“You might want me to leave after I tell you, but I can’t keep it a secret anymore.” Junhong’s entire body was rigid underneath mine, and his hands were moving my far more pliable form off of him. I complied, against my own inclinations, and found myself kneeling on the cushions with his posture reflecting me. He sighed, head rolling forwards and then back so that his eyes raked heavily over the ceiling.

Unaccustomed to him acting so stressed, I placed my hand on his shoulder; it stiffened instantly, so I recoiled. But the touch brought his gaze back down to me, and Junhong grasped my hand to place it against the side of his neck. I felt his tenseness gradually disappear as I caressed the glossy skin, reaching back to massage his neck until he exhaled placidly.

“Okay,” Eyes closed, Junhong rested his palms on my waist and began speaking with a renewed sense of calm. “You remember, I think it would have been twenty nights ago, when you were walking home?” Immediately, I nodded. It wasn’t a night that I was prone to forgetting, since I’d had my life threatened and then rescued. He continued.

“And you remember before you got near the lofts, and you were trying to stay under the street lights, because you thought someone - something – was chasing you?” At the word something Junhong opened his eyes; they glistened with a breadth of such knowledge that made my next nod timid. How did he know this?

“I know that you were scared, and that you started to walk faster.” Like he’d read my worries through my body language, Junhong’s grip tightened against my hips. “I know because... it was me, following you.”

My countenance must have changed, for his next sentence was spoken swiftly, like he didn’t think I would give him enough time to explain himself. “I’d been watching you for a few weeks from my loft, and I knew that you were by yourself most of the time, I saw you come that way from work at the same time every night. And I thought that... because you were alone here... no one would come looking.”

There was no meaning registering for me. I angled my head towards him, brows lowering with confusion. “Junhong, I don’t- what are you talking about? You were stalking me?” Was I supposed to be flattered, or creeped out? He released a large amount of air and shook his head in the negative.

“Not exactly. Megan,” His fingertips wandered up and down my sides, soliciting a shiver from deep inside me. “You were... my prey.” He misinterpreted my silence and elaborated when he needn’t. “I was intending on killing you.”

It was my turn to tense under his touch, and I retracted my hand from his neck to place it over my own throat. Junhong, frowning, layered his palm atop to maintain some form of cont