A camera-man is filming backstage at 5 Pieces’ arena tour in Hiroshima. It is in the middle of the day and he is trying to find a member of the girl-group now during the break, but he had failed to film Maria because she had to go to the bathroom and for some unknown reason he wasn’t welcomed inside the dressing-room, so he is walking around backstage in hope to catch a foreigner somewhere around here. He feels a little lost without having anything to film but the walls and floor and just when he thinks of turning off the camera, he catches Hannah jumping up and down in excitement with a puppy following along by her feet. His focus is on the camera to film, excited to find someone, and he walks up to the doors leading outside where Hannah along with a manager and stylist are stepping outside to the bright sun.

Hannah starts to run right away on the open space, the white puppy Ryo running the fastest he can after her.

Hiroshima is beautiful; the trees are grass in the flowerbeds around the arena building, making space for the asphalt foot roads going back and forth out from the building. It is very pretty, and Hannah thinks it will look even prettier once all the flowers have blossomed. The sun is shining, and it feels like summer now.

The blonde girl has put up her long blonde hair in a loose bun at the top of her head, wearing a pair of loose distressed blue jeans to a gray logo print t-shirt, and when running around with the bright and active Ryo her laugh is hoarse. She turns around, clapping her hands brightly in front of her for Ryo to jump in front of her, barking brightly over the fun outside. Hannah gives another hoarse laugh.

Today and yesterday, 5 Pieces have kept running outdoors at each moment they can to enjoy the nice weather in Hiroshima. Yesterday it was chaotic with the rehearsals, but the ladies still took some nice April pictures together. Also yesterday it was the first day concert in Hiroshima, and Hannah’s voice was not okay; it cracked more than three times and it was not okay. Hannah hated it, so she has even forced herself to drink some disgusting tea that is supposed to help the throat (Julia drinks it all the time).

The weather is still great, putting Hannah in a great mood. There are no clouds in the sky, just a clear blue sky with the sun shining down brightly. According to the temperature (one of the staff told Hannah) it is around 20°c outside, but Hannah is sure that is it hotter if you are in the sun because there is no wind and the sun is just burning nicely on your skin. Maria has constantly been talking about spending the whole day tanning outside, but indoors it’s cool and almost cold for them, which is good when they are rehearsing. They will sweat when dancing any way.

The camera-man approaches Hannah when she is calming down, clapping her hands for Ryo to not continue to run further away and the puppy listens to her hands by turning around to run back.

“You seem to like Hiroshima,” the camera-man comments because Hannah’s smile is enormous, and he is talking in Japanese, filming for the concert DVD.

“I love the weather in Hiroshima,” Hannah answers in Japanese, continuing to smile while making sure to keep an eye on Ryo who is playing around with stylist Mi Young. “Last week in Fukuoka, it was raining.”

“You don’t love the rain?”

“I love the rain,” Hannah answers with a laugh, knowing it will sound weird to first not like it and then like it; “but our fans have to wait outside before the concert… Won’t they be wet?”

“But your concert is worth to wait in the rain for,” the camera-man comments and Hannah smiles at him, having this magnae image now, not looking to believe him.

“As long as they think it’s worth it,” Hannah ends up saying, giving a laugh when stepping to the side and the camera-man follows with the camera. With a light voice Hannah calls for Ryo, clapping her hands again when the puppy starts to rush over to her and they are playing around a little together.

After just a few minutes, Hannah steps up to the camera-man with a low laugh, looking embarrassed. Far behind her, behind the flowerbeds and some single trees, a small group of fans have appeared. They were passing by on their way to stand in line when spotting Hannah and some others playing around at the back, and now they are in cute voices calling out Hannah’s name and waving wildly.

“We got caught,” Hannah jokes to the camera-man, smiling up at him before she turns around and waves to the fans that burst out in either giggling or shouting of excitement. Hannah puts both hands up to wave the double after a few seconds waving with just one hand, and when seeing Ryo starting to run away towards the fans far away she calls out his name suddenly (her voice not loud but strict) and Ryo hesitates his steps. “Ryo here,” Hannah tells him and the puppy jogs back until Hannah can pick him up.

