# WIN WIN is a Korean talk show that has been running since 2010. Current MCs are Kim Seung Woo, Lee Su Geun and Tak Jae Hoon

 

## Filmed 2013-01-30 --- Airs February 12

Feature Guests: 5 Pieces

 

++ - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + -+ - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + -+ - + - ++

 

The set at Win Win is prepared for today’s guests with two comfortable sofas for the MCs on the left side and today’s guests on the right. The three MCs are extra nervous, which they say while doing the opening. They are standing up, talking for the opening and giving hints about today’s guests, saying that today’s guests are at the top at the moment and that even world stars enjoy listening to their music that recently are topping the music charts all around the world.

“The trend breaking girl-group whose music and style and personalities are loved worldwide – 5 Pieces!” the MCs welcomes the guests and the audience starts to clap their hands when 5 Pieces’ [Daze] starts to play and the set doors next to the stage are opened, welcoming inside the five girls.

They look tall when they enter; almost all in high heel ankle boots.

Emelia coming out first with her long black hair and pale skin is wearing a pair of khaki-green distressed slim-fit pants with a brown belt and a black sheer sleeve long top and she is the only one wearing sneakers.

Julia looks tidy in a fitting black/gray v-neck stripe top to a pair of black leggings and black ankle boots with her short hair put up on one side. One after one they greet the MCs when walking by to stand in a line next to each other, standing in their usual order and joining in the clapping along with everyone else before it dies out.

Maria looks like a model even if she is standing the furthest away from the camera, wearing boots and light coloured print leggings to a big black sheer shirt, and when one of the MCs comments on her long, thin legs she takes a step forward to strike a pose for the camera, confidently showing off her body to the music that still is playing at that time.

Hannah is wearing a pair of dark washed skinny jeans to a black long-sleeve top with a few buttons open and high heel ankle boots. The fabric of the top is thin and if you look well you can see she is wearing a black bra under it, but Hannah never noticed that in the bright light both when putting it on and on the set.

And Carolina standing in the middle is wearing a khaki-green sheer print blouse and black drop-crotch pants to a pair of lace-up ankle boots. Carolina is smiling happily and in a happy voice she starts off the group’s greeting; “Pieces of one-” and in chorus the girls all greets; “hello, we are 5 Pieces.”

Before the MCs can say or ask anything, Maria starts off;

“Hello viewers of Win Win: the pretty leader and lead vocalist of 5 Pieces, I’m Maria.”

“I’m the charismatic rapper, Emelia.”

“Hello everyone! I’m the ultimate mascot, Carolina. Nice to meet you all!”

“I’m 5 Pieces’ sweet girl, Julia.”

“And I’m 5 Pieces’ magnae, Hannah,” the youngest finishes off with a smile and she keeps smiling when the MCs laughs.

“You introduced yourselves individually without being asked to,” one of the MCs laughs, “don’t you think everyone knows who you are?”

“We have heard that there are a little older people watching Win Win,” Carolina nicely starts to speak, “so we don’t know if they can recognize us individually, so in case for that we prepared it.”

They get to sit down before they continue, and one of the MCs mentions that this must be one of the most nervous recordings because 5 Pieces are world artists now, and they also have a very strong presence.

“Just when you entered, I thought models had arrived,” one of the MCs mentions. “Do you often hear that?”

“No,” the girls shake their heads, but Hannah points over at Maria, so the girls brings up that Maria usually gets that comment.

“5 Pieces are really popular worldwide these days. The song [Daze] and [Black & White] are really on the top, even in America the two songs are getting wild recognition and 5 Pieces was chosen as the artists of artists in 2012, getting awards after award… Can you feel this popularity? Is there something that has changed for the past year for you with all this attention?” the MCs wonders.

“Well… we get a lot of more requests to go abroad for appearances,” Maria is answering this time. “Every day the agency says we have received love-calls from abroad, all from performances to acting to other things, but because we have planned schedules already we can’t always go.”

The MC looks at her for a few seconds without saying anything, making the girls laugh awkwardly because they doesn’t really know why he does that.

“Are you aware of your popularity?” he asks, meaning that it sounds like they know of it; and he didn’t get a good answer saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’. “Answer honestly.”

“Not always,” Maria honestly answers. “I think it comes in waves. At times we feel that we have some popularity but at times we also think that we are still rookies that have to work harder.”

“Really?” None of the MCs seems to believe that, mentioning that they are even getting world attention and then asks how long it has been since their debut.

“We made our official debut in November 2008, so a little over four years.”

“Four years already? But then you are seniors. You are like SHINee and SNSD. There must be a lot of juniors looking up at you on the music programs.”

“We don’t know the juniors,” Julia gives a low laugh and the MCs wonders why. “They keep a distance from us.”

“We are too busy to meet them,” Carolina answers.

“There are a lot of juniors lately,” Maria fills out.

“None of you sound interested in the juniors,” the MCs laughs over their responses and Carolina is the only one laughing with them.

“But there are so many of them,” Maria answers seriously, “if we are at a music program, all the juniors will bow when passing us and they will run away.”

“Maybe you are scary seniors,” the MC mentions, “with your tattoos and all.”

They laugh at his comment and the other MC continues; “But 5 Pieces always seem to have a schedule. Hannah was even voted as the busiest idol of 2012, and you all are now heading to Japan for promotions. How do your weeks look like normally?”

“When we are promoting a new song we are usually in Korea during the weekends for the music programs, and on the other days we go abroad for promotions and we do some variety too,” Carolina answers and the MC asks how many things they can have on their schedule one normal day, and Carolina is the one answering again. “On normal days… there can be about five or six things on the schedule?”

Maria nods when Carolina asks her for confirmation.

