Invisible to you

Chapter 2

The trip to the hospital was painfully slow, each step they took felt as if they were carrying several tons of bricks. The moment they stepped inside the front desk worker smiled at them, waving to greet them. "hello there!" she says smiling, her voice calm and carefree "how can i help you boys today?" she hummed happily,. not realising how distraut they both were. After a moment, Kuroo spoke, his voice breaking as tears rolled down his tears out of anxiety, "i..is our uhm friend- Bokuto Kotaro here?" He took a deep breath "Nobodys seen him in over a week.." The receptionist was silent, she looked down at her keyboard and typed in bokutos name, looking for him on the system. Her face scrunched up slightly as she leaned closer to the screen and shook her head. "Im sorry but hes not here, if you want to take a seat, have some water, ill email the other hospitals in the area if you want?" Akaashi nodded, slightly relieved that he wasnt there. The pair sat down and she brought them a plastic water cup each.

After the receptionist returned to her desk, kuroo paused, staring into the distance for a moment. "Keiji...do you remember when the three of us went to the beach together?" he smiled slightly reminiscing  about the trios memories together, Akaashi chuckles, "when bokuto tackled you into the sea? yeah, i remember..why?" he smiled and kuroo laughed, pulling out his phone and opening his camera roll memories. "that was yesterday last year" Kuroo turned his phone to the younger male with a slight grin. Displayed on the phone screen was a photo of bokuto and Akaashi building a sandcastle together. Akaashi smiled, looking at the photos. They each showed something new from that weekend, from Akaashi and bokutos sandcastles, Kuroos ice cream being stolen by a seagul and Bokuto playing in the sea all the way to their Seaside camping, beach volleyball and Akaashis paintings. That had been the first of their summertime adventures that year. Akaashi smiled and leaned into Kuroo, swimming in the memories; all his stress seemingly fading. That was until the receptionist walked back over.

"Boys im really sorry..theres been no sign of your friend in any hospitsals in the prefecture. The most i can recommend is calling the police and making a missing persons case. Sorry i couldnt be more helpful.." She explains, her voice heavy and sorrowful. The pair nodded and sighed quietly, thanking her. The happiness they had felt immediatiely disappeared as they were agressively thrown back into reality. The brutal reality. The reality in which bokuto, the outgoing owl they both loved and adored, had seemingly dropped off the face of the earth with no trace. The reality in which the world was brutal and cruel even to those who gave everything.

Keiji and Tetsuro quietly headed to the police station, their hearts heavy with worry. When they got in Kuroo anxiously walked up to the closest officer, "Excuse me Sir..My name is Kuroo Tetsuro. This is my friend Akaashi Keiji, and our other friend, Bokuto Kotaro has gone missing." The officer looked as if he didnt believe him but as he was supposed to, he offered the pair a seat in order to question them.

"So, what do you mean by missing-?" The officer questioned, sitting down with a small notebook. Keiji attempted to explain but he became quite emotional, so Tetsuro began explaining. "Bokuto has been really stressed recently and began to close off to us...We didnt really thing anything of it- at first...then he stopped showing up to school and volleyball practice. we checked in on him today, turns out his sisters were on holiday and he was home alone. weve looked everywhere. he wasnt at home, he wasnt at the hospital, he wasnt in any of his favourite places, we even checked with our out of prefecture friends but nothing!" Kuroo was choking back tears as he explained it. The officer was jotting down some notes and looked them up and down, asking a few more questions including each of their ages and everyones contact details. "Im sure he'll be fine but just keep an eye out for him. do you have any pictures?" Keiji pulled out his phone and showed him a picture of the three of them. "ok, email me that picture." He nods and quickly emails him the picture along with links to Kotaros social medias.

They spent about an hour just talking with the officer, who was still skeptial but made a case anyway. When they left, they decided to do one final swoop of all Bokutos favourite places just in case before they headed back to Kotaros sisters house. They had also been looking and spent a while making missing posters. It was scary seeing Bokutos face on those missing posters. He was the person nobody would have expected to go missing, especially without a trace like that. Akaashi looked around the house for bokutos phone just in case that had any clues on it but that too was nowhere to be found. "Hey Kora..? Wheres Bokutos phone?" Akaashi asked walking into the living room. Kora and Kau exchanged a look, shooting out of their seats to the computer. "If hes got his phone on him, we can find him through that!" Kau excitedly squeaked as she turned on the laptop. She rushed to type in his password, which was unsurprisingly 'Password', and turn on find my iphone.