Yankumi's Secret

Sawada arranged to bring the phone later that night after the English midterm celebration.

But even as we caught up with the others, I could tell that it was on his mind. Who would leave their phone on our school grounds and would be referred to as Ojou?

Noda would not shut up about the fact that Fujiyama had agreed to his crazy request for a date if he passed the final with an 80% or higher. As if influenced by this, the other guys would not shut up about girls in general.

And they wondered why I didn't want to hang out with them? It was almost as bad as the girls who had never shut up about boys at my last school.

We went to a local family restaurant first and ordered dessert. Some of the others from 3-D joined us so a large group of us were making a ruckus in the back of the restaurant, probably to the chagrin of the other customers. But it didn't matter. The celebratory attitude of the guys was contagious, and I found myself having fun, despite my earlier reservations.

Uchi stole a bite of my parfait before I could stop him.

"Hey!" I protested, trying to shield it from him.

"You're so selfish!" he whined.

"Fine, give me some of yours," I demanded.

He immediately refused and I began to push against him to try to get a bite of his parfait. The rest of the guys began to cheer me on as I nearly wrestled Uchi out of the booth.

I finally claimed my bite, but not until Minami pointed out that I was practically sitting on Uchi's lap.

"You really have no shame," Minami laughed as I immediately got off.

Uchi's face was flushed and I tried to play it off like nothing happened.

"He took a bite of my parfait. It's only fair to take one back," I retorted.

But when I snuck off to the bathroom at the earliest opportunity, I found myself staring at my reflection in the mirror after I had splashed some water on my face.

Minami's words burned in my mind. I knew what Minami had left off on his sentence. I really did have no shame, for a girl. And it was true, but I felt slightly sick. Of course, part of the reason that I couldn't act "lady-like" naturally was because I lived with guys and I went to an all boys' school. But the other reason…

"Kana," Kuma's voice came from behind the bathroom door. "just letting you know that we're thinking about leaving soon."

I pulled the door open and smiled at him. "Thanks Kuma."

He beamed. From the moment he realized that he hadn't failed the entire class and Fujiyama, it was as if an enormous weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. Kuma was one of the sweetest guys ever, though I would never tell him that to his face. I made a mental note to always remember that.

We all ended up hanging out at a nearby arcade next, playing some random games and trying to win prizes.

I didn't come to arcades often, as I didn't really have a desire to spend my money on these kinds of things. A batting center, maybe, but not these kinds of games. But as I wandered through the arcade, a particular claw vending machine caught my eye. It was the type that instead of stuffed animals, had more expensive products in boxes in them.

Among the prizes was a slim silver and light blue watch. Something about it made me stop and stare. Ever since I started getting into fights, I had stopped wearing watches, and had never really wanted to, but that particular watch seemed to be both simple and elegant and necessary.

"Those machines are rigged," I heard a voice say and I tore my eyes away from the watch to look at Sawada, who stood beside me. "The watch might be worth way more than what you pay for the chance to play, but it's nearly impossible for the claw to pick up a box like that."

"It's…it's not like I wanted it really," I said, looking away. I was embarrassed that I had been caught staring at it.

"You do have a girly side after all," was all he said as he walked on. It seemed like a nonchalant comment coming from Sawada, but a part of me wondered if he had said to make up for what Minami said earlier, about me having no shame.

My thoughts were interrupted by Uchi, who ran up to us to say, "Hey, we decided to go to karaoke next!"

"I have to go home," I said immediately. There was no way in hell I was going to sing.

"I have to pass too," Sawada said, just as Uchi began to protest. "I have to do something tonight."

"Do you have to go?" Uchi asked both of us.

I nodded and cringed internally as I said, "I have a curfew you know…"

He couldn't argue with that.

"Are you going to deliver the phone now?" I asked Sawada once we were outside and he nodded.

"…want to come?" he asked. "I know you just wanted to escape karaoke."

I didn't know how he knew but I had nothing better to do. Shun had given me the entire day off, and I didn't want to go back just yet. "Why not," I said.

But I soon came to regret it as we wandered deeper into the hills north of the town. Everything seemed darker, and we didn't even know if we were going the right way. Sawada kept referring to a piece of paper on which he had jotted down notes on how to get to their home.

"Who even lives up here?" I wondered out loud.

"Remind me why we're even delivering the phone?" Sawada muttered as we walked through the streets.

"You're the one agreed," I pointed out. He rolled his eyes at me.

"Why did you come anyways?" he asked me.

"Come on, aren't you curious to see who this "Ojou" is. I mean, who goes around being called "Ojou"?

"Don't be too excited. It might be a Ginza hostess or something."

"But the only hostess at our school was Fujiyama and she was definitely not good enough to be 'Ojou'…unless there's another one!" I said.

Before Sawada could answer, we came to a stop in front of the gates of a large traditional-style house. I stared up at the grand architecture and shuddered slightly. It gave off a formidable vibe.

The phone rang once more and Sawada picked up.

"We're in front of your house now," Sawada answered and hung up. "Well…here we go," he said and began to walk through the gates.

He suddenly came to a stop and I almost crashed into him.

