Grandmother Left Half the Onsen Inn to the Chef novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Last Guest
On the night the will is read, Sakura finds the stranger she now co-owns the inn with already in the private bath, and an argument in the steam ends in a kiss. The only free room has two futons.
The last guest left the private bath at twelve thirty.
Sakura Mizuno had been waiting six hours for that door to slide shut.
She had worked since five that morning.
She had sat through the reading of her grandmother's will at three.
Then she had served dinner to fourteen rooms without letting her smile slip once.
Now the corridor was dark and the inn was asleep.
The only bath the staff could use was the small cypress one that guests booked every evening in leaf season.
Sakura carried a basket of towels down the stairs in her work kimono.
Her hair was pinned so tight her scalp ached.
She slid the bath door open.
Steam rolled out into the hall.
There was already someone in the tub.
A small woman sat with her back against the cypress wall and her arms stretched along the rim.
Her honey-brown hair was wet and dark against her neck.
Her forearms were covered in pale shiny scars, and she did not look surprised at all.
"You're late, Okami-san," she said.
Sakura set the towel basket down very carefully.
"This is the guest bath," she said.
"The maid told me it's the staff bath after twelve thirty."
"The maid told you wrong."
"She told me you'd say that." The woman tipped her head.
"You're the granddaughter. The one who cried at the lawyer's office, but only once and only in the bathroom."
Sakura went very still.
"Excuse me?"
"My name is Yuzu Hayashi." The woman did not stand. "I'm the other half."
Sakura had heard the name that afternoon, read aloud by a lawyer with a flat voice.
Equal shares of Hoshinoyu Inn to Sakura Mizuno and Yuzu Hayashi.
Both to live at the inn and work its season, from today until the last day of February.
If either left, or either asked for a sale, the inn went to auction.
Sakura had sat in the lawyer's office with her hands folded, and had not understood a single word after that.
"You're a cook," Sakura said now.
"A grill chef. Four years at a kaiseki place in Kyoto."
"My grandmother never mentioned you."
"My grandmother Fumiko never mentioned this place." Yuzu's mouth went flat. "So we're even."
Sakura knew she should leave.
She was the okami in training of the finest inn in Tsukiyu Onsen.
A proper hostess did not argue with a stranger in a bath.
But her feet hurt, and her back hurt, and the water was steaming right there.
"I'm going to wash and get in," Sakura said. "You can wait outside."
"No."
"I beg your pardon?"
"I've been waiting out in that corridor since dinner." Yuzu stretched. "I'm in. I'm not leaving. Wash if you want."
Sakura stared at her.
Nobody in three years had said no to her in her own inn.
She unpinned her hair with fingers that shook a little.
It fell down her back, black and heavy, to the top of her thighs.
She heard the water move.
Yuzu was looking at her now, openly, from the top of her head to her ankles.
Sakura untied her obi.
She hung it on the hook.
She slid the kimono from her shoulders and stood in the steam in her under-robe, and then in nothing at all.
She did not hurry.
She would not give this woman the satisfaction of hurrying.
She sat on the washing stool with her back to the tub.
She scrubbed her arms, her shoulders and the long line of her neck.
The whole time she could feel Yuzu watching her.
She stepped into the tub and the water rose around her hips.
She let out a sound she had not meant to make.
"Good, isn't it?" Yuzu said.
"Be quiet."
"Okami-san, you have the stiffest shoulders I have ever seen."
"I said be quiet."
"They're up around your ears. Come here."
"I will not."
Yuzu rose out of the water.
She was small and wet and lean, with small breasts and a long pale scar down her left thigh.
She crossed the tub in two strides and stopped in front of Sakura.
She reached down and took Sakura's wrist, and held it.
Her thumb pressed into the soft inside of it.
Sakura's pulse jumped under that thumb.
"You're shaking," Yuzu said.
"I'm tired."
"You're angry."
"I'm both."
"Good." Yuzu's other hand came up and laid itself flat against the side of Sakura's neck.
The palm was rough with burns, and so hot it made Sakura's breath stop.
"I'm going to be here for four months," Yuzu said.
"So tell me now if you want me to stay on my side of the tub."
Sakura looked at Yuzu's mouth, wet and slightly open.
She heard her own voice come out low.
"Don't stay on your side."
Yuzu kissed her.
It was not gentle.
Yuzu's mouth was hot and tasted of tea.
She pushed Sakura back against the cypress wall until the edge of the tub dug into her spine.
Sakura's hands went into Yuzu's wet hair without her permission.
She kissed back harder than she had kissed anyone in two years.
The water slapped.
Yuzu bit her lower lip, and then soothed it with her tongue, and Sakura made the sound again.
Then Yuzu pulled back an inch, breathing hard, her forehead against Sakura's.
"Where do you sleep, Okami-san?" she asked.
"In the staff wing." Sakura could barely get the words out.
"I tried to find you a room, but it's leaf season and every staff room is taken."
"All of them?"
"My grandmother Haruko's suite is sealed until December. The will says so."
"So where am I sleeping?"
Sakura closed her eyes.
"Haruko's old attendant room," she said. "It's the only one left. It's eight mats."
"Okay."
"It has one door, and paper walls, and a neighbour on each side."
"Okay."
"It has two futons, side by side."
Yuzu's smile came slowly, in the steam, with her mouth still wet from Sakura's.
"Then let's go and see them," she said.
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