A/N: Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

[Stalker]

"I'm sorry for being late! Practice ended later than I expected today. I hope you haven't been waiting for too long." My lovely girlfriend came rushing out of her club room to find me standing there, having waited patiently for the past 15 minutes.

"It wasn't long." I replied, the smile automatically appearing on my face.

Joanna Sparda and I had been dating for the past three months, but it still didn't feel real to me at all. Up till today, I still wasn't sure what it was that Joanna saw in me at all. I was just your average college student, struggling along with everyone else to stay awake in classes, struggling to get reports done by the deadline, and playing around whenever I had the free time to do so. I wasn't particularly a socialite –I mean, I have my own circle of friends and some of them were socialites, but I didn't always hang out with them.

My girlfriend, on the other hand, was pretty, smart, capable, friendly and sporty. When we were both in our first years in college, everyone around me had been attracted to Joanna. Many guys crowded around her, but I heard from my female friends in my classes that no one particularly hated her –quite unlike how popular girls were usually hated by others or something. Joanna was someone who was unreachable to me, and I was just another guy who admired her from afar: having a silent crush but never expecting that a perfect girl like her would ever turn her attention to someone like me.

Our fates crossed path when we happened to take an elective course together. By pure coincidence we happened to be late for the first class and were sent to stand outside the classroom as punishment. We had made awkward, embarrassed talk and when we were finally allowed back into the classroom, I realised that the rest of the class had already found their partners for pair work that would be the basis of grading for the rest of the semester. Thus, I had to dredge up my courage to ask Joanna to be my partner, at which she had heartily agreed because we were the only ones without partners.

I guess we got closer while working on our assignments together, and we had many meals together after meeting up to discuss about schoolwork. At first it had been heart-pounding sessions for me, but over time I began to get more and more comfortable with the seemingly perfect girl, who was steadily becoming more of a girl-next-door to me. She had the comfortable humour, the little embarrassment over some things that made me want to tease her at times. Her blush was unbelievably cute, and she always had a thing or two to complain about her eccentric uncle at home.

Then, one fateful –and joyful –day, Joanna actually confessed to me on the way to our usual dinner spot. I remember being completely speechless for a good half minute, unconsciously making Joanna super embarrassed and overthink things. Of course, I somehow stammered my feelings back to her, and on that day, we had the best meal of my life. My feet couldn't touch the ground for the whole week after that.

Fast forward to now, it had already been three months, but my Joanna was still as sweet and cute as the day I met her.

"Let's go." Joanna declared happily, her smile drawing the picture of a flower in full bloom. "I can't wait to have some sweets after a workout!"

"Actually I have been thinking of joining the basketball team here." I confessed as we started on our way to the dessert shop where I had already made an appointment. "Because of your sweet tooth, I'm always having sweets and I think I'm gaining extra weight. You have your Iaido and Aikido trainings to work off the calories, but I'm only exercising by taking morning runs. It's not enough."

"You want to play basketball again?" Joanna's eyes widened, the shine bright in her impossibly navy blue eyes.

"Yeah."

"That's great! I've always been hearing from Jake about how great you were in basketball back in your high school, but you never showed me."

"Jake oversells me." I dismissed to keep the expectations on me low. "I'm really not that good."

"You're just being humble! You and Jake were in the team that won National Championship!"

"We had luck on our side." I excused again. "Plus, I haven't played in months now. My skills are rusty."

"Don't you still shoot hoops with Jake when you are bored?"

"I do, but it's different from being in an actual game." I answered. It was good to know that my girlfriend not only supported me going back to basketball and actually looked forward to seeing me on the court again, but I wasn't sure if I would be able to meet her expectations. Jake, my best friend, wasn't a good help at all –his words were definitely creating an impression and expectation about my basketball skills for my girlfriend.

"I can't wait to see you in a basketball jersey." Joanna giggled, sidling up closer to me and grabbing my arm with both of her hands while we walked. "Will you do it like what those characters in the anime and manga do, and pause in the middle of the game to give me a charismatic wave?"