“There are members going on radio and variety aside from performances,” Carolina continues to say while nodding. “If there are a lot of things, it can be about five performances during one day and then a few other things on the schedule too.”

“I heard that 5 Pieces went to four different countries in one week for promotions recently. How do you manage that?”

“We were in the US for a few days, and then went to Malaysia, then Korea the day after, then China for a day and back to Korea.”

“You were in China for one day? What did you get time to do?”

“We did interviews, TV appearances and fan-signings in one day,” Julia answers.

“And then you went back to Korea?”

“We had a recording in Korea early the next morning, so yes.”

“So… when do you have time to sleep?” the MC can’t help but to ask, as it sounds like they are doing something the whole time.

The girls laugh at the question, because their schedule isn’t different from other idols. “It’s not that we don’t have time to sleep, but some days we work to three in the morning and we just go home for an hour or two before we have to go to the saloon. At those days we sleep whenever we can.”

 

“5 Pieces have had some solo activities, especially last year when one of you,” the MC points to Emelia, “even went to Japan. Do you share all the money with the members or does each member keep the money for themselves?”

“When promoting as 5 Pieces, we share everything. But if we have solo activities, like Emelia had her drama in Japan and Hannah has released her book, we don’t share,” Maria answers well.

“Is there ever a fight among the group over money?”

It is a silence after that question and the MCs gives a laugh, asking if they fight a lot over money over not getting a response but the girls look at each other quietly with strange face-expression. Maria opens to answer, her forehead getting wrinkles.

“I don’t… think we have ever fought over money before,” she answers with some hesitation while looking at her members who seem to agree and Maria nods to the MCs. “We have fought over activities; all of us want to do something and for a while now we have been going on activities without the other members so when one member doesn’t have as many activities as someone else it gets a little tensed because of that. But about money…”

“Not about money.”

“Then, this might be sensitive, which member makes the most?” the MC wonders.

“That’s obvious,” Maria answers and sits straight, not hesitating a bit.

“It’s obvious who that is, everyone probably knows,” Carolina continues after hearing Maria’s answer. “The busiest idol of 2012 must be the one making the most money, right?”

And that makes the attention turn to Hannah, as the MCs already have mentioned that she was voted as the busiest idol, the girl who just quietly is listening to the others.

“The one who makes the most is Hannah, because she has released her own book too,” Maria tells.

“But most of the money the book brings in, Hannah doesn’t keep,” Emelia fills in while shaking her head. “It goes for charity.”

“Wow! Really?” the MCs burst out, shocked over Emelia’s words.

Hannah nods, not finding anything strange in it though the MCs showed a weird reaction. They ask her what made her decide to give it for charity and the youngest looks like she isn’t going to answer at first because she so far hasn’t said a word, but she does answer.

“I asked my members what they thought and because we did a lot of charity in 2012, it was decided that the money the book brings in should be given to charity too,” she answers, and Maria is smiling over how Hannah doesn’t take the credit to herself even if she was the one who came up with the idea and put it to work.

“Is it because you get enough money from the other work you are doing?” the MCs asks, maybe a little rude without meaning it but Hannah doesn’t notice it.

“I don’t use that much money,” Hannah answers shortly.

“Ah, that’s because the agency pays for most things?”

Hannah nods along with her members. “Since we work most of the time, the agency pays for the food, transportation and other things that … well, is used in our daily lives. So we don’t really have to pay for that much, and clothes we wear are sponsored too,” Maria is the one explaining.

“Then what do you use your money for?” the MCs wonders, and they are fast to say the ladies doesn’t have to answer if it is a sensitive question.

“Our families get it,” Carolina answers with a good-daughter face-expression. “When we first got our pay, we were just 16 years old, so our families got the money. Though we are a little older now, our families still get most of the money.”

 

On Win Win they have a Q&A segment where the MCs ask questions sent in by citizens’ about 5 Pieces, and the ladies will answer. The first question is ‘to Emelia, being scary is…?’

“Life,” Emelia shortly answers and gives a dark look to the camera for entertaining. “But even when I don’t find myself scary, others will, so I can’t get rid of that image.”

“She loves to hear that she is scary, she always want to be scary,” Maria says it differently and Emelia is just staring at the camera, fulfilling her image of being scary.

“The next question is ‘Captain Maria, you are such a diva on We Got Married, do you keep in touch with your husband when you aren’t filming?’, oh, this is an interesting question,” the MC says after reading the question, looking at the leader. “Do you keep in touch with each other even when you aren’t filming?”

“I do”

“She doesn’t.”

Maria gives Emelia a glare. “Ya, what do you know?” Maria angrily asks her.

“Unless we are working, you are either eating or sleeping!” Emelia answers in a simple tone and the MCs laughs because this is how 5 Pieces is like. They mostly laugh because Maria has an image of always sleeping and eating…

“We text each other once in a while,” Maria kindly tells the MCs, ignoring Emelia.

“Do you like him?” Julia wonders out of nowhere and Maria gives a laugh in surprise, asking Julia if they aren’t in the same team, causing laughter among them. Maria keeps laughing and waves her hands to her face, saying it is getting hot in here, and the others laughs some more.

“Would I marry him if I didn’t like him?” Maria asks Julia and when hearing the audience’s reaction to her words she calmly takes out her hand as if saying ‘that’s how it is’ but it sounds really good because the show is called ‘We Got Married’, so if she likes him in real life or just on the show isn’t answered.

They continue with the next question ‘did Hannah date Honggi behind 5 Pieces back?’ and the MCs all starts to talk about it, mentioning that it is a big talk lately after Honggi said on another show that they have dated once, and Hannah is biting her lip over the subject. But she isn’t the one who opens to talk.

