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Text Version A written companion to this chapter — for accessibility, screen readers, and search.
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.
Page 1
A wide, quiet establishing page shows the 24-hour convenience store under fluorescent light, with rain-dark windows and the hot-food counter in focus. Two identical white microwaves sit side by side. There is no visible dialogue or caption. The story function is to set up a tiny workplace crisis: Kaito’s night will revolve around access to these machines.
Page 2
Kaito slides his small bento into the right microwave and starts it. The machine pops with smoke and a spark, forcing him to flinch back. In the next beat he stares deadpan at the two microwaves: the right one is scorched and dead, while the left one still hums. No reader-visible dialogue appears. The page establishes the mechanical failure that turns lunch into a queueing ordeal.
Page 3
Kaito picks up his bento and moves toward the one working microwave. A rumpled salaryman appears with a canned coffee and cuts in politely. Kaito is too tired and too courteous to argue, so he waves the salaryman ahead while clutching his own cold bento. There is no visible speech text. The page begins the escalation: every polite concession pushes Kaito farther from food.