Asking someone out takes the courage of a lion, and oftentimes, despite said courage, you get rejected. Approaching someone in real life is absolutely nerve-wracking…. You brace yourself for the worst. Either you get the, ‘I’m not interested’ line, which hurts way more than if they’d lie and say they were married. But hey, we respect honesty, even if it’s brutal. Or you do in fact get the, ‘I have a boyfriend’ line. What should one reply to these? We think the best way to deal with rejection is grace. Instead of begging, pleading, or trying to convince the other person to give you a chance anyway, you might as well respect their decision and split gracefully from the awkward situation.

Apparently, a lot of Redditers agree, as the question was posed on r/AskMen. Yet, some offered some funny, alternative replies, which you can find below. For more like this, here is a spicy selection of memes for ladies stuck in the boyfriend gray zone.