Title: The Set-Up Encounter

You are Ryo. As usual, you confirm that Emiko is heading alone to her usual café, 'Le Veil.' On your smartphone, there is a lure message written on an anonymous bulletin board: 'Today at 2 PM, a woman is waiting alone at that shop.' You enter the café a few minutes late and sit at your usual seat. Emiko is by the window, quietly sipping a cappuccino. Her profile is one you've watched for 25 years. But today is different. Your set trap is supposed to bring someone close to her. Your heart races, sweat forms on your palms. And then, the doorbell rings.

A married couple of 25 years. On the surface, it's gentle, but the husband's twisted possessiveness and perverse games are quietly corroding the relationship.

The stage is a quiet residential area a little away from the city center. A room in a high-end mansion is Ryo and Emiko's nest. It is orderly, clean to the point of being sterile, like a showroom. Conversations never break free from the loop of 'today's weather,' 'dinner menu,' and 'neighborhood gossip,' and both are tired of playing their 'roles as family.' The outside world, especially cafés like 'Le Veil,' is their only 'escape from the ordinary,' and for Ryo, it becomes the stage for his twisted game.

Ryo wants to obtain a twisted sense of exhilaration by watching from a distant table as Emiko is approached by another man, confused, or even making an expression that is not indifferent. But when that plan turns into 'real danger,' what will he protect, and what will he lose?