“I don’t think Hannah really understood they were dating,” Carolina starts to say in a low voice, making them all laugh and Maria shakes her hand, saying that puts Honggi in a difficult situation.

“The answer to the question is that all of us knew about it,” Maria explains with a strange glance at Carolina. “But it was just a few dates before they just started to hang out as friends.”

“What happened for that to happen?” the MCs wonders and looks at Hannah, wondering why they stopped dating.

“We had too much fun as friends,” Hannah answers and gives a laugh when seeing Julia’s face-expression.

“But wait, Carolina said you didn’t understand you were dating? What is that about?”

“I don’t know,” Hannah pouts helplessly, “I don’t think Carolina knew we were dating so she thinks I didn’t know either. It wasn’t that we were in some kind of serious dating … thing, it was most just … to get to know each other.”

“You didn’t like him?” one of the MCs tries with a strange look in his eyes.

“I like him,” Hannah honestly answers with a nod, and the MCs seem surprised over it – maybe because they think she means something more than what she actually does. “Honggi is a really good friend.” When she says ‘friend’, the MCs gives up, and Emelia gives a smirk when seeing that.

“The next question is ‘who is the most interested in boy-group’? This one can be interesting because we mentioned juniors before, and both Maria and Carolina were the two showing the most interest in it though it wasn’t much,” the MCs mentions.

Maria smiles to hear her name being mentioned. “All of us are pretty interested in groups that come out with good music, but … … Emelia is actually the most interested in boy-groups.”

“Emelia is?!” the MCs sounds shocked, as if they are choking on the words. Emelia pretends to not know what they are talking about.

“When it comes to boy-groups, Emelia is the most interested in them,” Maria answers. “None of us really approaches anyone unless we have met several of times, and Emelia is always keeping an eye on the boy-groups, but … … yeah … I forgot what I was going to say.”

The MCs laughs over her ending and Maria asks the other members to say something, making the MCs laughs even more because Maria seemed to be in the middle of her sentence and Julia finishes off by saying Emelia shows the most interest in boy-groups, not giving any explanation or anything.

“‘Do 5 Pieces care about high heels and height too?’ is another question sent in,” the MC reads and looks up at the girls. “Do you care about it too? Height seems to be important for idols.”

“Look at our feet,” Emelia answers and shows her sneakers, and the cameras zooms in on their feet. Emelia is confident in her height as she is the second tallest among them. Maria, the tallest member in 5 Pieces, though she is wearing ankle boots her heels are the shortest, and the shortest member Hannah has the highest heels. Hannah laughs over Julia’s shoulder when seeing it on the screen, because the difference looks so different.

“But all of you seem to be tall… What’s the height difference between the shortest and tallest then?” the MC wonders, curious when seeing the difference in the heels. Hannah looks at Maria who opens to answer, looking worried because she doesn’t like to talk about height.

“In my profile it says I’m 170cm tall,” Maria confesses, avoiding the height difference question, “but I’m actually 172cm tall. So the agency doesn’t like me to wear high heels because the other members are shorter.”

“Are you really 172cm tall?” the MCs’ mouths are dropping, because Maria is taller than the MCs – one of the MCs is 10cm shorter.

“SHINee’s Jonghyun got mad at her because of that,” Emelia chuckles. “Because there was a picture with 5 Pieces and SHINee, and Maria wasn’t wearing any heels but she and Jonghyun were of the same height… So Jonghyun got mad because fans thought he was shorter than his profile instead of thinking that Maria was taller.”

“Short people are sensitive about height,” Carolina comments with the same face-expression she had used when she talked about being a good daughter. Hannah gives her a grimace and the MC who sees that laughs, asking Hannah if she is sensitive about height.

“In every group, I think height is a sensitive subject,” Hannah answers, not looking to like it. “The tall people want to be shorter and the short people want to be taller.”

“Which makes it great for us in the middle,” Julia comments with a thumb pointing from herself to Carolina, smiling proudly because the two of them are in the middle height.

“So 5 Pieces do care about high heels and height,” the MC brings up the original question again.

“Without high heels, I would never stand next to Maria,” Hannah answers and then regrets saying anything because the MCs ask if they can stand next to each other with their current shoes on. Maria stands up without any problem at all, while Hannah gives a sigh and stands up, having Maria right in front of her. Maria is just slightly taller, and the MCs gets a big shock, laughing and saying their stylists did a great job on the heels, because if you look at the difference of the heels, Maria is definitely taller; almost a difference of 8cm of their heels. Maria puts her arm around Hannah, giving a pose for the audience and camera filming, still looking taller. The MCs laughs over the random pose.

Continuing with the next question – the MCs still laughing a little – they ask if 5 Pieces fight as much now like when they debuted, because the girl-group got known as a ‘fighting-dol’ during their audition time because they would fight the whole time.

“While we were preparing for our third album I think we have had less fights,” Maria answers, “but when we have had disagreements it have been big ones. At the same time we have been doing this for four years in Korea, so we do know more than when we debuted so it isn’t as much nervous fights as it were before and we all know what words the other reacts on.”

“We don’t fight as much now,” Emelia simply answers.

“But people still think we fight when we aren’t fighting,” Julia remembers, making the MCs curious to know what she means. “If we are like joking around or nagging at each other, others think we are fighting so they just look at us as if they are expecting us to start yelling at each other.”

“No, we yell quite a lot,” Maria corrects, “once when we were backstage for a music program, the staff came and asked us what is going on because we were screaming, but we were just trying to make our voice heard in the noisy room.”

“Maria yells a lot,” Emelia simply comments.

The MCs chuckles, entertained by how Emelia comments shortly and just how the girls are answering the questions are fun.

