Hm. [ It's a neutral noise of possible agreement, or perhaps he just can't be bothered (or can't think of anything that doesn't fall into what he considers pointless small talk) to respond with more than the bare minimum of acknowledgement. It's hard to tell; he's toneless as well as near-expressionless in his conversation.

He does lean over slightly to look at the mint, though which probably indicates more of the former than the latter. ]

We did. Though I was expecting otherwise. [ He was also not expecting his partner/co-leader/etc to show up at all to be honest, so this has all been somewhat surreal, but also something approaching pleasant?? Weird. ] I would have thought it would be a more entertaining option for our hosts, but it saves time and effort, so I see no need to argue with the choice.