Mudminnow River and basically, i wanna know

The response catches him off-guard; he isn't used to being the one getting snapped at. He knows his own greeting wasn't the best, but really, what did the guy expect? The emphasis on the sir only further confuses the matter — he feels like he's being mocked, but there's no way this guy can know... right? These mixed emotions don't show until the finale, however. Just when he thinks the stranger is going to leave, he turns around and apologizes for — the thing? What thing? He asks, a little more sharply than he'd intended. He immediately assumes "the thing" is the sir part, but for entirely different reasons than the boy is thinking. He'd been right to feel mocked, he thinks.