"Your mind has been tainted from reading and watching too much of those things." I laughed lightly. Few people knew that my perfect girlfriend was a crazy fan of shoujo manga and anime, and had created fantasy delusions about romantic love. But that in itself was cute; the fact that my girlfriend was so inexperienced in love and so ready to learn.

"Then will you at least wave to me when you are on the side-lines?" She pressed, and I guess I couldn't say no as we laughed our way to the dessert shop. We reached the place in no time, managed to skip the line because of my reservation, and found our private seat by the window.

I remained amusedly silent as my girlfriend made awed and happy noises at the range of sweet things listed on the menu, casting my eyes outside the window casually to get a look of the people in the poor queue.

A flash of white caught my eyes, and I blinked, focusing my attention on something I wasn't sure if I had seen. Was it really... It couldn't be a ghost at this timing in the early evening, right? But if so, then why was a pair of twins that looked very much alike in facial features and body figure standing side by side and staring at me through the window? Was something wrong with them?

They looked like they were in their mid-thirties, though they were dressed up quite differently. The one with his white hair sporting a bed-head was all ruffled and wearing casual outdoors clothes, but the other one with the sharper gaze had his hard gelled up very professionally, dressed in business pants, dress shirt and even a blazer in the hot late afternoon. Unmistakably the sharper-looking one was staring -no, glaring -hard at me.

"What's wrong?" The question voiced out of concern made me snap eye contact away from the two men back to my girlfriend who looked slightly worried. "What is out there?"

"Oh, I, uh, must have seen someone familiar or something." I answered, watching as she turned to try to spot whatever I had been looking at. She saw nothing, because the two men had suddenly gone missing in the short time it took for me to turn my attention on her. "It's nothing, don't worry. Have you decided on what you will get?"

"Yes!" Joanna was quick to forget worries at the thought of sweet things. "Let's get this, and this, and this..."

________________________________________________________________________________

Things were beginning to get a little bit unnerving.

I checked behind me once more as Joanna and I walked out of the amusement park, our fingers intertwined and her enjoying her cotton candy happily in her own sweet bliss. Nobody familiar was trailing behind us –just families with happy children and satisfied couples like us exiting the closing park. Yet, for some reason, I couldn't shake the feeling that eyes were on us.

You're overthinking things. My mind scolded as I turned back to look forwards.

I wasn't sure if it was paranoia at work, but more and more often, I began to be aware of the feeling of someone watching us whenever Joanna and I were on dates. The feeling of being watched was never there when I was alone or with other friends, but for some reason, that feeling always came about during dates with Joanna. It was unnerving, but the problem was that I could never properly pinpoint exactly who was staring.

"Give me some of that too." I said, forcing myself to throw scary thoughts away. I was just overthinking things. My imagination had never been particularly colourful, but maybe getting together with Joanna was making my brain come up with funny things.

"Say Aaaah." Joanna prompted cutely, and I obeyed by pausing in our steps, opening my mouth and awaiting my girlfriend's sweet feeding.

"Aaaahhhh." I said, watching as she peeled off a small tuft of the sweet, and move to put it in my awaiting mouth.

"Ouch!" We were interrupted when something small but fast hit me on the back of my head, and I couldn't help but jerk back, rubbing and looking back for the culprit. But there was no one looking in our direction...

"What's wrong?" Joanna asked in concern, slightly startled at my sudden movement.

"Someone threw a stone at me, but I can't see who..." I answered with a small frown. "It's okay. They're probably just jealous at how I have a cute girlfriend like you and are trying to scare me away."

"You and your honeyed words." Joanna giggled, but the wide smile was still hanging on her face as she popped the small tuft of cotton candy in her mouth then did a small tiny dance with her shoulders to show her satisfaction at the sugary haven.

"Don't finish the whole thing." I reminded. "We're having diner soon."

"But..." Joanna protested, giving me the puppy-eyed look.

