Stalker or secret admirer?

[Anonymous]

I once glanced over at this guy (a distant friend) and smiled at him. Ever since, he began this thing of locking eyes with me for a few seconds, but since he wouldn't talk to me even when I tried msging him, I dropped taking interest in him.
He still began hiding behind a door/wall to stare at me as I spoke to people but since it was only for a few seconds, I ignored it. However, he then began watching me from a distance and if I get up to walk away, he'd literally bend his body over and continue watching me as I move around the place. I mean he only sees me at occasionally, but whenever he does, he watches me from a distance for up to 1-2 minutes straight at a time. This length of time made it unsettling, so I once hid behind a wall for a few seconds to avoid it, but even when I stepped out, he was still there, watching me. Is this stalking or does he think he's just being innocent about it? I'm 24 (almost 25), he's 28 and it's been going for 5 years.

[NatashaGirlie]

But he doesn’t reply to your messages? Seems very weird to me, especially the hiding to look at you part. I would say he’s kinda creepy and I don’t blame you for trying to avoid his stare. Does he talk to you at all? I feel like if he admired you, he would try to talk to you…

[Asker]

Hey there, actually the creepiest part was him watching me from a distance for 2 whole minutes, which is a very very long time to watch someone. It made me super uncomfortable, like I didn't have privacy when going about my day, like I was someone on exhibited and honestly this made me feel sick to my stomach. Him hiding behind something wasn't as bad as that as it was only like 20 seconds (which long, but not uncomfortably long).

The reason he doesn't reply is because he comes from quite an orthodox family, so they can only choose amongst a partner their parents introduced them to, and finding your own partner is quite frowned upon and judged in their culture. I don't know, kinda strange to me. Actually he was the one who messaged me first, but he just wouldn't reply to any of my texts.

However, his family or anything isn't an excuse to his behaviour. I don't know what his problem is tbh, but basically he just likes to watch me from a distance, and he doesn't care as to how it makes me feel.

[Asker]

Reevaluating this, his behaviour does seem to be stalkerish, what do you think? There's something just fixated about his whole behaviour and I don't seem to find it innocent.

[Iron_Man]

You can’t accomplish anything with a guy that won’t ever talk obviously he’s got big issues

[MrHopper]

It sounds like he mistakenly thought you liked him and got a bit obsessed with it :s

[Asker]

I did before, but I tried talking to him and he wouldn't respond. This however has been going on for almost 5 years and now I completely hate it, it just feels intimidating.

[MrHopper]

If this is at work or school or some place such as that you can make a formal complaint or at least tell him that if it continues you will do that, you shouldn't be made to feel this way

[Asker]

Thanks for understanding, but it's not at school or work, it's at events I go to for leisure. So I can't really do much, but yes I can certainly tell him that I will do so if he continues.