“Pieces of one,” Carolina cheerfully starts off saying standing in the middle and the five members greets in chorus; “Hello, we are 5 Pieces!”

Emelia and Julia are sitting down on chairs with Maria, Carolina and Hannah standing behind them. They are doing interviews for the music video and repackage album with the set for the music video as background. Hannah is standing with her hand on Julia’s shoulder, listening to the members answering the questions and explaining the song and concept.

“[Oppa] is a trendy R&B pop song with a dance you can easily follow along to,” Julia is revealing, “it has very cute lyrics about a girl worrying of confessing to her love, and it expresses the nervous heart of a young woman. Please listen to it.”

“Yes, and there are new songs aside from [Oppa] in the repackaged album that we will introduce to you,” Carolina is saying and as she is holding the microphone in her hands she turns first to her left side where Hannah is standing while talking and then turns to Maria on her right side as she is the one who will introduce the next song.

“Rather than coming with a few new songs to the repackaged album, we have actually only one more song beside from [Oppa] in the album that haven’t been heard before. The other songs is a new version of [Black & White], the main track from our third album, and then it is a surprise version of the song [Unable to Stay, Unwilling to Leave] that I think all five of us are curious to know the thoughts of those hearing it because it is an acapella version; meaning it has nothing else but the voices of 5 Pieces. Both versions are really good and we hope everyone will enjoy listening to it. And other than that, our recent song [Daze] was pre-released and promoted before to then be in the repackaged album as a special track.”

“The new song is called [WHO- I AM],” Emelia starts off saying in a low voice when it is her turn. She looks relaxed and comfortable sitting down. “It is a genre we haven’t tried on before and I think it might be a little rough or strong, but in deeper meanings it shows 5 Pieces’ dedication.”

“[WHO- I AM] is also the first song that Emelia helped out to both write the lyrics for and produce,” Maria adds, making the members smile and Emelia smirks at the camera.

“Yeah. I helped Jo Insuk with this song and I even got the chance to rule over the ladies in the recording-room,” Emelia says with a cool nod. “It’s worth listening to, everyone.”

“How was it?” Carolina asks.

Emelia looks up at her, having an empty face-expression that says that she has no idea of what Carolina wants her to say, and Julia gives a laugh when seeing it. Instead of letting anyone answer Carolina’s question, Maria continues;

“With our repackaged album we would like to show more colours of 5 Pieces, such as with a new genre or style and concept that we haven’t tried before, and since this is going to be our fifth year anniversary since debut, we would like to begin the year showing these colours and we hope many will show interest in it.”

They receive the next question and Hannah gives a small smile when seeing how Emelia moves her elbow to hit Carolina on the leg lightly. The girls explains their outfits as well as the dance during the interview, revealing the casual and matching outfits of the members and when hearing the song you just automatically starts to do the simple dance because it’s so catchy. Hannah puts her hands together behind Julia’s back, trying to stay warm. The set is really cold and though it had gotten better for the girls to be there while doing the dancing scenes, it is getting colder now when they are standing still.

After doing the formal interview to promote the album and song, they get a few other questions, such as; “in the song [Oppa] you sing about confessing to the one you love; how you have confessed to someone before and is there any specific way you would want to confess in?”

“I would want someone to confess to me,” Maria is first to answer, fast and bold in her words. “No one has confessed to me so I would want to know how that felt like before I do it to someone, so that person can come up with his own way to confess to surprise me.”

“For me…” Carolina starts to wonder when it is her turn and Hannah finds herself going in to other thoughts. “I once confessed to someone back in school by leaving a note in that person’s locker, writing that I like that person, and then I looked from a distance when that person read it.”

“Creepy,” Emelia comments and Maria out of nowhere gives out a big laugh in agreement. Hannah came back to her senses by the laugh and she glances at the members on her right to see whose turn it is, and she hears Carolina say that she would probably do the same thing if she is going to confess again. It’s then Hannah’s turn and she faces the front at the camera zooming in on her, focusing on what she will answer.