"But nothing." I could not stop myself from laughing at how lovely she looked now at the moment. "You're going to turn into a pig at this rate. When you get all fat and round, I'm going to dump you and look for some other hotter, thinner- OUCH, what the heck?"

This time I was rather sure that the stone was bigger because the area of impact felt much bigger as I spun around fully, letting my eyes roam. The families that were leaving were caught up in their own worlds, and so were the couples. There were no one leaving singularly, and nobody seemed to be paying any attention to us.

"Again?" Joanna's soft frown of concern had taken over her cute smile now. "Let's get out of here and away from pranksters."

I could not help but agree, increasing our pace as we hurried out of the amusement park.

Over time, I managed to forget about the stones flung at me as we picked up our initial atmosphere again, strolling our way to the restaurant that Joanna had reserved this time. It wasn't a particularly expensive one, but more importantly, it had been rumoured to have really good cakes on the dessert menu, and my girlfriend was a real sucker for sweet things.

Once more, I felt eyes on me when we sat down on our reserved seat and did my best not to let it show on my face, focusing on the menu with some troubles.

"Kai, are you sure you are okay?" Joanna asked, looking worriedly over the top of her menu at me. "Did the stones really hurt a lot just now? Do you need to get it checked?"

"It's okay." I laughed to make the atmosphere light despite the fact that a small chill had started in my spine about the constant feeling of being watched. "It was just small stones. They were probably from children playing pranks on me or something."

"Still, it's rude of them to be throwing stones at you." My girlfriend frowned unhappily.

I reached over the table and took her by surprise by pinching her cheek gently. The shock made the frown creasing her brow disappear immediately, to which I grinned at.

"Don't frown like that, you will get wrinkles. I'm okay, so smile. Let's not let pranks like those get us down." I encouraged, and though it seemed to occur at some difficulty, my girlfriend nodded and did her best to regain her bright smile.

We ordered for our dinner, and were left to ourselves quickly in the quickly-filling restaurant.

"I have to go to the washroom. I might take a little time, because it's the time of the month." My girlfriend reported, and I nodded to show understanding. No wonder Joanna seemed to devour more sweets than usual today. My girlfriend took solace for her pain on her monthly event by being a sweets monster. Fortunately, she also worked off the extra calories put on during her monthly event in the training sessions in her club activity without much problems too.

Left alone, I was finally allowed to let my eyes scan carefully through the crowd in the restaurant. We were not sitting close to a window this time, so the feeling of being watched couldn't be from outside. It had to be from someone inside.

I made sure to start the scan in a systematic manner, scanning from left to right, up to down. At the table closest to us, a working-class couple was sharing their dinner date too. Next to them was a family of three, with the young toddler sitting on the highchair and making a mess out of himself despite the bib. To their right was a group-table of 7 girls in their high school uniforms, most likely gossiping over dinner. Next to them was a pair of twin brothers sharing dinner together, watching carefully. And beside them was-

Wait.

A pair of twin brothers, watching carefully?

I let my eyes wander back quickly to the pair of twins who had nothing but cups of water on the table in front of them. The moment my eyes went back to the table, they made awkward eye contact to the one on the left –the one with the ruffled hairstyle and casual wear. He jerked, clearly acknowledging the fact that we had made eye contact, then looked away with a look of nervously-forced casualness, leaning back against his seat. I was sure that he would have whistled to feign his innocence, but my eyes had moved quickly to his brother.

For some reason, even though I was the one to make eye contact, I was the one to receive the jerk of surprise this time. This one's eyes were sharp like daggers, and the scary thing was that he didn't turn away despite the fact that our eye met. The eye contact dragged out for a few good seconds before I found myself averting the eye contact unconsciously.

There was no doubt about it now. I had found the origin of the feeling of being watched... but why? Who were they?

I dared myself to look back at them again, and this time was slightly relieved to find the straight-laced twin having been distracted by his brother. They seemed to discuss something –or rather, the one with the ruffled hair seemed to scolding his brother about something (probably about the shameless staring).

