It wasn't that Daniel was scared of Johnny - wait, no, scrap that - he was pretty terrified of Johnny. Hey, the guy had made the three and a half months of his life a living hell. And okay, sure, maybe Daniel provoked him a little bit... okay, okay, a lot, but there was a part of Daniel that was convinced if Mr Miyagi hadn't shown up on the night of the Halloween dance that Johnny wouldn't have stopped. And that terrified him.
Especially after he witnessed Kreese choke Johnny out in public for coming second. Toxic behaviour bred toxic behaviour. And if Kreese could do that to his supposed best student then what would Johnny have been willing to do to a kid he hated?
But they had parted on semi-decent terms. Johnny had given him his trophy. Mr Miyagi had stopped Kreese from potentially killing Johnny. They hadn't parted friends. But they hadn't parted enemies either.
That didn't mean that a bolt of fear didn't go through him when he heard Johnny at the door. Maybe he could just hide, pretend he wasn't in and hope Johnny would leave? That would be the smart thing to do. But then, Daniel had always been bad at picking the smart option. Never had known when to leave well enough alone. So instead, he limped to the door - heavy duty knee brace and all - unlocked it and opened it just slightly.