I was confident.

Confident that I could smoothly persuade my young ex-husband, who had appeared after five years, and send him back cleanly.

Up to the middle, things went according to plan.

I took a seat on the outdoor terrace on the first floor of a large cafe in the middle of the main road, secured countless witnesses, and finished the long persuasion I had prepared in advance without getting lost. Thanks to him not interrupting me and listening carefully, I even felt proud by the time I finished speaking.

My throat was dry from finishing the long story, so I wet my mouth with coffee. The guy, who had been silently watching me, smiled faintly.

“Have you said everything you wanted to say?”

“Huh? ...Uh, yeah.”

I was flustered for a moment, and my voice wavered. It was a smile I had never seen even during our long marriage. It was also an unexpected reaction.

All sorts of thoughts crossed my mind. Why is he smiling? Did I misunderstand because he just happened to help me when we ran into each other? Did I make a fool of myself getting carried away? If so, then what is that smile, some kind of mockery saying I’m talking nonsense...?

Right. There was no way that was a smile. It must be a sneer, just looking bright because he had grown so beautifully.

But I felt like I had missed something. For some reason, it was unsettling. The experience I had accumulated in life instinctively sounded the alarm.

Before my unease could take shape, I quietly got to my feet.

“Then I’ll be going...”

“Ah, wait a moment.”

The guy calmly called out to stop me as I hurriedly turned away. When I looked back uneasily, he shifted his gaze to some point far away.

My eyes followed reflexively. It was a tall flower bed attached to a park created by the city.

“Do you see it?”

“...See what?”

I narrowed my eyes and glared at the flower bed, but all I could see was the densely green flower bed that stayed green all year round.

Then, all of a sudden, suddenly, a black shadow popped up between the thick garden trees.

The moment I saw the fierce-looking face, I was startled. It was a face I had seen a few days ago, and because he was holding a blue-glinting knife.

The assailant closed the distance in an instant. The familiar assailant ran toward us and raised the knife high. The blade flashed in the sunlight, then came stabbing down.

I was so startled I couldn’t even breathe, and I stared blankly at the sight. The blade lunging at me out of nowhere felt so unreal that I couldn’t react at all.

In that brief moment, countless thoughts flashed through my mind.

The busy downtown street in broad daylight was not the important thing. From the start, expecting things to go smoothly with my ex-husband had been the wrong judgment.

When I had time to buy myself some time, I should have run without looking back!

I had been soaking in a soft life all this time and had completely forgotten that there were dangers besides my ex-husband.

I squeezed my eyes shut against the approaching blade.

That was when it happened. At last, he kicked his chair back and stood up. In an instant, he twisted the assailant’s wrist and snatched the knife away, then without a moment’s hesitation, plunged the knife into the back of the man’s hand.

With a crunch, the blade that shattered the bones in the back of the hand sank deep into the wooden table.

“G, Gyaaaah!”

The assailant screamed at the top of his lungs. Then he roughly pulled out the knife embedded in the other man’s hand.

Pwoak! Blood gushed from the assailant’s hand, and the hot blood soaking the blade splattered diagonally across the corners of my eyes and my cheeks.

People who belatedly realized what was happening screamed in shock.

“What, what is this?!”

“Kyaaah!”

A knife attack that suddenly broke out on a bright midday main street caused chaos. People in a panic fled in all directions. Among them, the only ones not moving were me and my ex-husband.

Unlike me, frozen stiff, the guy did not waver at all. With the same indifferent hand he had used when holding the coffee cup, he searched the man’s body and tore off the first button of his shirt.

“Ghh, kkuuugh, kkuuuugh!”

The assailant thrashed his body, clutching the stabbed hand. After striking the back of his neck and finally silencing the assailant, he showed me the button he had torn off.

Looking closely, it was a tiny camera made to look like a button. My strength gave out all at once, and I collapsed into the chair.

“That...”

“That’s right. Looks familiar, doesn’t it?”

The guy tossed aside the man who had fainted, then looked at his bloodstained hand with a displeased expression before taking a handkerchief from his pocket and rubbing his hand clean. It was a gauze handkerchief with a flower pattern, the kind children would use.

He neatly folded the used handkerchief again and put it down, then lifted his face, splattered with blood, and smiled at me.

“Then shall we finish what we were talking about?”

The situation had returned to its starting point. But many things had changed from the beginning.

The street, once full of people, had become so deserted that not even an ant could be seen, and the lively music coming from the cafe had cut off abruptly, leaving silence. Between him and me, the man who had been stabbed lay sprawled out instead of a sweet cake, and the blood seeping from the back of his hand dripped, drip, onto the floor, forming a bright red pool.

“So what was the conclusion? Sorry. I forgot everything. Can you say it again?”

A dazzling smile I had never seen before curved at the corners of his mouth. His whites were brighter than the blade, and the killing intent in them sent a chill down my spine.

The warning alarm that had been ringing all along was now so loud it felt like it would tear my ears apart.

Sure enough, from the other side of the road, a police car was racing toward us with its siren blaring. Even with the police in pursuit, he elegantly took a sip of the remaining coffee.

Only then did I admit my mistake. From the very beginning, without missing a single thing, everything had been wrong.