Five years after graduation, Shin comes back to Japan because his sister is getting married. Unexpectedly, he bumped into Yankumi – his former sensei in his senior years back in high school. Feelings from the past suddenly rushed back to him – a thing which he thought he felt because he was so young and young boys can be mistaken what admiration is from love. Will he be able to accept the truth that what he has for Yankumi is true love after all?
Shin x Yankumi – pairings.
Twoshots.
This is my first Gokusen fanfic. Please read and review. Thanks. ;)
I do NOT own Gokusen or any of its characters.
Thursday, 3:10 pm
Sawada Empire, New York
"Fine!" he answered irritably over the phone. He sighed and continued talking. "I'll be there by tomorrow, okay? I still have a meeting in an hour so I have to hang up now, neh, Natsumi?"
"But, brother –"
He didn't wait for anymore ranting or protests from his sister who is miles away from him. He ended the call and stared at the photograph on his desk. It was his picture taken with his sister the day he migrated here in New York for their family business and to study here for college. He just graduated from high school back then.
"Mr. Sawada?" someone knocked on his office door. His mind was pulled back to reality after a moment of reminiscing. And without saying anything, a blonde girl went in his office. He merely looked at her. "I have arranged the flight for you to Tokyo. Your flight will be at four in this afternoon, sir." She informed him while giving him his passport and plane tickets back to Tokyo.
"Thank you." Shin Sawada, the vice president of Sawada Empire, shortly answered and gave a look at his watch. He only has less than an hour before he leaves for Tokyo. "Please call me a taxi, I'm going to the airport now." He said, not really asking for it but ordering her secretary to do it. The word 'please' is merely nothing but a formality.
"Yes, sir." She answered and went out of his office to call for a taxi.
--
Thursday, 4:15 pm
Class 3-D, Kurogin Gakuen, Japan
Kumiko Yamaguchi is better known as Yankumi. She's the Homeroom teacher of the delinquent students of Kurogin Gakuen. The never-ending chaos is a normal scene at class 3-D, the class she's teaching Homeroom to.
These students are really brats! When will they even start listening to me? She asked herself through the noise that her students are creating. On her left, she could see a group of students who are all playing with their paper planes, on her right were students who are – either watching on their laptops, or playing with their PSPs or cell phones.
And at the back are five students sitting right next to each other – Keita Takeda and Yousuke Akiyama are discussing something which makes them look excited, Hikaru Tsuchiya looks damn bored that he
could only fan himself as Hayato Yabuki has lollipop on his mouth while resting on his seat, and the last one is Ryu Odagiri – he's the quiet one among the group and she felt thankful for that.
Thank goodness there's a Ryu Odagiri in my class. At least it lessens the noise everyone else is creating. She sighed at the thought of it. But it really doesn't help because he's still not participating in class more often. His mind is flying somewhere else.
She sighed again at that thought before she decided to speak. "OI! MINNA!" she called at everyone's attention, but nobody bothered giving her even a quick glance anyway. "I SAID THAT WE'LL BE HAVING A TEST NEXT WEEK!"
"Yeah, yeah, Yankumi!" Hiro Misawa answered among the class. "We heard you loud and clear. You don't have to repeat that every single minute! You're becoming like a retard Homeroom teacher!" he finished and everyone laughed while agreeing to what he just told her.
Yankumi's eyes narrowed. "These guys can really piss me off." She whispered to herself. She was about to speak one more time to her class when someone interrupted them. The classroom door swung open and the unlikely duo went in. Everyone just stared at them. "Vice Principal. What's wrong?"
Vice Principal Goro Sawatari came in along with his so-called assistant. He eyed each of her students who also stared back at him as if asking him what the hell is he doing there, before facing Yankumi. "Yamaguchi-sensei." He hissed. "Your students got the lowest grades for the last three grading periods now, if they still keep on getting low grades, we will make them repeat the whole year and won't be accepted in this school anymore!" he informed her.
Yankumi bit her lower lip before replying to her. "We're working on it, Vice Principal!" she lied. How can they be 'working together' if the only person who is hyped about the students to study is only her and no one else? "Right, everyone?" she asked her class happily, silently hoping that her students will cooperate with her.
They stared blankly at her for about a second or so before Hiroyuki Nagata answered. "Whatever, Yankumi!"
"Yeah, whatever!" the rest of them chanted and went back to what they were doing before the Vice Principal suddenly appeared in the scene.
