Thanks for reading! It's funny that I didn't have to do much analysis at all, just literally retelling what happened in the story

I'm still kind of wrapping my mind around the yuri as absence and yaoi as presence thing but I'm also mostly thinking under tshirt3000's yuri / yaoi / girl yaoi / boy yuri paradigm if that gives context! I don't think it necessarily refutes what you said about physicality which im glad you brought up

tshirt gives examples like portrait of a lady on fire and moonlight as yuri, and i think the lesbian couple in v for vendetta before their lives are destroyed also works--there's something to me about how these examples all make me think of escape and shelter from society, being outside of society, protected as a memory in a bubble

still thinking through this stuff though so love hearing your thoughts!