Disclaimer: Of course Gokusen isn't mine. How I wish, but I'm not that good. Also, I am gaijin. So forgive me, if I get some things incorrect about Japan. The characters and theme belong to Morimouto, but I own this plot.

A/N: (Sorry it took so long to get it out, work has been crazy. I already had it written but not typed. Also, I have to hurry and get Chapter 11 up because of the way I ended this one. I really appreciate all of your reviews. I had already decided how this was going to end, but thanks to your reviews I realized I had left a few things unanswered. This chapter is a result of your reviews. This is another one of my favorites. I hope you enjoy it. It starts slow, but turns interesting.) (As per devilish nugs comments, I have italicized the thoughts. I may go back and do the rest of the chapters once I complete the story. Enjoy and review.)

Chapter 10 Shirokin 3D Meets Kurogin 3D

Shin had been trying to keep busy all week and not think of Yankumi. He worked hard finishing the designs on the school and had even met with Uchi to show him the plans. Already their meeting had proved productive because Uchi was able to recommend two things that would put the project ahead of schedule and ahead on the budget. He was proud that his friend had found what he liked to do and was good at it. He was easily able to get Uchi a job with the company, too after they had presented Uchi's ideas.

"If it hadn't been for Yankumi, I might have withdrawn from school when my mother didn't have the money and I got into trouble, not graduated, and be working some job I don't like. We all owe her a lot. I understand your feelings and hope it works out for you." Uchi encouraged Shin.

Shin also registered for his contractor license exam and had been studying. He forgot how easy studying came for him. So it hadn't been as big a distraction as he had thought. He had dialed Yankumi's number at least 100 times but didn't press send on it. He had promised to give her her space, and he intended to keep that promise. She had called him during the middle of the week to tell him she had an answer for him but had to do two things first. Four years ago he would have told her to just give him the answer yes or no. But four years had taught him that with a decision so important and with what was on the line, you wait patiently.

After he had seen her the other night on a date with Shinohara san, he was even more anxious. He had been at a restaurant not too far from her house and was drinking at the bar. She came in smiling and bouncing in her usual two pigtails, glasses, a simple skirt, a sweater and t-shirt. She looked quite cute in her usual "Yankumi-style" outfit. Others may not notice her charm in those clothes, but that was the person who he had fallen in love with. She looked perfect to him. Granted, when she had dressed like Kumiko those two times, he had fallen in love with her again on a whole new level. When he saw her greet Shinohara smiling and kissed him on the cheek, he was so angry he wanted to throw his glass and leave. Then he remembered how cool she had been toward Shinohara san, almost angry, the last two times and decided he had better stick around in case she blew up at him. What he saw that night made him even more anxious now to find out what answer she was going to give him. That made waiting even worse.

Since two days had passed with no word from her and it was the weekend, it made sitting in his apartment and waiting all the more painful. When Kuma called him and invited him for a meal at the ramen shop and to meet with the rest of their five plus the five guys from Kurogin 3D, he jumped at the chance. He knew it would be awkward since everyone knew his feelings about Yankumi and the conversation would undoubtedly center around her. He looked forward to reminiscing with the guys about their Shirokin days and finding out if these guys were worse than they had been during Yankumi's first teaching assignment. Besides, it would be better than sitting home alone, staring at the walls, and waiting anxiously for her call and decide his ultimate fate. Shin dressed quickly in some black jeans and an ivory patterned sweater and left.

Kuma was excited. He figured that now that they had all met to defend their favorite teacher, everyone could become friends and hang out together. The reunion dinner, saving Yankumi, and their contact since those events had shown that they had not outgrown each other even though they had taken different paths and lost touch for a while after high school. He had also forged a bond with Yankumi's Kurogin students and wanted to include them. He wanted to encourage the Kurogin guys that they could stay friends even after high school like he and the other Shirokin guys had. Kuma also wanted to try out the new Chinese menu on the guys and see what they thought. Yabuki had been working there part time while Kuma attended culinary school and also wanted to try out his cooking on his friends.

