built for tension first, softness a long way off

Read this less as a romance opener and more as a tension-scene setup — bruised knock at the door, years of enemies-since-elementary framing, and a secret the description says he'll take to his grave. It's built the way a slow burn is built, not the way an instant-soft character is. If you go in expecting him to drop the arrogance and rudeness quickly because the tag says enemies-to-lovers, that's the wrong read on the pacing here.