Having overcome the triggering incident, my romantic strategy was starting to gain momentum.
To make one more additional move, I decided to pursue a different woman — separate from my main target, Misaki Koizumi.
I thought that even if Koizumi had no feelings for me, seeing a man she thought was devoted to her pursuing another woman would shake her up and make her at least a little unsettled or jealous.
The woman I set my sights on was Ema Yotsutsuji, a contract worker in her 30s who was nearing the end of her contract.
Her contract would be up in two months and she would be leaving. She didn’t seem to have a boyfriend, and she wasn’t particularly attractive for a woman in her mid-30s, so I figured she would go along with my advances.
I used the pretext of throwing her a farewell party to ask her out on a yakiniku date.
When I asked her, she was incredibly happy.
I’ve also experienced leaving a job as a contract worker when my contract ended, and it’s a lonely thing.
You’re not leaving by choice.
You still want to work, but they won’t let you.
Everyone else keeps working while you alone have to leave.
After you’re let go, the company keeps running as if nothing happened.
I understood exactly how she felt, so I knew throwing her a farewell party would make her happy.
The yakiniku date went well.
We made plans to go night fishing together again, I gave her my contact information, and she promised to give me hers later.
Phones aren’t allowed inside the workplace due to confidentiality rules, so we hadn’t been able to exchange contact information yet.
However, after the yakiniku date, starting two days before her last day, her attitude suddenly changed.
When I tried to talk to her, she became distant, and eventually she started getting angry over trivial things.
It felt less like she was genuinely angry and more like she was making a show of being angry at me.
Even when I told her to give me her contact information quickly before she left and we lost touch, she ignored me.
At first I didn’t understand what her behavior meant.
I’m the type who chooses my words carefully, so there was absolutely no way I said anything that would have bothered her.
She had been so enthusiastic about the yakiniku date and seemed genuinely happy.
She hadn’t grown to dislike me.
It was clear she was dissatisfied with something, and this was her way of sending me a message.
But I couldn’t figure out what exactly she was dissatisfied with.
Common dating advice books say that women sometimes act cold toward a man on purpose to test whether he truly likes them.
That can happen.
But this time, I couldn’t shake the feeling that wasn’t enough to explain it.
In the end, I never got her contact information, she left the company, and we lost touch completely.
My plan had been to pursue her to shake up Koizumi, and then turn her into a friends-with-benefits situation after she left to sharpen my skills — but that plan fell apart.
For a while, I had no idea why she was angry.
But as time passed, one possible reason came to mind.
I had approached her quietly, in a place where our coworkers couldn’t see.
I felt it would be a problem if people thought I was chasing women around at work, and besides, it somehow felt harder to ask her out in front of others.
Even so, other people knew about the yakiniku date, and word eventually got back to Koizumi and the others through workplace gossip, so it still had enough effect.
Furukawa had heard about the yakiniku date and was furious.
But now I believe she wanted me to ask her out boldly, in front of others — especially in front of her rival female coworkers.
For her, making her coworkers eat their words was just as important as finding a boyfriend.
There’s another reason I think this.
Several months later, when I asked Koizumi out on a date, she said she wouldn’t go unless Furukawa came too.
It’s common for a woman to feel a little nervous about going on a date alone and want to bring a female friend — but when that friend is Furukawa, the situation changes considerably.
Trying to court Koizumi in front of Furukawa, who had feelings for me, was clearly a bad idea.
Being accidentally seen was one thing, but deliberately inviting her along to watch it happen right in front of her was a bit too much.
Why did Koizumi say she wanted to bring Furukawa? She clearly had the desire to assert dominance.
She intended to show her: “This man you like is the one pursuing me.”
Otherwise, why specifically Furukawa and not someone else?
After going through this experience, I became convinced that women have a desire to show off to other women the fact that they are being pursued by a man.
If women take pleasure in asserting dominance over other women, there’s no reason not to use that tendency to my advantage.
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