Fandom: GOKUSEN
Pairing: Kyotaro/Kumiko, Shinohara/Kumiko, Shin/Kumiko
Length: 2/2
Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: FF.net Profile
Why this must be read:

This fic is a real rarity in the Gokusen fandom: a story that contemplates a romantic relationship between Yankumi and someone other than Shin. Kyotaro contemplates his feelings for Kumiko, and fails to deal with his resentment and jealousy towards the two important men in Kumiko's life.

No, he doesn't like Shinohara. But he doesn't hate Shinohara either, or even really dislike him. The feeling that most often defines any interaction between the two of them is more like...frustration. Confusion, maybe—no. Frustration. Frustrations sounds about right.

Fandom: GOKUSEN
Pairing: Shin/Yankumi
Length: 1,010
Author on LJ: sahara_storm
Author Website: FF.net Profile
Why this must be read:

I really fell behind on the recs this month, and I apologize profusely.

I may be squeaking this rec in at the last minute, but that doesn't mean it's not well worth your time. This story finds Shin and Yankumi discovering their feelings, and one another. Most Gokusen fic has Shin aware of his feelings well before Yankumi (it's canon, after all!), but Yankumi is as aware and off-balance as Shin in this story.

This is sweet, and the perfect pick-me-up after a long day.

It is a month after Yankumi starts teaching at Shirokin, and Shin is trying to figure out when his heart began giving a little jump every time he saw her, or when those idiotic faces she made stopped being idiotic and became kind of cute, or when he started freaking smiling around her and he thinks to himself: Damn it.

Fandom: GOKUSEN
Pairing: Shin/Yankumi
Length: One-shot
Author on LJ: orange_crushed
Author Website: FF.net Profile
Why this must be read:

This is, quite simply, gorgeous. Post-series, Shin is waiting for Yankumi to really notice him. The story is slow and quiet, and the silences between Shin and Yankumi are filled with depth and meaning.

Now he’s sitting at her table, watching her grade papers with a deadly expression; his socks are spread out on the heater and it feels funny to be barefoot before her, exposed like this, even though they’re only toes. They were caught in the sudden shower and he’d given her his jacket, and she’d dragged him home for tea and dumplings. Probably just to thank him. She’s dense like that.

Fandom: GOKUSEN
Pairing: Shin/Yankumi
Length: 2/2
Author on LJ: mklutz
Author Website: Luna P dot Com
Why this must be read:

At the end of the jdrama, Shin made a very emotional, and very public declaration. In this fic, he’s forced the deal with the fallout (from his friends), and the unexpected *lack* of reaction from the person whose opinion on the subject matters most (Yankumi).

I’m especially fond of this fic because the guys of 3-D are delightfully obnoxious as the tease the normally cool and collected Shin.

So he had overestimated the power of Yankumi’s observational skills, and at the same time he had underestimated 3-D. He came into class on Monday through the back door, a few minutes late as usual, bag slung over one shoulder and just a little depressed. He’d thought so hard about how she might react to finding out he was in love with her that her obliviousness came kind of as a shock.

“Shin!”
“Shin-chan!”

There was something strange in the expressions on their faces. Noda and Uchi, especially were grinning at him like they—

Oh. Shit.

Fandom: GOKUSEN
Pairing: Shin/Yankumi
Length: 422 words
Author on LJ: fsop
Author Website: N/A
Why this must be read:

Shin and Yankumi on a stakeout. Things go as well as you’d expect.

"This is stupid," Sawada said for the fourteenth time that day. On average he had to say it about twenty times a day, what with dividing them up between his friends and Yankumi after all, so he was well within his quota.

But, this.

"This is really stupid," he insisted. "And dangerous. Yankumi, I think we'd better g-"

Fandom: GOKUSEN
Pairing: Shin/Yankumi
Length: One-shot
Author on LJ: ficcingwitch
Author Website: FF.net Profile
Why this must be read:

There’s a lot of “getting together” stories in Gokusen fandom, and no wonder--there are some pretty significant barriers to a relationship between Shin and Yankumi (his status as her student; her incredible denseness when it comes to relationships).

This story tracks the progress of Shin and Yankumi’s relationship through Shin’s school attendance records. I’m particularly fond of this story’s Shin, at first trying to figure out Yankumi and his reaction to her, and then having to deal with the realization of how much he cares for her.

Then there was the matter of her strange, unflinching loyalty to them. Their education was important to her. Their lives were important to her. It bothered him. He could see the way the others were slowly warming up to her, still putting up a front of disinterest, although their hostility was long gone.

And Shin knew he was headed the same way.

If he was wrong about her - if they were all wrong about her, and she was just like all the rest... it would be different this time. It would hurt. So for his own sake and for everyone else's as well, he wanted to figure her out.

Too bad the only way to do that was to go to school.

Fandom: GOKUSEN
Pairing: Shin/Yankumi
Length: One-shot
Author on LJ: toujourspret
Author Website: N/A
Why this must be read:

I’ll be absolutely honest: this fic really skates the border of my embarrassment squick. It’s also one of the best ways I can think of to put Shin, Yankumi, and sex into the same fic (believe me, it isn’t easy keeping them in character when the clothes start coming off!) Funny, and a bit painful. If you don’t feel a bit sorry for Shin you obviously have a heart of stone.

“Er.” His voice was dry, surprised.

“Er,” she repeated. Her eyes were wide, pupils shot and somehow unseeing, even as they stared at him.

“Er,” he tried to start again, but couldn’t. He fumbled for his jeans on the floor wildly, almost flailing. She knelt and carefully scooped up his shirt, handing it to him. His voice came back to him. “Just what the hell did you think you were doing?” he demanded, panic raising his voice to a squeaky yell.

Fandom: GOKUSEN
Pairing: Shin/Yankumi
Length: One-shot
Author on LJ: aliaspiral
Author Website: SilverSpiral.net
Why this must be read:

aliaspiral is still relatively new to Gokusen, but she absolutely nailed the extreme dorkiness that is Shin and Yankumi in this delightfully funny fic. If you stick around for this month’s Gokusen recs, you may notice a trend towards fics where Shin isn’t half so cool as he’d like to seem, and Yankumi is stubbornly oblivious to his less than platonic feelings. This fic is an excellent example of why I’m so fond of exactly those types of fics: watching Shin squirm is fun.

It was a good thing he was taller than she was. Otherwise, there was no way any of this would have worked. Even the jacket. Especially the jacket. Really, Shin was spending entirely too much time not thinking about his jacket and how much of her thighs he could see. He was also working really hard on suppressing what he had seen before he gave her his jacket.