I had still been in the midst of wondering if they were figments of only my imagination when a waitress approached their table and seemed to ask them for something. At least this explained the fact that these guys were real and tangible. I watched as the twin with the ruffled hair say something back, but the straight-laced one seemed to interrupt with a sharp word which made the waitress jerk in surprise before she nodded, bowed politely, took their two untouched cups and hurried away.

I watched as they stood up from their seat, the twin with the ruffled hair looking annoyed while the straight-laced one looked vaguely irritated. He looked over once more, and I was faster to escape the terribly pressurising eye contact this time. I didn't know I had been holding my breath in until the moment the two guys left my field of vision by walking out of the restaurant doors.

The relief was... for some reason, the two guys had unnerved me terribly, but now that they were gone, the feeling of being watched was gone completely too. I could finally relax, though I still had no idea who those two men were.

Joanna returned to the table shortly after we were done, and I found myself getting my attention back easier, enjoying our dinner date. Jake had told me that my girlfriend and I were still in the honeymoon period where we were always accepting and loving every single thing each other did. The real challenge of our relationship would be after the honeymoon period ended, but for now, I just wanted it to last as long as it could. I wanted to keep watching Joanna and appreciating her for choosing me out of so many guys in college that wanted to get to know her. I wanted her to know how much I liked her and thought that she was cute and beautiful, and that I was probably the luckiest person in the world to be the reason for her smiles too.

We had one of the best dinner dates that we have had, and both of us were all smiles as we left the restaurant, hand in hand.

"Let's go to an arcade." She suggested, tugging on my hand.

"We shouldn't. You have a curfew, don't you? Your father will be mad if you go home late." I answered. I had learnt during our first date that Joanna had actually grown up without a mother –a very surprising fact because I had assumed that Joanna had to learn her femininity from someone. Joanna's mother had abandoned her at birth, and her father had been a really strong man who took the challenge of raising a baby girl by himself while working. Of course, that made Joanna trust and respect her father very much, but in their small family also included a strange happy-go-lucky childish unmarried uncle who apparently had been the reason behind many funny stories in her childhood.

I had gotten the impression that while Joanna did not have the most conventional childhood growing up with two grown men, her father and uncle had done their best to make her happy and bring her up right. Even though I had never met them in person before, the impression that she had built about her father and uncle had made me respect them as much as I could. And thus, though I had never been brought to be formally introduced to them yet –Joanna was still a little bit awkward about either of us meeting parents yet –I had hoped to be able to respect her father's wishes as much as possible. Of course, it wasn't just basic politeness at work; I was careful enough to try to avoid having any of my 'boyfriend points' being deducted for making Joanna stay out after her curfew.

"We can go for a while." My girlfriend pouted in the way she knew that I was really weak to, clasping my hand in both of hers. "I promise we will just play one game!"

"You said that the last time we went to the arcade." I reminded, knowing that I was getting myself quickly into a moral dilemma.

"But you were so cool! Everyone in the arcade stopped to watch you. You won me a big teddy bear." She exclaimed excitedly. For a 19 year old, Joanna was acting very much like a cross-eyed teenager in front of her idol. It definitely felt good that I was the metaphorical idol, but she still had her curfew, and knowing her, she wouldn't be able to leave the arcade after just one game.

"If we go back to the same one, they won't let me play now that they know my face." I answered.

"We can go to the one further down that street!" Joanna insisted, jumping up and down a little bit.

I guess the 'fangirl' thing wasn't so metaphorical. For some reason, Joanna seemed to be my biggest fangirl and she was crazy about watching me shoot hoops. My decision to join the college's basketball team had been mainly because of her insistent 'encouragement', and she had never failed to turn up at any of my training sessions thus far, sitting at the side and watching me. It had initially been a little weird –but my teammates didn't mind because they were happy with the college's most beautiful girl sitting in their training session and watching them –but I guess it was an ego boost for me as well.

"One game." I caved, because Joanna was really putting up a good argument with her cute act. "Promise me that you will let us go after one game."

