Don't get me wrong, keeping your paws off your current students is not just noble it's responsible and the right thing to do. However, when a child transitions into adulthood, even parents should not meddle in a child's "best interests", let alone a teacher . When you do, you are invalidating the worth of their feelings, opinions and decisions. If they make poor choices, you help them pick themselves up, dust themselves off and get back in the saddle. The same goes for the sensei. The seme is an adult, making plenty of responsible choices for himself. Why is his choice of partner, the sensei, somehow different? Running away for the seme's "sake" was little more than a cowardly excuse to really run from his own feelings. Yet, this was not pointed out in the story in so many words. That gave me the impression, as a reader, that the sensei would likely repeat this mistake and create more problems in the future. Thus, making their "happily ever after" seem very unstable. Although I do like this story very much and have read and reread it many times, this one thing always leaves an itch in the back of my brain.
Don't get me wrong, keeping your paws off your current students is not just noble it's responsible and the right thing to do. However, when a child transitions into adulthood, even parents should not meddle in a child's "best interests", let alone a teacher . When you do, you are invalidating the worth of their feelings, opinions and decisions. If they make poor choices, you help them pick themselves up, dust themselves off and get back in the saddle. The same goes for the sensei. The seme is an adult, making plenty of responsible choices for himself. Why is his choice of partner, the sensei, somehow different? Running away for the seme's "sake" was little more than a cowardly excuse to really run from his own feelings. Yet, this was not pointed out in the story in so many words. That gave me the impression, as a reader, that the sensei would likely repeat this mistake and create more problems in the future. Thus, making their "happily ever after" seem very unstable. Although I do like this story very much and have read and reread it many times, this one thing always leaves an itch in the back of my brain.