Classroom Interlude

Author's Notes: Set in the drama-verse, spoilers for episode 12

Summary: When Yankumi does the unthinkable, Shin loses his temper. In a dark, abandoned classroom, he decides to teach her a lesson she won't ever forget

Rated PG-13 for smut

Yamaguchi Kumiko sat on the grassy bank of the river with her knees tucked tightly under her chin, watching the sun slowly dip past the horizon. Her cheeks, still stinging from the hot tears that had only just stopped trekking down her face, were painted orange by the orange glow of the sunset. With a trembling sigh, she pressed her forehead into her knees and bit her lip.

She could still hear their voices echoing in her mind; a chorus of young men wildly calling her name as she turned her back on them.

Exhaling, she lifted her head again to stare at the dying sun. Kumiko pushed her fingers into her scalp and raked them through her hair, painfully ripping the long strands loose from her trademark pigtails. It hurt. But it didn't seem to sting as much as the burning in her lungs and the ache in her chest.

She could still see him, his expression turning strangely desperate as he raised his voice to her for the first time since the incident with Kumai at the river. He'd called her a liar, invoked all the promises she'd made to them and she'd done nothing but turn her back to him to hide the way her face had crumpled into tears. As her unwilling feet had carried her away from them, she'd listened to his voice rise in pitch and crack with frustration as he shouted her name.

Kumiko's jaw clenched and she knocked the side of her head with a tightly closed fist. The raw ache in her chest intensified and she swallowed painfully. Slowly, she climbed to her feet, brushing the grass from her pants and pulling her bag over one shoulder. As she made her way slowly up the hill, she wondered what her family would say to awkwardly try to comfort her. Surely they had already heard the news on the television. Just imagining their forced smiles and vaguely encouraging words made her want to sink into the earth.

When her feet hit pavement, she paused, staring at the concrete through the lenses of her useless glasses. She began to walk again – but not in the direction of her home. She wandered aimlessly, watching her feet instead of her surroundings, until the city was cast in shadow, the sun having withdrawn its warmth and light for the day. Suddenly she stopped and looked up.

The tall white buildings and stern metal arch of Shirokin Academy rose in front of her, ominous in the half-light of dusk. Kumiko bit the inside of her cheek and stared. The black, iron gates had been closed and locked for hours already, shutting her out forever. Pressing her lips firmly together, she took two bounding leaps forward and vaulted over the gate, landing in a crouch on the other side.

She brushed herself off and stood, looking around. The school yard was as quiet as a grave and she shivered slightly in a chill breeze. Then, she began to walk again. By chance, the door to the cafeteria had been left unlocked and she quietly let herself in. She paced the silent corridors and found herself descending the stairs to her all too familiar class room. When she saw the small sign identifying the room as class 3-D, her eyes began to sting. But Kumiko shook her head violently and refused to let the tears fall. She closed her eyes and imagined herself sticking out her hand and whispering, "Faito-Oh" as she had done for the past few months every morning. There was no point to it now.

Her eyes drifted open slowly. She took the last few heavy steps to the door, her hand hesitating over the knob. Then, her fingers tightening on the strap of her bag, she pushed the door open. A strange, empty quiet greeted her as she stepped into the dim classroom, closing the door behind her. There were no riotous laughs, no coarse jokes thrown at her, no sound of paper whizzing through the air and no scraping of desks and chairs as the students milled about the room. Kumiko felt her limbs go slack and distantly acknowledged the sound of her bag hitting the floor as it slid from her arm. The room was dark, except for the streaks of moonlight from the small windows which illuminated the corners of a few desks and a spot of floor here and there. She glided across the front of the class and stopped by the wooden podium which was lit by the faint silver light of the moon. She let her fingertips slide across the varnished surface as she stepped around it, up onto the elevated platform by the blackboard. She turned to face the darkened desks and chairs, her hands running up the edges of the wooden stand. Deflated, she bowed over the podium, letting her face fall into the palm of her hand. Her breathing hitched as she fought the urge to cry.

A sudden sound from the back of the room made her jerk upright, her eyes searching the darkness.

"Oh?" A disembodied voice said, "Is this what fed-up teachers do at night?"

She recognized the disinterested tone immediately. Her eyes widening in horror at being caught, Kumiko watched as the familiar silhouette of Shin Sawada emerged from the shadows, his hands shoved deep within his pockets as he strolled slowly up the aisle. Her mouth hung open and she couldn't even manage to stutter out the most meaningless of explanations. Shin stopped his slow advance when he reached the centre of the classroom. His chin was high and his long bangs fell across his forehead as he studied her with a carefully neutral expression.