Yankumi looked very nervous with the way her class is acting.
"YAMAGUCHI-SENSEI!" Mr. Sawatari shouted. "HAVE YOU TAUGHT YOUR STUDENTS ABOUT GOOD MANNERS?!" he mocked the students and everyone eyed him dangerously.
"O-o-of course!" Yankumi replied immediately. "They're just exhausted right now because we've been studying together for the past days for the exams." She lied again.
But that lie didn't really do anything to make the Vice Principal look more convinced, instead, he looked more suspicious to them. "Remember, if they'll get another low score at their final exams, they will repeat their senior year but not in this school!" he said warningly but Yankumi didn't backed down. She stared back at him, as if telling him that she has confidence that it won't happen – that her precious students will graduate on-time.
Mr. Sawatari then gave a final, warning look at the students of 3-D and left at once.
"What the hell is with that guy?" Toshio Fujinami ranted, sounding really pissed off.
"I really hate that bastard! Always telling us that we are to be expelled or something like that!" Yuki Kojima added.
"Minna!" Yankumi called out to them again. "Next week's exam is your final exams. So please, I'm asking you to cooperate with me. You have to show them that he's wrong about you." She told them, almost pleadingly. "If you need any tutorial, you can always ask for my help, okay?"
--
Friday, 2:00 am
Sawada Residence, Japan
Someone was ringing the doorbell like crazy. Natsumi's sleep was disturbed and was totally pissed off with that. "Whoever that stupid head ringing the doorbell at must have a great reason for waking me up at this kind of hour or I'll go berserk!" she muttered drowsily as she walked down the stairs to answer the door.
"Is getting married makes you slow in answering the door?!" someone asked her arrogantly.
"The hell with you, stupid brat?! It's two in the morning and…"
The voice was familiar and suddenly, it's as if her sleepiness had vanished. She wiped her eyes and brushed her hair backwards to get a clear view of the one who had just spoken. Her lips formed a wide smile upon seeing the figure right before her. "SHIIIINNN!!" she screamed through excitement as she threw herself to him.
"Oi, Natsumi!" he greeted back and embracing his soon-to-be-wed younger sister that he had not seen for five years in a row.
"I thought you'll be home right after tomorrow?" she asked as soon as they bother freed each other's embraces.
Shin smirked. "Are you really expecting me to come home a day before your wedding?" he asked in disbelief. "I haven't even met the lucky bastard you're going to marry, so I wanted to give him what it feels like to have me as his brother-in-law!"
Natsumi just laughed at the thought of it. "Yeah, right." She said while they both carried his luggage in their house. "You just can't accept that I'm marrying first, Shin." She said teasingly while making her way to the kitchen to make her brother something to eat.
Shin followed her. He smiled at what she had just told him. It's true, actually. He's the first born child but the younger one marries first? Now that's something he finds quite amusing. "Nah. I'm just enjoying my freedom, Natsumi." He answered. "I'm still young for commitments."
She smirked at her brother. "For now." She replied while pouring hot chocolate on the mug. "Maybe you just haven't found the one you want to spend the rest of your life with." She explained to him as her conclusion drew in her mind. "Or maybe…" she gave him a meaningful look.
Shin didn't like the feeling of that. "Maybe what?"
Natsumi shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe you've already found her but you're just too scared to admit to her about your feelings."
Oops! That hit him hard, not in the head but in his heart. He gulped. "You're crazy!" he declared and went to get his hot chocolate and drank it only to spit it out in the process. "Damn, that's hot!" he cried.
Natsumi laughed at him. "You're too obvious, brother! Is aging makes you nervous?" she teased him and laughed even harder as Shin narrowed his eyes on her.
--
Friday, 6:30 am
Yankumi's room, Kuroda Clan Residence, Japan
Friday morning came and Yankumi's alarm clock started ringing. She picked up her cell phone tensely. "Yankumi speaking, what don't you understand in your lessons?" she asked sleepily but the alarm clock kept on ringing.
"O-ojou?" Minoru and Tetsu called out as soon as the first ring of the alarm clock stopped.
Yankumi smiled. "The hell are you calling me 'ojou' so suddenly?"
Minoru and Tetsu exchanged glances.
"Maybe she's dreaming that her students are calling her 'ojou'?" Minoru concluded and Tetsu agreed.
"Ojou, please wake up or you'll be late for school." Tetsu said.
