Unexpected parsing with single characters such as *

I'm trying to use an asterisk in my string but it makes everything after is _Italic_. I believe this behaviour is unexpectes.

Input:
```
This string has something *important, so I use an asterisk.
```

Expected:
This string has something *important, so I use an asterisk.

Actual:
This string has something *_important, so I use an asterisk._

If this behaviour is expected I then one should resort to escaping the said character, however this also produces an undesirable result.

Input:
```
This string has something \*important, so I use an asterisk.
```

Expected:
This string has something *important, so I use an asterisk.

Actual:
This string has something \\*important, so I use an asterisk.