In High Spreerits

- Jasmine Teo

"You should use a credit card — not some lousy debit card!” Nat Ho huffs in exasperation.

“I’m scared I’ll bust the card limit lah!” Jae Liew retorts defiantly. They may play lovebirds on Tanglin, but Nat and Jae are squabbling like siblings right now.

It’s a stark difference from the past five hours at today’s shopping-themed cover shoot which the duo breezed through. The 27-year-old pint-sized actress browsed (very) enthusiastically the cutesy accessories in multi-label boutique Nana & Bird, quite unlike the plain girl-next-door Diana that she plays on the Ch 5 family drama; and the 32-year-old singer-actor lugged a mountain of shopping bags like he was still in character as her dutiful reel boyfriend, Junkai. The rapport between the duo is great; their repartee, so on point they should have a talk show called the NatJae Channel. Just how tight are the both of them? “When I moved house, I called her and was like, ‘Can I borrow your van?’” reveals Nat, who’d returned from a K-pop style training stint Taiwan in 2015 to star in Tanglin. (Jae, who got her showbiz start in Michelle Chong’s 3 Peas in a Pod, drives a Fiat Doblo because “it’’s cheaper and doubles up as my wardrobe.”) Bargain? Add to cart. This camaraderie is a result of spending every other day together for the past two years as an onscreen couple, filming the the Ch 5 long-form series that’s on the cusp of its 500th episode (it airs June 19). Yes, 500 eps of Tanglin. If this milestone doesn’t warrant a celebratory shopping expedition — even if it’s just for a photo spread — we don’t know what does.