Eros: The Obsession

Chapter Four

Jun starts working with Tara within two weeks of doing the interview. The process is surprisingly easy to pass and the head editor welcomes him to the team on a sunny Monday morning. Tara – who had walked him to work that morning – watches from the side with a proud smile on her face.

Jun preens at the attention even as the heavy feeling in his chest warns him against it. She's still engaged to Ren and she still hasn't shown any interest in him apart from friendly conversation. Even so, when she strides up to him, eyes glistening with pride as she says, "Congratulations! I can't wait to work together," Jun softens.

She leads him to their designated office, gesturing to the plain white cubicle on the far right. "This is your workspace," she says. She then lifts a finger and points directly to the left of the cubicle, where Jun sees an array of stationery and papers littered about. A collage of pictures decorates the inside walls of the cubical and he spots a few familiar faces. "This is my desk," Tara adds. "If you ever need anything, just give me a nudge."

A loud exclamation comes from near the entrance. Jun turns to see a group of men walk in – three in all. The one who had made the noise looks at Jun with a teasing smile. "You the new intern?" he asks. He strides up to Jun with an air of confidence not befitting the dirty plaid shirt and beige trousers he has on.

"He's not an intern," Tara scoffs. "He's probably more qualified than you are." She turns to Jun with a softer look. "That dolt over there is Eric, the standby reporter."

Eric strides up to Jun, holding his hand out in invitation. Jun takes it, smile polite as he replies, "I'm Jun." He squeezes Eric's hand a little tighter than he should, relishing in the twitch of the other man's eyes as Jun's fingers crush his own.

One of the other men – this one with plain brown hair and an even plainer face – walks up to Jun as well. "I'm Sean," he greets, shaking Jun's hand in a more friendly manner. "The sound guy."

The last man stands off to the side, waiting patiently for Jun to turn to him. He has chocolate brown skin and an impassive look to his eyes. "I'm Eric's videographer," he nods in the direction of the other man. "They like to call me Lens, but my actual name is Tucker."  

"Jun," he introduces himself, head tilted in curiosity as he asks, "Why Lens?"

"Tucker prefers hiding his face behind a camera," Eric snickers. "So less people can judge how hopelessly awkward he is."

"Better than being the town sleaze," Tucker scoffs. Eric chuckles good-naturedly but there's something behind his expression that tells Jun it's an act. It lies in the miniscule tightening of his lips, the way his eyes narrow just slightly.

"Alright, enough," Tara warns in a firm tone and Jun watches with interest as all the bravado deflates and the men straighten themselves up. Eric and Tucker murmur sheepish apologies before wandering off to their respective desks. Sean pats Jun on the shoulder and says, "Let me know if you need help with anything," before walking off to his respective desk.

"Sorry about them," Tara sighs. She glances up at Jun with an almost embarrassed smile. "They're a bunch of children sometimes, but they do good work."

"I see they're quite scared of you," Jun comments with a raised brow, the side of his lip curling into a teasing smirk.

"They're not scared," Tara brushes off his words with a wave of her hand. "They're just used to me being in charge."

"Are you my boss then?" he asks and Jun can't help the excited lick of arousal that runs through him at the thought.

"No!" Tara giggles. "Nothing like that. I just send our weekly reports to Rossin, so they've kind of made me the team secretary."

"So you're the one who rates us on our bad behavior?" Jun quips in a low drawl. "I'll make sure to be on my best behavior then."

Tara blushes at the tone of his voice, ducking her head as she brushes a strand of hair behind her ear. "Maybe not on your best behavior," she throws back. "I like a little mischief once in a while."

 Jun tries not to let on how thrown off he is by her comment but he can't help the slight widening of his eyes. If he didn't know any better, he'd think that she was flirting with him. He schools his expression into something he hopes is casual and says, "I'll keep that in mind." 

Jun walks to his desk a moment later, trying not to over-think that interaction.

When Tara gets to work on a chilly Wednesday morning, she almost doesn't see the bouquet of flowers that rests atop her desk.

 She has a few deadlines to meet before their morning meeting, so she unceremoniously dumps her things onto the table and boots up her laptop. Jun has disappeared in search of the cafeteria, so while she would like to share a warm drink with him to calm her down, she can't. Silently bemoaning her responsibilities, she logs into her account as she reaches for her notebook. Her fingers brush against something sharp, a prickle of pain bursting from the tip of her thumb. She cries out more as a force of habit than because she's actually hurt. She frowns as she gingerly brings her finger up to her face to inspect the wound.

A tiny bead of blood wells up on the edge of her thumb. The wound isn't deep enough to be of any concern but it still stings and she hisses as she glances up to look at the thing that's injured her.

A bouquet of red roses.

It's an elaborate assortment, nestled at the edge of her cubicle so that it's not in her way. The bouquet is small, wrapped in a thin sheen of black velvet and sitting snuggly atop a small square container. A card rests on top of the box with her name sprawled across its surface. Tara picks it up and turns it over.

Dear Tara,

I wanted to thank you personally for recommending me for this job. It means more than you will ever know.

The gifts aren't much but I wanted to thank you in some small way for the opportunity.

Love,

Jun.  

