We Say Goodbye To Say Hello
Crzyaznsroxursox
I don't own Gokusen
A crisp breeze rattled the trees, the first one in a while that hadn't had a frosty bite to it. Akadou was Yamaguchi, Kumiko's destination, as it had for the past year and a half. Holding her messenger bag protectively over her front, she allowed herself to gaze off into the distance. Her mind wandered to a particular topic it hadn't re-combed through in at least a week, the events that had happened at the end of first Semester.
It had been amazing, reuniting with Odagiri-san, being able to clear Kazama's name in order to allow him to continue his job freely and comfortably. She heaved a deep breath as more thoughts began to follow. It truly touched her, the way that her previous class all dropped their hectic lives to clear their former classmates name, it was true friendship. True friendship that she felt honored to be a part of.
Yankumi had been overjoyed to see Tsuchiyama and Takeda, she had been even more elated to hear their success in life post-high school. It seemed everyone was doing alright.
A hand touched her left shoulder, causing her to jump from her daydream. As she turned her head, she felt a finger poke into her cheek.
"Baka." A soft voice called from behind her. Yankumi's eyes widened as she turned, taking in her former student. He had grown since she had last seen him, only a few inches, though time certainly did him well. The artificial color in his hair was gone, and it had been cut significantly shorter. But the same eyes remained. When all else failed about this male, his eyes certainly told the truth. "Don't you know you should pay more attention while walking?" He tilted his head slightly, gesturing to the front of her.
Yankumi's eyes flickered to her previous path, and her cheeks flamed at the trash can that stood only a few centimeters from her. He always was calling her out on, well, everything.
"Sa-Sawada-san." She stuttered slightly, choosing to ignore the trashcan, as it seemed irrelevant to the sudden return of her student. "How are you?" She felt her fingers gripping tightly into the strap of her bag, almost tense with anxiety to know how he had been getting along in the 8 years they had been separated.
"I'm alright." He gave a nonchalant shrug, starting to walk forward. Yankumi looked up at him curiously when he gently took her arm and guided her around the trash can. "I see you look exactly the same." He gestured to her. Kumiko found this remark to be an insult, emitting a light 'hah?'. Sawada Shin ignored this though, continuing with his train of thought. "Kuma wrote to me a few months ago."
"Is that so?" Yankumi's eyes widened with eagerness at the sound of Kuma's name. "Did you hear? He has a beautiful daughter now! He ended up marrying Ami-chan from Momo Girl's School!" She explained, proudly.
"He mentioned that." Shin nodded slowly, his eyes focusing on the ground for a moment, in deep thought. Yankumi noticed this subtle feature and stopped, crossing her arms to face Shin. He continued a few steps before noticing her halt, and turned back to face her.
"Sawada-san, is everything alright?" Yankumi inquired, her brows furrowing in concern. She leaned a little towards him at the sight of irritation that streaked his face. This caused her to repel slightly, millions of thoughts bombarding her head. Was he angry with her? Had she said something wrong? Was it a problem with his father?
"Is it ever?" Shin replied vaguely, giving a slight shrug as he turned to continue on. Yankumi saw she wouldn't be able to win this argument if she stood behind him, so she ran up ahead, stepping in his path to cut him off.
"Sawada-san. You can tell me what's on your mind." She prodded gently. "You're my precious student! You always will be." She grasped him by the shoulders, looking him in the eyes as she told him the words she often told her students, but happened to mean every single time. These words had the opposite effect on Shin, as he wrapped both hands around Yankumi's wrists, prying her off of him. His eyes seemed to darken over as he gave her a light shove aside, quickening his pace forward.
Her face torn with distraught, Yankumi stared at Sawada, Shin's back. Her eyes gleamed, determined, and she took a sprint to catch up with his quickened pace.
"Sawada-san!" She grabbed him by the arm, jerking him to face her. "What is the matter?" She demanded, her voice struck with pain. "You're my student, you can tell me anything."
