Eunjoo bit her lip and tried to fight back the sobs shaking from her chest as she crouched by her bedroom door, listening to her mother scream and rage at her father.

"I think you mean our daughter," her father was retorting back, equally as loud. "You can't blame me for taking my baby girl out for a little time together, Gayun! I have custody over her as well!"

"I don't know how you can have any claim over her, besides the fact half of her DNA is yours!" Her mother sneered. "You never did a single thing for her when she was growing up! I did everything!"

"What did you do, huh? Boss her around? Control every moment of her life? It's healthy for a girl to skip school every now and then!"

"She's in university, for god's sakes, Dongsun!" she snapped. "She's not a middle schooler anymore! And thanks to your influence, she has detention and got in trouble with the school! I hope you're happy! You ruined my daughter's life! Who'll accept her now, knowing she skips school to watch a MOVIE?"

"You know what? This is exactly why I divorced you, Gayun! You are so controlling and y, you think everyone has to bow down to you and --"

"Excuse me? What makes you think you left me? No, you sick bastard, I left you and your lazy ! I --"

Eunjoo heard enough. Biting back another sob, she closed the door as quietly as she could and turned off the lights, burying herself under her blanket covers as she finally let go of the tears. She covered her ears with her hands to try and shut out her parents' screaming, then finally relaxed when she heard the front door slam, which meant her father had finally left to go back to his home. A few minutes later, the front door opened and slammed again, which meant her mother was going off to some bar or a boyfriend's house to vent steam.

That didn't stop her from crying, though.

Her father had forced her to skip her afternoon classes to go watch a movie with him. It would have been sweet, except Eunjoo had a feeling he only did so because he wanted to antagonize her mother. She had a feeling they did that all the time. 

She was sick of it all.

She reached for her phone and began texting a number.

Hey. You awake?

A few minutes passed by, and she chewed her bottom lip anxiously as she waited for a reply. Finally, a text bubble popped up.

Course. What's up?

A smile finally broke out across Eunjoo's tearstained face, lighting up her eyes.

My parents got into a big fight. As usual. :'(

Was it bad?

Very bad.

It'll be fine. Are they gone?

Umma's probably at a boyfriend's place right now.

At least they aren't there anymore. You're lucky you live all alone. Imagine all the wild parties you could have, haha ;)

Eunjoo giggled quietly to herself in the silence, grinning as wide as she could. She always felt like a giddy little lovestruck schoolgirl whenever she texted Jaehwan.

Shin Jaehwan was a funny, popular guy she's been madly in love with since she started university. It was hard to work up the courage to talk to him at first, but he was just so nice to her, and so handsome ...

Yes, she was proud to admit it. She was completely nuts about him. Every single thing he did was like an act of god. He was the only ray of sunshine left in her dismally dreary, miserable life.

She wasn't sure if he would even agree to date her when she nervously confessed to him two days ago. But he had surprisingly agreed, and the two seemed to be hitting it off straight away. He was always happy to text her, at all times of the day. He was definitely the kind, sweet, and caring type. Eunjoo could tell.

Her life was going to turn around after this, she was certain of it. If she could get the love of her life to date her, she could do anything.

Yes, sir, she thought fiercely to herself as she hugged her phone to her chest. Her life was going to change very, very soon.