[He nodded, jaw set. That's right! The number of letters she received, the whispers, the people who hung around waiting for the opportunity. How suffocating must that have been?]

Oh yeah, I remember that. It got bad sometimes.

[Suffocating indeed. Enough that he... But he paused, bit his lip, and decided to come clean.]

I'd sometimes jus' walk up n' say hi and people at school would haul ass outta there 'cause they were afraid of me.

That's... that was why. I kinda... did that on purpose.