Shin was the first to arrive although Yabuki and Kuma were there setting up everything. "Oy, Kuma."

"Oy, Shin, you heard anything from Yankumi, yet?" Kuma wasted no time getting to the point.

Shin sighed heavily, "Yeah. She said she had an answer for me but had two things she had to settle first."

"Oh, I wonder if that is good or bad." Kuma was thoughtful until he looked up at Shin's troubled face. "Don't worry; I'm sure it will all work out." He smiled.

Shin smiled and patted his friend on the shoulder.

Yabuki had been in the back pretending to be uninterested but was secretly listening. Maybe Odigiri still has a chance. I wonder if he knows about Odigiri's confession. If he does, what will he do about it? I heard he could fight. He held his own against Yankumi one time. I barely survived that duel, but surely he's too mature to fight. Then again the way he was last week he may be up for a fight when it comes to Yankumi. Kuma called Yabuki overinterrupting his thoughts.

"Yabuki Huyato, Sawada Shin," They shook hands. Just then the rest of the guys showed up and Kuma introduced everyone to each other. "Uchiyama, Minami, Noda, this is Tsuchiya, Takeda, Hyuga, Odigiri, and Yabuki. And of course this is Sawada Shin, the leader of our group." Then they all sat down to dinner.

After dinner they just kind of looked at each other and were talking amongst their classmates rather than to each other. Shin looked at his friend Kuma who seemed a bit disappointed that they were not all talking to each other after his great effort. Although he knew that what he was about to do would be uncomfortable for him, he had to help his friend.

"So, I hear most of you guys experienced Yankumi's whips of love at some point or another while she was your teacher." They all laughed at that and began talking to each other. Yabuki went first about how he was foolish enough to challenge her to a duel.

"Yeah, but that doesn't count. Luckily, the cops came before he had a chance to fight her." Takeda chimed in.

"Eh?" Odigiri raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah, you guys didn't get to see the fight later when they were alone. He never even came close to hitting her. Then she hit him right in the solar plexus. Man he couldn't move for a while." Odigiri went on to describe the fight in details. They all laughed at him.

"Oy, you saw the fight," Yabuki asked surprised, "and you didn't come to my rescue?"

"Remember at the time we were not exactly on the best of terms. Besides, I came to rescue you from those other guys later."

"But you were too afraid of Yankumi to help me?"

"Hey, I saw her fight before wouldn't you be afraid after you saw that?"

"True." They all agreed.

"Hey, even after seeing her fight and hit our classmates some of us still did stupid stuff to get hit, eh Take?" Yabuki wasn't going to be the only one who was made fun of.

"That's because I didn't think she was going to hit me after I had just been hit by Makichan for fooling her." Take told his story of how he had gotten Tsuchi and Hyuga to pretend to be bad guys so he could rescue her and make her date look like a fool. That is, until they found out he was a boxer, and they had to run away. "After I told Yankumi what happened, she hit me for trying to fool Makichan since I was being weak. Then when I found out her college boyfriend was cheating on her with three other girls I challenged him. Although I got beat up pretty good, his punches were nothing compared to Yankumi's. That's why I kept getting back up after he hit me again and again. I ended up getting the girl, too."

"Noda can relate, can't you?" Uchi laughed.

"Yes." Noda told his story about how he sent pictures of their English teacher as a hostess to Kyoto sensei after she had thrown away a gift he had given her, and how they had to all take English tutorials from Yankumi to get a 30 on the English midterm to keep the teacher from being fired.

"Kuma failed at first, but the principal noticed a mistake, and he just passed, and she kept her job."

"Woah, wait, Kuma wasn't a good student? Kuma always said he was her star student." Yabuki looked at Kuma.

Shin, Noda, Uchi, and Minami busted out laughing at that. "Kuma? Please, Kuma was the first one she hit in our class for taking money that the vice principal had lost. Especially, after she spent all night looking in the river for a similar bag to prove he was innocent." Minami laughed again.

"Hey, that just proves that I was her favorite. I was the first one she hit."