“I don’t remember confessing before… But if I will I would want to like … spend some time with this person to see if he maybe likes me, and then … I don’t know,” Hannah slowly says and she ends it with a pout. “I probably wouldn’t dare to confess.”

They slightly laughs at her final comment, agreeing on that it might be true that she would never dare to confess.

“I told a boy right up in his face that I like him once,” Julia reveals, nodding when the girls all sounds surprised. “But the ultimate confession I think would be to tell this person through a song that I like him. Like through our new song [Oppa].”

Hannah giggles and she nods when the ladies say that was clever of Julia to say.

Emelia is next, and she is having this evil glimpse in her eyes. “Then I would be extreme so after stalking the person to know he doesn’t have anyone else, I would kidnap him and pretend he has come to another world and since it would just be the two of us existing in that world, he wouldn’t have a choice but to like me back. And then I wouldn’t need to confess.” She gives a super satisfied face-expression after doing that but all the other girls have been complaining after the first words and Maria even pushes her off the chair, saying it is a brilliant idea unless she wants to be thrown away by their fans. What the girls are actually talking about, Hannah has no idea, so she just stands there and smiles while watching them.

Emelia is holding the camera, filming. “EM’s sel-ca time,” she says while focusing to film herself walking around. “I will introduce you to 5 Pieces’ family. Where could they be…”

She is mumbling while holding up the camera to be able to have her face in the focus, though the camera shakes when she walks around. She turns the camera around to film a bunch of blankets on the floor by the wall. They are still at the filming for their new music video but since it is the solo shooting now, Emelia is enjoying the time before it is her turn by borrowing the behind-the-scenes camera to film on her own. Lying on the blankets is the brown puppy that earlier at the filming came running on the set when missing his owners. He is sleeping now, so Emelia can simply sit down on her heels and turn the camera around to film herself with the puppy.

“This sleepyhead is Michin. He isn’t it now but this puppy is really crazy – therefore he is Michin,” Emelia says. Michin is Korean for ‘crazy’. “And somewhere around here… Hey, Bunny, where do you think you are going?”

Emelia gets up on her feet, turning the camera around in her hand at the same time to be able to focus it further down the wall at the end where Hannah turns around, holding on to a white puppy in her arms, the white puppy barely visible as he is wrapped around in a blanket. Both puppies are so small that they barely even fit in their arms, but the puppies are also young – Michin is 4 months and the white puppy is just 2 months. Emelia tells Hannah to come over, and the girl does as she is said, including when she is told to introduce the puppy in her arms.

“This is Ryo,” Hannah answers cutely, letting Emelia zoom in on the tired puppy. “He is the youngest.”

“Normally they aren’t this tired, but we have been playing a lot with them during the breaks so they want to sleep now,” Emelia reveals.

The white puppy in Hannah’s arms is a Japanese Spitz, and how these two puppies can be so small and young is because they have only been part of the family since the week before Christmas. Julia and Emelia had suddenly come home with them, and though the girls (especially Julia) have wanted a puppy for really long they didn’t get one so Julia had gotten tired of asking for permission that in the end she just came home with two adorable puppies. Their manager said they can’t stay, but within days the puppies looked to have found their home with the ladies. Beside from the two puppies, 5 Pieces received a kitten as a gift from fans back in 2011 for their third year anniversary, a kitten named Ace that now is the boss because both puppies seem to do what he wants – the white puppy Ryo lies down whenever Ace seems to be ready to scold him or something. Three pets that all get love from the five ladies. Because Ace isn’t lying with the puppies on the bed made of blankets on the floor, Emelia leaves Hannah with the puppies to go find their kitten.