“‘Are the other members jealous of Hannah’s popularity in Japan’?”

“Is Hannah the most popular in Japan?” the other MC wonders after the question have been read out.

“Hannah is definitely the most popular in Japan,” Carolina answers with a nod. “When SNSD were doing their arena tour in Japan, they appeared on a Japanese show where the MC asked them if they are close to Hannah from Fist of Victory – the drama Hannah got known from. And because we are close to SNSD, they said they are close, and the MC said he had interviewed Hannah once and saying she is really cute.”

“He was with the nine members of SNSD and he asked about Hannah?” the MCs laugh and Hannah says she can’t believe it either.

“I experienced something alike too,” Emelia mentions. “I released a song and were in a drama in Japan, but even after half a year of promotions, people there were still saying ‘she is in the same group as Hannah’ when talking about me, though it was like two years ago since Hannah did her drama. Most questions I got were about Hannah. They even wanted me to get her to feature in one episode of the drama.”

At this time, Hannah laughs with the others and she keeps laughing with the others and nods when the MCs ask if she featured in an episode.

“The agency told me I was going to Japan to play Emelia’s childhood friend in the drama. I appeared in two episodes,” Hannah answers, unable to stop laughing and she even leans back in the sofa, hiding behind her hand and the MCs wonders if she never have heard that before and the members laugh when hearing Hannah unable to answer because she is laughing.

“Hannah didn’t know they asked me to get Hannah in one episode,” Emelia calmly answers.

“But 5 Pieces are starting promotions in Japan now. Will you be recognized as Hannah’s group or …?” the MCs wonders.

“At a start, we might be noticed as Hannah’s group, but we will work hard to get known as 5 Pieces,” Carolina answers confidently.

They continue with the next question; ‘was there any other names than 5 Pieces for your group?’

“Most groups have different names before debuting, but… 5 Pieces… we have been 5 Pieces since the start. Or we were 4 Pieces for a while before we got five members,” Emelia answers.

“4 Pieces and 5 Pieces… it isn’t much of a difference, is there?” the MC jokes with them.

“It’s a huge difference,” Maria is fast to answer with her voice going up and down, “It is a 5 instead of a 4, which means there are five ladies instead of four, so there is another person and that makes a huge difference.” She is joking while not joking, so the others laugh anyway and the MCs asks how they decided to start out this way, how they got to know each other and such.

“We grew up in the same city, and in 7th grade, all five of us were in the same school and grade,” Maria is explaining. “For me, I had known Hannah and Emelia probably my whole life but not until that grade we started to hang out and get really close. At the end of the same grade, Carolina joined us, so during the summer break we were hanging out a bit and during that time, the four of us decided to start a band. Not really a band but we wanted to sing and we were fans of K-pop, and I have no idea of why we chose just a band instead of a group, but we started to practice songs by the TraX. And at the start of 8th grade, Julia joined us. Since the other four of us had already started 4 Pieces at that time, she was just thrown in and half a year later we heard about the audition.”

“Just thrown in?”

“They told me my position in the band and gave me an instrument to learn,” Julia explains. “If I wanted to be in, that was the deal.”

“And we became 5 Pieces.”

“None of you could sing before that?” one of the other MCs had caught up.

“None of us could!” Maria bursts out with a laugh and the MCs get such a shock to hear it. “Even during our audition, we weren’t really good at singing. Hannah and I were even tone deaf. So we were sure that we wouldn’t be able to do it, but during the audition we got help from teachers at SM Entertainment and they said that we have the voice, we just don’t know how to use it and the technique.”

“I think I was a good singer,” Carolina mentions.

“Yeah, you got some idiotic confidence no one can understand,” Maria mutters and points at Carolina. “She couldn’t sing either but she would always do it with confidence.”

“Maria, you sang all the time too,” Emelia comments.

“At least I knew I couldn’t sing,” Maria talks back.

One of the MCs clears his throat, not really sure if he can talk when the girls are talking like this. “But you couldn’t sing, still joined the audition… and you went across the world from Sweden to South Korea. What… how should I ask this… You received a lot of negative response here in Korea, and you had your families in Sweden, what made you continue?”

“For me,” Emelia starts to say, “After the audition, my family supported us a lot. They doubted us at first because they had no idea this was what we wanted to do, but after the audition – since we had won a contract – they thought we must have some talent and they supported me and the other members a lot and I think that is what made me grab my members and make us keep going even if there were a lot of people telling us to go back to Sweden.”

Carolina is nodding in agreement when thinking back to that time but it is Julia who takes the word after Emelia;

“I think what made us pull through the difficult times was that there were people supporting us. Through the audition we had gotten fans, and when we were reminded of them and also having our families in Sweden telling us there is a place to come back to if we want, we worked hard to be able to continue. Thanks to the people supporting us we went through the difficult times thinking we can do it,” Julia says with the members nodding and the MCs listening.

“In 2012, four years after debut, 5 Pieces really took all of the awards in Korea. Artist of the year, album of the year, song of the year, best live… You are receiving attention from the whole world,” the MC is saying and he gives a pause to le the girls wonder what he will say. “Your songs are making headlines all around the world with who you are and your songs. 5 Pieces, who have been promoting strongly in Korea and definitely made an image and name in not just Korea but in other countries too… You have debuted internationally now. I heard that you even had your concert in your home country too?”

“Yes,” Maria nods. “In 2012, we were excited to have our very first solo concert, and it was planned to just be around Asia, but fans in Europe were sending in a lot of requests and they were doing flash-mobs and they even started this vote to show to our agency how many fans there are that want us to perform in Europe. We were actually looking through the flash-mobs, amazed and touched by seeing that many people dancing to our songs on the streets in … it was in different countries like France, Germany and Sweden. And because we are from Sweden, the agency managed to let us have our concert in our hometown.”

