Contrary to popular belief, Izaya's frequent visits to Ikebukuro had nothing to do with Shizuo (at least not anymore). He went where his job took him, and if his job took him to the last place he wanted to go to because of a certain monster with inhuman strength and bleached hair who had made it clear that he hated him more than anything in the world, then that's where he went. Running into the blond was never a pleasant experience, every new meeting an echo of their first one. "I don't like you," the memory of those words pierced through his heart since long turned to stone, and it no longer hurt as much.

Their enmity started back in their Raijin days, and Izaya still remembered it as though it'd happened yesterday. His eyes first landed on Shizuo during their Entrance Ceremony. He was watching the students walk through the school gate, waiting for the chance to catch a glimpse at this human with abnormal strength that Shinra so often talked about. It could've been the stories he heard about that unnatural strength, or perhaps something else entirely, but if there was one thing Izaya knew, it was that he had to meet this guy with blonde hair, color which usually served as a warning for others to stay away, who out of the whole crowd had noticed him staring down at them from behind the glass of the school's second floor's hallway.

He spent the next few weeks observing the blond, each new fight he witnessed cementing his belief that Shizuo was as different from the rest just as Izaya himself was. It never took too much to make Shizuo explode into a whirlwind of punches and destroyed school property (from desks and chairs to parts of the fence), and the wilder the blond got, the faster Izaya's heart raced. He couldn't wait to talk to Shizuo, but he didn't want to rush their first meeting and risk ruining everything. He would wait until after one of the many fights Shizuo got into and appear as a friend when everyone else wanted nothing to do with him, surprising the blond with the contrast in attitude towards him.

If there was one thing Izaya had noticed during his weeks of observation, it was that while some people flocked to him, most avoided Shizuo, ran away from him or simply attacked him. Out of those who had a problem with the blond, only few were wise enough to recognize right away that he was a force to be reckoned with and step back before learning it the hard way, which usually meant broken bones and weeks of hospitalization.

His former classmate from middle school offered to introduce him to Shizuo on more than one occasion, but Izaya kept finding excuses to postpone it because he didn't think it was the right time yet. Shinra and Shizuo had been in the same class before the two got separated when they went to middle school, and Izaya had no doubts that Shinra had his own reasons for wanting the two of them to meet. Shinra was also different, a human crazy enough to risk his own life for someone he didn't even care about, but while Izaya's interest was with the human thinking process and how individuals interacted with one another, Shinra's sole fascination was with the human body.

On the other hand, Izaya deduced from his observations that while Shizuo wanted friends (the proof being that he talked to Shinra instead of avoiding all sorts of human contact), he disliked company for the simple reason that most people irritated him and he couldn't help but punch or kick them into next week for the smallest of things. It was exactly why Izaya had high hopes for this friendship he expected to develop between them, friendship that would hopefully blossom into something more.

Izaya couldn't remember when it happened exactly, but somewhere along the way he'd fallen for Shizuo. It was a strange thing to fall for someone since he'd normally be the object of affection and not the other way around, but he welcomed the feelings he was certain would be returned. After so much fighting, Shizuo would be relieved to find someone he could calmly talk to about anything. Most people assumed that Shizuo was nothing more than a dumb brute, but Izaya knew that wasn't the case. The only thing left for him to do was to confirm how right he'd been this whole time.

When Izaya concluded that it was finally time to meet Shizuo, he mentioned the blond's name and waited for Shinra to once again offer to introduce his two friends to one another. There was this gleam in Shinra's eyes, as though he was just about to witness an interesting experiment take place, and Izaya was starting to believe that his old friend was just as excited about the whole thing as he was.

It was a surprisingly hot autumn afternoon when Shizuo had just finished wiping the floor with a group of guys now lying on the school's football field, gate flying high in the air before the dust settled and he turned to him, eyes locking as Izaya couldn't help but applaud this unique human with godly strength. Only simpletons with no special skills in the art of fighting would challenge the blond, but they had entertained him with their foolishness, so Izaya would forgive them for their impudence.

"This is Orihara Izaya. He went to our middle school," Shinra started and then went on to inform Shizuo that his middle school classmate was not a very good person.

Still smirking, Izaya playfully admonished Shinra for the remark, but Shinra immediately clarified that he hadn't meant it in a bad way. It was more than a bit funny, especially when Shinra was still ranting, but their friendly banter ended abruptly when Shizuo's voice reached his ears and the words registered in his mind.

"I don't like you," the statement cut through Izaya's heart like a scythe slicing him across the chest, his mask almost slipping as sharp and intense pain focalized in that one organ that used to race each time he thought of Shizuo.

Luckily, it didn't. Instead, he continued to smirk, hoping to give the blond the impression that he couldn't have cared less about not being liked. "Too bad," he said in a voice sounding surprisingly steady for someone who was crumbling on the inside and whose guts had twisted into a cold, tight knot of worry. He knew then, as they gazed into each other's eyes, that everything from there on would depend on whatever happened in the following minutes. "And here I thought you and I could have some fun—"

"Shut up," Shizuo demanded, turning away from him in a display of dismissal.

"Don't be like that, Shizuo-kun," he tried again in a last attempt to salvage the situation by giving the blond one last chance to redeem himself, but Shizuo ran up to him and swung his fist, by doing so creating an irreparable fracture between them.

The utter rejection coming from this person he'd wrongly believed to be worthy of his attention and affection nearly paralyzed him, but he still managed to evade the attack, Shizuo's strength turning out to be useless against Izaya's superior speed and agility. He almost couldn't believe that he'd been mistaken in his initial assessment of the blond's personality, but now he knew better and he steeled his mind on teaching Shizuo that no one treated Orihara Izaya as though he was an insect to be stepped on without suffering any consequences.

Before Shizuo could avoid the attack, Izaya flicked open his switchblade and slashed him across the chest, carving into the monster's skin the pain Izaya felt tearing apart a broken heart that used to beat faster for an unworthy creature that turned out to be a beast instead of a god. It hurt so much that it felt as though his throat had closed up and he could no longer breathe, but his expression betrayed nothing of the anguish engulfing his whole being.

"See? It's fun, isn't it?" Izaya added as he pulled back the switchblade, momentarily pushing aside the hurt to relish the sight of a shocked monster. He doubted anyone else before him had faced this brute and walked away unscathed, let alone going so far as to draw blood.

Nearby, Shinra was smiling, clearly enjoying the turn of events. It sort of bothered Izaya that his friend was laughing at his misfortune, but he couldn't really blame Shinra for being himself. His attention turned back to Shizuo and they stared at each other for a few long moments until the monster lunged at him and Izaya broke into a sprint, heart in tatters while his thoughts burst forward at the speed of light as he tried to figure out how he could've made such a huge mistake.