I went to a party. I knew a bunch of people there, but some I only see rarely. I'm sitting with a girl who is already attached who says she wants to get to know more people. The table we're at is being pretty quiet and I'm getting the familiar feeling like I'm going to be shy, quiet, bored/boring at this party. I pretty much think, "Fuck that, I love myself" and start leading this girl around and introducing ourselves to people we don't know and starting up conversations with people I do know.

First set is a mixed 3-set. I go to the guy, tap him on the arm, and introduce myself. As a foreigner in Japan, I've found this to work just fine. We small talk a bit. My conversational Japanese isn't great, but there's only one way to get better and that's by talking and feeling that somehow or another communication will be had. He says something I don't quite understand, but I quickly pull it all together and reiterate what he said in Japanese. The set is surprised I could do this. I make a big deal out of congratulating myself on my nihongo and everybody laughs. The girls in the set are cute. One appears to be the guy's gf and the other may have thrown me a quick glance before. I don't introduce myself to them or ask for their names. I walk off and continue to open sets.

At some point, the single girl from the first set shows up near me and we get to talking and introduce ourselves. Small talk. A lil' teasing, from her as well, since she's teasing me about keeping where she works a secret.

I get over what has been a sticking point, kino. I touch her arm while making points and am comfortable with our arms touching. She reciprocates, visibly growing more comfortable with me. At times, I walk away and talk with other people. Sometimes, when I think to look for her again, she's right near me already. One time, she was almost leaning on me.

A guy I know comes up to me and says, "Dude, I know this girl. She's cool. You're totally in." She and I drift apart and find each other again a number of times during the night. I sometimes spend time with this attractive girl I know as a friend, but with a few drinks she seems to like to get my attention, tease me, and break the kino barrier. Back with the first girl, I say we should hang out again. She says she'll be in my neighborhood the next day. I ask for her number. We exchange numbers and text addresses. It takes a while and there's some mistakes because of clumsy drunk fingers and no signal, so both our info has to be inputted manually rather me calling and texting her to give her my info automatically. MISSED OPPORTUNITY: I could have used the No Signal to say we should step outside to try to get a signal so I could call her. Easy excuse to isolate. She follows me around a lot during the night as we talk to other people.

Next day, there's an event in my neighborhood that she said she was planning on coming to. Text address isn't working. So I call her when the event only has an hour or so left. Without me asking, she says she's on her way. Much later, I'm talking with some people (almost all girls) and she walks up, very quickly says hi, and says she came with her friend and has to go now. Before I know it, she's gone. Wtf?