In the book called “Kitchen”, we are Introduced to a young lady named Mikage Sakurai, who, after the loss of all her relatives, may not afford to live at the family house, and so her days there are numbered. Fortunately for her, she meets a young man, Yuichi Tanabe, with whom she bonds pretty quickly over her families tragedy. Her Grandmother has an unfortunate passing, and since it was her last relative, she was really sad, however, when she looked at Yuichi, she started to to think herself that her love for her grandmother was nothing compared to his;
…his eyes were swollen, from crying. When he saw my grandmother’s picture on the altar, again his tears fell like rain. My first thought when I saw that was that my love for my own grandmother was nothing compared to this boy’s, whoever he was, he looked sad. (p.7)
Overall, this mutual trauma helped bond these two characters together. Yuichi later invited her to stay at his house for as long as she likes, even proposing for her to move in with him and his mom. This excerpt perfectly outlines the kind and passionate character of Yuichi Tanabe.