Couple:SakaKaorin

Sakaki dancing with Kaorin in the anime.

Sakakaorin is the fan-made name for the coupling Sakaki and Kaorin. This is a yuri coupling.

In canon

Kaorin suggests that they should let their shoelaces stay tied together.

Sakaki dancing with Kaorin.

The canon interaction between Sakaki and Kaorin in the series occurs mostly because of Kaorin approaching Sakaki. Sakaki is not seen making many advances, mostly because of Kaorin being outside her core group of friends. Kaorin sometimes talks to Sakaki, often in a nervous way and always blushing while doing so. An early example of their interaction is Kaorin inviting Sakaki to the Astronomy Club, but when Sakaki inadvertently stares at Kaorin she gets the impression that Sakaki is not interested and walks away, even though Sakaki actually was.

Kaorin attempts to explain her feelings to Osaka.

Sakaki's and Kaorin's moments together have often occurred during the sports festival – firstly, when they participated in the folk dance together during year 1one and secondly, during year two when they both ran the three-legged race and won. This included having their shoelaces tied together (Kaorin wanted them to remain so).

During her third year, Kaorin joined Kimura's class and was thus separated from Sakaki. But they got to spend time together again when Kaorin travelled to Chiyo's Summer House along with the others. Kaorin put a lot of effort into taking nice photographs of her crush. At the beach, Osaka noticed Kaorin's affections and asked her if she were gay. This made Kaorin nervous and she said that her feelings were "just a teenage thing", confusing Osaka even more. If Sakaki found out about this conversation is unknown.

Kaorin about to be photographed with Sakaki.

When they graduated from high school, Kaorin insisted on taking a picture with Sakaki and even managed to scare Tomo by desperately telling her to send Kaorin the photo over the summer.

In fandom

Sakaki and Kaorin being paired is due to Kaorin's canon crush on Sakaki. However, she seems unaware of Sakaki's true nature, since Kaorin often claims she likes Sakaki because of her coolness. Kaorin tends to get upset and jealous every time somebody else gets near to Sakaki, particularly when they touch her physically. The coupling is one of the most popular ones from Azumanga Daioh, and as a result there is a lot of fanfiction and fan art to be found related to it. In the fanon version, Sakaki responds to Kaorin's affection, to her surprise and joy.