“It was originally supposed to be just one day concert, but there were so many fans that we added another day. It was amazing,” Julia adds with a slight hint of boasting.

“It must have felt different to perform in your hometown compared to when you perform here in Korea.”

“It was,” the girls are all nodding. “It was really strange. It wasn’t just in Sweden but it was in the city where we all grew up and where our families are, so it was really … emotional and personal for all five of us to just perform there, and then to have a concert was really making us go crazy. But the thing that surprised us the most was the amount of fans. The streets were filled with fans.”

“There was shown on the news here in Korea about the craziness in Sweden over your presence,” one of the MCs mentions.

“It was on the news in Sweden too!” Carolina remembers. “I was at home, eating breakfast with my family when the TV suddenly played our song and I just started to scream!”

“How did your families react on the concert?”

“They… I think they didn’t expect it,” Maria answers with a glance at her members. “They had all supported us and watched us from Sweden while we were in Korea, so it was the first time for most of them to see us actually perform. And the concert went on for three hours, so my dad complained about the length afterwards, but overall I think our families were impressed with that… this is what we are doing the whole time overseas and we love to do it and we get better at it with time…”

“My mother cried,” Julia mentions quietly. “She told me she barely saw the concert because she was crying the whole time.”

“Because it was overwhelming for her to see you perform?”

Julia nods. “Being a singer in Korea and in Sweden are two completely different things. Singers in Sweden rarely appear on TV or have fans shouting along during the songs, and if you release a song you perform it a few times and maybe have a concert if you are a big artist, but here in Korea you perform the least four times each week for over a month. When she was at the concert, fans were crying and screaming around her, people coming from all over Europe to see us – 5 Pieces – and I don’t think she hadn’t realised what we actually were doing.”

Hannah puts her hand on Julia’s back to caress it, doing it without taking the attention from the cameras. She did it because she could hear Julia being close to tears. Julia doesn’t start to cry, she was just close to it. The MCs comments on that it must have been big for their families to watch their kids performing in a concert like professionals, while their families still see them as the little kids they once were. One of the MCs mentions that 5 Pieces were said to not have gone alone to Sweden for the concert, asking if they brought any other idols with them.

“In our concert, there were some songs where we had other artists featuring,” Carolina starts to answer, “And for each concert there are different artists joining us depending on their schedule, and for the concert in Sweden the members of SHINee came along.”

“Because you were foreign fans of k-pop, have your idol friends here in Korea showed any interest in Sweden?”

“Many of our friends have said they want to get a private tour around Sweden by us,” Emelia answers with a nod. “Some even say they want to see where we grew up and meet our families, because here in Korea they can’t do that and they say we make Sweden sound so different they are curious.”

“SHINee was really curious too,” Carolina continues, “they were curious over where we grew up and because we were in our hometown, during our free time the day after the concert, we showed them around in the city a little. Hannah even brought them to the school where 5 Pieces got together.”

“Lee Sooman teacher and DBSK senior came also,” Maria adds. “DBSK came, but they weren’t planned to come and-”

Music suddenly starts to play and the moment the loud sound is heard the five girls gives a jump, and for those who have seen Win Win they know that means guests are coming. Julia covers her ears over the sudden noise and Carolina looks behind them, though the other girls know the guests usually comes through the same door the girls came from, and that is where they look now. All five girls look at the doors when they are opened and you can practically hear them breathe in over the shock and they stands up at the same time when seeing who are coming. The MCs stands up too, and 5 Pieces bows down politely.

Those entering while receiving such impressed, surprised, shocked and unexpected reactions from the others are none other than DBSK – Yunho and Changmin. The two tall idols walk up to greet both the MCs and 5 Pieces, and Hannah moves away from her seat as she doesn’t know where they are supposed to sit.

Sitting down, Yunho and Changmin are sitting in the sofa with Maria and Emelia while the other three members have gotten to sit on high chairs behind the sofa, and after getting comments from the MCs, the MCs mentions that 5 Pieces looked totally shocked.

“We asked around to try finding out who would come,” Maria answers, “but no one said they knew anything.”

“I got a text from her yesterday,” Changmin mentions with a smile, being the one sitting next to Maria and he points at her too. “She got frustrated when I said I didn’t know anything because she had contacted all strange people she knows and no one knew anything.”

“She called you strange?” the MC gets a surprise.

“What is your relationship?” another MC asks, because he thought they were senior-junior relationship but for the junior to call the senior ‘strange’ is … strange. Though the members of 5 Pieces have looked like professionals while they have been on the show, now when DBSK is there, they look smaller and more like extras while DBSK are superiors.

“Though there is a brother-sister relationship between us, but also a senior-junior relationship,” Yunho answers the question, talking very well. Maria can’t stop smiling and the MCs mentions that 5 Pieces suddenly became very proper in their way to sit and the duo of DBSK look at the girls behind and next to them.

“It’s our first time on a show together,” Carolina answers in a way that is supposed to be nervous.

“Actually, when 5 Pieces came to Korea,” Maria starts to say, “DBSK was the number one group we wanted to meet. All five of us had different favourite artists in k-pop, but we all liked DBSK a lot.”

“They looked like they were going to faint the first weeks we met,” Changmin nods in agreement.

“Right before you came, we were talking about 5 Pieces concert in Sweden,” the MCs brings up. “You went there too, right?”

“We went there,” Changmin nods.

