I don't actually know if this is common or not. The fear that stops me from acting if not actually being rejected by the girl that I want to seduce, hook up with, etc, even if it is in a 'cruel' manner. The fear that stops me from acting is having to deal with the 'aftermath' of being rejected, in the cases where other people see that I am approaching that particular woman. And since this counts for the most of the situations where you can approach a woman, it's been really hard.

For countless times I haven't done anything because my friends were around and they usually bully anyone inside our social circle pretty hard when something like that happens. And even strangers. I just can't function right and be witty and flirty when I know there's people around 'evaluating' my 'performance' and knowing that I have an interest in that person. Usually that's not a problem when I'm in a 'safe environment'. And I'm in college, so we all know that when rejection like that happens it can be pretty bad for your overall 'reputation'.

For instance, I'm actually a graduate student and I have a pretty big interest in an undergrad student in a class I supervise (not a big age difference, I'm 24 and she's probably 20/21). I'm not actually afraid of trying to seduce her, but I just can't act on it, knowing that if I get rejected probably the whole class is gonna know about it. I'm not worried about any awkwardness with her if I get rejected, although the thought of her rejecting me will probably go through my mind everytime I see her, it's not hard for me to just ignore that and everything altogether and just interact with her when absolutely needed. I've talked to her multiple times, not really anything to write home about, not really anything outside of the subject of the class, I don't get any major signs of interest, but I gotta try to date this girl, I won't forgive myself if I don't. But I just freeze when I try to flirt or anything because we're always surrounded by the other students and the thought of them thinking I'm trying to seduce her freaks me out and it makes me thinl that my 'status' among the group will be lower, since I supervise the whole class.

So I wanted some insight on how to care less about that and not let it affect me that much