Yankumi suddenly woke up as his alarm clock starts ringing once again. She sat on her bed looking to her alarm clock, then to her cell phone, then to the pair of Minoru and Tetsu – two of her most loyal followers.
Minoru and Tetsu are very protective of her that they even starts running a takoyaki stand near the school where she teaches just to be near her if ever she'll need help – but unfortunately, Yankumi always finds her way out of dangers all by herself.
She looked at her cell phone once again; a look of disappointment was registered on her face. "Not even one of them bothered asking me for help? How unbelievable!" she declared while standing up from her bed.
"Ojou? Are you talking about your good-for-nothing students?" Minoru asked dumbly.
Yankumi glared at him for calling her precious students 'good-for-nothing'. Tetsu hit him hard in the head. "Baka! Why are you calling ojou's students' like that? They're precious to her!" he scolded him afterwards.
"I'm sorry!" Minoru apologized at once.
--
Friday, 8:30 am
Sawada Residence
Shin was still in the middle of journeying dreamland when his younger sister suddenly starts shaking his body just to wake him up. He growled sleepily, pulling his comforter covering his head and turning away from Natsumi.
"Shin!" Natsumi called in her baby-ish manner – like they are still kids.
"Mm?!" he replied, still sleepy.
"Let's have breakfast together at Ginza."
"Can we not just have it for dinner?"
"I'll be occupied after lunch onwards."
"How about tomorrow?"
"I'll be preparing for the wedding reception."
"The next day?"
"My fiancé's coming home that day."
He pulled out his comforter and faced her. "Speaking of that bastard, who the hell is he? Why don't you want to tell me who that shit-ass is?" he asked instead, making him sound awake with just Natsumi's future-husband as the topic.
Natsumi smiled. "You'll meet him then, Shin." She replied, still not wanting to tell her brother who her fiancé is. She stood up from sitting at Shin's bed side. "Get up now, Shin! Let's go to Ginza for breakfast." She insisted, reverting the topic back.
Shin sighed as he got up from the bed.
--
Friday, 4:10 pm
Class 3-D, Kurogin Gakuen
"But today's the last day of school before your final examinations starts!" Yankumi was telling her whole class but no one seems to be interested with what she's saying right now. Her students may not be doing noise right now but their quietness is different from listening to not listening at all. "are you even listening to me?" she asked them.
"Yeah." They all answered dully.
'Yeah' my ass! You're not listening to me! Her mind protested as her eyes narrowed and her glasses glowed. "Do you really want to repeat your senior year? You've made your way to get here and you'll just ignore what the vice principal warned you about? Don't you care about graduating on-time?" she asked dramatically, hoping that she could put some senses on her students' childish minds.
"It's not like we're not studying!" Yousuke Akiyama burst out.
"Then why the hell you got the lowest marks for three consecutive grading periods?" she asked them. Yankumi has only been their Homeroom teacher for the last grading period because the first ones quitted the job of being this classroom's adviser.
Nobody answered the question. Yankumi felt that there might be something wrong. "Why aren't you answering me now, eh?"
Again, silence. She sighed deeply while looking at the faces of her students.
"We're tired of doing the best we can!" Hikaru Tsuchiya told her dimly.
"What?" she asked again. "What do you mean 'tired of doing the best you can'?"
"We're serious about passing every exams, Yamaguchi-sensei!" Hayato Yabuki answered.
"But the other teachers always accuse us of cheating and deduct points from our original scores." Ryu Odagiri explained further and Yankumi couldn't believe that those kinds of scenarios are actually happening and the victims are her precious students. She secretly clenched her fists.
"So, there's really no point on giving all our best now." Keita Takeda suddenly said with a glimpse of disappointment on his tone. "Even if we do our best, the teachers will only suspect and accuse us all of cheating and we'll only get minuses on our grades."
"So, it's really useless even if we do our best, Yamaguchi-sensei." Hikaru added.
She couldn't take it anymore. Her students are feeling down and hopeless because of the things that happened to them. "I won't let that happen!" she told them reassuringly. She looked at them once more. "Just do your best and leave the rest to me. I won't let that kind of thing happen to you again. I will make sure that you will graduate on-time."
But even if she speaks the truth, nobody seemed to be listening to her or taking her words seriously. Some of them smirked, some sighed, while others just rolled their eyes in mid-air – as if telling her the words 'yeah, right! Whatever! We don't believe you anyway!'.