“We changed our schedule to see how 5 Pieces was doing on their first solo concert outside Asia,” Yunho continues. “Because we had seen them perform for the concert in Seoul, we knew that if they were that nervous in the country they had performed in for the past four years, how would they be when they went home to perform in front of their families and childhood friends? And since we know that 5 Pieces looks up to us, we went there to show them how much we support them.”

“Was that your first time in 5 Pieces’ hometown? What did you think?”

“It was really tiny,” Changmin answers and Maria is nodding next to him, “Though Yunho and I didn’t get a private tour like SHINee did, we got to meet their families at the concert and …” Changmin’s voices fades away when he looks at Maria next to him.

“You saw where our charm came from?” Carolina asks behind him and they laughs as Changmin’s face doesn’t really say that and the girls laugh a little more when hearing Yunho’s trademark laugh.

Changmin gives out a forced sigh to the MCs. “Yes, we saw where their charm came from,” he answers in a funny way and the girls’ laughs again, “It was like meeting a whole bunch of 5 Pieces’ members because they were all so alike to their families, and each family was different from each other.”

“I think meeting their families was the most exciting thing during that trip,” Yunho laughs. “Because we had known each other for a while and these girls are pretty unique, meeting their families was such a big deal that Super Junior’s Leeteuk told me to film the whole meeting so he could see it for himself.”

“Everyone wanted to know how their families are like,” Changmin nods in agreement when seeing the MCs laugh over Yunho’s words.

“Wait, what was so special about meeting 5 Pieces’ families?” the MCs wonders and the girls seem to have the same question.

“But just look at them,” Yunho answers and shows his hand to the ladies, “They are really special. They are loud and honest and talented and hardworking and everyone that knows them here in Korea wants to go to Sweden and see how they grew up and meet their families just because we think it must have been a great childhood.”

“It was pretty normal,” Changmin fills in, talking about the childhood thing, making the others laugh over his funny comment.

“Which member’s family did leave the biggest impression on you?” the MCs asks, laughing a little over the question and Hannah starts to point her finger down above Maria’s head.

“Though all of them are really special…” Yunho starts to say, “Definitely Maria’s family left the biggest impression.”

Hannah stops pointing with a smile.

“I think her family looks the most alike, both on the outside and inside,” Yunho continues to say with Changmin nodding.

“Like a bunch of loud Maria’s,” Changmin adds and one of the MCs gives a laugh over how everyone of the guests is nodding in agreement.

“Maybe because my family is the biggest too,” Maria tries to explain, “So backstage during the rehearsals, wherever you looked, a member of my family was there.”

“But I’m curious; DBSK said they came to Sweden to support 5 Pieces for the concert. Did 5 Pieces get that support?” the MCs wonders, looking at the girls who are nodding.

“They made us get less nervous,” Carolina answers. “They were backstage with us during the rehearsals to when the concert started and they kept giving us advices and I think they helped us to stay focused and not freak out too much.”

“The first day, Hannah looked like she was going to cry when we were backstage before the concert,” Changmin adds and Hannah gives a smile by the memory.

“He kept making fun of me for that,” she fills in with a point at Changmin from behind and he says it was fun.

“Ever since our debut, DBSK has been really helpful and supportive,” Maria is saying, “so when we were in Sweden for the concert it felt very relaxing to have them there even if we felt a responsibility to do well because they had come all the way to Sweden.”

“We are their forever big seniors and fans,” Yunho jokes with a smile, making the MCs laugh because he is proudly boasting.

“DBSK saw 5 Pieces five years ago. What was your first impression of them?” the MCs ask.

“The first time I saw 5 Pieces, was during their audition,” Yunho starts to say while glancing from the MCs to the ladies. He is sitting a little to the side in the sofa so he is facing the audience and he is able to look at everyone. “I first saw them through their audition video, and then we had sneaked in to watch the recording of the audition. They weren’t the best at that time, but they had a surprisingly good stage presence. All five of them were really cute, and they wore a lot of make-up and had a rock style but I just remember them as cute.”

“At that time, we thought we looked really cool,” Maria confesses in a serious tone. “But when we look back at it we looked like complete fools.”

“Cute fools,” Yunho corrects and Maria thanks him as that is a compliment.

“I was just curious of how they found out about k-pop,” Changmin says. “But when Carolina said she was a fan of SNSD instead of DBSK, I lost interest in them.”

“I’m sorry,” Carolina apologizes with a pout in the back, making Changmin smile.

“So you have actually seen 5 Pieces grow from their audition up to today. What were your thoughts when you saw them perform at their own concert with so many people in the audience? Did they do well?” the MCs wonders, looking at Changmin and Yunho.

“Oh, they did extremely well,” Yunho answers with a funny face-expression, and even he gives one laugh when the others laughs at his answer. “During their audition they had stage presence that made you interested to watch more of them, but at their concert they had such a presence that even if you stood backstage and watched them you wanted to jump along with them. 5 Pieces have grown a lot and their stages are always the best because they give their best. Maybe it is because they started out in the audition while saying they are fans of DBSK and that they look up to us, we felt some responsibility to see if they actually do well, but I am proudly boasting about 5 Pieces because they have lifted up our name by being called the ‘female DBSK’ and because I am their senior. They are really the best now.”

“What about Changmin?”

“If you compare 5 Pieces from their audition to now, you wouldn’t believe they are the same people,” Changmin starts to answer and he ignores the girls laughing at him. “But like Yunho said, we are proud to be their seniors because they have reached the top through hard work and they deserve it.”

“Whoaw…” Maria sounds impressed and she laughs with an apology when the two seniors ask why she sounds like that; the two members of DBSK sounds like they always talk like that. “No, I was just… not expected them to say that.”

“What did you expect them to say then?” one of the MCs laughs.

