Today was the day. 

For Junhong, it was going to be the day he'll finally introduce the love of his life to his friends.

For Hayi, it was going to be the day she'd be rid of the demons that haunt her once and for all. 

Hayi hummed a melancholy song, one that ran with unspoken sorrows and festering heartaches. The melody lifted into the air to create an atmosphere so sullen and humble that Junhong didn't dare to smile and kiss her cheek like he always did. She sounded so sad, although her sweet, angelic face didn't show anything of the sort. She began to clean up the mess Junhong's mother had left from dinner, even though she had specifically told Junhong to do such a thing. 

"What's the matter?" the young man finally asked, twiddling his fingers at the dining room table, his warm, dark eyes looking at her with concern. She didn't respond. Instead, her humming grew faster with a high-strung anxiety that he could sense all too well. There was something wrong. 

But today was supposed to be happy. 

Finally, after what seemed forever, Hayi began to mutter, "Have you ever had the feeling that someone is watching you? That presence, that whisper that scorches your skin with paranoia, that shadow you see in the corner of your eye, do you feel that it's... evil?" 

Junhong furrowed his brow, trying to decipher his angel's words. However, the only conclusion he could come up with was, "Have you been watching horror movies, doll?" 

"Don't call me doll!" Hayi screeched suddenly, snapping the wooden spoon in her hand in two. Junhong jumped, his eyes blazed with sudden shock. Hayi's steely eyes immediately softened, tearing up so that they glimmered. "I'm so sorry, Junhong. I am so sorry. I didn't mean to." 

The young man could do nothing but look at her with such adoration in his eyes. Such protection and devotion. It was clear that he'd do anything for her. Not matter the cost.

Hayi wanted to wipe that look off of his face forever. She had just snapped at him. Please, she begged silently, show some contempt. 

"What's the matter?" he repeated, his tone softer, gentler. 

Hayi took a shaky breath. "I feel violated. I feel like someone is watching me all the time. I feel like the shadows peel off the walls and slither behind me, waiting like a python for the perfect moment to strike. I feel like as soon as I let my guard down, as soon as I relax, that the unrealistic glimmer of a doll's eye will fade away. That what's pretending to be fake will become real, coming to hunt me down. I feel like everything around me is a lie - china just waiting to break and make me bleed." 

By the time she finished, tears streamed down her face and her voice cracked. Her eyes shimmered with a hopeless fear. This fear wrung its hands around her neck and it wouldn't let her go. Junhong had no idea that something, a feeling of all things, could grip someone and drag them to the brink of sanity so quickly. Wasn't it just yesterday she was feeling alright? Wasn't it just yesterday she sang him to sleep with the most heavenly of voices? Wasn't it just yesterday they were the happiest of all those in love? 

"What can I do to help? Hayi, you know I'm here for you. Just tell me what you need," he told her so soothingly Hayi just wanted to curl up into his arms and stay there. 

She can't. She has to do this. 

"You've been so kind to me, Junhong. You found me, took me in. You've loved me like no one has loved me before. There has been so much you helped with already. I can't put any more on you," Hayi began to say, shuffling towards the sink full of dishes. "I think there's only one way to get rid of this feeling. And it's to be away from you."

Lies. All lies. And Junhong could tell. She took one glance at him and was unable to meet his eyes. 

"Tell me the real reason," he bartered with such stern finality that his tenderness seemed to have evaporated. 

A long, agonizing pause. It suffocated everything in the room. It made Junhong latch onto any air in his lungs, holding onto his breath. 

"I need to break this curse. And to do that, I have to snuff out the only light in my life. Do you know what that means?"

An ice-cold whisper crept onto his skin and clung onto him like a bloodsucking parasite. Suddenly, the shadows everywhere began to grow and loom over Junhong, threatening to take over what he thought was rightfully his - a bright and open heart. His love for Hayi, once thought to be strong and bold, now became poisoned, weak... darkened. There were no lies in her words this time. There was such a deadly finalization. And he despised that he knew what it meant. 

Such deadly finalization.