"I promise!" The grin of victory was a little suspicious, but I really hoped that she would keep by her words as we changed direction to walk to the street where the arcades were so that I could throw some hoops to dazzle my girlfriend.

The promise clearly made her euphoric, and Joanna was humming and bouncing with every step she took as we made our slow walk. The night's cool temperature created a perfect atmosphere around us, and infected by Joanna's cheerfulness, I couldn't help but smile happily too. Today's date had started a little unnerving when I felt eyes on me the whole time we were in the amusement park, and it had gotten weird back at the restaurant when Joanna went for the washroom, but after the two weird men left, it had been great.

I must have jinxed myself there and then, because immediately after thinking that the day had been great, the feeling of being watched came all over again. It felt like something was pin-pricking my neck and back, and my suspicions were roused again. My sudden stiffness was definitely felt, considering how Joanna had been clutching my arm in both of hers to prevent me from attempting to run away from my promise.

"What's wrong?" She asked when I paused, forcing the both of us to a stop.

"It's the feeling of us being stared at again." I answered with a frown. "It is really unnerving, and it always happens around you."

"But how come I don't feel anything?" She asked, looking around but not being able to spot anything.

"I don't know, but I'm worried about you. I don't feel watched when I'm alone or with my friends, but with you. The person watching us could be stalking you." I answered, thinking back on the pair of strange-looking twins who had been staring at me. What if it wasn't just one person, but the both of them? How long had they been trying to stalk Joanna? I might be a basketball member and have some chances with one stalker, but if it was two actually-rather-well-built men, I wasn't so confident of protecting us both.

"You don't have to worry about me, Kai. I know Iaido and Aikido." Joanna answered, reminding me exactly who my girlfriend. Actually, why was I thinking of me protecting us? I had no doubts that if something physical really happened, my girlfriend could protect herself better than I could. Her father had made sure of that when he had taught Iaido to her when she was just 3 years old, and made her take Aikido when she mastered Iaido under him to protect herself without weapons. "You are the one I'm worried about."

"Look at the both of us worrying about each other." I said with a small chuckle to lighten our suddenly-dark mood. "But I really wish that they wouldn't stalk us."

"How about we take a selfie at somewhere bright?" Joanna suggested. "I have never seen him, and suddenly taking a selfie will catch him by surprise and on the camera. Then I will know who to look out for just in case he does something weird."

"It's actually two of them." I corrected, but turned my girlfriend's suggestion in my mind. "But it's a good idea. Let's go to somewhere bright first."

And so, with the plan hatched between us, we carefully made sure we were still casual as we walked towards the brighter part of the semi-empty street. Joanna kept her phone in one hand, ready to snap our selfie anytime as we walked a little more in the hopes of finding an excuse to take a sudden selfie. It came in the form of a cardboard standee of a popular idol standing outside a café.

"There." Joanna whispered, and both of us sprang into quick action.

I squeezed into the photo, making sure to leave enough space for our stalker's faces to be caught on the camera, and watched with a faked smile as Joanna captured the picture, her 'playfully' kissing me on the cheek.

I didn't hear the sounds of footsteps behind us running away, but the feeling of being watched suddenly left without warning. Our stalkers were definitely caught by surprise.

"How was it? Did you catch them?" I asked as I leaned over Joanna's shoulder to take a glimpse of our idea's product. It was a good picture, and it definitely had great product.

Behind us, the familiar-looking pair of twins had been caught clearly in the selfie camera. The straight-laced one had his iconic sharp gaze, and he had been glaring at the back of my head as if he had been wishing to puncture a hole with his gaze alone. He seemed to have been reaching for something in the folds of his coat, but his twin brother with the ruffled hair had held him back with a pleading look. It appeared that we had caught the both of them in a strange moment where something seemed to have triggered the straight-laced-looking man, but his brother had dragged him back.

"That's actually a pretty good picture of them." I commented in surprise at my girlfriend's quick selfie skills. "At least if they really do something against you, we have a proper picture of them that we can give the police."

