Dead Hours — The Fly, Page 13
By Suha · Published
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Transcript
Three panels — Rin's rare unguarded moment. First, Kaito is slumped against the counter, worn down, his back to the doors. Behind him, unseen, Rin steps to the sliding doors and nudges one open a hand's width, her phone lowered to her side for once. Second, Rin stands by the cracked-open door, looking away, casual, as the fly drifts toward the gap. There is a rare softness on her face. RIN: ...draft in here. Third, Kaito turns to notice the open door — but Rin is already back on her stool, phone up and filming, giving nothing away. KAITO: Did you— RIN: Keep going. It's good content.
Image description
While Kaito slumps, Rin quietly opens the sliding door a crack to let the fly out, then denies it and tells him to keep going.
About this chapter
3 A.M. and the Dead Hours store is spotless — until Kaito spots a single housefly. He decides on the spot that it must be gone by morning, alive: no death on the record on his shift. Rin starts filming "Man vs Fly." The night's regulars each hand him a different, confidently useless folk method — trap it under a cup and a card, approach from behind because flies supposedly can't fly backwards, just wait because it'll die within a day anyway, clap above it because they jump upward to take off, or open a window — and none of them agree. Three times Kaito freezes mid-air, whispers "There," and swipes at nothing. Rin, in a rare unguarded moment, quietly slides the door open a hand's width to let it out, then denies doing it. At last Kaito clamps a cup over the fly in triumph — and lifts it to find nothing underneath; the fly was sitting on the outside of the cup the whole time. At dawn the delivery doors open and the fly drifts out on its own, entirely indifferent to six hours of war — and a second fly drifts in as it goes. Kaito gets his answer and nothing else; Rin got her whole video. The final panel mirrors page one from the same angle, in grey dawn light, the new fly circling under the ceiling speaker.