“This is the senior and boss,” Emelia says, her hand seen in the frame pointing over at the white cat playing on the floor in the changing room. Ace is wildly jumping around after a toy mouse that a young Korean woman is moving around to play with. “Unnie, if you don’t let him get near it he will start play with your feet instead.” Emelia laughs when reminding the woman of the cat’s personality and the hand holding the mouse toy reaches down to let Ace start hitting the toy with his paws. Emelia points the camera to film the woman; a short young woman in her late 20s whose dark brown hair is up in a long braid down the side of her head, and while her nails were seen short playing with the cat, her neck is filled with all kind of necklaces and also a nice scarf. “This is our stylist, Mi Young Unnie. She helps us to take care of Ace when we are working, and she also takes care of us to make sure we look the best.”

“Which is difficult,” hair and make-up stylist An Mi Young adds with a joke and smiles up at Emelia to see if she saw it as a joke too.

Hannah comes inside the room, still walking around with Ryo in her arms as if he was a baby wrapped up in that blanket, and quietly she sits down at the end of the sofa where Maria is sleeping. Maria is flawless in her way to sleep; she is on her back, using a jacket as a pillow and she has moved up her knees to have them next to her waist and her is because of that pointing out a little over the seat. Hannah has absolutely no idea of how she can sleep like that, one arm uncomfortably lying down on the side to touch the floor. It looks so uncomfortable, but Maria is sleeping like a child, totally unaware of all the things happening around her. When Maria isn’t filming at the set, she is either eating or sleeping. The youngest sits there, caressing the half asleep Ryo while smiling at Emelia and stylist Mi Young playing with the cat Ace together lightly. Emelia has stopped filming to play and they all look up when someone else enters the room, low greetings to their clothing stylist and Julia that have come back from solo filming.

“Is it my turn now?” Emelia asks when seeing Julia.

“No… It’s Carolina,” Julia answers with a raised eyebrow because they had decided the order before, and knew that Emelia is after Carolina, so she got a little wondering to get that question from the smart Emelia. “But you guys, the set is really pretty.”

“We know; we have seen it.”

Hannah giggles over Emelia’s response to the comment, looking down at the puppy in her arms that seems to have fallen asleep now. Hannah has always liked dogs; back in Sweden her family has a dog since years back and maybe because of that she is really comfortable with a dog, though the two 5 Pieces has are just as small as a cat. About cats, Hannah doesn’t like them; they are scary since they can be nice one second and then the other second they are suddenly mean. Past memories of a cat attacking her legs as if she was a mouse is still scaring, but yet, living with a cat for over a year, hasn’t changed her mind at all. Ace might be adorable and part of the family, but she still has the same opinion about other cats – Ace isn’t like them because she knows how his moods changes. In other words, she loves her family but not those outside it.

5 Pieces’ clothing stylist is Yong Hyun, a tall and lanky gay man who more than being the stylist is one of the closest friends to the members in 5 Pieces. He gives them advices about mostly everything and just like stylist Mi Young he gets to know most things about the members too. A big happy family, that though now when Maria is sleeping are happily talking with each other without caring about keeping low voices, and Yong Hyun gives Hannah a glance that shows how he dislikes that she is hugging the puppy so much while being in her sponsored clothes; that she is having a blanket between doesn’t mean anything to him, all he thinks of is that he doesn’t really like dogs that much.

“So you are really going to go skiing?” Mi Young starts off another topic.

“Yes,” Hannah is fast to answer, her eyes suddenly glimmering brightly, causing the stylist to laugh.

“I’m bringing a sled,” Emelia answers. “Skiing isn’t for me.”

“Me neither,” Julia grimaces and Hannah gives a pout.

On Wednesday, 5 Pieces were told they were giving the day off before they will head to New York, and the girls had gotten the idea to head to a ski resort where they could enjoy winter like they always used to do in the snowy Sweden. The amounts of snow in Korea and Sweden aren’t even comparable, at least not of the part in Sweden where 5 Pieces grew up, so for all this time when the group has been in Korea they have actually never really visited a ski slope. Maybe because they usually work when they are in Korea; preparing a comeback, promoting during the comeback, and then continuing with more activities after comeback before starting it all over again. And now they have made the decision and plans to go to a ski resort a bit outside the capital city to spend most of the day having fun. It is 5 Pieces, their two puppies and also two of their managers. Though all members of 5 Pieces know how to ski, it is only Hannah and Carolina who wants to do it; the other three are going to be sledding. They are looking forward to it.

