I (22F) was approached by a man around the same age at the bookstore, his best friend chewed me out after I shut him down abruptly? : TwoXChromosomes

Hoping to vent a bit to other women. I was in the manga isle and was trying to look for new releases, and I saw him at the other end out of the corner of my eye. I caught him taking 2 glances at me before he came over and smiled.

He didn't look threatening, but his posture was off-putting; he was wearing nice clothes, was in shape, that wasn't what was wrong with him. He was forcing himself to stand straight. He was nervous to speak to me, so that just made me more uncomfortable to be talking to him since he's a stranger.

He told me he was at the mall to shop for an early Christmas present for his mother, but he always would come by the bookstore to check out the manga before he left, and he asked if I had any recommendations.

He also mentioned he was there with his best friend who was in the bathroom, this really started to bother me since it sounded like he was trying to use that as a way to threaten me.

I lied and told him "I don't know much about manga, so you should ask one of the store associates."

It was a pretty bad lie on my part since I was literally standing in the manga isle looking at new releases lol, but it was the only thing I could think of on the fly, so I guess he pressed on a bit further and replied "Oh, are you here shopping for someone else, as well?"

This is when I decided to shut him down and say "I'm not interested in speaking to people right now, could you please leave me alone before I speak to the bookstore staff?"

He froze in place, he nodded after a few seconds and rushed a "sorry" before leaving the isle.

I wasn't in the mood to keep looking at manga, so I put the books in my hand back on the shelve and just wanted to go home. The supposed friend he mentioned met me at the endcap a few minutes later, and this is when he chewed me out. He asked me "What the heck is wrong with you? Why did you shut him down so hard? Couldn't you have been a little nicer to him?"

I was fed up at this point and decided to bite back, "I don't owe your little man anything, tell him to stop approaching women in public. It's creepy."

Which he responded with "He wasn't expecting you to owe him anything, but he has confidence issues and this was the first time ever introducing himself to a lady in public. He just wanted to introduce himself, put himself out there, and grow comfortable talking to women. He probably feels awful now and won't approach another woman again!"

I responded with "Good! Other strangers shouldn't have to put up with him, either. It doesn't change the response I gave him, I don't owe him anything: confidence issues or not."

I wanted to stand up for myself and continue defending my stance, but at the same time, I didn't want to cause a bigger scene than we did, so I stopped talking and left the bookstore before too much attention was drawn toward us. I saw the guy who approached me sitting on the store's windowsill, he didn't make eye contact with me and looked at his phone when I walked passed him. Thankfully he took the hint and didn't try to stop me again.

Just so frustrated my evening was ruined by guys not being able to take a hint 🙄

Obvious bait, but plenty of people are arguing in the comments. Too lazy to link rn but its easy to find