“Don’t be crazy, Akiko. I’m here to help.”
“I know you are.” I rubbed my finger along the edge of a table, tracing the grain. “But right now I need to be alone. Mentally, I feel like I need to reconnect with this place. I’ve drifted away.”
Miki crossed her arms. “Don’t you think you’re being a little too harsh?”
“Maybe. Maybe not. It’s not a big deal. I just want some time here by myself.” I looked at her. “You know what you should do? Go visit your parents. You haven’t seen them since the restaurant opened. Now’s the time.”
Her face fell. “But I wanted to be here.”
“Yes, and I love you for that.” I managed a smile. “You were a huge part of the restaurant’s success. I still need the one and only hostess with the mostest. Give me a week alone, then come back.”
She hesitated. “Are you sure?”
“Positive. Go enjoy this time with your family. And don’t come back a day sooner.” I pointed at the door.
“Wait, you want me to go now?”
I nodded. “I do. I’ll see you in seven days.”
I hugged and kissed Miki before sending her on her way. Deep down, I knew the best thing I could do for the restaurant was shut it—regroup, assess the damage, and figure out a way forward.
I tucked myself into the office, settling behind the desk. Jiro usually sat here while I took the chair off to the side. Sitting in his place felt strange, the driver’s seat of operations. He had always handled the tasks I despised. But I was a big girl, and it was time to tackle them on my own.
I sat hunched over the laptop, combing through everything. Jiro was surprisingly organized. I could step into dry storage or the walk-in fridge to see what food we had; Jiro had it all laid out in a spreadsheet—tracking when it would run out or spoil, and projecting profit and loss for each scenario. The money we stood to make was incredible.
But then I got to the not-so-fun part: projections of losses. Invoices stacked up like a death march. One supplier threatened to cut us off by the end of the week. Emails from others piled in, demanding payment. One even resorted to colorful threats if we didn’t pay up.
The double punch in the gut came from the bank statements. The restaurant was in deeper trouble than I’d imagined. We were bleeding cash.
Jiro had been shielding me from the worst of it, carrying all that stress on his own. The thought made me ache, and before I knew it, I was reflecting on us.
Our relationship had been strained, no argument there. But was it strained enough to break up? Had we really reached that point? And if so, how had I been so oblivious? We’d always had one rule: Never go to bed angry. And we’d honored it. We said what needed to be said, left it there, and moved on. No grudges. Each opinion mattered.
Sure, we had plenty of past trauma. Who else can raise their hand and say they spent six weeks surviving a horror kitchen? Most couples don’t go through that. But maybe it hit Jiro harder than I realized. Maybe the stress of the restaurant, and my insistence that Reina was alive and stalking us, had been too much.
Could he really have thrown in the towel? If I were in his shoes, staring down a tunnel with no light at the end, maybe I would have called it off too.
I leaned back in the chair, exhaling. The day had worn me out. I shut down the laptop, turned off the desk lamp, and gathered my things.
Silence filled the restaurant—no clatter of plates, no murmur of guests, no orders shouted from the kitchen. My footsteps echoed as I crossed into the dining room.
I froze. My breath caught.
Across the far wall, letters dripped in fresh red paint: You took from me. I take from you.
This time it wasn’t in my head. It was there, bold and obvious. Nothing would be disappearing now. I had the proof.
Only there was no one to witness it. The staff were gone. Miki and Jiro were gone. It was only me. As if Reina had waited until everyone was driven away to show herself.
The front door was cracked open. I could have sworn I’d locked it after Miki left. Maybe I hadn’t. Maybe I had. I couldn’t be certain.
I snapped a picture with my phone, then hurried outside and scanned the street. Empty. Not a single person.
Are you still watching, Reina?
9
The next day, I stayed tucked away in my apartment. Aside from bathroom runs and rummaging for snacks in the kitchen, I barely left my bed. Most of the time I just slept or binge-watched K-dramas on my tablet. I told myself it was mental health prep, that I was easing in before jumping into the deep end.