A foreign swell of emotion wells up within her chest, making her throat close in with the effort. She tells herself that it's gratitude, that she's just glad to feel so appreciated but something else flutters inside her belly, making her head a little hazy with the feeling.

It's the same thing she felt weeks ago, after the proposal, and wonders if it's wedding jitters making her second-guess herself. Trying to ignore the heavy feeling that overwhelms her, she gingerly sets the card down and pushes off of her desk in search of plasters.

She finds a box of them in storage closet in the cafeteria, along with Jun and Eric.

Upon seeing her, Jun gives her tiny smile, eyes softening in a way that makes her stomach flutter. He walks over with a casual stride but his brows furrow in worry when he notices the way she's clutching at her hand.

"What happened?" He asks, holding his palm out.

"I just pricked my finger on a thorn," Tara chuckles dropping the hand covering the blood as she holds her injured finger out to Jun.

He takes one look at her bloodied thumb and immediately spins around. Hunching in on himself, Jun vomits onto the floor, chest heaving with the effort.

Tara stands there in shock for a moment before she springs into action, hiding her injured hand behind her back as she walks around Jun to see if he's okay.

"I'm fine," he brushes her away with a weak push of his arm. "It's okay, probably just something I ate."

"Are you sure?" she asks. "What can I do to help?"

"Just leave," Jun chuckles. "You don't need to be around this." The tips of his ears burn a bright pink and Tara feels a pang of pity for him. People in the cafeteria stand around the edges, none coming to help save for a confused looking Eric who brings in someone from the cleaning staff.

"Take him to get himself cleaned up," Eric tells her. "I'll handle things here."

Tara nods, moving to wrap her arm around Jun's waist to help him up but he pushes against her, stumbling back in his haste to get away. "No, it's okay!" he gasps in a strangled tone. "I'll be fine alone!" With that he turns and almost runs away.

Tara is left standing there with a stunned look upon her face, wondering what the hell had just happened between them.

"Think he's probably just squeamish," Eric shrugs. "And embarrassed because he has the biggest boner for you."

"What?" Tara exclaims. "He does not!" She takes one of the mops from the cleaning staff, assisting her in wiping the floors down.

"He totally does," Eric snorts. "He looks at you like you hung the sun. No one looks at someone like that without wanting to sleep with them."

"Not everyone thinks with their d***s," Tara scoffs, trying to hold her breath as the stench finally wafts up to her. Eric isn't nearly as polite, openly gagging before stepping away.

"Why were you playing with flowers anyway?" Eric tries to change the subject. "I thought you had deadlines to meet."

"There was a bouquet of flowers sitting on my desk this morning," she says and adds when Eric raises a curious brow, "They were from Jun. A 'thank you' gift for helping him with the videographer position."

"That's a little pathetic."

"What? No it's not," she furrows her brows. "It's sweet."

"If the person who gave them to you didn't also happen to be a pining mess," he quips dryly. "As it turns out, he is." 

"You're reading too much into things," Tara huffs, turning away to stalk off to the bathrooms.

"And you're being oblivious because you like the attention!" He calls after her.

She tries not to react to his words but they trigger an indignant defensiveness within her that she knows only happens when she's trying to lie to herself.

The images keep replaying in Jun's head. Red. So much red. And Tara – drenched in it. 

As he hunches over the sink in the bathrooms, pale and glistening with a sheen of sweat, he tries to figure out what triggered his reaction. He understands that it was seeing her blood. What he doesn't understand, is the visceral need that pulsed through him to see more of it.

Even now, as he thinks it, he feels sick. His stomach toils around as though drifting in the ocean, flipping this way and that as his mind keeps producing images of Tara covered in red, in deep metallic blood so thick that it's all he can see.

What's even worse is the overwhelming feeling of want that comes with it, that need to see, to make it a reality.

Jun hunches over and dry heaves into the sink, tears springing to his eyes as a swell of emotion overcomes him. He couldn't hurt her – wouldn't. It's just not possible, he loves her too much to ever contemplate hurting her.

But still.

Swallowing around the bile lodged in his throat, he glances up and yells as the bloodied image of Tara grins back at him in the reflection of the mirror where he's supposed to be standing.

Stumbling back, Jun trips over his feet and sprawls out across the dirty bathroom floor as he scrunches his eyes tight.

"You okay, man?" It's Tucker who asks this, stepping out of one of the closed stalls. He walks up to the sink to wash his hands but Jun can feel the weight of his gaze through the mirror, even with his eyes shut.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Jun mutters, voice scratchy and raw. "Just feeling a little under the weather."

"Go home," Tucker advises. "I'll let Rossin know you're not feeling well."

"You think I should?" Jun asks, even though just the thought of seeing Tara again makes his stomach turn.

"No offense," Tucker chuckles, "But you look like s**t. Go home, Rossin will understand."

"Okay," Jun mumbles. Tucker holds his arm out and Jun takes it, using him as leverage to stand up. "Thanks."

"No problem," the other man nods. "Just maybe let Tara know, or she'll worry about you for the rest of the day."

"Do you think-" Jun chokes around his words. "Do you think you can do that for me? I don't think I'm up for seeing her right now."

"Don't want her seeing you look like s**t?" Tucker replies with a knowing curve of his lips.

"Something like that," Jun mumbles, ignoring the strange feeling rolling around in his chest.