Other People's Love Stories: Stalker

With thanks to my friends who share their stories with much enthusiasm and laughter.



Stalker, MD.

She worked at one of the hospitals in KL, and she had just passed one of her major exams. Medicine had always been a daily battle for her so she was relieved and a little ecstatic at overcoming this hurdle; she no longer had to balance work and studies for the time being.

Out of the blue, she receives an sms. Congratulations! it read. I always knew you could done it! Can I please lend your note for my exam?:)

She looked at the name, and let out a little laugh. His English was quite telling, certain trends had set in since his days in Chinese school. She could picture the junior medical officer now - glasses, untidy hair, pleasant enough but mostly unremarkable. Someone who knew his medical stuff well, but who did not necessarily win the aunties over with his demeanour.

Sure, she smsed back, you can have my notes. Good luck for your exams!

That was the start of all her troubles.

He came over to collect the notes from her one day, and they exchanged some pleasantries. She may have smiled, she can't remember now.

Somehow he took the act of her handing him her study notes as a sign of interest.

He started acting as if they were a couple - he would come up to her during ward rounds and find out what she was up to, or try and sit with her during lunch. It was every other day at first, then every day.

Her senior medical officer friends initially teased her as soon as he left the table, but then the joke started wearing thin as it ran into weeks, and they could see the signs of worry clouding her face. They stopped their teasing and took to protecting her instead.

They would be on the look out for him, and warned her every time he approached. There were times when the very sight of him would drive her to choose another corridor to walk through quickly, or to duck into toilets just to avoid him.

And then there were the smses. And the incessant phone calls. One time, she couldn't take it anymore, and switched off her phone for several hours just to avoid speaking to him. When she turned on her phone again, she gasped, partially in disbelief, and partially out of fear.

27 missed calls. His name and number.

She had confronted him, and told the guy already in no uncertain terms that she wasn't interested and that there was no way in hell that there was ever going to be a relationship. But she seemed to be talking to a wall, as he just stared blankly ahead, as if his whole being just deflected her arguments by sheer will of denial.

The Duel

This went on for several months, and she was losing sleep and dreading the thought of going to work. She knew that she had to resort to some drastic measures to get the message through to him.

She had a friend, whose brother was a bit of a gangster. Tough looking guy - tanned, muscles, tattoos - the air of someone possibly involved in the triads.

She told him her problem. He nodded as if he had heard this before; as if he had to protect women like herself from situations like this all the time.

No problem, he stated boldly. Leave it to me.

He got straight onto the job, and confronted this guy one day. Right in the hospital cafeteria, as people were milling around trying to get some lunch.

He walked up to this doctor, and asked him for his name.

The stalker looked a little confused, and smiled an uneasy smile as he told him his name. The pretend boyfriend immediately went to work.

I heard you've been harassing my girlfriend ah!! Well, you know what, buddy, you'd better leave ____ alone, because she's my girlfriend okay? the friend's brother snarled threateningly, his voice raising to a shout, his index finger within inches of the doctor's face. Otherwise you're going to get into a hell lot of trouble, you hear me!?!!

A few of the curious midday crowd had turned their heads to watch this drama enfold. There was a tense pocket of silence around them, as the crowd tried their worst to mind their own business.

The stalker doctor looked up at the guy unflinchingly, and raised his hand slowly.

It seemed like an eternity before his next move, which completely threw Mr. Gangster Pretend-Boyfriend off - the doctor patted him patronisingly on his shoulder and said with a confident smile, "May the best man win."

(At this point of her description, I burst out laughing and just screamed an incredulous "What?")

The stalker doctor got transferred out of the hospital eventually but he continued to haunt her from afar - he would make the long trip from his hospital to her's just to keep up his pursuit of her.

This was really starting to get ridiculous, and so she finally confided to her boss one day about what was going on.

The boss got in touch with the Department head at the other hospital, and the Department Head threatened the stalker doctor that if he continued to harass her, he would lose his job.

That finally did it, as the real threat of losing his job finally snapped the guy out of his trance and he left her alone after that.

Her ordeal for the past few months had ended as abruptly as it had begun, and she could finally break out of this nightmare state, and regain some semblance of normalcy again.

I love this story, as told by one of my friends, regarding her sister.

I will never understand the real fear of being obssessed over by someone to the point of fearing for your own safety.

As much as I want to feel disgust for the antiprotagonist in this story, I felt more pity at how maladjusted and awkward some of us truly are (I will admit that I am too, to some extent) when it comes to dealing with the opposite sex sometimes.