"Well?" His lips barely moved as he spoke.

Kumiko swallowed and the sound seemed too loud in her own ears. "It doesn't mean anything," she said, gripping the edges of the podium until her knuckles were white, "Just one last look at the place where I wasted three months of my life."

Shin snorted and looked away momentarily. "Liar," he said with his own special brand of quiet disdain, "Pitiful liar." He angled his face angrily, his dark eyes meeting hers.

Kumiko's lips tightened as he continued to stare at her, his eyes refusing to let her go. "You don't know anything," she said, straightening stiffly.

"Oh?" He said sarcastically, raising an eyebrow, "I don't know anything?"

"Yeah," she replied, flipping her tangled hair over one shoulder and mustering all the haughtiness she could, "I'm tired of dealing with your idiotic high school problems. There's not point in trying to teach you guys - you're all just violent, stupid, worthless thugs." She spat the last word out and looked away, blinking furiously and fighting to keep her tone condescending. "I'm tired of taking care of you idiots."

Shin said nothing, but his narrowed eyes were trained on her trembling lower lip.

"So," Kumiko said, fixing him with a cool gaze, "Just go home already and stop messing up my life, you little boy."

At that, Shin looked down and shoved his fists even deeper into his pockets. Kumiko could see his muscles tense and bunch beneath his high-collared school uniform as he struggled to steady his furious breathing.

"Is that it, then?" His voice was as low and emotionless as it always was – and to anyone else it would seem that he couldn't care less. "Kumiko Yamaguchi." His toneless voice dropped even lower as he voiced her name, the working of his jaw belying his cool composure.

"Mm," Kumiko nodded, her eyes dropping as she began to pivot away from him.

But as she steeled herself to leave, she saw Shin's head jerk up, his eyes burning with anger. Before she could force herself to move, he was already storming toward her with his fists swinging at his sides and his jaw clenched. When he slapped his palms down onto the podium, she jumped back and flinched, fully expecting him to erupt into shouting as he had done earlier in the day.

But Shin did not shout. In fact, as he leaned forward over the podium, his voice was hardly a whisper.

"You liar."

Kumiko was not even aware that she was crying until she glimpsed the drops that landed on Shin's long fingers. She glanced down, intrigued, as her tears fell in messy splatters onto the back of his hand. She attempted to smile and roll her eyes as she reached up to wipe away the hot trails from her cheeks – only for Shin to reach forward, knock her hands away and grab the lapels of her blazer with both of his hands. His knuckles were white as he pulled her forward slowly until they were nearly nose to nose. Kumiko twisted uncomfortably as she found her stomach pressed against the edge of the podium.

"Shin Sawada," she said, desperately fighting the urge to look away, "Let me go. Now."

His lips curled angrily. "Why?" His grip on her jacket tightened as his eyes searched her face. "Why would you do this?" He seemed to choke slightly on the words.

"I told you," Kumiko heard herself say coldly, "I am fed up with babysitting a bunch of no good delinquents."

He threw her backward with enough force to make her slam back against the blackboard. Stunned, she could only watch as he rounded the podium and stood over her, staring.

"Don't lie to me!" His voice accelerated to an incensed shout. "Don't you dare lie to me."

He reached down and grabbed her by the collar again, his arm tensing to haul her up. Frowning, Kumiko laid her hand gently on his wrist and then tightened her grip in warning.

Shin snorted. "What are you going to do?" He challenged, "Beat me up? Break my arm?"

Without hesitating, he pulled her up quickly and then released her so that she swayed slightly on her feet. Kumiko reached backward to steady herself on the chalk ledge of the blackboard, looking up at the young man standing so near. Shin was still standing in front of her, but he looked away for a moment, one hand jammed into his pocket and the other reaching up to run through his long hair.

"Yankumi," he said slowly, "Why should I believe that you really are abandoning the class because you're tired of us?"

"Because it's the truth."

He turned back to her and met her eyes with an appraising gaze that made her stomach drop into her toes. Shin stepped even closer and leaned in, planting his palm on the black board. Kumiko glanced nervously to the hand that was nearly touching her temple but her attention snapped forward as Shin inclined his face to hers.

"Shin," she said under her breath.

"Kumiko," he replied, the warmth of his breath spreading over her face, "Tell me what really happened."

She laughed, then, in an attempt to break the moment; to force his dark eyes away from her. She lifted a hand to wave him off so that she could duck out of the situation. But Shin's fingers latched onto her wrist, pushing her arm back and pinning it to the board behind her.

