“i'm home.”

the sound of your fatigued, monotonous voice still sounded like heaven's blessing to him.

“i'm in the kitchen.” he called out as he stirred the brothy soup, bringing the long wooden spoon to his lips to have a taste, only to grimace at the heat, nearly dropping the aforementioned spoon.

you had just entered tadashi yamaguchi's holy space, picking up his spoon and rinsing off any unholy bacteria that decided to taste the soup before any human could. then you sluggishly handed the cooking utensil over to the great chef in the house as you slowly snaked your arms around his waist.

“good evening, love,” you murmured into his mossy-green hair; your husband of two years practically melted into your soft, warm touch, weakly stirring the soup simultaneously.

“mm, hi,” he breathed out, his free hand grasping and grazing over your intertwined hands, “i'm making hōtō, and thankfully i'm almost done.”

you released the cute chef (much to the latter's dismay) to set the table for two. sure, tadashi was a guy and that was quite irregular in japanese culture to be the regular cook instead of the wife, except your lack of skill in culinary arts served as a shameful obstacle in being a model housewife. it's not that tadashi had to take the housewife position— in fact, he's a working man too— but he just so happens to be a better 'housewife' than you, which was humiliating but at least it kept you two alive and well.

“dinner is served. hope you like it!” the male halted your train of thoughts.

“thanks for the food— also, of course the food would be good, you cooked it!” you chirped, smiling optimistically as you esgerly reached for the broth; tadashi was flustered, though genuinely flattered by your sweet compliment.

awkwardly, however, that was the only thing said between you two for the time being. it was an enigma for your husband for you'd cheerfully and unabashedly be sharing how the past eight hours have been lived without him able to witness any second of it; more often than not, you'd be jumping and cursing and laughing and whining at every little antic your tired mind could recall. even if things seemed so lively without him he still felt soft at the fact that you were so happy and that he was a part of your lifelong happiness.

but none of that lively spirit was bound to come out tonight, it seemed. and that honestly made him anxious down to the bone.

“is everything alright?” he asked kindly; his dark brown eyes were wide with concern, and he was even leaning towards you ever-so-slightly. you, on the other hand, could only nod and hum absentmindedly, numbly eating— almost as if you didn't feel like eating at all.

after what felt like many, many minutes of hard staring, you exhaled in surrender to your husband's unending gaze towards your fatigued figure.

yet, how could i look at him in the eye? even when he tries to get it out of me i don't think i'd be able to face him after this.

“i...i just miss eating this, that's all. mom used to cook this a lot when i was growing up.” you tried to laugh the growing ache in your heart away and you tried to swallow away the excruciating lump in your throat discreetly. tadashi was not naïve yet at the same time, this seemed like a believable reason so he decided not to overthink on it. instead, he exhaled in relief while grasping your hands.

“we could visit her tomorrow, if you'd like. i'm sure she's still doing well— c'mon, she's your mother, for goodness sake! old age could never get to her!” he declared in an attempt to make you at least smile. his grin widened when it happened to work.

“wipe your tears now, love, i'm sure she'd end up scolding you if she found out you cried over food. you know she hates that kind of attitude.”

you chuckled in-between your non-stop tears before standing to excuse yourself to get some fresh air.

“i'll be back in a moment, i promise,” you croaked, wiping your wet cheeks with your handkerchief. tadashi wanted to do something— anything, to ease your nerves, but he also understood that you needed some 'me time.' and so, against his own wishes, he respected your privacy.

already finished with his dinner and you still hadn't walked through the door. he hadn't heard any sign of human life beyond the walls of his house (it was already 8PM, so even the most hardworking laborers should have been dining in their own cozy castles at this moment).

it had been twenty minutes since you had gone out, surely that was more than enough to merely wipe your tears and get a grip on yourself?

the anxiety coursing in his blood only deepened when he realized you were no longer lurking on the front porch. his first instinct was to ring your work landline— after all, perhaps you had rushed off to work because of a last-minute deadline (that was a frequent occurence, mind you).

nobody picked up the phone.

next, he rang any mutual friends living in tokyo, such as tsukishima, kuroo tetsurou, and even akaashi keiji.

none of them had heard from tadashi's beloved that night.

finally, the frantic male had resorted to alerting the police after nearly two hours of phone calling and panicking.

they couldn't trace a clue.

even after four days of you-hunting, tadashi was left to crumble on his own as his anxiety and despair was eating him alive.

four days had grown into four weeks, but tadashi yamaguchi, your once-beloved, still dared to hope you would return to his arms one day. maybe even night, just like how you went missing at night.

the four-month bar had been hit and at that point, tadashi yamaguchi let himself wither in his own depression and heartbreak, all because of one disappearance.

you had just disappeared without a warning, without a word, without an explanation, without a reason.

and most unfortunately, without a goodbye.

unedited bc i'm tired and wanna finish this asap :"0

this isn't giving yamaguchi any justice i cri