Shido moved a few inches further, his heart thumping against his ribs. He stayed low, trying to get the perfect angle. He expected to see a woman with long hair and expensive jewelry.
Instead, his eyes landed on the man sitting in the deep shadows of the back seat.
Shido froze.
The man looked around forty, but he didn't look like any normal forty-year-old. His short blonde hair was neatly styled, every strand perfectly in place, like it had never been messy before. His skin was pale and smooth, almost too perfect. And his pale green eyes were sharp and steady, cold enough to make anyone feel uneasy under his gaze.
He wore a crisp black suit over a white shirt, with the top buttons left open. No tie. Just raw, expensive confidence.
But it was his expression that made the candy stick in Shido's throat.
The man looked arrogant. His lips were curled into a faint, mocking smile, and his eyes were cold—as if the entire neighborhood, and everyone in it, was beneath him.
Shido's eyes widened.
GULP.
He swallowed the candy whole. The hard sugar burned down his throat, but he barely felt it. The grocery bag slipped from his fingers. The milk tilted, almost falling—
He caught it at the last second, the carton hitting his chest with a dull thump. His heart was pounding just as hard.
"No way," Shido breathed, his face turning white. "That's... that's Kashima's father. Seijurou Kanzaki."
"THE ICE KING." He whispered.
A thin layer of sweat formed on Shido's forehead, catching the last light of the sun. The playful spark in his eyes faded. No smirk. No teasing.
The jokes about sugar mommies… they suddenly felt childish. Distant. Like something he had said in another life.
For the first time, he wasn't laughing
He stayed low, his breath coming in sharp, shallow gasps.
Shido's shadow trembled against the rough wood of the crates."What is a guy like that doing here?" Shido's mind raced.
Shido's shadow trembled against the rough wood of the piled up boxes. His gaze darted from his father's calm shoulders to the cold, golden-haired man sitting in the back of the Mercedes. The orange sunset made the car's paint look like fire.
"...Please tell me we didn't do something stupid," Shido breathed.
He shifted his weight, his sneakers crunching softly on the road. His heart drummed against his ribs.
"We didn't break anything, right? Not a gate. Not a window. Not a car." His voice dropped to a barely audible whisper. "I am way too pretty for prison."
He squeezed his eyes shut, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the grocery bag. The plastic crinkled, sounding like a gunshot in the heavy silence.
"Please leave. Please leave. Please leave,"
he mouthed, a silent prayer. "Go back to your skyscraper. Go back to your own world. Just get out of this street."
His mind flashed to Kento, probably lounging on the sofa right now, completely unaware of the monster outside the Amamiya gate.
"Dammit, Kento," he grumbled. "Why aren't you here? Why am I the only one seeing this?"
Mr. Kamitani stood on the cracked roadq like a courtroom floor, shoulders straight, gaze steady. He didn't need marble walls; wherever he stood became his ground. The Shield of the Court—a man who spent years between the powerless and the powerful. He did not step back. He did not bend.
Across from him, inside the polished silence of the Mercedes, sat a different kind of power.
Seijurou Kanzaki did not need to stand. The city stood for him. Towers of glass carried his name. Half of Tokyo breathed under the weight of his influence. He didn't raise his voice; he didn't need to.
One man fought for those with nothing. The other built an empire owning everything.
The sunset burned between them, a line drawn in fire. Small stones under one pair of shoes. Imported leather under the other. Dust in the open air against filtered silence behind tinted glass.
Neither man looked away. It wasn't just a meeting; it was a boundary.And the street suddenly felt too narrow to hold them both.
Shido looked up at the fading sky, his eyes wide and desperate. He pressed his palms together for a split second, the grocery bag hanging from his wrist.
"Alright. Whoever's in charge up there," he whispered, his voice shaking. "I'll give up sweets for a week. No—three days. Just make Blondie get back in that car and leave."
He paused, a single drop of sweat rolling down his temple.
"...Okay, fine. Two days. Final offer."
He swallowed hard, the strawberry candy long gone but the bitterness still in his throat.
"Please."
Then—the world broke.
A sharp, digital buzz ripped through the silence.
Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.
Shido's heart nearly jumped out of his chest. His pocket glowed a bright, neon blue against his leg. He moved quickly and clumsily, his fingers slipping as he looked for the phone. The screen lit up his panicked face in the fading evening light.
One name flashed on the screen: TAMIKO 💖
The vibration tore through the silence like a gunshot.
In the still street, the sharp buzzing sounded far too loud, it hit the polished surface of the Mercedes and breaking the silence of heavy air.
Shido jumped back.
His shoulder slammed into the pile of boxes behind him. They wobbled dangerously, wood rubbing against wood before settling with a loud noise.
Shido grabbed them, his breath caught in his throat.
Too loud. Everything felt too loud. The wood rattled in his hands. The plastic bags crinkled like a storm. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to hold the heavy pile still. His heart beat so hard it hurt.
The phone was still buzzing in his hand. He couldn't drop the boxes, so he wildly pressed it to his ear, pinning it with his shoulder.
"Not now, not now," he hissed. "Tamiko? Listen, I—"
Tamiko was talking on the other end, her voice small and cheerful but Shido could barely hear her over his own breathing.
"Yeah... yeah, I'm on my way," he whispered. "I've got the milk. Just... tell Mom I'm coming. Bye!"
He ended the call and stayed frozen in the dark. He held his breath, praying that the boxes wouldn't fall—and that the man in the car hadn't heard a single word.
He tilted his head to end the call and stayed frozen in the dark, praying the boxes wouldn't fall—and that the man in the car hadn't heard a word.
Shido struggled to hold the heavy pile, but the boxes were too big. As he shifted his weight, his phone slipped from his shoulder and hit the road with a sharp clack.
"Dammit," he muterred, glaring at the wooden boxes. He was annoyed, his face red with heat as he finally forced the pile to stay still.
Once the boxes were steady, he reached down and snatched his phone from the dirt. He flipped it over. A long, sharp crack ran across the screen.
"Are you kidding me?" he whispered, cursing under his breath. He stared at the broken glass, feeling a mix of anger.
He looked back at the two men. The silence between his father and Seijurou was so heavy it felt like it might explode.
'Please,' Shido prayed, 'don't let them fight. Dad still uses a flip phone—he can't take on the King of Tokyo in a street fight. He'll probably try to give him a legal lecture while getting punched.'
But then, the journalist in him kicked in.
He gripped his broken phone, opened the camera, and snapped a photo. The flash was off. He looked at the blurry image of the Shield facing the King.
"Kento and Kashima are never going to believe this," he muttered, staring at the shot of the Shield facing the King. "They'll say I'm lying again. Not this time. I've got the evidence."
He didn't wait for a second look. He turned, gripped. He hurried toward the Amamiya house, slipping inside the door before anyone could spot him.
The door clicked shut, finally cutting off the heavy, frozen silence of the street. Shido leaned his back against the wood, his chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath.
'I can't believe it,' he thought, his pulse hammering. 'The Ice King is standing right outside this house. If Dad actually picks a fight with him, I'm going to have to explain to the police why I was just standing there holding a bag of milk.'
He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment to calm down. When he opened them, the world felt bright again.
Tamiko was there.
She was sitting on the floor of the entryway, pulling on her sneakers. The light from the hallway caught the dark shine of her hair. She looked up, her calm eyes immediately locking onto his.
"Shido?" She stood up quickly. "You're pale, and you're sweating! Are you okay? Did something happen out there?"
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