Title:  Post-Secondary
Author: MK
Pairing: Sawada Shin x Yamaguchi Kumiko
Fandom: Gokusen
Theme: #6, The space between dream and reality 
Disclaimer: I don’t own Gokusen - I just really like messing with Yankumi.

	Yankumi stared out over the class, unseeing.  There was only a month and a half 
left of this year, and then (if they managed to pass) all of 3-D would finally graduate high 
school - something the Head Teacher claimed was impossible, but Yankumi had fought 
hard for.  Kuma intended to go to culinary school, Uchi wanted to get steady work as a 
salary man to help support his mom, and Minami already had a hook-up through his 
Grandfather’s resort in Osaka.  But Shin was a problem.  

	She had been exhausted during the parent-teacher conferences, but she 
remembered well enough Shin’s sudden appearance, his sharp statement about his 
future career being undecided, and his rapid retreat.  What happened afterwards was a 
moot point.  Shin had said he had no real plans for the future, but Grandfather and Kyo-
san were looking at him as a successor to someone. (Who, she had no idea. Maybe of 
the Tenkai Kouchou? He didn’t have any kids, so it was possible, and it would maintain 
strong relations between the two clans...)  

	But taking over a Yakuza group wasn’t something you did after learning how to 
fight and how to deal with the Kumi.  Yankumi knew better than anyone.  Yes, she 
wanted to be a teacher, but it was inescapable that she would still have to take 
responsibility for the Ooedo group on occasion - things like accounting and dealing with 
the cops.  That was the other reason she had gone to teacher’s college and studied so 
hard - somebody had to be able to deal with things like that when Grandfather was 
gone.  If Shin thought he could succeed someone like the Tenkai Kouchou with just a 
highschool diploma, he was dead wrong.  

		“Oi, Sawada,” she spoke up. She could just see where his head lay on his 
arm around Kuma, “See me after class.”  And then she frowned some more, partly 
because Shin had barely reacted to her statement, partly because if Fujiyama had said 
the exact same thing, hooting would have errupted, and partly because of Shinohara.  A 
few hours at the bar with him had severely affected her, and she’d only drank a beer 
and a half.  

	Her consciousness was playing tug-of-war with her insides, and Yankumi knew 
that the state she was in was when a fighter was at  their weakest.  Certainly she 
wanted to tease Tetsu for having an admirer, and then ruffle his hair a little because she 
was happy for him, and he deserved it so much.  But she also had the urge to go off 
somewhere isolated and just beat the crap out of something until she broke down for 
awhile, because Shinohara had genuinely had a thing for her (and she’d thought it had 
been hopeless with competition like Fujiyama and Nakashima) and... and she had lost 
out, totally and completely.  

	And then there was Shin.  She wasn’t sure what was going on, what he was 
doing or intended to do but he was confusing the hell out of her.  Successor to a clan? 
Practically family of Kuroda Ryuuichirou? Won over Kyo in a single night?  It wasn’t 
normal. It wasn’t normal for someone to kiss her.  It wasn’t normal for someone to treat 
her the way he did, and maybe that was equally as frustrating.  She didn’t know how to 
act, and it made her angry now that she thought about it.  

	“Oi, Yankumi! What, are you PMSing or something?” Noda had made a fatal 
mistake.  Yankumi slowly turned to face him, fixing him with the look. “O-Oi! Don’t make 
your devil-face!”

	“You say something, Noda?”

	“N..No!”

	“Good.” Yankumi paused, cocking her head towards the door just as the bell 
rang. “Then get outta here.”  There was a mass-shuffling of desks and chairs, bodies 
rushing out the door until she was left alone with Shin again, who stretched his arms up 
above his head before casually making his way up to the front, swinging a chair out to 
sit backwards on it facing her.  Stupid Shin.  He didn’t even react.  She hated herself for 
being like this, but she couldn’t stop it, either.  

	“So?” 

	“So you still haven’t listed your plans for after you graduate. And don’t tell me 
you’re planning to join the Yakuza, because I can’t put that down on your form and you 
know it.”  She scowled at him again.  

	He tilted his head back, his neck a smooth pale stretch above the high collar of 
the school uniform and hummed low in his throat for a second before facing her again.  
“I guess I’ll take business classes,” he said finally, f rustrating her further.  Why couldn’t 
he just be a jerk so she could yell at him and get this out of her system?! Why did he 
always have to be so damned calm?

	He grinned then, cockily.  “I have a paper due tomorrow, so I can’t train tonight.  
Give Kyo a good beating - he needs the exercise and you need the fight.”  And she 
didn’t have anything to say.  He leaned forward, tugged the elastics from her hair and 
ran a hand down through it flat. “It’s cute. You slip into your accent when you’re mad,” 
he grinned again then left without a backwards glance, and Yankumi felt something 
drain out of her.

	“Damnit.”