Disclaimer: Gokusen belongs to Morimoto Kozueko, which clearly shows that I own absolutely nothing. All I own is my own characters and the plot. Also, this is based on Gokusen 2, but characters from Gokusen 1 will be present in the story. Oh, I also decided to add one or two details I found out while watching Gokusen III.

Title: Follow Our Memories

Rating: T

Genres: Drama, Romance, Friendship, Family, Humour, Angst

Warnings: Language

Summary:"Why did you run away?" Shin asked, but when she refused to answer, he sighed, "Kumiko, why did you run away?" "You asked me to marry you! That's why!"

Authoress' Note: This story follows Stories of Ourselves. It will be shorter, but I thought it would be nice to give an idea about what happened to the characters ever since they separated. This actually happens a few years after Stories of Ourselves. Therefore, this story happens after Gokusen II, and it includes characters from Gokusen I. I also want to apologize for the errors you'll find; since English is my second language, it's rather hard for me to correct all of the mistakes that I leave on every page before posting the new chapter.

Follow Our Memories

"Welcome back, I'm home

It's alright because you are here

Welcome back, sweet home

Keep waiting, because I'm arriving soon

Sweet home"

Ayaka - Okaeri

Prologue

How long has it been ever since they had been forced to say goodbye? How much time had passed ever since she had last written him a letter, rambling about how her new class was as troublesome as the two others she had taught before? How long ago had she had been forced to run away from him?

Approximately four years.

It was ironic though, how she feared nothing, and yet she had felt the need to run away from a twenty-two year old, and all because of one simple question… One question she had been expecting to hear all her life, but truth was that she had never expected to be his lips the ones that would utter it...

It had not been the question itself what had scared her, and she could admit that without any sort of embarrassment, but it had been the person who had asked it that had forced her body to freeze in shock, horror, astonishment, exhilaration and panic. She had always expected many things from him, but never that.

And that was why she had run away from him.

After all, how could he expect for things to work when there were so many reasons for it to go wrong? In fact, why had he even considered the possibility of something happening between the two of them, when there were so many things that simply did not fit?

He had said it himself; she was going to be their homeroom teacher forever and ever. And that was the main reason why she could not understand his behaviour. He knew that she still considered him as her student. He knew she would always see their friendship as the result of the teacher/student relationship that they had had in the past.

And that had been the reason…

That had been the 'why' behind her fleeing actions…

But no matter how many times she kept telling herself that she had done the right thing…no matter how hard she thought that their relationship could never go beyond companionship, she knew he would never forgive her.

And the worst of it all was that she knew she would never forgive herself either.

"A girlfriend? Really?" Yamaguchi Kumiko asked, completely flabbergasted, and Uchiyama Haruhiko hissed for her to quiet down at same time he glanced around, almost as if he wanted to make sure that no one had heard the announcement.

"Well, finally!" Kumiko laughed at Uchiyama's inhibited behaviour, but her former student sighed when he understood that she was not going to lower the tone of her voice, "I'm so happy for you! Who is she? Do I know her? Is she pretty? C'mon, tell me everything!"

"Ah, just calm down already," Uchiyama mumbled before sinking further on his chair, but Kumiko simply smiled widely at him, "Man, I don't even know why I told you about all this. I should have known you'd react like this…"

"Now it's too late for regrets," Kumiko teased still with the smile on her face, and Uchiyama sighed heavily. "So, c'mon, let's start with her name, age, and how you two met. C'mon, c'mon, don't leave me in suspense!"

"What's this? Some sort of interview?" Uchiyama asked under his breath, but when he noticed Kumiko's eager expression, he straightened up on his chair, "Her name is Hiratsuka Mizuki. She's twenty-four, and Noda was actually the one who introduced us."

"Well, Noda always had a sixth sense when it comes to romance." Kumiko pointed out, and Uchiyama chuckled, "When did you guys meet? I mean, last time I saw you, you didn't tell me anything about her."

"We've known each other for over two years now, actually." Uchiyama replied, and Kumiko's eyes widened at that, "And before you ask, it's not as if I have to tell you about who my friends are, or if I befriended someone who could possibly become my girlfriend in the future."

"Fine, fine, I won't ask anything else." Kumiko replied as she raised her hands in the air in surrender, but when Uchiyama breathed out in relief, she smiled shyly at him, "Ne, when and how did you ask her to go out with you?"

"Sorry I'm late!" a voice exclaimed suddenly, and both Kumiko and Uchiyama watched as Noda Takeshi rushed to their table before sitting down beside Uchiyama, breathing heavily. "The traffic at this hour is absolutely dreadful!"