--
Friday, 5:15 pm
Kumai's Ramen Shop, Japan
"But, Yamaguchi-sensei!" Keita Takeda was clinging to her, followed by the rest of her students. "Can't we eat first? They say that studying with an empty stomach is bad!" he added almost pleadingly.
Yankumi looked unconvinced. "That's nonsense! Just a while ago you were all eating at the cafeteria!"
"We've only split some sushi! One sushi is for five persons!" Hikaru said.
Yankumi still looked unconvinced.
"ONEGAI…" her students, except for Hayato and Ryu, begged as they bowed half their bodies so that Yankumi wouldn't refuse to their request.
Hayato smirked. "Yamaguchi-sensei!" he called out to her. "Do you really want us to pass the final exams?" he asked and Yankumi nodded multiple times, showing how sincere she really is. "The why don't you treat us some food first? We're really hungry and studying with an empty stomach is hard."
"Hayato's right, sensei." Yousuke agreed.
"If we don't eat, we won't be able to study hard for the exam." It was Hikaru.
"If we don't study for the exam, we'll get low grades." Keita added.
"And if we get low grades, we won't be able to graduate…" Hayato said.
"…on-time." They all finished.
Yankumi wanted them to graduate so they must study really hard. She really couldn't say 'no' to her students but she's not stupid as well. "But there are no shops to eat in here so I can't really treat you guys."
"But there's Kuma-san's Ramen Shop." Ryu spoke and Yankumi crumpled her face as her alibi didn't worked out. He was pointing at the ramen shop just across the streets.
Yankumi couldn't do anything but to let her students eat Ramen on Kuma's ramen shop. Kuma was so pleased to see those kids eating happily as they were all studying with each other. Per table, there are five students who sat there and are happily exchanging information with regards to their subjects. Even if she was reluctant to treat them first, seeing how happy her students are and how serious they are to study hard, she couldn't help but smile as she stare at them happily.
"Yankumi, I think you're really doing great as a teacher." Kuma praised her, whispering those words to her. And Yankumi seemed to be touched with those words. Teruo Kumai, or most commonly known as "Kuma" is one of her former students when she first started her teaching career at Shirokin Gakuen.
"YAMAGUCHI-SENSEI!" Keita called out, not far from where she was standing with Kuma. "WHAT IS PYTHAGOREAN THEORY?" he asked while holding his math notebook as high as his hands could reach the air while also pointing at the notes written on his notebook.
Yankumi was about to answer Keita's question when the Ramen Shop's door opened. They all looked to see who it was. Keita's hands were suspended in air as they silently watched the man who just entered the scene. He was tall and he looks like a celebrity in his outfit – denim pants, white rubber shoes with golden prints, crème colored turtle neck, white cap, and dark tinted shades.
"Wow! Is he a celebrity?" Hikaru asked dreamily as Keita put down his hands in a slow motion.
"I'm sorry, sir but my shop is full." Kuma apologized, still gazing at the new character. Yankumi was then sitting at the table with Ryu's group for only God knows how long.
The guy smirked at him. "Baka!" he told Kuma and everyone's eyes widened in surprise and confusion. "Is that how you greet an old friend now, Kuma?" he asked jokingly as he gave out a wide, teasing smile to Kuma.
Kuma stared at him for a moment, and when it hit him, he gave back the smile to the man and started walking towards him and gave him a hug. "Hisashiburi!" he greeted and everyone looked more confuse and curious at the same time. Kuma and the new guy dismissed their selves from their hugs and stood facing each other.
"Kuma-san, you know who he is?" Yuuichi Kawata asked.
Kuma smiled. "Of course! He's my childhood friend and my former classmate back at Shirokin!" he announced and Yankumi suddenly gazed on the new man.
She examined the celebrity-looking character. If he is Kuma's former classmate back in Shirokin, then it also means that he is one of my former students. She told herself as she was analyzing him still. The way he smirked a while ago seems very familiar – and especially, the way he talks to Kuma. Yankumi's eye widened when she finally found out who he was.
"Shin?" she asked before Kuma could even introduce him to the rest of them. She stood up in the process and everyone looked from Shin to Yankumi. "Shin Sawada?" she repeated.
Shin looked at her. He removed his glasses. "Yankumi?" he called back in disbelief. He couldn't believe his eyes.