"Huh, yeah..." Joanna's reply was unexpectedly soft and almost hesitant that I got worried immediately.

"Do you know them? What's wrong?" I put an encouraging hand on her shoulder, but when my girlfriend looked up and pocketed her phone, a sweet smile had been drawn back on that beautiful face again.

"It's nothing. We have their picture now; they will think twice before doing something to us. Let's go." She replied sweetly, then wrapped her arms around mine, pressing herself closer to me. Her body warmth was definitely welcome, and I didn't mind sharing mine with her –especially not while she was being so cute.

"Kai," My girlfriend said all of a sudden as she pulled us to a stop. "You know that I really really like you, right? I love you more than anybody in the world."

"Um, I do?" I asked, surprised at the sudden confession. "Why are you confessing all of a sudden again? Is everything okay?"

"Everything is fine. I just wanted to tell you how important you are to me." She answered, the sweet smile still on her face. I couldn't understand why she was emphasizing some words of her sentences, but even after dating her for almost five months now, I still couldn't claim to know every side of my girlfriend.

"You are very important to me too." I answered awkwardly, not really sure if she was saying those things because she was trying to bait a similar reply out of me.

"Let's go get ice cream." She replied happily, then started off again, this time dragging me along.

"Ice cream? You just had dessert at the restaurant, and weren't we going to the arcade?" I asked, helplessly trailing after her as she forced the both of us along the street, and missing the turn to the arcade. What had motivated the sudden change of mind? Considering how insistent Joanna had been to convince me to go the arcade almost 20 minutes ago, it was strange that she was suddenly changing her mind and giving up arcade for ice cream.

"I just really feel like an ice cream right now." Joanna pouted her lips. "I promise to give you a kiss if we go get ice cream?"

"You don't need to trade a kiss for ice cream." I chuckled. "I don't want to incur your wrath while you're on your most volatile days of the month, so let's go for ice cream. Promise me, though, that you will go home obediently after we are done with ice cream. Your father will get worried if you go back late."

"No worries about that." Joanna's victorious grin grew, but she still stood on tiptoes all of a sudden, taking me by surprise by landing a quick kiss on my cheek. I was left with no time to react before she was running off again.

We had our ice cream cones in our hands as we sat at a bench in the park nearby the ice cream store. It had a great view of the well-groomed garden, and the full moon above us provided a beautiful source of light as we sat side by side, licking at our ice creams. I hadn't really wanted to get one for myself, but my girlfriend had been choosing between two flavours, so we had gotten both so that she could try both.

"Say Ahhh." Joanna said, and I turned with surprise to find that she had smudged a little of her own ice cream on the tip of her finger and was now offering it to me. Laughing softly at how childishly she was treating me, but enjoying it anyhow, I leaned down to lick the cream off her finger, making sure to tease her by licking more than I actually should, earning a surprised shriek as she drew back her finger in shock.

I laughed, when she made a face of cute pout when she looked down to find that her action of shock had smudged a little of the ice cream on her chest right above the hem of her low-cut shirt.

"Did you bring a handkerchief?" I asked, hoping that she did because the serviettes that had come with our ice creams were already dirty.

"I did, but..." Joanna's pout slowly grew into something like a sly smile –an expression I knew from experience was always linked to her attempting to do rather naughty. It was an expression that my girlfriend had when she sneakily buried broccoli in the lasagne meant for Jake during the time she made dinner for us to try her newest culinary creations. Joanna had known clearly that the biggest enemy of Jake's stomach was vegetables, but she had still been out to torture the man by hiding greens in a cheesy haven.

"Wait... What are you doing?" I paused in my licking of my ice cream in shock when she used her free hand that was not holding her cone, and shifted the hem of her shirt further dangerously downwards.

"Help me lick it off, Kai." She said, one hand holding her shirt down, one hand holding her cone.

