Running after his sun
Follow Odagiri and his thoughts about the past and his way into the future. How Yankumi made him an man and how he feel about it. Small hints from gokusen 1-3 and the movie.
Unfortunate I do not own anything related to gokusen, this ff is just written by a fan wishing they would produce more live action drama and movies.
Hope you enjoy my short story, and that someone in the future will write more ff related to the universe of gokusen.
She had changed him and his friends, and was still changing him for the better. Maybe she was not present physical but she had taken up residence in his mind. Telling and guiding him how to make life easier and better.
Often when he was angry with the world or his life situation he would think of her, and how she would deal with those situations.
How to solve it for the best for everyone involved. How to create a brighter future.
Most of the time just imagining her made his day seem brighter.
Maybe it was connected to all the situations where she had asked him and his classmates to run into the sunset together with her after difficult episodes, or maybe it was Yankumi herself, that was his sun. He remember the times: looking at Yankumi running in front, into the non existing sunset. During those times he would stand back with his friends, laughing and acting cool.
Remembering back he regret not breaking character. He would be standing there with his friends, but still feeling left behind, wishful thinking about running next to her into the future.
Years later he would smile to himself just thinking about crazy episodes where she had been the main character. Her yelling, yakuza language and how she would defend her students against gangster, other teachers and even the police.
People around him often would be shocked if they perceive his dreamy smiles, a small smile from him was a big deal.
His friends would often ask him why he was smiling without an reason, but he would never tell.
As the years went by they fortunately stoped asking, and just thought it was a side of his strange character.
He was embarrassed how a strange teacher like Yankumi could make him smile just thinking about her. If he ever told one of his friends about the woman behind his smile they would know about his feelings.
They would think of him as crazy, and but even so, he was even more afraid of any of them seeing her in the same light as he does.
In a way he felt selfish because most of his friends knew his former teacher, and had their own memories of her and had no problems sharing them in plenum.
He wanted those memories as well, everything she ever did or said, that his friends remember he would collect into his heart. He would ask about her, carefully of course, so they would not notice his fascination with Yankumi.
In return they would get nothing.
He was ashamed about how he had acted the first times he had met her.
The fact that she gave him money to help him out of problems that did not existed in reality, made him feel like he had cheated a dumb teacher. It was almost as if he did not do anything harmful to her, he was just teaching her about the way of life.
When the delivery man refused his money and told him where they really came from he felt like a lowlife.
From that moment he slowly began changing.
He did not want to owe her anything.
She was still a teacher in his mind, and that was still a negative word in his vocabulary at that time. During his time as her student he did not comprehend how one single woman would change his whole focus on life.
When he returned to school he never told his friends what happened.
In the beginning he might have been embarrass but there might be another reason lurking under the surface that he himself did not notice at first.
It took a while before he began notice his reluctance to share memories encircled around Yankumi with his friends.
After his friends accepted him into the group again they would often try to make him tell them about why he returned to school but he never told them.
As his friends also got an understanding of the unique woman in front of them they understood that she had something to do with it, but they stopped nagging after a while, understanding that something special had happened to him.
Because of the reluctance he began analyze why he was so selfish. Why was she so special to him personally?
He had family members that loved him in their own special way, and he loved them back (especially after meeting Yankumi), but it was not the same.
She had a special place in his heart.
After graduation he was almost relieved he would get away from her. Relieved to be free from her control. A control she did not know existed.
Unfortunate her influence did not disappear. She existed in every aspect of his life without her knowing it. It was almost as if she controlled him as a doll, with her holding the strings, showing him the right way.
In one way he loved every moment of it.
The feelings did not fade away, even if he did not see her anymore.
He had expected it to be a silly infatuation or just admiration based on how she made a room full with hormonal boys listen and look up to her for strengt. She had helped them when no one else did. Who could not respect that?
He felt the admiration in the voices from his former classmates when they talked about her and the past. How she has saved them and how they wished they could meet someone like her in the future. He did not think that was possible, Yankumi was unique.
Even years later when remembering moments with Yankumi, his friends would make fun her and how stupid she could be and at the same time complimenting her in a strange way.
He found it fascinating, how she could make a group young men respecting her in those ways.
