Seeing that the title is Placebo instead of Hypnosis then this is probably gonna end up more worse. The MC is probably gonna be convinced he's hypnotized even though not in a hypnotic state, to the point he can't differentiate what's real and not.
I actually interpreted the "placebo" title as him being unaware of having been hypnotized and believing to have been himself during the things that happened while he was under hypnosis which affects his personality/behaviour
It's either dual personality or he changed tactics and became manipulative this time (probably hired an actor to scare the MC and make him dependent on him).
I was also thinking, why "fork"? when u can also use spoon to eat cake? And u can also use both to eat a cake? But then it would be much weirder if they're called "utensils" lol
This is soo cuuuutteee! I also need the side couple story