As always, thanks for this, daphie. Much appreciated.
These people are all obviously concerned with doing things “properly,” so is there any alternative to a time skip? It’s not like we’re getting set up for a wild “Run Away With Me, Boy” turn of events.
At the same time, the theme seems to be about finding ways to (as the saying goes) “follow your heart” without actually being oppositional and transgressive, so I don’t quite see this going in the direction of “settling” for the approved kind of relationship (i.e., Ai & Sensei).
(I guess the fear that it might go that way anyway comes with the age-gap territory.)