"Watch where you're…" I trailed off when I saw what had made him stop. The nameplate by the door read Oeda Household.

"Oeda…"

The Oeda Household was a clan in the yakuza* that had been in this town for several generations, according to rumors. I knew that they existed, but I had never come in contact with anyone that was part of the yakuza in my life and I didn't plan to.

Just as I was about to turn to Sawada and ask to leave, he looked down at the cell phone and examined it. When he turned it over, a small purikura* sticker of an all too familiar face smiled up at us. I gripped my school bag tighter in shock.

"Yankumi?" he muttered.

Two men stumbled out of the doorway to greet us. We stared at them.

"Thank you so much," the skinny one said bowing, who I guessed was Tetsu.

"Ah, aren't they Ojou's students?" the other, a shorter bigger bald man, asked maybe-Tetsu, who slapped him on the head.

"Stupid!" maybe-Tetsu scolded. They looked over at us and stiffened when they saw our stares.

"Ojou?" Sawada asked. In his hand, Yankumi's picture smiled at us hauntingly.

The two led us inside, though I noticed maybe-Tetsu's reluctance. I was every bit as reluctant too, but there was no turning back now. I couldn't think of a good enough excuse. Baldy insisted that we couldn't leave without a proper repayment of our good deed. The interior of the roomy house was no less traditional than its exterior, and I would have marveled at its design were it not for our situation at hand. We were seated at a low table on a tatami floor and were told to wait there.

Sawada kept glancing at me, as if to make sure he wasn't dreaming. As for me, I was furious at myself for taking up Sawada's offer to come here. I'd rather face Shun's temper any day than the yakuza.

Just leave as little of an impression as possible and get out, I kept telling myself. I found my palms already clammy from sweating so hard.

But then again, what was with this whole deal with Yankumi?

We both kept shifting in our seats, uncomfortable from kneeling seiza-style.

The two came back, bringing two other older men with them. I learned that the skinny one was indeed Tetsu, and Baldy's name was Minoru.

"We really don't know how to repay you for delivering the phone all the way here," the man that introduced himself as Wakamatsu said. The other, Makoto, sat beside him and nodded. Tetsu stood nervously behind them.

"No need," Sawada and I replied quickly.

"Here it is!" Minoru said, bringing a package. I recognized it as bottles of wine.

"Sorry it's not much, but this is our gratitude," Wakamatsu said, holding it out to us.

I glanced at Sawada. What do we do? What if we refused it and they cut out our tongues or something?

"No thank you," Sawada said. "We are, after all, minors."

They blinked at us, and then,

"Minoru!" Wakamatsu shouted. "How can we give this to them?!"

I jumped a little in my seat. I was surprised that Sawada was so blunt.

"Um," Sawada spoke up, surprising all of us.

"Yeah?" all four men asked immediately.

"Who's the person on the cell phone purikura?"

"Oh, it's a distant relative of an acquaintance," Tetsu responded after a pause. "Yeah, she left it here."

"We've never even met her," Makoto added.

"But didn't you say earlier…something about Ojou's students?" I asked, then immediately regretted it. Why are you asking the yakuza questions?! But seriously, this was so weird.

Instead of getting angry, though, they gave us panicked looks until Tetsu, once again, spoke up and said, "You must have misheard us!"

"Let it go," we heard a voice say.

I turned toward the speaker and couldn't help staring. An elderly gentleman, wearing a traditional kimono, walked into the room. The other men bowed, calling him "Boss", and made room for him to sit in front of us. This man, this was the leader of the Oeda Household.

"Let's not tell foolish lies. These students have already figured it out for themselves," he said, gesturing towards us. He sat in front of us and we straightened up, knowing that we were in front of an important and dangerous man.

"Simply as the man before you, I have a favor to ask. Kumiko is my granddaughter, which makes her the 4th generation heir of this clan. Like her father, she has chosen to become a school teacher, and she gives it her all every day. I am not going to forbid you from telling of her background to anyone. However, if you see Kumiko as a worthy teacher, I ask you to keep this information within yourselves. I believe that if her background becomes public knowledge, it has the potential to get her fired," he explained to us. He bowed deeply, as the other men followed suit.

Sawada and I politely bowed back, speechless.

"Wow," was all I could say after we had walked a ways away from Yankumi's house.

"Yeah," Sawada said. There really wasn't any way to express what we had just learned. Yankumi…yakuza?

"At least we know where she learned to fight," I remarked. I knew that no dorky teacher like her could ever have those skills unless she had trained somewhere, and this clarified everything.

"…I don't know about you, but I'm thinking about keeping her secret," he said.

I thought about it for a minute before nodding. "Yeah, it'd be pretty boring if she got fired," I said.

"Yeah."

"Seriously though, out of all the teachers to have a secret like that, it's Yankumi?"

"…I think we all have secrets we'd rather not have others find out," Sawada said. I turned to look at him. "You have one too, don't you?"

I looked away. Why did he always seem to be able to see right through me?

"It's okay. It's not like I want to know," he said. "But if you want Uchi and the others to stop worrying, you have to be a better at hiding the fact that you're hiding something."

