the rejected thing is guys asking "random strangers" for a date?
Not random strangers, exactly...but more like attempting to take a not-romantic-association and turn it into a romantic relationship. Real life example: I used to take wushu. There was a particular girl in my wushu class I was attracted to. We certainly weren't strangers. We saw each other twice a week, every week for probably 6+ months. We knew each other by name. We'd practiced together, which often meant a good deal of physical contact, even. But we were only spending time together because we were taking the same class, and it was an entirely non-romantic context. She'd never given me "hey, you should ask me out" vibes. But I was interested. So I invited her to attend a Tet festival event with me that was being advertised by the school. She said no thanks, she wasn't going.
Now, on the surface, it might have appeared that I was simply going to the event, she was an acquaintance, would she like to come with me? But the
subtext was, "hey...I'm attracted to you. Here's an excuse for us to spend time together to see if you're attracted to me too." This was a case of me going out on a limb and "risking rejection" as Virex phrased it. And in that case, yes I was rejected, and no romantic relationship was explored. And in fact...the
way she rejected me, to this day I'm still not totally clear whether she understood the subtext. But whether or not she did is irrelevant. If she'd been attracted to me too, she would have jumped at the chance to spend time with me whether or not she realized I was asking her out. She didn't. So since she apparently wasn't attracted to me, I did not continue to pursue her.
So no, we weren't
strangers. But I'd call that a case of "risking rejection" and I was definitely asking her on a date.
why would any guy feel scared of being rejected by a random
stranger they'll never see again and dont really know?
Fear is not rational.
that is someone asking for a date? my god im naive, i thought it was just some random coffee thing that had to do with drinking coffee.
Well, sometimes coffee is just coffee. Sometimes it isn't. But I get the impression you might be putting a lot more weight on this "date" concept than is really justified. Again, in my experience, formal dating is fairly uncommon. It can happen. It does happen. I've gone on formal dates. But...in my experience relationships don't usually result from formal dates. "Random coffee thing" probably results in more relationships than "let's do dinner and a movie I'll pick you up at 8."