"That's the problem!" Sawada yanked himself from her yet again, though he stayed put this time. His eyes stared at her with his own pain. "I'm not your student anymore! I don't want to be your student anymore!" His voice hissed. It was not until he stopped yelling that he caught the raw vulnerability that hid in Yankumi's eyes.
"Did I not teach you well?" Kumiko asked softly, feeling her heart break from Shin's rage. She had always held Shirokin 3-D with pride above her other students, though she loved them all dearly. But it had been Shirokin 3-D she had first taught, developed relationships with, grew to love as her own. Even after nearly a decade of separation from Sawada Shin, hearing those words come from his mouth was like a hammer to the glass.
"It had nothing to do with your teaching methods, though I'm sure we learned more about Yazuka than we did Algebra." Shin's frustration began to wane as Yankumi brushed past him to sit on a bench. She dug through her bag, pulling out a tissue to dab at the corner of her eyes. "Jeez don't cry." He muttered, following behind her.
"How can I not cry? One of my cherished students, the first to know my secret, does not even wants me anymore." She dabbed her nose with the Kleenex before tossing it to the trash.
"I didn't say that." Shin muttered under his breath, kneeling down before her. "I said that I am not your student anymore. So stop calling me that."
"Why do you feel that way?"
"Maybe I want more."
The air hung as Shin glanced away uncomfortably, allowing the elephant in the room to finally be exposed. He knew she was in shock; she wasn't even trying to pass it off with some ramble about the sunset. He let the silence hang in the air, embracing it, though it hurt him as well. Every second she didn't reply was one step closer to a negative response.
"What are you talking about Sawada-san?" Yankumi rose to her feet. "More? Like friends? We've always been friends." Her eyes hung with concern, pleading him to elaborate.
Shin bit his lip, looking up at the sky for a moment. "Are you really that ignorant?" He asked, lightening the statement with a light chuckle. His head dropped back down to look at her. "Have you really had no idea this entire time?" He began to take a step towards her, despite the lack of room for movement that already stood.
"What are you talking about?" Yankumi reiterated, glancing to the side as Ayukawa-sensei and Takano-sensei passed by. "I don't understand."
"Had you really no idea," Shin took a breath before putting his face in front of her, "that I was in love with you?" He took a moment to blink. "That I still am?"
The silence that yet again hung in the air was answer enough.
"At first you were just annoying." Shin pulled back, rubbing his nose with his hand before turning back to her. His voice dropped low, and he spoke slowly, contemplating each word before he spoke. "Then I began to see all of your passion, the love and devotion you put into teaching us. That when you said you wanted us all to graduate together, you meant it, not because it was an achievement to you, but because it was essential for us. I thought I was crazy, developing feelings, actually enjoying a few of your pointless tangents. I couldn't stay in Japan, because the bleak atmosphere of it all would not be able to tarnish the memories you had created for me." He grabbed a fist full of his hair. "When the opportunity for Africa arose, I thought it was perfect. I would be able to abandon college, my Father's last hope for me, guarantee myself time away from you, and find something that would cover up all these feelings.
"Yankumi." Shin breathed. "You're like a drug to every student you have, that I know from information from Kuma. At first you're incredibly horrible, and we want nothing to do with you. But then you grow into this strange addiction. Every day I thought of you. When Kuma wrote to me about the incident that had taken place last fall I knew I had to get back out here as soon as possible." He gave a hopeless laugh. "I wanted to explain how my feelings were just a childhood memory, that it was simply a burden I did not want you to go on without knowing.
"But when I saw you, even just your back, walking. Those feelings are very much alive." He looked away; almost embarrassed to be speaking so much, when he usually spoke in a conserved matter. "You are the most beautiful person I've ever met. No one is as beautiful inside as you are." He glanced back over to her, reaching up and pulling off her glasses. Her face flinched slightly as he took them, and her eyes glanced down as he pulled the scrunches from her pig tails. "Whether you are Ojou, or just Yankumi. I just want you to be mine."