"Fine," I said. "…okay, see you tomorrow," I added abruptly, seeing a familiar landmark. We were back in the part of town that I knew and I was not willing to continue this conversation.

After I walked away from him, I realized that I had just admitted to him that I was hiding something from them. He was right. If I really wanted to guard my secret, I need to be better about it. But why was he helping me lie to the others? I thought about what he had said. By "we all having secrets", did that include himself?

The moment I set foot in the house, lost in my thoughts, I felt an arm grab me and pin me to the wall. Shun. My back hit the hard rough surface with an agonizing thud.

"Where were you?!" he shouted, hands fisting my collar.

I stared at him. He seemed…a different kind of angry.

"I…I was hanging out…with Sawada…I'm sorry, it got late…"

"Did anything happen? Why didn't you pick up your phone?"

I couldn't tell him that I had been in no position to check my phone because I had been visiting the Yakuza.

"No, nothing happened," I said finally. "I just didn't check my phone is all…"

His grip loosened and he turned away from me.

"Why? Did something happen?" I demanded.

"Some stupid kids thought it'd be funny to go around with metal sticks and bang up random people with them. It's happened more than once already," he explained gruffly without looking at me. "Thought you got caught up in their game or something. I'm having Chiba check it out, to see who they are and stuff."

I didn't know what to say. Was he worried about me? Sure, we all cared about each other. But not getting a lot of affection growing up, each of us didn't know how to express it, if this could even be called affection.

"I'll be careful," I promised.

He turned and I saw that his eyes had softened. He hit me gently on the head.

"Remember that you're a girl, okay? I know you're tough, but don't forget that."

"Okay," I said quietly. Shun seemed surprised. When he would remind me that I was a girl, even if he was just teasing, I would usually fight back. But he didn't push it this time.

"How was your test?" he asked me.

I had completely forgotten about it, after all the stuff with Yankumi and all. "Oh…we all passed."

"Really," Shun said. "That's pretty amazing."

"Yeah," I said. "Yeah it is."

I went to my room and luckily didn't see anyone on the way.

Minami's comment about me having no shame and Shun's reminder that I was indeed a girl made me feel confused. Because of the way that I acted, the guys would often forget that I was a girl, but as a girl, I needed to be aware that no matter how tough and non-girly I acted, it didn't change the fact that I could be targeted for certain things simply because of my gender. How would I reconcile those two ideas?

I realized suddenly that Yankumi must have gone through something like this. The guys in her clan were all older, so she must have had some sort of "protection" growing up; yet she also knew how to fight. And if she did end up quitting teaching to take up her position as the heir, she would have to convince the male-dominant Yakuza that she was worthy.

But there was no way I would talk to Yankumi about this. To do that, I would have to reveal my secret and the fact I knew hers. And that wasn't about to happen, not if I could help it.

The next morning, I met up with the guys in front of school. Sawada nodded at me, which was surprising because he usually didn't acknowledge me.

Minami had his arms wide open at a group of girls.

"What are you doing?" Uchi asked.

"Ah~ Momoyuri's girls are the best!" Minami shouted in their direction.

"But, they all act like goody two shoes so they're boring," Uchi said. I nodded in agreement.

"That was my school, remember?" I said.

By this time, the girls had all turned, murmured "Shirokin" to each other, and began to run.

"AH! They all saw our faces and are running away!" Noda said, panicking and discouraged.

"We don't need you!" Uchi shouted at the fleeing girls in a childish voice. I began to laugh.

"But there was this one cute girl, right Shin?" Minami said, turning to Sawada.

"Not interested," Sawada said.

"You know, I've been meaning to ask…are you normal?" Minami said to him.

"Ohayo!" Yankumi hollered, jumping in front of us before Sawada could answer. "Isn't it a wonderful day?"

Sawada stared at her, as I did likewise. This was the 4rd generation heir of the Oeda clan?

"Huh? Why are you staring at me?" Yankumi asked him, blushing. "Oh, don't tell me you-"

"Don't even think about it," he cut in.

"Say, Yankumi, don't you have a teacher's meeting before school?" Minami asked.

"AHH! I forgot! Don't be late to class guys!" she shouted before taking off.

"Never changes, does she?" Noda remarked, laughing.

I just looked away. It was too hard to believe. Yankumi as the next Oeda leader? What a joke.

Author's Note:

*purikura: shortened version of "print club", which is just supposed to be a photo booth where you take pictures and you can draw on it and print it out
*yakuza: the Japanese mafia

Hello! Thanks for reading my story.

So I've been really thinking about this, and maybe it's something that would have been glossed over completely if I hadn't mentioned it, but I've been trying to figure out the appropriate timeline for this story.

Each season of Gokusen takes place over the course of 3 months, even if Yankumi ends up teaching the entire year. But I feel weird about having all the events of the drama take place over the first 3 months of her teaching (so roughly April to July) and then having this huge gap and then the graduation part.

So I've decided to instead fill the story with extra "episodes" about 3-D's shenanigans and have the events of the drama span the entire school year.

I know it's hard to imagine when it hasn't been written out like that yet, but let me know what you think.

I really appreciate each and every one of you! Thank you for your support!

Happy (early) Veteran's Day!

- Reisa