I was on the train a while ago and a young fella (like my age maybe or a little younger) approached me with his girlfriend. He informed he had reserved the seats I was sitting on and politely enough asked me to find some place else to sit. The only thing that really bothered me was that he had his face mask dangling around at chin level.
So I answered in a very friendly, cheery tone “sure thing! As long as you pull up your mask”. Now depending where you stand on masks (I don’t care one bit) that might seem very offensive/ provocative to you. Because it was.
Anyway here’s the funny part: You could literally see the gears in his head turning while blood rushed to his face giving him an almost purple color. It was clear that he didn’t want to show weakness in front of his girlfriend (at least that’s what I figured). Right when I was sure he was going to chose confrontation, I stood up tall out of the seat. Now he wasn’t scrawny but when he realized how much of a size difference we had, he just mumbled something incomprehensible and pulled the mask all the way up over his nose. I thanked him very cheerfully and gave them their rightful seats.
Call me an arsehole for it but I very much enjoyed that exchange and got a good laugh out of it.
And for those who do perceive me as an arsehole: No, I would not have let this escalate into violence and I don’t get regular joy out of intimidating people.