How do I use recursion on unicode \u#### character properly?

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I am relearning C++ and I am trying to make a hangman game. which I have working from a YouTube video.

they use the following hard coded cout statement: cout << "+--------------------+\n";
with 33 dashes. I did this:

<pre lang="C++">

#include <iostream>

int main()
{

    std::string t_prefix = "+";
    std::string t_middle = "";
    std::string t_suffix = "+";
    int max_message_length = 33;

	for (int i = t_middle.length(); i < max_message_length; i++) {

		t_middle = "-" + t_middle;

	}
    std::string complete_message = t_prefix + t_middle + t_suffix;


    std::cout << complete_message;

}

and it prints out like it is suppose to. Then I got the ideal to use the extended ascii or Unicode characters for the box drawing.

and came up with this and it works but it is again hard coded for a total of 35 characters:

#include <iostream>
#include <io.h>
#include <fcntl.h>

void PrintMessage(std::string message, bool print_top = true, bool print_bottom = true)
{
    int max_message_length = 33;

    if(print_top){
        std::wcout << L"\u2554\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550"
        << L"\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2557\n";
        std::wcout << L"\u2551";
    }
    else{
        std::wcout << L"\u2551";
    }

    bool front = true;
    for (int i = message.length(); i < max_message_length; i++){
        if (front){
            message = " " + message;
        }
        else{
            message = message + " ";
        }
        front = !front;
    }
    std::wcout << message.c_str();

    if (print_bottom){
        std::wcout << L"\u2551\n";
        std::wcout << L"\u2560\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550"
        << L"\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2563\n";
    }
    else{
        std::wcout << L"\u2551\n";
    }
}
int main(){
    _setmode(_fileno(stdout), _O_U16TEXT);
    PrintMessage("HANGMAN");
}

I was trying to combine what I learned from the first example with what I learned from the Unicode example, and I came up with the following:

#include <iostream>
#include <io.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
int main()
{
    _setmode(_fileno(stdout), _O_U16TEXT);
    
    std::string t_prefix = "\u2554";
    std::string t_middle = "";
    std::string t_suffix = "\u2557\n\u2551";
    int max_message_length = 33;

	for (int i = t_middle.length(); i < max_message_length; i++) {

		t_middle = "\u2550" + t_middle;

	}
    std::string complete_message = t_prefix + t_middle + t_suffix;


    std::wcout << complete_message;

}

it prints out garbage because I can not figure out how to output the wcout line correctly it needs the L for it to work right but when I put the L in it like this std::wcout << L complete_message; the L is not reconized.

What I have tried:

I tried to do it this way

<pre>std::wcout << L"\u2554" << t_middle << "\u2557\n\u2551";

still printed out garbage. then I tried a bunch of other stuff I can not remember but in the end it was not printing anything to the console window at all.

all I am trying to accomplish here is to print the following ╔ ═*33 ╗ ║on a new line
preferably cross platform.

Sorry for any errors in formatting I tried my best to do things the right way for this post.