When a familiar head popped into the recording studio, Amber lost the beat. Putting up her hand, she spoke into the microphone, “Sorry, could we take a break?”

When the producer gave his OK, Amber removed the headphones and pranced out of the sound booth.

“Oppa, what a surprise!”

“I’m sorry to interrupt,” Junmyeon bowed his apologies the staff, knowing that the f(x) rapper had requested to stop recording because of his appearance.

Exchanging a bro handshake with the EXO leader, she shot the staff a look. “It’s OK, Junmyeon. We already have one good song but they just want to torture me.”

“Hey, I’m not the perfectionist here!” The producer pretended to be maligned but couldn’t hide his laughter. Everyone knew that Amber Liu wouldn’t be satisfied until she had three or more absolutely solid recordings under the belt. Sometimes it drove the people working with her mad but this type-A behaviour only arose out of necessity - no one else was going to look out for her in the company. 

“Er, sunbae, can we speak in private?”

Junmyeon’s formal request was met with a curious raise of Amber’s brow and heckling from the predominantly male musicians in the studio - they all acted like teenage boys sometimes. Shooting them another look, the rapper simply ushered the EXO member out of the room.

“What’s up, oppa?” It wasn’t everyday that one of SM’s busiest artists came round looking for you.

“Sehunnie stayed over at yours last night again.” Junmyeon didn’t bother beating around the bush and Amber knew she positively blushed this time round. Since their “breakup”, Sehun had requested to switch roommates and the baby of the group moved in with the leader while Kyungsoon took in Jongin - so Junmyeon was most familiar with the maknae’s recent whereabouts. “Well, he definitely seems happier. In fact, he doesn’t stop talking about you in general.” The f(x) rapper was everyone’s favourite noona but Chanyeol lost it once and issued Sehun a warning to shut up. This wasn’t news to Amber because Miseok had sent her a text then ing about his group members’ internal rife. Then she found this amusing, now though judging by Junmyeon’s grave expression, there was something else underlying.

“He seems happier right now. And I know it’s because of you.” His smile wasn’t one that reached his tired eyes though - she could tell that Sehun’s recent behaviour was a serious issue to Junmyeon. “Thank you for taking care of the brat. But I also know that he’s trying very very hard to deal with his broken heart and it seems that the stupid boy doesn’t know a healthier way to do this.”

“As his unofficial minder, I can see that Sehun’s trying so hard to get over the issue and I’m pleased he didn’t just shut himself away and be moody all the time. But as your friend, I want to make sure that you are OK and aware that whatever may be happening may not last or may not be real.” 

As much as the woman tried to get her head screwed on straight when it came to the situation with Sehun, nothing was more sobering than having the truth called out bluntly like this. 

“Amber, right now, the boy isn’t that stable. Just promise me you don’t get into too deep with Sehun, OK?”

Not trusting herself to speak, Amber simply gave