okay here's an ask for you! you mentioned that okino's feelings towards hijiyama change in the yakisoba pan scene. do you feel that it's the beginning of him seeing hijiyama as something more than "a tool," a realization of pre-existing feelings, or just something on the subconscious level (kind of like hijiyama, how his heart starts beating faster even as he denies his attraction)? a lot of what we see of hijioki is hijiyama pining, & i wish we'd gotten to see more of okino's pov :")
THIS IS SUCH A GOOD ASK thank you!!
so i do feel like he's viewed hijiyama as more than a tool for awhile. back in sector 5, they confirm in the developers' talk that when okino first meets hijiyama, the reason he's acting awkwardly and isn't really engaging until hijiyama specifically addresses him is because he's aware he's going to be experimenting on hijiyama. and so i think at least initially, his intention was to interact with him as little as possible, or at least keep some distance. (i imagine that hijiyama makes this pretty impossible, even if he's respectful about any interactions he has with okino as kiriko.)
but then, by the time he flees sector 5, he clearly has some affection (non-romantic at this point is my headcanon), especially since when he says his farewell to hijiyama, he even says that he's reluctant to part with him in japanese. this is despite the fact that until that point, okino's been in this self-imposed isolation ever since the 2064 kaiju invasion.
THEN we get them to be reunited in sector 4, and i'm just going to copy some of what i said in another post:
and when hijiyama arrives in sector 4, okino studies him, watches him for awhile. he knows what hijiyama's been up to. where he's been living (or more accurately, where he hasn't been living), how he's been surviving with working manual labour, and how he's never given up looking for okino this whole time. and when he finally does run into hijiyama one day… he doesn't run from him [like he does with other characters]. yes, he leaves the scene, but he allows himself to be followed. he allows hijiyama to find the hideout. and he's even thoughtful, buying his favourite food for him when he knows he lost his meal that day. and when they finally reunite properly, hijiyama fully realizing who he is… he invites him to stay, and even says he wants his help. for someone who, until this point, has been in self-imposed isolation, it really says a lot about his feelings for hijiyama that he actually lets him get involved. even if he's not telling him absolutely everything yet.
like!! to me it's so clear that he cares for hijiyama, even if he doesn't necessarily have romantic feelings for him at that point.
but then i really do feel like this changes with the yakisoba pan scene. i feel like, unlike hijiyama, okino isn't dense about his feelings. they're just not necessarily relevant, and he's got better things to do. he obviously knows about hijiyama's feelings for him, but i feel like until this point, it's just kind of a game for him. he teases hijiyama for reaction constantly. we never see him do this with other characters. but i think it's less a pre-existing feelings situation, and more that it's just fun. the yakisoba pan scene is where i feel like that changes and okino realizes oh, wait a second, i think i'm feeling something in return. especially since i feel like hijiyama being kind to him here is a moment where the relationship stops being transactional post-reunion from hijiyama's perspective. it's not to get something from him. it's just because he cares about okino, which is something okino isn't used to. and i especially love how okino gets a little flustered by it, because of how much he wasn't expecting it? he seems so unflappable when he's teasing hijiyama, only to be startled by this moment of kindness from him.
after that point, i feel like we don't get too many moments of okino flirting with him again outside of the love letter scene. and it does really make me wonder about okino's intent in that scene. obviously we know that he's written hijiyama an explanation about the sentinel, and the activation switch. but the choice of delivery being a love letter, it being a confession styled like the one he gave ogata… in japanese it sounds clear to me how okino puts on this affect (using anata instead of kimi, playing up being a girl in this moment), and he even says that he's joking shortly after hijiyama's initial response. but he also seems genuinely disappointed, and maybe a little hurt when hijiyama comments that getting a confession from a guy wouldn't make him happy. to me it sometimes reads like, he's doing a confession like this because it's easily denied if it goes badly. and it does. but those feelings for hijiyama are definitely there.
honestly, while i'm not sure if we'd see okino pine the way that hijiyama does, i do feel like he might get frustrated with hijiyama at times. hijiyama has so much to untangle about his feelings for okino (his gender, getting over the betrayal of him posing as kiriko, being used by okino, even whether his flirting is actually flirting or just a game), and i do feel like it would still take him a bit to work through that. meanwhile there's okino, fully aware of how hijiyama feels and how he feels, just waiting and still flirting viciously all the while. i know in some fan content (especially the japanese stuff i've read) it sometimes gets into okino wondering if hijiyama prefers kiriko and that being a sore spot for him, which is something that i like the idea of.