"W-What?" My face was beginning to get a little bit red at the sudden request from my girlfriend. While it was still rather early in the night, there had been nobody else who had thought to take a walk in the park tonight. We were relatively alone in the silent area, in semi-darkness. I didn't have dirty thoughts when we entered the park, but Joanna...?

"Help me..." Joanna said lowly, in a tone that made clear that she was suggesting that I do more than just lick the ice cream off her chest.

"I'll help you hold the ice cream." I tried to escape it because I hadn't been prepared for this sudden attack at all, but Joanna pulled back the hand holding her ice cream cone.

"Lick it off." She instructed with a little more insistence now.

"It's not a good idea, Joanna..."

"It's just licking ice cream off." She said, and it was clear in the way in which my girlfriend had spoken –she wasn't going to let me go unless I obeyed. And thus, with some hesitation and uncertainty, I leaned forward.

Joanna was definitely out to prank me, because when my descent was too slow, she arched her back so that her chest rose to meet my face. I received a prime aerial view of my girlfriend's breasts immediately, and did my best to close my eyes, feeling as if I was somehow suddenly intruding on her privacy without really meaning to.

"Lick me." Joanna sighed, which was getting me really flustered. What had happened all of a sudden that was making Joanna so... sexy?

"You scum." An exclamation suddenly filled my ears, and I was suddenly jerked backwards by someone grabbing my collar. The strong force flung me to the floor, and I could only follow suit in surprise, landing on the floor roughly in pain and surprise. I looked up, blinking in surprise to find the straight-laced one of the stalker twins standing in front of me in full view fearlessly. The surprised turned quickly into shock and fear when I saw not only the murderous look in his eyes, but also the sword in his hand as he brandished it out at me. For some reason, he had used his free hand to grab me and throw me to the ground, but the decision made was clear in his eyes as he raised the sword now, taking a step forwards.

I flinched, raising my arm to block despite the fact that if the man was determined, my arm would do no difference to the harm he wanted to make.

The clear sound of metal hitting each other rang aloud in the night, and I forced myself to turn my eyes back to my attacker just in case I needed to run. I could not help my sigh of relief when my saviour came in the form of my girlfriend standing in front of me, having intercepted the sword with... one of her own? Joanna sure as hell hadn't brought along a sword throughout our date for the whole of today, but I wasn't going to complain as she fought off our attacker with her skills in her martial arts, pushing him back.

The man wasn't lacking himself, as he dodged with the clear fluidity of someone who knew what he was doing, countering back with another strike. Trusting my girlfriend –who was a National Champion in many competitions at all level in Iaido and Aikido –to be able to hold herself, I scrambled quickly to my feet as far away from the fight as possible, rifling through my pockets for my phone.

I hadn't even so much as unlocked it before it was stolen out of my grasp, and I looked up with shock to find the stalker's twin –the one with the ruffled hair.

"You don't want to call the police. Don't piss him off more than you already have." The man sounded as if he were giving me an advice, but he was basically holding my phone away from me.

"STOP IT!!" Joanna's scream made all of us freeze all of a sudden, turning to see her face full of anger as she glared down at the straight-laced twin who had tried to kill me.

"Uh oh. You've pissed her off, Verge." The one beside me observed.

"You pissed me off too, Uncle Dante!" Joanna turned to glare at the one beside me. "Give back Kai his phone!"

"But he's gonna call the police, and you know that the police hates me right now."

"All the better! I'll let them lock the both of you up in jail for stalking us!" Joanna fumed, but it was soon becoming clear that my girlfriend actually knew our stalkers. And did she call the guy beside me 'Uncle'?

"Even if I'm locked up, I have no regrets as long as I can stop him from doing all those embarrassing things to you." A sharp, deadly-serious voice came from the straight-laced twin, and I wasn't sure if I should just run for my life considering how there seemed to be a promise in his voice.

"I was the one who asked him to do it, Dad." Joanna yelled angrily. "If I didn't, then the two of you would still be stalking and watching us like we were museum exhibits."

