[Ren jerks forward at the flick, one hand going to the back of his head, and his expression momentarily shifting into something rather more mutinous beneath the curtain of his hair. After a moment, though, he gives a slight laugh.]

And it's not cowardly and distasteful to do something I don't like just because someone told me to...? [He's never been fond of being straightforward, even to his friends.] Being that straightforward is boorish, and you figured it out yourself already, otherwise you wouldn't be telling me off for it. So there's no need for me to say it.