Who thought someone could gain respect out of yelling at her students, getting into fights to defend them and calling them names?
Unfortunate he had been wrong in his assumptions when it came to how strong his feelings for her were.
Feelings did not fade and his heart still beating faster when his thoughts centered around her.
Even if his life had been better after meeting her, he still felt a longing for something more.
It took a few years until he admitted quietly to himself, it was not just admiration or a simple infatuation, it was love.
A forbidden love, from a former student to a teacher.
Years went by but the feelings still stayed strong in his heart.
His friends remembered her, talked about her, and gave her the respect she had earned. But their lives moved on, they dated, had girlfriends and was imagining a future with someone else.
This did not happen to him.
His life moved forward, but when he compared every girl he met with his former teacher they lacked something. Maybe not in looks, but they always lacked something in behavior and the air around them. They were not Yankumi.
No one could make him feel as good as one smile from her had ever made him feel.
Sometimes he wanted and wishing for his feelings to fade, other times he was almost afraid about how empty his heart would feel without its focus on her.
Would he ever be free? Did he want to be free?
He knew she would never notice his feelings, she was strange like that.
Maybe that was one of the reasons he loved her, maybe not. Beside he was not ready to tell her about his feelings.
Maybe he would never be ready.
To be honest he didn't really know why he loved her, just that he did.
With his whole mind and body. Even his heart.
He knew she had students before and after his time with her. He felt jealous of those who met her before him, and those who had her now.
Just thinking about her running into danger, saving another male student from a group of gangsters made his blood boil. Jealous because she was helping someone else who saw the same side of her that he had seen, and angry because they put her at risk.
He wanted her to run toward him. Or maybe, just maybe, he could be the one saving her during a fight. If that happened, he could die happily.
He was afraid that someone else could fall for her the same way he had. Maybe they might even express their feelings at a level even she would notice it.
The only thing calming him was that her student after him was even younger than himself compared to her, but since Yankumi was not like other woman, age might not be something she would care about.
For him it could go both ways, he was younger than her and could still have a chance but then those even younger than himself might also have a chance. The more he thought about it the more confused he felt.
He had even heard rumors that at least one of her former students had fallen in love with her. Not that he blamed that person, he could relate to that person, without wanting to.
Thinking about it, there could be lines of guys dreaming about Yankumi as their woman.
It was not as if there lacked men around her. She had a high position in the yakuza (even if she did not identify by it), she mostly taught male students, and then there was everyone else male human she would meet.
With a personality like hers, it would take a special man to notice her, but for those who notice, they would fall head over heals. He should know since he was one of them.
One of them could take her away from him even before he had even a chance.
He missed her.
There are many things things that made Yankumi attractive. She made those around her feel like she cared about them, as if they had a special connection with her. Thinking about Yankumi, he himself felt the connection, and unfortunate most of his friends felt the same way. Everyone Yankumi met had a special place in her heart, and she was given a place in the heart of those she met.
As time went by, with her still in his mind he continued to change.
Transforming into a young man, with responsibility and a bright future.
Before her, he would never would have selected the path as a teacher himself. He was still not sure teaching was what he wanted to do with his life, but it was a beginning.
A way to feel closer to Yankumi.
Since studying made him think of her, she was always on his mind. The former almost dropout was now almost a teacher himself. Hopefully she would be proud.
When he thought about those times she was running in front into the sunset, he imagined himself beginning to slowly walk after her, becoming someone worthy of following her.
The closer he was to completing his education the faster he was walking toward Yankumi, his sun.
He was lucky and after looking around he found out which school she was teaching at.
His father even helped him getting the position. After his time as a student under Yankumi his relationship with his father got stronger again. Even if he never told his parents about the feeling he had for his former teacher they knew about his fascination. His father helping him was a way to show his familys approval even if they knew about her being the granddaughter of a yakuza boss.
Finally he was accepted as an teacher in training at her school. In his mind he had began jogging after her.
He had moved from his place next to his friends in the background and was now only one speed slower than her, running into the future.
Soon he would be running at full speed, closer to Yankumi as an equal than ever before. Closer to Kumiko.
_
I hope you liked my story, please leave me a rewiev and maybe it will give me a boost to write another story in the future.