HIS SMILE IS JUST….DIFFERENT
(A Gokusen fanfic)
Note: I don't own Gokusen and all the characters mentioned. I am just a super avid fan.
Chapter 1: Another Meeting
This story conspired a few months after the ending of the movie, when the congressional candidate, Kurose Kentaro, was arrested for getting involved in the drug case.
Yamaguchi Kumiko, also known as Yankumi, stretched her back. It was a fine Saturday afternoon, and all the teachers had just finished their faculty meeting. It was a nice day to go sight-seeing and shopping for both Takano-sensei and the nurse Ayukawa, but it was not an option for Yankumi.
"Ne, nande, Yamaguchi-sensei?" asked Ayukawa. "This is a nice afternoon to shop for the latest fashionable clothes and shoes!"
"I agree!" Takano said to the nerd-looking teacher.
"Gomen, I need to go to the grocery….you know, shop for condiments and things at home," Yankumi said. She knew that her henchmen, Tetsu and Minoru, usually did the shopping, but the two men had to go to a meeting. She had promised them she'd do the shopping instead.
"Yamaguchi-sensei is a boring girl, so if you go shopping with her, you might not enjoy," Principal Sawatari intercepted.
The other ladies frowned. Takano-sensei, however, jotted down what Mr. Sawatari had just mentioned.
"She is not a boring company, Principal Sawatari," Ayukawa defended her friend. "Even if we went drinking with her, she was fun."
Just then, a male voice was heard in the faculty room.
"Good afternoon, everyone," the guy said, thus making everyone turn to the source of the voice.
"Dr. Natsume!" Yankumi, Takano, and Ayukawa all sighed in unison. Baba-sensei got insecure and jealous again that he stayed behind Yankumi and held her shoulders. Yankumi noticed it and whacked his hand away before smiling back at the handsome doctor.
"Sorry for coming at this late hour, but is it all right if I post some announcements at the bulletin boards?" Dr. Natsume asked politely. "I had already asked permission from the chairwoman, and she was fine with it."
"Whatever is fine with her is fine with me," Sawatari replied. "You can leave your posters here, we'll do the posting."
"Ah, here, please place them here on my desk!" Yankumi offered excitedly.
"Is it possible for you, Yamaguchi-sensei, to not be acting like a love-struck high school girl?" Sawatari said to her in exasperation.
"Hmph!" Yankumi scoffed a bit as she shot an iron-hot glance at the school principal.
Dr. Natsume only laughed shyly, knowing that Yankumi had always acted weird in front of him. Nevertheless, he placed the posters on Yankumi's desk.
"Uh, is it all right if I do the posting?" a monotonous voice offered amidst the "chaotic" environment.
It was Odagiri Ryu. He had finally decided to finish the teaching course and be a teacher in Akadou. Dr. Natsume nodded, and Sawatari introduced the guys to each other. The principal had forgotten that they had a new member to the faculty.
After the faculty went out, Yankumi offered to help Odagiri with the posting.
"I thought you are going on an errand, Yamaguchi-sensei?" Takano asked.
"Yes, I am, but it can wait," she said.
And thus, Yankumi and Odagiri were posting the posters and chatting on as they were catching up on each other's lives. She was in high spirits to have a former student be her colleague now.
At the grocery store.
Yankumi was at the tofu stall trying to rack her brains as to which tofu was better or which tofu was least expensive.
"Ah? Taihen takai desu ne (It's very expensive)…," she complained of one brand.
"I suggest the brand Kawamoto tofu," someone suggested.
"Thanks, Kawamoto….Kawamoto," she absent-mindedly said as she searched. It hit her suddenly that someone was actually talking to her that she looked at the person talking to her.
"Hi," the other person greeted with a smile.
"T…T….Tsuchiya!" Yankumi stammered in a shock.
Tsuchiya smiled. "It's nice to see you again, Yankumi."
Yankumi smiled and asked why he was there.
"Shopping for the week, of course," Tsuchiya nonchalantly replied.
Yankumi smiled again as she punched his arm. The other guy yelped in pain, and the other people in the store looked at them. Yankumi had to bite her lips in embarrassment and bow to the others in apology.
"What are you doing here as well?" Tsuchiya asked.
"Same agenda as you have," Yankumi smiled.
Tsuchiya smiled again as he handed her the brand that he was talking about. The brand was not that expensive, and the taste of the tofu was excellent. Yankumi took it and placed it in her grocery basket. The two of them were talking the whole time that they were shopping, and she didn't realize it took her quite a while to do the errand. Nothing had changed with her since Kurose was arrested, but a whole lot had changed with him. His cameraman was promoted to senior cameraman, and he, being the assistant, became a cameraman. And Yankumi smiled to herself, thinking that this student, who once argued that he has no future and that he was different from that Miyazaki girl, was finally achieving something good for himself.
"Say, Yankumi, I am hungry," Tsuchiya said when they were done paying and finally out from the queue. "Where do you want to eat?"
For most girls, if an offer from a drop-dead gorgeous guy like him came like this, they would like to pretend that it was a date. But not for Yankumi, who had never been asked out even for a friendly date. She thought hard before answering.
"I'd go for Kuma's ramen!" she squealed. "My treat!"
"No, my treat," Tsuchiya insisted with a smile. "Just a thank-you offering for all the things you had done for us in the past."
