He blinks at her, a little taken aback by her response, as gentle as it was. Pointing out that she's not the Balladeer's mother is the most weirdly maternal thing she's said yet. He feels like he's being reprimanded.

God this is so weird.

"I panicked, okay?" he says, unable to keep his tone from becoming defensive. "Nobody should know this stuff about me, and this stranger was was just singing about it all casually in the park where anyone could hear, I thought he was doing it to mess with me or something. I wasn't planning on punching him again."

Well, unless you count when they'd thought he was being a dick to Greta over the phone, but that doesn't really count, he thinks.

"Anyway I tried talking to him, after that," he mutters reproachfully. "That didn't work out too good either."

Whatever. This feels pointless. He heaves a frustrated sigh and looks away.