"Shin!" His name was just a sharp intake of breath on her shocked lips.

He pressed in further and Kumiko was never more aware of their discrepancy in height as he seemed to tower over her. Gently, he reached forward with his other hand to pull the glasses from her face and carelessly throw them over his shoulder. Then, his fingertips were on her face, dragging down her cheeks and across the ridge of her ear. She felt him thread his fingertips through her mussed hair and tease out the messy knots left from when she had pulled out her pigtails.

"You are always taking care of us - even when we don't want you to" he said dryly, "Why won't you let us try to help you for once?"

"It's not that simple," she began.

"I told you not to take all the blame on yourself, didn't I? Why can't you ever lean on others?"

"Are you trying to be a man?" Kumiko choked out a laugh, looking to the door, "If so, you're a hundred years to early to try pulling that on me."

"Am I?"

She nearly jumped as she felt the faint movement of his lips against her skin when he whispered."Shin." Her voice held warning, "I am your teacher-"

"Well," he said nonchalantly, pulling back to meet her surprised gaze, "Let me be the one to teach you something instead."

Without pausing, he closed the distance between them to press his lips to hers. When she opened her mouth to protest in shock, Shin swept his tongue into her mouth, deepening the kiss. His hand released her wrist and went to her hip, pulling her into his body. The fingers of his other hand worked deep into the hair at the nape of her neck, and he drew her up to him as he moved his moist lips against hers, his tongue exploring her mouth. When he pulled away to look at her, she was flushed and speechless. A corner of his mouth quirked into a smirk.

"Even a boy like me doesn't like to be dragged around like an idiot. Now," he said, tilting her chin up with his fingers, "Tell me what happened."

Momentarily stunned, Kumiko blinked slowly and ran the tip of her tongue over the edge of her bottom lip thoughtfully. But when she realized that Shin was running a fingertip along the line of her jaw, she reared back belatedly. Before she could stop herself, her hand was sailing through the air.

Shin's head snapped to the side as her palm connected with his cheek. For a moment, they both stood there, frozen; Kumiko with her arm still slightly extended and Shin turned away with a faint red imprint on his face. Then, there was a flurry of movement as Kumiko shoved Shin backward.

"I am your teacher," Kumiko hissed as she spun on her heel and stormed away, heading for the door.

"I never thought it would be that disgusting."

His disinterested tone made her stop short.

"You're not a woman after all," he said with an indifferent sigh.

Kumiko turned around slowly, her eyes murderous. He was staring back at her with those unreadable brown eyes, his head cocked to the side.

"What?" He asked, his tone taunting, "Why would you be angry about that? After all, you're just my teacher. You should be happy that I'm not at all interested in you, you old hag."

Kumiko ground her teeth together and clenched her fists so hard that her fingernails dug into her palms.

"Oh?" Shin stepped forward, his hand covering his mouth in mock surprise. "You're not hurt by what I just said, are you? I'm just your student so it shouldn't matter that I think you're completely unattractive as a woman. Right?"

"Right," Kumiko said through grit teeth.

"Good," he said as he continued to casually amble toward her, "Because I think that your chest is too flat and that your sense of style sucks and that your fighting skills make you completely unfeminine." He paused in front of her, his fingers rubbing the point of his chin thoughtfully. "Oh," he said, looking down at her, "Are you crying?"

She glared at him fiercely. "No."

"But you are, Yankumi." He touched her wet cheekbone with his fingertips. "Why is that?"

She continued to fix him with a livid stare, her eyes bright with tears.

"Oh!" Shin feigned excitement and bent forward, bringing his face level to hers. "I wonder if you're crying because you want me to like you. Teacher," he said, his tone cruel, "Do you by any chance have feelings for me?"

"You idiot!" Kumiko exploded with a shout as she spun away from him, ready to bolt for the door.

But Shin caught her upper arm and swung her around. The momentum propelled her right into his chest, her face pressed against the coolness of his jacket buttons.

"If I told you that I like strong women with athletic bodies who don't waste time on fashion, would that make you feel better?"

She couldn't see his face but his tone was as expressionless as always. So, she laughed – loudly.

"What kind of idiotic thing are you saying now, Sawada-kun?"

"You are…" He paused, running his fingers over her hair. "More than just a teacher to me."

Her breathing hitched in her throat. She tried to chuckle. "Oh I know," she said lightly, "The first adult to believe in you and so on."

He didn't answer. Instead, he let the fingers of one hand sift through her hair. The metal of his thumb ring caught one long strand and she squeaked. His arms fell away from her.

"Come here."

He took her hand in his and Kumiko let him tow her to the back of the class.

