go celebrate! We're graduates now!" Yujin hesitated. What was there to celebrate? Still, she let Mina drag her along, their small group of friends heading to a nearby restaurant. Th

rld was simply her orbit. She sauntered in with her boyfriend, who was wearing an expensive-looking designer jacket and a smile that seemed to come with all her bills are covered kinda vibes. Her friends-equally well-dressed, equally glossy-flanked her, laughter rippling through the air like the sound of champagne popping. She was celebrating something, of course. It was only natural for So-yeon to celebrate. They weren't just any group; they were the rich kids, the ones who didn't know what it meant to feel uncertain about the future. Yujin watched, almost detached, as they arranged a custom-made cake-an extravagant one, the kind you saw only in Instagram stories of the ultra-wealthy. So-yeon's boyfriend had apparently commissioned the cake as a paid request from the café, and now the whole store was singing for her, the employees all in sync, and customers filming it on their phones, capturing the perfect, sponsored moment. It felt almost like a performance, one that they'd rehearsed many times before. So-yeon looked like she was already living her dream, surrounded by a sea of smiling, affluent faces. Mina leaned closer to Yujin, a knowing smirk on her lips as she watched the scene unfold. "Do you know what she studied?" Mina asked, her voice just a little too casual. Yujin blinked, her eyes shifting briefly from So-yeon's celebration to her friend's face. She knew the question was coming. The question that was as much about status as it was about academic background. "Business Administration," Yujin said, keeping her tone neutral, despite the knot tightening in her stomach. "Just like me." There it was-the typical event and then feeling. The accidental comparison. The one that always seemed to come up when someone from the same course as you reached the milestone you hadn't. And the whole table knew what that meant-So-yeon's success, her family, and everything else that made her seem like she was always going to win. "So-yeon's dad is the CEO of that big finance company, right?" Mina added, still eyeing the group, her voice dipping slightly with admiration, maybe even envy. "Her family's loaded." Yujin couldn't stop staring at the cake-the cake, for God's sake, with the over-the-top decorations, the perfect frosting, the golden accents. It looked like it could have been an award more than a dessert. And as Yujin stared, she realized she wasn't just admiring it. She w