Hannah is the unlucky member to film last. For the cover shoot the day before, 5 Pieces had played a game to decide the order and Hannah got last so by the time she is starting her filming, Carolina, Julia and Emelia have already left. Hannah is wearing a pair of skinny jeans and a blue star-pattern knit top, and she smiles when seeing the now familiar behind-the-scenes woman filming her and hurries up to her to reveal the big white teddy bear in her arms.

“I’m filming with the teddy bear,” she giggles happily, putting the teddy bear under her chin. She keeps smiling at the woman and gives a slight pout when the woman asks her to say something about what she is filming now. “My solo scene is of me … sitting in a sofa and worrying over how to confess in the lyrics to the person I have a crush on. They tell me to act cute, so for help I get the teddy bear to sit in the sofa with me…” She gives out a sigh, not really knowing that she is completely cute the whole time. “And I’m the last one to film too… All the other ladies did really well, so I have to work hard. But hopefully, the video will turn out well and the director is shooting us prettily.”

Her scene is taking place on a sofa, in a simply half-decorated living-room. The sofa is filled with cute cuddle toys, including the big teddy bear that Hannah has brought along. It is not the only thing she has brought along. Lying on top of the teddy bear’s head is a cap. The cap is black with the front and the shield filled with small buttons of different colours and patterns that in fact are tiny, tiny button pictures of the members in 5 Pieces; individual pictures, group pictures and more. Over fifty buttons are fitting on that space, and though when filming the camera only captures it on the teddy bear in the background behind Hannah, all five members of 5 Pieces are having their own cap in their own solo scene. Emelia was the only one wearing it, but Carolina had been holding it in her hand as if acting out that the cap is her crush in the lyrics.

Just these five caps were gifts to 5 Pieces from Swedish fans. During an interview back in December with a Swedish reporter, he had handed over the caps to 5 Pieces while saying the Swedish fan-club had asked him to bring it to them, and 5 Pieces have been wondering how they can show off the precious hand-made gift in public when someone in the agency had suggested them having it in their music video. The ladies can’t wait for the music video to be released, wondering how fast people will notice it.

Hannah films her parts cutely, getting directions and praise because though she gets small directions at times, she is naturally cute and for that gets praise. It makes her get shy though, and she blushes when they clap their hands at her on the set.

Finishing off filming, Hannah bows and claps her hands and does the usual; thanking everyone for their hard work and exchanging a few words with the director and some of the people they usually works with 5 Pieces. She gets to go change clothes into her own jeans and zip hoodie, getting warm in a winter jacket after freezing at the cold set and while pulling on her jacket she also checks her cell phone.

“Are you ready?”

The yawning Maria looks up when Manager Lee Ji Young grabs a random bag when asking the question. She sees that he looks at the youngest and Maria looks too, seeing that Hannah is busy texting with only one arm in her jacket and Maria gets up, saying that they should go. She doesn’t care if Hannah isn’t ready and just grabs her own bag to tiredly leave the room, walking by the manager who waits for Hannah who by Maria’s words grabs her things and while leaving trying to pull on the jacket.

“So what are your plans for tomorrow, Ji Young Oppa?” Maria asks while walking next to their manager.

He smiles by the question. “I,” he starts off saying with a big smile, “will spend the whole day with my relatives in Incheon. My mother invited everyone.”

