!Spoiler warning!

Actually I thought Uka was a girl.
Honestly, not just at first! I see her as a girl and a she. I was actually shocked when the translator wrote him. I'm a die hard yaoi fan, and this includes shounen-ai however, I found it more sensible for Uka to be a girl.
This work mixes both shoujo and shounen-ai so I thought he was a she. Because of the hair of course, but the way Uka acted too. Also, for a manga (allegedly shounen-ai) dealing with an homosexual relationship it doesn't deal with the actual questions staying out and coming back in the morning hand in hand with a member of the same sex suppose. Of course, it conveys an universal feeling of love, of fear before death, and of craving for somebody who means a world to you. But the way Uka is dressed the way he acts... It makes me think of a girl.
Of course, if I had the RAW scans I could say if he says 俺 ore , 僕 boku or 私 watashi but I don't.
Also, more globally about make characters, I know many look like girls but when you compare Ulala and Uka one is obviously a boy while other...

This is not a very serious issue, but it bugs me. To what extent is androgyny acceptable when it comes to art. Of course I'm one of the first who would defend the girly uke genre but when it deals with such lovely pure feelings, isn't it sweeter to define the gender and a pity not to go all the way with realism.
Indeed, how much could you deem this of realism? At the light of the contemporary novels I read (Murakami for instance) and different movies I saw, this slow paced silent story telling is pretty typical of Japanese style. The 'Blue Cat's tunnel" especially. Even though high school girls going to older men is often used in manga, I wouldn't know how much often it happens in reality but that isn't realism, is it? Realism is not credibility of the story. The way the emotions are told or drawn in this case makes me think of deeming this manga as realistic.

To go back to the topic, which is Uka, knowing in the mute character story they are gay and that theme is dealt with. I mean his parents approval. In society nowadays a straight couple running away is much more common. And accepted. If the parents did have a sick boy running off all night with another boy wouldn't it be more awkward?
I'm not totally sure of what my point is, so I'm trying to get other opinions. I can't really nail it entirely. But Uka seems like a girl to me. And if she s not well then it would be overstepping the limits of girly uke.