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3:02 AM. A man rushes in demanding only the free hot dog from a buy-2-get-1-free promo, refusing to buy the two. The register can't process it, so he decides to wait out the clock until the promo resets at 4 AM. Rin films the whole thing. The promo simply ends, devastating him — and Kaito hands him one anyway. A tight, dumb, warm one-shot.
Page 1
A quiet 24-hour convenience store sits alone on an empty dark street at 3:02 AM. The page functions as the title card for Dead Hours, Chapter 1, “The Buy-One-Get-One Casualty,” establishing the liminal small-hours setting where ordinary retail problems can become absurdly important.
Page 2
Inside the store, Kaito Mori slumps behind the register with a dead-eyed expression while one lone hot dog turns on the grill roller. His thought is simple and bleak: nobody has bought a hot dog in six hours. The page establishes Kaito’s exhaustion and the tiny object that will become the chapter’s battlefield.
Page 3
The tracksuit man leans over the counter with both hands planted flat, focused entirely on the promotion. He tells Kaito, “I only want the free one.” Kaito stares back, unimpressed. The page turns a normal convenience-store deal into a deadpan argument over whether a free item can exist without the purchase that earns it.