Manager Lee is turning 35 years in two days, but since he will be in New York that day he is getting the day off tomorrow to celebrate his birthday however he wants. Maria says it’s cute that his mother is preparing his birthday. The manager is one of their youngest and also their newest manager, and he is also the manager who has been following Hannah around the most for her solo activities for the past one year. When Maria asks if he wants something for present on his birthday, Hannah looks up from walking behind them, curious to know what he will answer.

“Hannah knows what I want,” he smirks and looks over his shoulder at Hannah who looks like she is caught eavesdropping, smiling and saying she has no idea of what he is talking about. “I said it to you last week at the Strong Heart recording.”

“Aaah,” she remembers and Maria looks like she is still waiting for someone to answer. “A watch, I think, right?”

He nods and Maria grimaces at him. “You should want us to introduce you to a woman or something, not get a watch… Or want a car, do you want that?”

Hannah pushes Maria lightly on the arm, laughing at her.

“What woman could you possibly know to introduce me to?” Manager Lee laughs.

There is actually a point in that, Maria must admit, since the ladies don’t really know that many people possible to introduce him to, so she sticks to the car idea instead. Secretly she glances at Hannah, and the youngest figures out that they will get him a watch for his birthday.

They head straight to SM Entertainment’s building, where the others probably already have arrived. Those that left earlier from the music video filming headed home to leave the pets before heading to the agency. It’s late after spending two days filming the music video but 5 Pieces have two songs to practice, which is where they are going to do now. But Hannah disappears when arriving though, telling Maria and the manager that she will just make a quick visit on another floor and that it will just take a few minutes and she hurries off on her own. She had left her bag in the van and Manager Lee takes her jacket.

It is the first thing she sees when opening the door and looking inside the room. He is sitting in a black blazer, a hoodie under with the hood over his head so from the side she can only see a bit of his face; how his soft pink lips are moving while he is writing on a paper. Hannah smiles widely when seeing how focused he is on writing, and he then stops to move his head and pen hitting the table lightly while a melody is sung through his lips. He hasn’t even noticed her. She quietly walks up to sit on the other side of the table, pretty sure he has noticed her by then but he seems to be brainstorming so she stays quiet to let him do his work and instead she sits there with her elbows on the table and head resting on her hands to look at him with a smile and loving eyes. He is wearing a necklace, hanging a bit over the tank top he is wearing under the hoodie, and on his left ring finger he is wearing a couple-ring; a matching one to the ring Hannah has added on a bracelet around her left wrist.

“I liked the picture,” he says while still having his eyes on the paper and pen still moving over it.

“Hm?” she asks quietly, not sure if he is talking to her or talking to himself but he looks up at; a pair of dark eyes meet her blue-green ones, and a charming smile in his face make her cheek change colour. It’s amazing how he can make her feel. Just a smile from him can make her blush and just his presence makes her heart race.

“I liked the picture you sent me,” SHINee’s Jonghyun repeats with a smile. He rests his cheek on his hand, blinking at her. “You have practice right now?”

“Right now,” she answers with a nod, followed by her getting up from the seat. “They will scold me if I’m late.”

Jonghyun pouts out with his lower lip and follows her with his head when she rounds the table to get next to him, but his smile grows when her face gets closer to his. “They wouldn’t dare,” he tells her and Hannah grimaces because she knows they gladly would scold her, and he knows that too. She still moves her head close in front of his, letting their lips touch for a simple kiss.

“Happy now?” Hannah whispers with a smile before giving him another kiss and she then stands straight, looking at the big smile in his face.

“You made my day,” he answers and she laughs, letting their hands touch. “Aren’t you going to ask what I am working on?”

He wants her to ask but Hannah shakes her head cutely. “You said it is a secret.”

“I’ll tell you when it’s done,” he insists and she gives a nod. She is curious to know what he is working on, but he has earlier said it is a secret that he can’t tell and she has too much in her head going on now that she will wait for him to be ready to tell her. And he looked really handsome with that image of seriously working that he did when she just sat and watched him now, so it will be a mysterious secret that will keep her remembering that image of him focusing and writing as he just did while waiting for him to tell her.

