 Katsuya habitually speaks formally (see "Honorific speech in Japanese") as a way of distancing himself from the world, a habit that, according to his father, Tohru later adopts.He meets Kyoko as a student teacher at her middle school and recognizes that her rebellious behavior was as much about protection as his own polite manners; in turn, Kyoko initially describes his manners as "fake polite".Despite their eight-year difference in age (he was 23, she was 15), they fall in love; he helps her set aside her gangster lifestyle and they married after she finishes middle school.