“More like something… ‘they are loud and laugh too much’ or ‘they are the same now like then’ or…”

“Or ‘they still got much to learn before they are on our level’,” Emelia interrupts Maria who still nods after Emelia’s words and the MCs along with DBSK laughs because that wasn’t what DBSK ended up saying.

Yunho actually starts to say something that makes the mood change, as he says he was reminded of 5 Pieces debut time when he saw 5 Pieces concert, both the one held in Korea and the one in Sweden.

“When 5 Pieces debuted with [Moon Child], DBSK was also promoting at the same time,” Yunho starts off saying, “and many times when we met backstage we would try to encourage the girls because of the mixed responses from the audience. More than one time, there would be people in the audience that would yell out bad words at them or even throwing things up on stage so 5 Pieces couldn’t perform – many times the music stopped in the middle of a performance and 5 Pieces had to get off the stage because it wasn’t safe or they just couldn’t continue. During that time we felt really bad for them. Especially at one performance, when we saw that the people in the audience were fans of DBSK. Our own fans made our juniors unable to perform, and we got such a surprise over that. And that day the program we all were performing on announced that because of the audience, the schedule was delayed and it put a pressure on all the other artists that would perform too, so we got up on the stage and asked the audience to leave if they were going to be rude to hardworking artists that just want to perform a song for three minutes.”

Everyone have been paying attention to his story, the MCs giving ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ when it sounds to be fitting and Changmin just sitting and nodding as he remembers it too.

“That helped us,” Maria says when Yunho is done talking for the second, “after that DBSK got up on the stage and said that, it got easier for us to perform a full song.”

“At that time, 5 Pieces’ Korean wasn’t so good, but we still tried to communicate and help them out whenever we met,” Yunho nods.

“Whenever we saw 5 Pieces, they would be either practicing or studying,” Changmin adds, “there was a period when they always were on their toes too because there was a lot of talk over that they were rude, so whenever they saw us they would bow down with all their might and not dare to talk to us; because they had been told that you don’t treat seniors however you want. Which made us sad because we liked the free and open personalities that 5 Pieces had, and then all of a sudden they were just nervous and didn’t dare to do anything because of all the negative response they got everywhere.”

“I thought Yunho was going to hit us once,” Emelia confesses, shocking the MCs with her words and even Yunho gives a light surprised ‘what?’ with a laugh. “One time when we were practicing, right before we were releasing our first album, Yunho came by our practice room to see how it was going. And the moment we stood up next to each other and greeted him politely like we are supposed to do, he got angry and started to scold us by saying that 5 Pieces won’t last long unless we continue to be who we are because that is what made 5 Pieces in the beginning.”

Yunho laughs and claps his hands when remembering it. “I got so mad at them at that time because I had never thought they were rude or anything since they always bowed politely. But the moment I stepped in that room and they looked at their manager to even be allowed to speak, I snapped at them. The reason 5 Pieces was loved to begin with was because they were different and unlike any other idol group in Korea, and if they would step back because of rumours… I couldn’t handle it.”

“But if 5 Pieces wasn’t rude… why were there so many rumours about it?” the MCs wonders. “I heard a lot during 5 Pieces debut time that 5 Pieces had spoken rudely in a show and that they had ignored seniors and such…”

“That was just a bunch of misunderstandings,” Yunho says lightly and waves his hand to take those words away. “What happened was that 5 Pieces had a culture difference, so many times during their … well, first and second year in Korea, they always messed up in how to greet people correctly and because of that people from a distance thought they were rude.”

“I think it is great you brought them here,” Julia suddenly says with a happy laugh, meaning she is happy Win Win brought DBSK as guests to talk about 5 Pieces. Everyone laughs at her comment and Yunho looks happy, asking if he is doing that well but then he turns to the MCs and says he is doing really well.

“But what made DBSK feel responsible to take care of 5 Pieces? Because this isn’t the first time I hear that SM seniors have helped 5 Pieces a lot. Or is it like that among all senior-junior groups?” the MCs are curious to know.

“5 Pieces has a charm,” Yunho starts to answer and the way he says it makes them laugh, and also wonder ‘charm?’ and Yunho continues to explain very well; “so when we (SM seniors) first met them, it was like getting little sisters. They needed help to study and learn, they were cute and innocent even if they had a charismatic and tough image, and most of all it was probably because they were always doing their best. I have never seen teenagers spend so much time practicing and learning in that short period. Whenever we met them they would be practicing or studying, so automatically we stepped up to see if they needed any help and if we met backstage we would give them advice.”

“I think because the people in SM were there to see how hard 5 Pieces was trying to do and become well, we felt a responsibility as the older, experienced seniors to help them out,” Changmin adds.

One of the MCs gives a sudden laugh and points up at Carolina, asking why she is smiling so much. She keeps smiling brightly when answering;

“Our seniors in SM were really helpful, they still are. They always asked us if we are doing okay and looked out for us even if there was a language barrier in the beginning and even when they were playing around with us they made us feel welcomed.”

The MCs are nodding.

“They have become like the little sisters of SM because they always tried to follow their seniors to do better and work on their image while they still are young and playful,” Yunho adds up to the end. “To see how beautifully they have grown make me proud.”

“What I am quite surprised over,” one of the MCs starts to say, “is how you all really seem to have a mix of sister-brother and senior-junior relationship. As 5 Pieces have before been rumoured to be rude, and as DBSK have been there during that time, I only see that they are really polite at the same time as they are friendly.”

“Thank you,” the girls happily says over getting a compliment.

“Don’t expect the politeness to last for long,” Changmin says and shakes his head, obviously joking, “We haven’t met in a while so they are a little stiff.”

