The narrator takes a look at some fresh vegetables and decides that they're tasty, but he'd rather be alone and not worry about them. He tries to convince himself that he doesn't care about the vegetables, but the food is still on the street, so he can't do anything about it. The narrator tries to get the narrator to let him through the food market, but she refuses, saying that it's crowded and that she's afraid that the narrator's friend is there. She tries to tell him that he's a friend of hers, and that he shouldn't be following her around like that, because they might all be with the narrator. He tells her that he can handle it himself, and she tells him that when she saw him crying by the sea, he didn't cry. He's taller than her, he says, and he wants to help her get rid of bullies. He asks the narrator how he grew up like this, and the narrator says that he has been protected since he was a kid, but now that he is a teenager, he can no longer protect himself. He wants to get close to the girl.