Dead Hours — The Last Working Microwave, Page 15
By Suha · Published
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Transcript
Kaito finally turns toward a working microwave and lifts the lid of his bento. The box is completely empty except for crumbs. Kaito freezes in blank horror. Nearby, Rin stands mid-chew with full cheeks, holding up her phone and wearing a faint smirk. There is no visible dialogue. The page twists the resolution into a betrayal gag: even the food Kaito protected all night is gone.
Image description
Kaito opens his bento at last and finds it empty while Rin chews nearby and films him.
About this chapter
3 A.M. One of the store's two microwaves dies with a pop and a curl of smoke, leaving a single working unit — and a slowly forming queue of night-shift oddballs who each need to heat something, each taking longer than the last: a salaryman's coffee, a student's family-size gratin, an old man who keeps opening the door to check and restarting, and the tracksuit regular microwaving something frozen solid on max time. Kaito just wants to heat his own bento and watches his turn get pushed further and further back, holding the cold box in the same dead-eyed spot as the queue grows. At dawn the delivery guy fixes the 'dead' microwave in two seconds (it was unplugged) — but Kaito's shift is ending and Rin has already eaten his bento cold on camera, because it was never getting warm anyway. She wins, he gets nothing.