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Notes -
This seems to be the basis of what used to be termed "the neg." I've no idea if it's still called this, and general knowledge of the technique surely must render it ineffective now.
I don't want to insult anyone's intelligence by defining it, but basically it's a plausibly real but very subtle put down of the girl (this could be something as innocuous as briefly looking at your phone instead of her), ideally right around the time you've said something to get her interest, and presumably said something nice. Push pull, tsundere, whatever we're saying now. The unexpected, when being fawned upon is her norm. I certainly get it.
I had a... friend, I guess, in high school, who I felt was narcissistic and far, far too full of herself, and I started mildly insulting her and putting her down, because I felt like she needed to be taken down a peg and realize not everyone worshipped the ground she walked on. I rarely put people down like this, but something about her just annoyed me.
My impression was that she took this as an attempt at flirting, and started doing weird things like comparing me to her boyfriend. I just rolled my eyes at this and continued putting her down. She was cute, I suppose, but her personality was radioactive and it shocked me how much people liked her.
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