"We were making sure that he treats you right. You never brought him to be introduced to us, and I don't trust any boy I haven't met personally to treat you well." The man who was a stalker-turned-my-girlfriend's-father replied levelly. His words made sense as a father, but I would definitely have been more understanding if not for the fact that he was still pointing his sword threateningly at me and had basically implied his promise to kill me, damning chances of jail time.

"This is exactly the reason why I didn't want to bring him to you guys. You never think like a normal person, Dad, and Uncle Dante is supposed to stop you from doing something stupid! Uncle Dante, why are you joining him instead of stopping him?" Joanna continued to fume, turning to the guy still holding my phone with an accusing glare.

"It seemed fun." He shrugged. "And I like to see Verge making a mess of himself trying to stalk your boyfriend."

I briefly remembered the times when Joanna recounted about how her uncle had put her in trouble in the hopes of tripping her father off and making him panic.

"You and I are going to need a very long talk about what exactly is fun about stalking me, Uncle Dante." Joanna warned, then turned back to her father, throwing her sword on the floor in anger. "Dad, if I see you stalking me one more time, or if Kai feels you guys watching us one more time, I'm going to run away from home and stay with him. I dare you; just watch me."

"You are not allowed to do that, Joanna." The straight-laced man answered sternly.

"I don't care. I'm already 19, and if you are not mature enough to accept the fact that I have a boyfriend, then I'm going to run away from home." My girlfriend definitely still had her childish side, but I got the feeling that I shouldn't be putting in any comments in their family argument at the moment. Trying to introduce myself to her father and uncle now was probably a bad idea.

"I reject your rejection. Even if you are 19, you will always be my daughter. I will always be looking out for guys looking to take advantage of you." The man's answer honestly made sense, but it didn't mean that my girlfriend had to like it.

"Kai's not like that!"

"You don't know him well enough to know that." My girlfriend's father answered.

"Neither do you!" Joanna yelled back. "At any rate, I know him longer than you have."

"5 months isn't going to be enough." He answered evenly against his daughter's emotional yelling.

"It's enough for me." My girlfriend answered, then ran to me. Grabbing my phone from her uncle, and my hand in hers, she dragged me running away without a second word. Caught between not wanting to have a worse impression than I already had somehow made, and not wanting to piss my girlfriend off even more, I turned back to give the men an apologetic look as I followed after Joanna. It was probably the wrong thing to do, because what I saw instead was a murderous warning glare that promised a life full of hell if I even thought of doing anything funny to Joanna.

It took a long while for Joanna to finally let go of her anger as we came to a stop beside a fountain that was lit only by the moonlight.

"I'm sorry." She said after a long while of silence, keeping her head down. "I'm really sorry for my dad and uncle..."

"There is no need to be." I chuckled softly to let her know that this whole thing hadn't bothered me. "I understand them, actually. You are too beautiful and precious to be left alone. I would probably have done the same if I were them."

"You're too nice, Kai."

"Well, I'll admit that I didn't expect a sword pointed at me." I confessed, taking both her hands in mine gently and turning her to face me despite the fact that her head was still hung in embarrassment. "Dating you is going to be harder than I expected if I'm going to have to keep looking behind me for a sword."

"B-But..."

"But it's going to change nothing." I held her face gently now, turning it up to look at me. The struggle was clear in her blue eyes, but now that I had seen our stalkers up close, I realised that she had definitely inherited her father's sharp gaze. Thank goodness I wasn't on the receiving end of her's glare often. "I'm just going to have to work harder so that he approves of me."

"My dad is a hard one to please..." Joanna said almost apologetically. "He never thinks like a normal person."

"Because his daughter isn't a normal person too." I answered with a smile. "His daughter is the prettiest girl I've ever met, so I'm going to have to work really hard to not be normal too so that I can win his favour."

"Can you really do it, Kai?" Joanna's replying smile was one that came out uncontrollably in reply to my honeyed words, and I knew that I had somehow managed to make her let go of her anger for a moment right there.

"I have to." I shrugged. "I'm just going to have to be on my best behaviour for our stalkers to see all the time."