As she watched Noda and Uchiyama talking about some random topic, Kumiko felt her smile diminish a little. Ever since she had returned from Africa that her first students had decided to come up with something that could oblige all of them to meet up once in a while. Noda had been the one to come up with the idea of them having dinner at least twice per month, and Uchiyama had decided that Friday nights' were perfect for the event.

At the beginning many had participated in it, but for a long time only Uchiyama, Noda and Kumiko herself seemed to have enough time to show up. Kumiko did not understand what had happened exactly, but she guessed that life could be greedy sometimes.

She was aware that Kumai Teruo was quite busy with his restaurant, and therefore was unable to show up, while Yabuki Hayato was active taking over his own business. He had actually surprised everyone when he had come up with the idea of joining forces with Kumai, and he quickly created a coffee-shop just beside Kumai's restaurant; they had inclusively put a door on the wall that separated their shops, and started working as a team.

After all, Hayato had been quite clever by recalling that most people enjoyed drinking some coffee after lunch, and that had been the main reason why he had decided to team up with Kumai. This way, they could help one another, and profit together.

"Oi!" a voice greeted suddenly, and Kumiko looked to her side when she heard Uchiyama and Noda greet someone. It was with a blink that she spotted Tsuchiya Hikaru and Takeda Keita standing next to her, both with wide smiles on their faces.

Despite of everything they had said and done during their time in High School, both Tsuchiya and Keita were currently studying, though the former was studying at night. Tsuchiya was in fact working at the arcade game, since the Joyful Company had decided to give him an opportunity to show if he was worthy of the job or not. For what Kumiko had heard, Tsuchiya was working at the arcade-game for almost two years.

"What are you two doing here?" was the first thing that left Kumiko's lips, and the two boys turned to her. "I thought you guys wouldn't be able to come because of school. I hope you did all of your homework before coming here."

"Aw Yankumi, have a heart, it's Friday after all." Tsuchiya replied as he walked behind his teacher, and sat down on the vacant chair next to her. Keita, on the other hand, sat beside Uchiyama after a small nod in greeting. "Let's not talk about school over dinner."

"Fine by me, Uchiyama was just telling me about his girlfriend anyway." Kumiko retorted with a small shrug, but she could not help but smile when she saw Uchiyama's mortified look. Both Tsuchiya and Keita immediately turned to the older boy, and started asking all sort of questions while Noda simply laughed at the situation.

Unfortunately, the boys were unable to tease Uchiyama for long due to the sudden appearance of the waiter, who courteously asked what they wanted. After informing the employee about what they wanted, and watched him leave, everyone turned to each others, this time in silence. A silence that was broken when Noda suddenly glanced at Kumiko, and cleared his throat.

"Yankumi, I have a question for you." he started, and the only woman sitting on that table felt her heart skipping a beat. Oh she knew the tone and the look that Noda had on his face too well… "I'll understand if you refuse to answer it, but I have to ask."

Oh dear, he was going to ask her about what had happened all those years ago. She should have known that one could only wait that much. Noda had actually surprised her for waiting so long to question her about what had happened in the past, but now everything was going to surface, and there was no way she could escape from it.

"Do you know what happened to Z?"

"W-What?" was Kumiko's bright reply, and Noda sighed before repeating the same question again, a solemn expression on his face. By now, everyone else was either gazing at Noda or staring at her, waiting to hear what she had to say.

Z-chan or Sawada Mariko, Sawada Shin's cousin…

"Ah, you want to know about Mariko-chan!" Kumiko breathed in relief, ignoring the confused looks that took over all the boys' faces, and she quickly smiled. "I was with Mariko-chan last week actually; she went to visit me, and we talked for a while."

"Say, you don't know what may be wrong with her, do you?" Noda asked before nudging Uchiyama on the arm, "Uchi and I have been trying to contact her, to see if we can talk about a few things, but she rarely replies to us and when she does, she says she's too busy to meet us."

"Well, she is a university student." Kumiko stated with a short nod, and while Noda rolled his eyes, Uchiyama rested his elbows on the table. Before he could part his lips to speak, however, the waiter returned with their drinks.

"Still, I'm sure you know something that can explain her behaviour." Noda continued as Uchiyama thanked the waiter, who bowed before leaving, and this time both Tsuchiya and Keita shared a look. "You and her have been behaving quite strangely lately, and the only person who can actually explain what has been going on to us refuses to give us an explanation."

"I imagine you're referring to…Sawada." Kumiko finished, feeling a knot on her throat, and both Noda and Uchiyama nodded. "Well, I think you're just overreacting; Mariko-chan's fine, just like I am. And Sawada probably doesn't explain anything to you because there's nothing to explain."