The girls laugh with the others over Changmin’s joke and he looks very happy over the response from everyone. In other words; once 5 Pieces get used to have DBSK there, they will relax more.

“Is 5 Pieces tough in daily life?” one of the MCs who haven’t talked that much wonders, looking at DBSK.

“They are like little kids,” Yunho answers. “They don’t like to be told what to do and if you give them candy but say they can’t eat it now, they will run away and eat it anyway.”

He smiles and says it’s true when the others are laughing and Changmin adds that they are stubborn kids.

“We have heard a lot from DBSK about 5 Pieces and it seems like you all get along pretty well,” one of the MCs says, “and we would want to ask one last question to the special guests… What does 5 Pieces mean to you?”

Changmin is the one answering first, smiling. “5 Pieces to me would probably mean little sisters,” Changmin answers, “because all this time we have known each other – though it actually isn’t a very long time – they have always felt like little sisters. I have seen them study, go through school and learn things and I have even helped them and taught them and wanting them to get better… And it’s fun to joke around with them like little sisters.”

The girls are happy to everything DBSK says. They actually doesn’t usually spend much time revealing their thoughts about each other, so it feels quite special to have THE DBSK talk so well about them.

“For me, no sentence fits 5 Pieces better than ‘music from the world, for the world’,” Yunho says in his well-speaking tone. “There is something professional about them but something familiarly friendly too, which I think is why people like them. Though they are blowing minds on the stage they are still fun and friendly with their fans and to us too, so I would say that’s the sentence that describes 5 Pieces from my point of view because they are really so much put together in just one group and they leave a big impression.”

Hannah laughs when Maria waves her hands to her own face and says she can’t handle all this; the drama queen gets all emotional and loving by DBSK’s words and now when DBSK have said their final words, they are leaving. Maria hugs them both (in a way to thank them for coming and saying such touching words) and after that the five ladies sit back down in the sofa to finish the show.

One of the MCs say: “5 Pieces have received love and support from their families and friends in both Sweden and Korea and also fans from all around the world, but what we have noticed is that the five of you within the group have a close bond too and you all seem to work very well together. I think that is why you have pulled through such hard times to come to this high place you are at now. Thinking back to before you came to Korea and before you became 5 Pieces; if you got the chance, would you choose to not become 5 Pieces and instead finish school with a good attendance and work with something different?”

“There are times when we think what we would have done if we weren’t in 5 Pieces, there definitely is a curiosity in us that makes us ask what we could be doing,” Maria is saying, “but those thoughts are just thoughts and imagination because I think – speaking for all five of us – that our lives couldn’t have gotten better doing anything else than what we do now. We have grown with self-esteem, confidence and knowledge and grown in a way we all thought was impossible and there are a lot of people looking up to us and liking what we do, so…”

“So it feels like it isn’t meaningless in what we do,” Emelia fills out for Maria when the leader seems to not know how to finish it.

“Exactly. I don’t say that other kind of works are meaningless, definitely not, but for me, I feel that being with the ladies and performing and doing what we do, it feels meaningful whenever we see the people liking our music and also that we like it too makes it extra special for us,” Maria continues.

“We love what we do and we wouldn’t want to go back in time to change it,” Julia adds in.

“Then our final question that we ask all guests; what does 5 Pieces mean to you?” the MC asks.

“5 Pieces to me is family,” Maria is the first one to answer, “we go through life together, both good and bad things and even if we have our differences in most things and have our disagreements, at the end of the day we still sit down and laugh together and I think that is what makes us a family.”

“5 Pieces is … life,” Emelia answers next, “it’s my life being part of 5 Pieces and it is part of who we are. Being part of 5 Pieces makes us do things that keeps us reminded that we are alive.”

Carolina’s turn is after; “Something unpolished,” she says, “Lee Sooman always calls 5 Pieces for an unpolished diamond, and that is probably what 5 Pieces means to me. We have definitely learnt a lot, grown and come a far way since we begun and slowly this diamond is being polished but I think since no one is perfect, we can’t be a perfect diamond – which makes us an unpolished diamond.”

“Woa, that sounds good,” the MCs seems impressed and one of them moves his hand for Julia to continue.

“I would say it is a dream. 5 Pieces; the members, our fans, what we get to do, what we have done, what we hear and see and learn… Everything of it, I see it as a dream,” Julia is answering. “A great dream and every time we go up on the stage and have the fans cheering us on, that’s the best part of the dream.”

“A new beginning is what 5 Pieces means for me,” Hannah is the last member to answer, smiling shyly. “Because we have … done things that, I mean, I just thought going abroad was the biggest thing that could happen in my life a few years ago and now I go abroad every week, so what 5 Pieces is and have given us is probably exactly what the other ladies have said and I think that is what I means. A new beginning with the past, present and future”

 

++ - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + -+ - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + -+ - + - ++

Headline 12th: Japan News Paper Does A Spread About 5 Pieces

Headline 12th: 5 Pieces’ Appearance On ‘Win Win’ Gains Most Views Of The Show

Headline 12th: Which Member Makes The Most Money In 5 Pieces & What Happens With The Money From Hannah’s Book?

Headline 12th: ‘Win Win’ Get Answers From 5 Pieces About Kwon Hyunsuk, Lee Honggi & Junior Groups

Headline 12th: Maria’s Real Height Revealed On ‘Win Win’ + Funny Story About SHINee’s Jonghyun

Headline 12th: 5 Pieces Talks About Japan, Their Swedish Concert, Popularity & Special Guest Appearance On ‘Win Win’

Headline 12th: DBSK Yunho Wanted To Hit 5 Pieces?

++ - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + -+ - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + -+ - + - ++

++ - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + -+ - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + -+ - + - ++

 

X. devonalias