Hmm. This probably doesn't count as a brutal rejection at face value, but I think it's rather... cruel, emotionally, to the girls involved. It was something that I learned a lot from. It's long and boring, so you can just read the final paragraph if you like.
Once, a 15 year-old boy had just broken up with his third girlfriend. None of his relationships thus far lasted more than a few months. While sitting miserably in front of the computer, all of a sudden a girl adds his username on MSN, and they begin to talk. They hit it off immediately, since they are both the star swimmers in the year group. Soon enough, another girl, a friend of the previous girl, also adds the boy on MSN, and all three of them began to chat frequently, whether it be all three of them together, or with the boy alone.
Soon enough, after about a month or so, one of them sends an email to the boy, saying the swimmer girl 'kinda likes you'. The boy already has a crush on another girl at school and, not knowing what to do, acts as if nothing has happened. The girl who sent the mail tells the other girl what she did, and the other girl immediately and frantically calls the boy denying that she likes him. The boy, awkwardly, says 'yeah. I know. Don't worry about it.' The girl replies, obviously disappointed, 'yeah. Thanks. I won't bother you anymore.' And they hang up, the boy knowing full well that her feelings to him were real.
The boy continued to chat with the two of them, but the atmosphere between the chatting with the swimmer girl has become rather awkward, to the point where she would beg her friend to talk with the boy so she could join the conversation as well. And, soon enough, the swimmer girl herself sends the boy an email, saying that her friend ALSO liked the boy.
Unlike the other girl, when she realised what her friend had done, she did not deny it, but rather decided to gather the courage and confess to the boy. The boy, touched by the confession and feeling lonely, but also confused, told the girl to wait for his answer. And so days pass, the girl repeatedly trying to get on his good side, but the boy never gave her a final answer. The girl, embarrassed to ask again, never did, and after a whole year, the girl, all of a sudden, tells the boy that she has a new boyfriend. When he congratulates her, there is a marked change in her facial expression. She forces a smile, and wishes the boy good luck, before going off. The two of them never talked on MSN again.
After breaking the hearts of two girls by being indecisive, and after the GCSE examinations, the final two years of secondary school start. With new classes and homeroom sessions, the boy meets new people. He still has a crush on the same girl he did two years ago. Soon enough, in the space of three months, ANOTHER girl, out of the blue, confesses to the boy over MSN: 'umm, I think I kinda like you.' The boy, not knowing what to do, tries to act calm by replying 'OK...'. The girl tries to type something, but keeps deleting what she typed, and in the end, signs out of MSN from embarrassment.
Over the following year, she does countless things to win the boy's heart: leaving a chocolate flower bouquet in his locker on Valentine's Day, bakes a cake for his birthday, spends lessontime making 'I Love You' cards to give to the boy at the end of class, and repeatedly talks to the boy on MSN. Being a popular girl, her friends repeatedly tell the boy how much she loves him, that she never loved anyone like she likes the boy. Yet again, the boy never gave her a final answer, and the girl, cannot gather up the courage to ask again. The boy seriously considered dating the girl, however, when he discovered a few of his friends also liked the girl. However, the girl he had a longtime crush on began dating his own brother; and, that very brother noticed one of the love cards the boy had received from the girl, and looks up her picture in the yearbook; upon seeing her face, exclaims 'not pretty'. The boy, out of habit, agrees, and any thought of accepting her vanishes instantly.
Eventually, after a year, when things began to grow awkward, the girl tells the boy she no longer likes him. The boy, relieved, offers to stay friends with the girl. She agrees and they both move on with their lives, but, until now, still has unrequited feelings for the boy.
This story perhaps epitomizes a saying we have in Chinese, é•·ç—›ä¸å¦‚çŸç—›; roughly, it means short-term pain is better than long-term pain. Brutal rejections may be brutal, but they ARE short.