Hannah says she really has to go and with a final smile she leaves the room, leaving her boyfriend to work so she can go work too. He had texted her, knowing she would come for practice asking if she could drop by and that is what she did. It’s the small things that matters in a relationship; not forgetting to text each other and always trying to do these small things to make each other happy. Having a secret relationship as Hannah and Jonghyun is definitely not easy, but they have made it for two and a half year already, and they will keep on like this. All their friends know about it, so it is just a secret to the rest of the world – which is big, but it is not an impossible mission.

“I’m sorry for being late!” Hannah calls out the moment she enters the practice-room, bowing to the choreographer who she is apologizing for.

“And we have no idea of why you are late…” Emelia rolls her eyes, sitting in the middle of the room on the floor.

“It went faster than I imagined,” Julia mentions, nodding as if she is impressed, and Hannah just reaches out her tongue at them.

Hannah always ignores the members’ comments about her meeting Jonghyun briefly like she did now, mostly ignores everything they say about her and Jonghyun at all because they are just joking or making fun of her. So instead, since Hannah shows no fun reactions, the group is soon busy with practicing.

With 5 Pieces heading to America for a few days to promote their upcoming single release of the already music video released song [Daze], they need to practice the international version of the song. Since they already have promoted the song in Korean, all they need is to learn the song in English as well as learn the small changes in the choreography. It is the same with the song [Black & White], which also was released in an international single back in November. The girls are sitting down, walking around or just standing up to practice first of all the lyrics, learning their parts and listening through the songs seriously. Compared to the bright and happy Pieces they were at the music video filming for two days, the girls are now serious and nervous, knowing they just have tonight to practice before they will head to New York. Of course they will practice there too, but after this practice they should know everything they need to know; they should be able to pull off a real performance by the end of the practice, which is why they are so serious practicing. And they are nervous because this will be their second time promoting a song outside Asia; last time was back at the end of 2011 when they went to Ellen DeGeneres Show and also promoted a little in Europe with their first international single [One and Only].

“I think we will mess up on the lyrics,” Maria mentions when falling down to sit on her . She has put up her long hair in a pony-tail and her neck is glimmering with sweat after a few hours of practicing. “I still can’t take [Black & White] in English. It’s impossible to make it stick.”

“Nothing is impossible,” Carolina reminds her but Maria just gives her a glare and says that THIS is impossible.

“Let’s do just the singing again then,” Emelia suggests and glides over the lyrics paper on the floor to Maria.

Hannah is also sitting down, looking at the two pieces of papers with the lyrics for both of the songs. They have never performed the songs in English before, so it is kind of like a habit doing the performances in Korean, which is probably why Maria can’t get a grip on the different lyrics. Hannah has easy to learn lyrics, her problem is the pronouncing; Emelia or Carolina are always correcting her, whether it’s English or Korea. 5 Pieces can probably say they are fluent in English, as it is their second language after Swedish and when coming to Korea at first they had a translator who spoke Korean and English to help them communicate, so their only way was to speak in either Korean or English – and at that time the girls didn’t really know Korean more than a simple greeting and some words. They can talk, write and understand full sentences, so the girls haven’t even gotten any English lessons for their international promotions. Beside from Korean, Japanese and Chinese lessons, 5 Pieces haven’t gotten any other language lessons beside from these brief greetings they have had to learn when going to other countries. But learning the other languages has been enough already.

When the practice finally ends, the girls are too tired to even ask for something to eat on the way home, though they are hungry.

“I can’t wait for us going skiing tomorrow,” Carolina yawns with her arms stretched out to the ceiling in the van.

“Let’s see for how long you will have the energy to be in the slope tomorrow,” their manager jokes, getting a chuckle of agreement from Emelia.

Hannah looks forward to go skiing too.

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Headline 08th: 5 Pieces’ [Daze] Even Tops America’s Billboard Chart!

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X. devonalias