"You can keep telling yourself that, but we know you and we know when you're lying." Uchiyama declared, and Kumiko felt her heart skip another beat, "We aren't teenagers anymore, and we both agree that something happened between you and Shin. You barely talk about him ever since you returned from Africa, and mind you that was years ago."

"T-That's not true, I do ask about him." Kumiko disagreed as she shook of her head, and both Uchiyama and Noda shared a look before turning to her while chorusing a sarcastic 'right'. "It's true!"

"Either way, we both know that something is going on around here," Noda continued as he raised a hand slightly in the air, and Kumiko rested both her hands on her lap before entwining her fingers in nervousness. "We may know not what happened between you and Shin nor about what happened to Z, but you can bet that we're going to find out."

"And you know that whenever we try to snoop, we end up finding many, many interesting things…" Uchiyama trailed off, leaving a hint of a threat hanging in the air right when the waiter returned with some of their meals.

As the boys welcomed their foods with delight, Kumiko dropped her head, her knuckles now turning white. She knew it would be foolish not to take Uchiyama's words seriously, but truth was that she did not want them to find out what had happened. She knew there was only one other person who knew about what had happened, but Kumiko knew for a fact that that same person would not say a word about it.

"You know, now that you mentioned Mariko-chan, I believe I know what's going on with her." Keita began as soon as everyone started eating, and four pair of eyes turned to him in anticipation, "And if I'm not mistaken, it involves Hayato and Ryu."

Kumiko stepped out of the restaurant, and breathed in when a fresh summer breeze blew her hair away. Uchiyama, Noda, Tsuchiya and Keita were right behind her, talking animatedly about a group of girls that had entered inside the restaurant while they were still eating. She did not mind hearing them speaking about girls, and ignoring her as they did so; she was more than used to it.

However, truth was that at the moment Kumiko could not help but wish for some company, preferably female. That way she could try to take her mind off things, especially about Sawada Shin. Only heavens knew when Noda and Uchiyama found it necessary to mention the said young adult every time they opened their mouths to say something.

Ah, all she wanted was to talk to someone about something that did not involved Sawada Shin!

"Alright, I don't know what about you guys, but I'm going home." Kumiko finally spoke up as she twirled around to face the four young men who were still talking excitedly behind her, but they quieted down a little at her announcement. "It was nice seeing you again, Tsuchiya, Takeda; I hope school isn't too rough."

"Bah, if we managed to survive when you were our teacher, then everything else is piece of cake." Tsuchiya joked, but Kumiko simply raised an eyebrow at his words before slapping him not so gently on the arm.

"Thank you for the company, Yankumi." Keita said in his tender tone, and Kumiko was unable to resist, and she smiled sweetly at him. "I hope we can do this again soon. I never knew how much I missed this until tonight."

"All in due time, all in due time…" Noda replied with a short nod, and Keita turned to him before returning the nod, "But that doesn't mean we can't meet on the meantime, and go for a coffee or something."

"We can always go visit Hayato one of these days," Tsuchiya nodded, and everyone immediately started talking about that idea, except for Kumiko, who was watching her students interacting. It was nice to see that despite of the age difference, they managed to get along quite well.

"Well guys, like I said, it's time for me to go home." Kumiko announced again, and the four young men turned to her again, "Don't stay out for too long even though it's Friday night. Uchiyama, remember your mother is waiting for you at home, and Noda, you have some to study for some exams, don't you?"

"Yes, mum." both young men chorused, which resulted in Kumiko punching them not-so-lightly on their arms while both Tsuchiya and Keita chuckled.

"Stop teasing me, or else…" Kumiko raised her fist as she trailed off, but she smiled when both Noda and Uchiyama sighed before nodding, "Great! Just make sure you don't get into any sort of trouble. I'll see you guys later!"

After biding farewell, Kumiko started walking around, her smile vanishing as each new step took her further away from her former students. No matter how hard she tried, she just could not forget the moment when both Noda and Uchiyama had tried to find out why she had not been asking about Shin for a while. She wondered what they would do if they were ever to find out the truth…

They would probably either applaud her for her decision, or simply start talking among one another about Shin's question. Well, all-in-all, she did not like any of those possible outcomes so she guessed she would have to try harder to behave as if nothing special had happened.

Although that was definitely easier said than done…

"Why can't things go right for once?" Kumiko groaned as she walked around a corner, and breathed in relief when she noticed that she was getting closer to her house. All she wanted was to throw herself to her bed, and sleep. Yes, because at least in her dreams she did not feel as awful as she did when awaked, even though deep down she knew she had done the right decision.

She had done the right decision…right?

To Be Continued…