"I don't think so, not after you tried to scare her off the first day of school." Noda responded.

"Oh, you guys did that too?" Yabuki couldn't believe it. "Man, I threw a book at her the second day of school, and she didn't even flinch."

"You threw a book. I threw a baseball at her at the back of her head. Not only didn't she flinch but she ducked and caught it without looking or turning around. It was scary." Kuma thought about it and shivered.

"Until she started doing that goofy laugh and pretended like she was lucky to have caught it." Uchi added.

"Oh, was she always that goofy?" Tsuchi asked.

"Yes." All except Shin answered.

"Like the time she dressed up like a cheerleader to cheer on the volleyball team getting in the finals. She looked like Sailor Moon." Uchi laughed.

"Or like the time she dressed up for the omiai in a kimono like a female yakuza would wear." Noda laughed.

"How about all of the goofy schemes she would get us into, like cheerleading or playing sports." Minami mentioned.

Shin was starting to get uncomfortable because they were laughing at Yankumi. No one laughs at or makes fun of my Kumiko like that. He was about to speak up and change the subject until Kuma mentioned that one time.

"Uh, remember that time she dressed up in the blonde wig and that crazy outfit to be a decoy to catch the thief who everyone mistook for Uchi?" They all laughed at that. Even Shin couldn't help but laugh when he pictured her in the blonde wig and that walk she had. "Remember Shin told her that she looked fine when she looked ridiculous."

"Hey I told her that to try to protect her. I figured that no one would come near her if she looked that bad." They couldn't stop laughing for a while picturing her in a blonde wig.

"Remember that time Kudo and his gang impersonated us, and we went looking for them?" Odigiri reminded them.

"Yeah, and how they set us up, and then she proved us innocent and made the cop apologize to us in front of the whole class for accusing us." Yabuki recalled.

"That was cool." Odigiri had also been getting uncomfortable at everyone laughing at her too, especially since she did all of those things for them.

Soon the stories changed from how she hit them to how she came to rescue them one time after another. Shin was listening and smiling with pride at that.

"That's why we were glad to get a call to come help her. We could never repay her for what she did for us, but we at least got the chance to show her how much she meant to us, by showing up last week." Odigiri spoke up.

"Some owe her more than others, eh Hyuga, especially since she went to rescue you twice from the same guy. That's when Hyuga got his hit by Yankumi for disrespecting his mother. Even after you saw her take on Tatsumi san and even crush that bottle with her fist, you still did something stupid to make her mad enough to hit you." Takeda mentioned.

"So you're the one responsible for that debacle last week?" Shin eyed him suspiciously.

"Yes, and I regret that I almost caused her to be hurt like that." He put his head down. Then he looked at Shin. "I'm just glad that you were there to save her and that you called on us also to come."

"Yeah," they all nodded and agreed.

"I'm just glad that you were not really involved and that it was an imposter pretending to be you. That one of her students would be involved with something like that would have hurt her more than any hit she had to take." Shin looked at all of them.

"I wouldn't say that Hyuga owes her the most." Kuma turned toward Odigiri. "I think someone else pulled some far worse crap than all of us."

"Eh?" They all looked at Odigiri who put his head down and nodded. Kuma told them about how Odigiri told Yankumi that he would return to his school if he could pay off the debt he owed to the guys he worked for and how Yankumi went into working construction after school to get the money to pay back the bar owners. Then he told them how he had laughed at her when she gave them the money since he had made up the whole story. They all stared at Odigiri angrily and incredulously.

"How much?" Shin asked.

"300,000 yen." He spoke quietly and kept his head down. "I know. It was stupid, not funny. I've regretted it every since then. I gave her back most of the money the next day, especially after Kuma wouldn't take it to pay for my order for dinner and told me how she earned it working extra jobs after school."

"Still, she must have hit you good after that. You came to school the after that all bandaged and bruised." Yabuki grinned.

"I wish she had. I would have felt better about it, but instead she came to save me from those guys I worked for when I decided to quit the bar and return to school. That is why I was all bandaged and bruised the next day. She sure can hit hard, though."

