first encounter
I don't own gokusen but i do own this fic! yipee! this is a shinkumi saga so i hope you'll like reading it. dont forget to leave a comment! read on!
will it be choice - or chance - that will determine your destiny?"
Prologue
Yankumi found herself standing alone in the roof top. She was in a state of shock. After what just happened, she was speechless. It was if her whole body was paralyzed. Then reality smacked her from nowhere. She looked down on the floor and then turned to the door.
What just happened?
For long years of experience and training skills, this was a moment that Yankumi was not able to hold her ground. It was a bizarre feeling and not a single a word could define it. It was unexplainable. A tingling sensation that runs through your skin and right through your bones and muscles.
Am I dreaming?
No. It couldn't be. I'm still awake. Aren’t I?
The blue sky has started to fade. The sun was nowhere to be found. The night has swallowed everything around her. Yankumi, on the other hand, did not notice the time. She was standing there for so long figuring out what happened. When suddenly the rooftop door opened.
“Ms.Yamaguchi, what are you still doing here in school? All the teachers and students went home already. I happen to see your bag lying on your table. Are you making any troubles again?” It was the vice-principal with his dignified and distinguished pose. He was rattling about Yankumi staying after classes in the school ground. But Yankumi was too pre-occupied to answer all the vice-principles queries. She answered them all with a nod, symbolizing her apology.
The vice-principal was surprised at Yankumi. He guessed that she was not herself that afternoon and so he backed out a little and opened the door for her. The vice-principal knows when to stop nagging people when he sees one.
“Well better go home, Ms.Yamaguchi. I don’t wanna you to be late for your class tomorrow.”
Yankumi walked down the hall while staring the ground then proceeded to the faculty room to take her things. She surveyed the room and was sure that she was now the only person in the campus. The vice-principal had already left the building after telling her to go home.
In a split second, Yankumi was home at last. Too much thinking leads her journey home fast. It was a good thing that she didn’t walk the wrong side of the street or else, she was definitely late for tomorrow.
She was then greeted by her faithful subordinates.
“Welcome home, Ojou-san!” Minoru and Tetsu spoke in synchronize.
Again, she bowed to them and gave a slight smile but never spoke a word. The two did not notice Yankumi strange aura but the great Ojii-san, Yankumi’s grandfather, who was reading the newspaper in the living room, sensed the oddness in Yankumi.
Hmm…I guess my kumiko had a long day. Better leave her for now.
Ojii-san, who knows Yankumi than any person, was a man of few words. Respected and admired. Even though he was the third-generation (and probably the last) of the Oedo clan, and his age was not getting any younger, his mind and spirit was still burning like a burning bush. For he knows that Yankumi, when she has used all her resources and nothing left, will come to his grandfather for guidance. And Ojii-san will always be waiting for her.
Yankumi opened the door to her room and directly dropped like a log in her bed. She was still wearing her track suit that she used the whole day. Sweat and dirt was visible but she didn’t care. For the whole afternoon, she never cared. Her eyes looked up to the ceiling as if waiting for something to fall. Probably a piano or an anchor. But there was nothing coming. Lucky her.
She slowly closed her eyes trying to shove the feeling she had since the event. Yes. The event.
“Ojou-san, dinner is ready. Would you like to come down now?” Minoru was knocking the door bit by bit so as not to aggravate or anger her boss. The last time he knocked abruptly at Yankumi’s door, he found himself having one black-eye, bleeding gums, contusion all over his body, an almost-broken humerus that almost-needed a cast, and a swollen face that looked already swollen because he was just a huge guy. The last thing he wants was lying in a hospital bed with a cervical collar on his neck.
No sound.
Yankumi who was lost in her thought and was in her world of her own did not hear a thing. Her eyes were still shut. The sound of the ticking clock suddenly stopped. Minoru’s voice has faded away. She felt that everything around was all black. Nothing to hear and nothing to see. Then she saw something in a very distant that gradually approached her and consumed the whole place. It was the school’s rooftop. It was definitely a dream but it looked so real. The long plastic chair where the 3D boys usually stay to take their lunch break was there. But for now it was empty. Yankumi noticed something else. A red-headed boy was leaning over the rails and his back facing her. The red-headed boy turned to her and looked at her very intently. His eyes were fixed at her. Not the usual boring and uninterested look.
“Hey, what are you still doing here?” he asked in his usual monotonous voice.
Yankumi was stunned. But as her normal reflex, she answered him.
“Shouldn’t I be the one asking you that?” right back at you.
The moment was familiar. Am I having a déjà vu?
But her thoughts swift away and her attention diverted to the red-headed boy.
“All the students left the school ground 30 minutes ago. And by the way, you didn’t attend my homeroom class again. You know, attending some of the class wouldn’t kill you. I always give extra points to students for attendance!” Yankumi exclaimed in her bubbly cheerful voice. She was in her good mood, being optimistic was something she always had.
The red-headed boy raised one of his eyebrows as if couldn’t believe that Yankumi was still lecturing him in coming to class again. She was like a broken record. Every day after class, since the day she came to work as their teacher, she never misses to give him a speech or a declamation.
I really need to shut her up. If only I had earpieces stick to my ears all the time…
Please, let the pain stop… please…
Yankumi was now holding her fist up high and delivering speeches that the youth of today shall be the future of tomorrow. Now, her back was facing him. While she was looking at the distant sky and mumbling about the beauty of education, the red-headed boy was walking towards her. Yankumi, on the other hand, was busy with her speech. Until…
What the…
He suddenly grabbed her left shoulder making her turn to him. And she almost lost her balance but luckily he held her back preventing her from falling to the ground. The next thing she knew, her face was an inch to his. They kissed. Their lips touched. It was soft and gentle regardless of how they end up in that kind of stance. Their body was so close making each other scents visible. Yankumi’s eyes widely opened.
They didn’t saw that coming.
The red-headed boy moved backward but making sure Yankumi was standing. He was able to contain his composure even though at first, he was as surprised as Yankumi. Fortunately, Yankumi didn’t saw that because she was still trying to feel her body and trying to grasp what just happened.
Both them was now facing each other. No one moved even a single twitch. Silence filled the air.
Maybe I should start talking. I am his teacher, besides what he did was wrong. Kids make wrong mistakes these days… thoughts were hurdling in Yankumi’s mind.
In a count of three. One… Two... Three!
“I should go.” the red-headed boy spoke.
What?
he looked away when she looked at himand then he shoved his hair that was obstructing his face and tried to fix it in a subtle manner.
Yankumi was furious but no words came out from her mouth. All she could say to herself-
Damn you kid. Aren’t you even gonna say your sorry?!
But no. no sorry was able to redeem him. Yankumi just stood there as the red-headed boy passed her side and walked away. The door creaked open and then it shut. I guess that’s how she ended that way. Flabbergasted, paralyzed and frozen. At that moment, the whole place - the chair and the entire rooftop - was somewhat suctioned by a small hole at a corner. And everything turned black again. She was back to her old room.
Yankumi was awake. She could now hear the ticking sound of the clock.
And finally she spoke. “Baka…”
“You’ll pay for this, Shin Sawada. I’ll make sure you will.”