"What?" She pulled her fingers from his.

He gestured to his desk and chair. "Sit."

She sat gingerly and shifted in the wooden chair uncomfortably. "And?"

Shin lowered himself to a crouch behind her and looped an arm around her shoulders. She felt his cheek press into the juncture between her neck and shoulder.

"Do you know what I see?" He asked, his breath arm on her skin.

"A dark classroom?" She joked.

"There," he said, extending a long arm to point at the podium, "I see the place where you stood, all alone, and believed in a class that everyone else wanted to forget."

"That's-"

"Your stupid sermons, your corny jokes, your clueless idealism – we all fell for you in some way or another." He wrapped his other arm around her chest. "From here," he said, his lips at her ear, "From here I could see someone completely different from the person who abandoned us in the courtyard this morning."

"What are-"

"Someone so strong but so weak." He tucked a lock of her hair behind an ear. "So, for me – who has watched you from this spot for so long – it's easy to see that you're lying."

Kumiko stood suddenly and turned, shaking an angry finger at him. "Listen here," she said harshly, "Don't think that you can pretend to know what's going on with adults. Stop acting like you know me."

Shin shot to his feet and violently kicked the chair she had just been sitting on, sending it clattering across the floor. "Stop messing around," he shouted, gesturing angrily in the air, "You act all high and mighty but you're just a few years older than me. You think you can fool me?"

He grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her against his desk. Her hands went immediately to his chest, her fingers spread wide. He smirked and his self-confidant expression made her angry. Her fingers curled in the rough fabric of his uniform.

"Am I really nothing more than a student to you?" He drawled, his grip on her shoulders tightening. He stepped forward so that her arms were bent between them.

"It's not like you're a weak little thing." His hands slipped down her sides and she trembled. "You could force me to stop if you really wanted to."

He dropped his lips to her neck as he spoke and she could feel the curve of his grin against her skin. He flattened his palms against her hips and let them slip under her thighs, pulling her flush against him and setting her on the edge of the desk. When he pulled back to look at her face, she was unearthly pale, her eyes wide and black with desire.

Suddenly, his lips were moving on hers and it felt as if his hands were everywhere at once – pulling through her hair, caressing her face, sliding down her body, smoothing down the fine hairs that stood up on her arms. He was all fire and passion as he bent over her, working up a mad pace with his frantic kisses. He pushed his hips into her and pulled her thighs up around him as he pushed her down onto the desk, her hair spilling over the edges. Dimly, she realized that her own hands had pushed underneath his open jacket and were rubbing mad patterns against his back.

"Tell me," Shin grunted as his lips left hers momentarily. "Tell me what really happened," he demanded as his fingers explored the curve of her breast and hollow of her back.

Kumiko sighed as he pulled at her clothing and lavished searing kisses on the exposed skin. Her body thrummed with passion as she ground her centre against his, her thighs clenching around his hips. She ran her fingers through his wavy hair, her lips pressing against his forehead.

"No," she said breathlessly as he trailed kissed down the length of her neck, "I can't let them expel you all. I just can't."

Shin stilled beneath her searching hands. "So," he said quietly, "That's how they forced you to quit." He slipped out of her embrace. "Kumiko," he said, pulling her hands to his lips and gently kissing her fingers, "I can't let you quit for that reason."

"You can't do anything," Kumiko said, her voice filling with panic, "I already resigned so you can't do anything! Just leave it alone."

He offered her a half-smile and nosed forward, drinking her in with a long, languid kiss. "No," he breathed as he pressed his hips flush against hers once more, "No, I'm sorry Kumiko." He pushed her down as he kissed her, letting the tip of his tongue dance across the line of her teeth. "I just can't."

"Shin," she breathed, turning to the side as he planted passionate kisses down the column of her neck.

He pulled her up, gathering her limp limbs to himself, and traced the invisible lines with the tip of his tongue. She gasped as she felt his hands slip under her shirt and press upward.

And then, all of a sudden, she found herself crushed against his chest, his face buried in her shoulder.

"I will fix this," he said in a tone so low she barely heard him.

He pulled away quickly and Kumiko shuddered, suddenly cold without his body pressed to hers.

"And then," his eyes glinted with promise in the half-light and he stepped back, "We will finish what we started, Kumiko."

He spun and stalked out of their classroom, leaving her in the dark to collect herself. It was only the next day, when she heard his voice yelling through the speaker of her cell phone and when she saw him stand with the others against the director, that she would understand what she meant. And after, she could only wait for him to make good on the promise he had made to her in the dark shadows of an empty classroom.