Part 2. After getting my friend's permission, I waited impatiently for him to leave for work, my mind racing with various scenarios.

The next morning, I rushed to wake my friend up. "Get up! It's time for work..."

Once my friend was ready and out the door, I grabbed a can of coke from the fridge, took a sip, and took a deep breath. Then, in the empty house, I started acting out the scenarios I had envisioned. In this moment, I was Choi Min-sik, Han Suk-kyu, aiming for an Oscar. Naturally! Naturally! But definitely like a resident of Candy Palace!!

After practicing, I went to a bar. I picked out a bar girl I liked and brought her back to a cafe to chat. Then, I casually said,

"Want to come over to my place?"

Technically, it was my friend's place. But such details disappear into the fog of capitalism. The important thing is the word "Candy Palace." The moment I said that magic word, the bar girl's eyes changed. It was like a commoner NPC seeing a royal palace pass.

Really? Candy Palace?

At that moment, I pretended to be unfazed.

Inside, I was already a triumphant general.

"Well... it's just a house."

And then, we finally arrived.

The lobby of Candy Palace.

The air conditioning was as cold as Siberia, and the marble floor made me feel guilty for dragging my slippers. The security guard greeted us like a hotel employee. At that moment, the bar girl's expression shifted.

"Wow... do you live here?"

No.

But in the elevator mirror, I casually glanced at my phone's clock. Like a third-rate actor faking wealth I don't have. My heart was screaming inside:

"Look, people. I've reached a high place too!"

The problem arose after we entered the apartment. My friend lives really well, and the view is insane. At that moment, the bar girl turned into a real estate YouTuber.

"Oh my god... the view is amazing... are you super rich?"

Leaning back on the sofa, I pretended to be tired.

"Ugh, I'm just ordinary."

Ordinary? I'm the same person who was calculating the cost-effectiveness of the Shawarma Shack's buy-one-take-one and Mang Inasal's PM1 discount set earlier today.

But human snobbery is amazing. In that moment, I truly felt like I was the second-generation heir of a conglomerate. I even acted nonchalantly while opening the refrigerator door.

"Want a drink?"

Actually, it wasn't my drink. It was my friend's coke.

I even bragged about the bathroom.

"The shower pressure here is great. There's warm water, an electric toothbrush, and even a bidet seat."

It wasn't my shower pressure either.

Then, suddenly, I'd snap out of it and find myself bewildered. Sitting on someone else's sofa, in someone else's house, with someone else's view as my backdrop, pretending it was all mine. It was practically a capitalism cosplay.

Then, as my friend's work hours neared, I returned to reality.

My friend texted:

"Hey, why did you drink all the drinks in the fridge?"

Only then did I revert to my true self and take the bar girl to a nearby healing motel.

But as night falls again and the neon signs of Walking Street light up, humans repeat the same mistakes. I put on my boastful mode at the bar again.

"Want to come over to my place?"

And I muttered to myself:

"Thanks again today, friend!! Thanks to you, my self-esteem has skyrocketed!!"