She felt her heart pound fast. She finally realized all her hard work for her delinquent-looking students had finally bore fruit. It was such nice to hear such complements like that.
At Kumai-san's ramen house.
Honjo frowned when Kuraki stole the meat from his ramen. It was the third time Kuraki had been doing that ever since the six of them met together again for some catch-up.
"Kuraki, stop doing that!" Honjo complained.
"Chotto, chotto!" Ichimura said to them. "We are here to eat and have fun ok? So stop that already."
Honjo frowned all the more because Kamiya was trying so hard to hide his laughter. Ogata and Kazama weren't paying attention to them as they were into the moment of eating their meat. Just then, Kamiya interrupted everyone.
"Look! It's Yankumi!" he said, looking outside the window.
"Whoa, she is with that cameraman, what's his name?" Kuraki said in awe. He didn't realize that Honjo got back his meat.
"Tsu…tsu…." Kazama tried to supply the answer.
"Tsuchiya, I guess," Ogata said, deadpan.
"Are they dating?" Ichimura asked.
"First, it was Odagiri-sensei before, and now, that cameraman?" Honjo said.
"And she isn't even pretty!" Kuraki commented. "She must be something!"
And all of them laughed. They didn't notice Kuma cleaning his counter.
"Remember back in high school when she was flirting with Dr. Natsume?" Kazama shared. "She was super funny!"
"I agree!" Ichimura responded.
And their laughter continued as the two people in question came inside.
"Hello, Yankumi!" the six guys greeted in unison.
Yankumi was shocked and happy to see them again, all together.
"Hi, how are you?" she greeted back before introducing Tsuchiya to the other guys.
"Yeah, I know them," Tsuchiya confessed, making Yankumi embarrassed for her short-term memory.
Kuma went to them and Tsuchiya ordered ramen for two. Noticing that the other guys were still there, he offered to give them on a ramen treat as well. The other guys shouted for joy.
Yankumi excused herself to go to the bathroom. While ramen was still cooking, the other guys began teasing Tsuchiya and Yankumi.
"I was just her student from Kurogin," Tsuchiya remarked. "She's not my girlfriend."
"Kurogin? Oh, like Odagiri-sensei?" Kamiya asked.
"You know Odagiri?" Tsuchiya asked in wonder.
"Yeah, we also met him here before, and he was with Yankumi," Ogata said. "We thought he was her boyfriend."
"Ah, but Odagiri happened to be one of my best buds in high school, including that businessman Takeda," he said with an eager smile.
"Awwwwwww…..really?" Honjo asked in awe.
"You know that businessman?" Kazama asked.
"Yeah, he happens to stop at our tofu shop every evening to buy," Honjo said.
Tsuchiya couldn't help but laugh. He shared that everyone thought Yankumi's love life was hopeless even if she was frantically trying so hard to get Kujo-sensei's attention in the past. He never gave a damn whether Yankumi gets married or not. The other guys except for Kuma (who wasn't paying attention) and Ogata laughed at his comment. Ogata was simply exploring the environment around him. And finally, he spoke up.
"But you like her, do you?" he asked Tsuchiya.
"Huh? N…no, of course not!" he replied, blushing hard. He was cursing himself for showing his blush.
"But when it comes to Yankumi, you seem to be all over the place," Kamiya said.
"Of course not!" Tsuchiya retorted.
When Yankumi got back from the restroom, Kuma came in time to serve the ramen. The other guys watched how Tsuchiya reacted when he saw Yankumi after the teasing. He seemed uneasy and was smiling like an idiot. And because of this, Ichimura laughed to himself. Yankumi asked him what was funny, and Ichimura said he remembered that Kuraki stole Honjo's meat from his ramen a few moments earlier. Everyone laughed when Kuraki realized that the meat he got from Honjo's bowl was gone. Their bickering continued, and Ogata continued to spy as Yankumi and Tsuchiya smiled at each other. Tsuchiya's smile was different when he was talking to them. It was boyish, nasty, just like the smile of a typical guy hanging around with his friends. His smile was different when he smiles at Yankumi. It seemed—coy, cute, and sweet. Ogata jabbed Kazama a bit, and the latter looked at the teacher and the cameraman smile at each other as they make toast to their ramen. It was really, really different, and Tsuchiya couldn't hide it no matter how much he tried to deny it.
Yankumi was rubbing her belly contentedly as they were walking to a parking lot.
"Ah….thanks for the treat, Tsuchiya, it was tasty," she said.
Tsuchiya smiled again and shook his head.
"That was just a thank-you gift for you, Yankumi," Tsuchiya said. "I wish Odagiri, Yabuki, Hyuga, Takeda and I could get together like Ogata's gang despite our schedules and celebrate a party with you."
Yankumi smiled. She was happy to hear that.
"Tomorrow is a beautiful Sunday," Yankumi said. "Do you have plans tomorrow evening?"
Tsuchiya didn't find it hard to say no, as he knew he had no appointments the next day.
"Well, I invite you to dinner at home tomorrow at six," Yankumi invited.
"Yeah, I'll be there."
Silence filled the air, for Tsuchiya fidgeted and didn't know exactly what to do.
"Is it ok if I give you a ride home?" he offered.
Yankumi nodded happily. She won't be worrying about spending for fare this afternoon. So she hopped in Tsuchiya's motorbike, and he drove her home.
****tsuzuku….