"If she didn't hit you then, when did she hit you? You couldn't possibly have done anything worse than that to deserve to be hit right?" Takeda had to ask.

Odigiri looked in Shin's direction, turned away and put his head back down. "It was when I kissed her." Shin's head popped up, and he glared at Odigiri. "Eh?" all asked surprised except Yabuki.

"When did that happen? Was it that time you stayed at her house when you ran away from your father?"

Shin saw red. He was angry. I can't believe Yankumi let a student stay at her house. Then he remembered all the times he had stayed there and that she had those four yakuzas there that would kill for her. Then he smiled to himself. No, that's just like Yankumi. Any other woman I would have been jealous, but no this is just like her. But this little punk likes her. Can't she tell? No, she had no clue about my feelings. She is obvious oblivious. Nevermind.

Odigiri had looked in Shin's direction before answering. "It was the other day when we went to her house to check on her."

"Eh?" Everyone asked, but Shin. He had enough. His fist hit the table as he stood up.

"What!?" Before anyone knew what happened, he had pushed his chair back, kicked it out of the way and was heading toward Odigiri with his fists clenched at his side. Odigiri also stood to face Shin. Kuma and Yabuki quickly interceded. Kuma got in front of Shin while Uchi, Noda and Minami moved to hold him from behind. Yabuki got in front of Odigiri, while Tsuchi, Take, and Hyuga moved behind him to drag him away. They were all shouting and yelling trying to keep the two apart.

"Let him go." Odigiri shouted, surprising everyone. They all stopped holding the two men and turned to look at Odigiri. "Let him go." Odigiri said more softly. When they let him go, Shin quickly got to him and grabbed him by the collar, squeezing. He was face to face with him and his chest was heaving angrily.

"I deserve to be hit or anything else he wants to do to me because I understand how he feels, and I don't blame him." He looked directly at Shin and continued. "I understand how you feel because I feel the same way. So, I don't blame you for wanting to hit me. That's what I'd want to do to you if the situation was reversed, but I didn't know what else to do. It might have been … it was my last chance to let her know my feelings. I was planning to do like you decide on my future, become successful, and then confess, but I didn't have four years like you to do it. That night, I followed you after you left the warehouse." He said quietly and turned away and looked down. Shin had relaxed his grip at first when he heard they shared similar feelings but tightened it again when he heard he had been followed.

"I heard what she said to you, that you should have at least said something to her. So, the next day I had to take my chance. I didn't know what else to do since she hadn't made a choice yet. But she set me straight that day and last night too." Shin let him go and sat down.

"Ok, I'm listening, but if I don't like what I hear, I will make sure you feel my displeasure." Shin's tone was cold and tense.

Odigiri sat down thankful not to be in Shin's grip any longer, sighed, and began. "She called me two days ago and asked me to meet her. She told me she was flattered that I had a crush on her and was glad that I confessed, but her love for me was nothing more than teacher to student. And that was probably all it would ever be. She said she loves all her students the same, like a big sister or boss to henchmen or like a good friend or mentor, nothing more. So when she let me stay at her house, it was the same way she had done for Tetsu, Minoru or would do for any of her other students."

Shin was relieved but also disheartened because Odigiri confirmed what he had suspected all along. But then why did she kiss me? Shin was a mix of emotions and confusion.

Odigiri eyed Shin and saw his confusion so he said the final thing that he had been holding back. "She did say one more thing." He paused as everyone looked at him, and then told him what he had held back.

Shin looked at him. "Really?" He wasn't sure what to think now.

"Really, " Odigiri smiled.

Shin now grew impatient. He took out his phone and dialed her number, but it was engaged. Then the door to the Ramen shop opened, and it was like time stood still.

Okay, please review. Actually, I could have uploaded this sooner but I finally found HYD jdorama with English subs and watched both seasons in a couple of days. Yes, I know shame on me. Gome na. Any way, I hope this is how you would picture their meeting. Enjoy.