The photographer examined the screen, unsatisfied. The pictures weren’t quite right, something in the mood was off. Squinting at the subjects in real life, he realised what the problem was - the huge gap between Donghae and Amber was still there.

"Donghae, can you lean move closer to Amber please?" asked the photographer as politely as he could, even though it wasn’t the first time he made the request. What was wrong with two of them today? The two Kpop idols were usually easy to shoot together. While he had encountered Donghae on an off form day but he had never seen Amber this distracted.

But the two of them were simply wooden today. For the first group SPAO picture, the Super Junior member couldn’t be coaxed to crack a smile and to his right, Amber’s smile was stiff - so the photographer had improvised and requested the other two males in the shot to be less cheerful. After the change of outfits, Donghae’s face turned out to be even more sullen and he was simply directed to cover his mouth when the photographer had run out of ideas.

The man behind the camera had no idea why he still placed Amber next to Donghae again for the last shot. Perhaps he couldn’t forget the chemistry he saw the tomboyish girl had with her sunbae from previous shoots. Now, he just wanted to shoot himself.

God probably hated Lee Donghae that day - this was the last thing the Korean entertainer wanted to do - to appear chummy with his ex-girlfriend. How ironic was the situation? Even before they started dating, Donghae always looked forward to working with Amber on any project. Time seemed to fly as long as the girl was in the vicinity. He could still remember how disappointed he was when Amber was paired up with Eunhyuk for the first Spao photoshoot and how he was so annoyed when his then-girlfriend joked around with his best friend.

And now, as much as he tried, his body wouldn’t cooperate and move any nearer towards Amber. There was an invisible wall between them. Everyone on set who was in the know could sense the tension in the air between the ex-lovers.

In a moment of proactiveness, Sungmin who had been simply uncomfortable on the other side of Amber, pulled the f(x) rapper towards him and beamed at the camera. The girl simply stood awkwardly holding both hands in front of her. Seeing what his group mate did from the corner of his eye, Donghae followed suit by putting a hand on Luna’s shoulder. Thankfully, the following shots were passable.

But the lead dancer wasn’t off the hook.

“Hae, I don’t care what you do or how weird it is to work with Amber, “ Kangin came up to him in the changing room and said with authority, “You have to fix things with Amber. The least you can do is to be professional when it comes to work.”

Ryeowook nodded, overhearing what Kangin told Donghae. The Super Junior members always had each other’s back, only it wasn’t fair for them to have to tiptoe around Donghae whenever Amber was around. When Kangin returned to civilian life after serving the country, the two of them were over so he was less sympathetic to the cause and more direct with his words.

“Hyung …” Donghae weakly protested - couldn’t everything stay as status quo?

“Nope, Hae, you have to do it,” insisted Kangin who shoved him out of the room.

Standing outside the other changing room, Donghae was hesitating of course, and wondered how to get out of it. Where the hell was Eunhyuk when he needed some of that donkey’s mad ideas?

As reluctant as the dancer was, things were getting out of hand, he recalled the day’s earlier events. Being the adult here, he recognised that he shouldn’t let these petty feelings get in the way of work.

The door opened outwards to reveal a surprised Victoria. Before Donghae could make up an excuse, the Chinese girl asked knowingly, “Oppa, here to see Amber?”

Victoria dragged the other girls out in a flurry. The last girl standing narrowed her eyes and the man caught the slight flaring of her nostrils, knowing that she was annoyed by his presence.

He definitely had to make this quick.

“Amber, I’ve come to …” Donghae paused, searching for the correct words. When was the last time the two of them had been alone like this?

Clearing his suddenly dry throat, the man started again, “Amber, I’ve come to seek a truce.”

“A truce?” Her voice was flat.

“Yes. Even though we aren’t together anymore but it doesn’t mean we can’t be friends, or at least friendly to each other,” explained Donghae quickly.

“You mean not treat each other like enemies?” The younger girl stared back at him, her face totally unreadable.

Sweat began to form at his temples. He had never seen Amber this hostile and admittedly, he was nervous. She was once the light of his life and now she appeared as though she wanted to throttle him.

“Well, Am, maybe when it comes to work, we could try to go back to how things were. When we were friends?”

Incredulous. That was the look that Amber shot him.

Her retort was equally swift. “Donghae, wasn’t it you who said there was no such thing as a platonic relationship?”

She had called him by his full name and not the simple “Hae” that he was used to. Amber really didn’t want to have anything to do with him.

It came back flooding to him - the last argument they had. The last time they truly communicated with each other instead of fake polite greetings backstage when everyone else was around. Everything he had said. Him voicing his frustration about her close friendships with some of their labelmates and insisting that it wasn’t possible for a man and woman to just be friends and nothing else.

The rapper had a way of rendering Donghae speechless and when he panicked, Amber went in for the final blow.

“A man and a woman cannot just be ordinary friends. That’s why you slept with her.”

How did Amber know that? So she had known about what happened all this time? Why hadn’t she said anything until now?

His ears started ringing with a vengeance. Only to have the girl walk towards him.

The girl was calm as she continued speaking, “Victoria did speak to me about this and I do agree. We have to act professionally around each other at work. I really don’t want to make the rest uncomfortable anymore - it’s not their fault that we broke up.”

Amber then stepped past him and towards the door, “But we can never be friends again.”