Grandmother Left Half the Onsen Inn to the Chef novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Obi

On Sunday afternoon Sakura knelt in the garden room in her best silk kimono and whisked tea for twelve guests.

The kimono was pale grey with white cranes, and it had taken her twenty minutes to put on.

Under it she wore a long under-robe, a stiff waist pad, three ties, a folded sash and a cord.

Over everything lay the thick gold obi her grandmother had worn at her own wedding.

It was tied so tightly she could hardly breathe.

She did not need to breathe.

She needed to hold the bowl steady.

The guests sat in a half circle on the tatami, watching her hands.

At the open screen to the corridor, Yuzu stood in her chef's whites with her arms crossed.

She had no business in the tea room.

She had come anyway, and she watched Sakura's wrists turn the whisk.

Sakura felt that gaze on her skin.

She passed the first bowl.

She passed the second.

Her wrist trembled once, on the sixth bowl, and she saw Yuzu's mouth curve.

When the last guest had bowed and gone, Sakura knelt there alone with the silent tea things.

A shadow fell across the mats.

"Don't move," Yuzu said.

Sakura didn't.

She knelt very straight with her hands on her knees, listening to the door slide shut.

The head maid had taken the afternoon off.

The corridor was empty.

Yuzu's footsteps crossed the mats and stopped behind her.

"You didn't say anything about the card," Yuzu said.

"It isn't my business."

"It's half your business."

"I'm sure you'll tell me when you decide." Sakura's voice came out smooth as lacquer. "Please excuse me. I'll change."

"No. You won't."

Yuzu's hands settled on the back of her sash.

"Here," Yuzu said. "Now."

Sakura's heart slammed.

"Anyone could walk in."

"The door's latched. You're going to be quiet." Yuzu's mouth was at her ear. "I said I wanted to take it off you one layer at a time. Stand up."

Sakura stood.

Yuzu stepped around in front of her and looked her up and down, slow, from the white cranes to the gold obi.

"Beautiful," she said. "Like something I'm not allowed to touch."

"Yuzu."

"Arms out."

Sakura held out her arms.

Yuzu found the end of the obi cord at her waist and pulled.

It slid free with a hiss of silk.

Then she unwound the gold obi itself, hand over hand, walking in a slow circle around Sakura as it came off.

It took a long time.

It fell to the mats in a heavy, shining coil.

Sakura breathed in properly for the first time in an hour, and the air burned.

"Now the ties," Yuzu said.

She undid the first.

The second.

Each knot loosened the silk by a degree, until the grey kimono hung open down the front over the white under-robe.

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