"YANKUMI?!" the whole class repeated in confusion.
"Well, you see. 'Yankumi' is our nickname for Yamaguchi-sensei." Kuma explained "We gave that to her. Didn't she tell you that I was one of her former students?"
"Yamaguchi-sensei has a nickname?" Hayato burst out, not listening to Kuma's explanation.
Ryu was silently observing Yankumi and the celebrity-looking guy named Shin. They are looking at each other awkwardly. For some reason, Ryu felt that there's something they both have – like a connection or something like that.
He decided to break the silence between them. "Yankumi." Ryu called and everyone looked at him.
"Huh?" Yankumi turned to him, as if she just woke up from a dream.
"What's the answer to Keita's question?" he asked.
"Ke-Keit-Keita's question?" she repeated, startled.
Ryu nodded. "Well, I also don't know what's Pythagorean Theory and I need to be going home soon."
Hayato and their other friends wrinkled their forehead and looked curiously at Ryu's direction.
"But you're the one who's usually good at math!" Keita whispered and Ryu just stared at Yankumi.
"And he even called Yamaguchi-sensei in her nickname!" Hikaru mumbled.
"Oh! Pythagorean Theory!" she repeated as if she just found out that there's a treasure buried on the chair she was sitting a while ago.
--
Friday, 6:45 pm
Streets of Tokyo
Ryu was walking home along with his other friends. Hayato and Keita are talking about their subjects. He still couldn't get off his mind what he observed a while ago. Yankumi and Shin was staring each other like there was no other people around them. It's like they are the only people but just the two of them.
"Right, Ryu?" Hayato's voice suddenly broke his thoughts.
"Huh?" he asked.
Hayato looked at him. "What's wrong with you?" he asked curiously.
Ryu shook his head. "Nothing."
"You lie!"
"Whatever." He answered.
"Really, Ryu. What's the matter?" Keita asked him.
He breathed deeply. "About Shin-san."
The five of them came to a stop when Ryu told his name. "What about him?" Hikaru asked.
"A while ago, I was observing him and Yankumi. The way they look at each other is different."
"What do you mean, Ryu?" Yousuke asked.
"Kuma-san is Yankumi's former student, right?" they nodded. "And Shin-san's his classmate, right?" once again, they nodded to Ryu. "But Kuma-san and Yankumi seems pretty normal – the way they talk at each other and the way they acknowledge each other – it's like they're friends."
"So?" Hayato asked. "All of us are like that to her sometimes."
"Yeah." Yousuke agreed to Hayato.
Ryu looked at either Hayato or Yousuke who doesn't seem to get his point. "I know!" he told them impatiently as he walked towards the bench. "What I don't get is that, why does Shin-san and Yankumi stared each other like they're the only ones on this planet?"
His four friends' was also in deep thought after he asked them that question. They also have noticed it. "Now that you've mentioned it…" it was Yousuke.
When realization hit the five of them at the same time, they looked at each other.
"Could it be?" It was Yousuke.
"Was it possible?" it was Keita.
"But… How?" it was Hikaru.
--
Friday, 7:10 pm
Community Park
Yankumi was walking fast, feeling her heart beats faster than usual. She inhaled and exhaled every breath she takes as pictures of Shin starts residing in her mind. She closed her eyes, hoping and praying that when she opens them, she'll feel normal again. But –
Thud!
"Ouch!" she exclaimed, feeling the pain on her forehead as she just bumped on one of the lamp posts in the street. She even fell on the grounds just because of that.
"You don't close your eyes when you're walking, baka!" someone told her in a cold manner which she knew too well.
She looked up at saw the tall figure of Shin Sawada in front of her. He held out his hands and she accepted it. "Thanks." She shortly said, almost whispering. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here for my sister's wedding." He answered.
"I mean, what are you doing here? This isn't the way to your house." She cleared then suddenly, she look at him in surprise when his words had sunk in her head. "Your sister? Natsumi?"
He nodded as he gave her an invitation. "She wanted to invite you as well."
She accepted the invitation. "Thank you." She looked up to him but he wasn't looking back at her. He was looking straight ahead. "Uhm…" she started, not even knowing what to say. "Shin?" she called gently to his name which felt odd. She hasn't been calling someone in that name for five years now.
"What?" he asked calmly.
"I'm sorry about bef –"
"It's okay. Past is past, right?"
Yankumi fell silent before she nodded in agreement.