“Kawaii!” a few fans shout out from the distance and Hannah waves to them again with Ryo now in her arms. She knows it is the puppy the fans are calling cute, but it’s not like she is going to pick up Ryo’s paw and make him wave – she doesn’t do those things.

Fans has actually been lurking around there both today and yesterday, catching the members stepping out between the rehearsal to play with their pets, enjoy the sun, take pictures of them selves or throwing a ball to each other.

One of the female dancers has stepped outside, and Hannah gives a laugh when hearing the dancer laugh over the fans reactions to see Hannah just waving at them. Hannah turns to the camera, pointing at the female dancer who is walking to Hannah.

“Hanako-chan is really good to imitate Carolina’s part in [I Love You],” Hannah says with her eyes glimmering at the camera-man. 24 years old Nogi Hanako steps up next to Hannah, standing a little behind with a hand stretched out to pat Ryo on his head.

“Hannah-chan is better,” Hanako giggles.

“When we are backstage, the dancers love to imitate the ladies.”

“Because they make the craziest sounds,” Hanako explains with a nod. “Hannah-chan has a special way to ask ‘what’ all the time and Emelia taught it to us.”

Hannah just looks at her quietly, and Hanako laughs when the camera-man asks her to do the imitation and Hanako tries out different ways to say ‘what’ in the way Hannah does before the camera-man asks Hannah how the original is like. At first, Hannah just looks blankly at him, not really knowing how she usually sounds, but when looking at the dancer she tries it out herself and Hanako laughs, shaking both hand and head when repeating ‘no, no, no, no, no’ and Hannah laughs too.

“What? What? What? What?” Hannah says, every single repeat said differently and she takes a step back to show how annoyed she is that she can’t imitate herself and those around them are laughing. Hannah lets Ryo down on the ground, laughing with the dancer when they are trying not just to imitate Hannah but to also show the imitation of Carolina that they mentioned and Maria together with a male dancer runs up to join in the mess by randomly saying different Japanese expressions. Which ends with Maria starting to sing and she sings even louder when hearing the fans, waving over to them.

“Ryo!” Mi Young bursts out when the puppy is starting to run over there again. Hannah turns around, leaning to the side when calling the name of the puppy and Ryo turns around, continuing to run but running back to his owners.

Once it has calmed down, the camera-man asks Maria what she thinks of the weather.

“It is summer!” Maria answers with big eyes, looking to really love it. “Hiroshima is … summer.”

“Hot summer,” Hannah mentions on the side and when meeting Maria’s eyes, they both start to smile before singing f(x)’s [Hot Summer] and randomly trying out the dance.

 

Hannah is taken the brave moment to challenge her great mood by filming herself with her cell phone, thinking of a short clip to upload on twitter. She is sitting in her opening outfits, white nails and hair/make-up all done.

“Today is the second day concert in Hiroshima of our arena tour,” Hannah says in English, glancing over her shoulder to make sure no one is neither making fun of her nor listening. “Last week it was Fukuoka, next week it’s Osaka… And my voice is disappearing now when I’m talking but I can promise you it will sound better on stage. Hopefully…”

She gives a smile; it’s not like she planned her voice to fade out when talking so she had to explain herself. She doesn’t really know what to say; though she thinks she had it all planned out before she started to film.

“But… …. Can you see that I look ready for the concert? I don’t sound excited because I need to spare my voice, but I’m definitely excited. I have other ways to show it… On stage, I’ll show that I’m excited,” Hannah continues to say in English.

Out of nowhere, loudly, Carolina starts to sing [Sleeper] and her appearance in the video is when she embraces Hannah for a hug so roughly that Hannah’s hand holding the cell phone shakes and looses focus for seconds before and Hannah just laughs in her hoarse voice, giving a shout though when Carolina sings in her ear.

“I’m deaf!” Hannah laughs in Japanese when trying to get away from the hug and focus the cell phone, looking over at their manager who tells Hannah to not shout with that voice and Carolina leans away a little to let Hannah focus the cell phone to film them both with Carolina’s arms around Hannah’s neck.

“Rest your soul,” Carolina says in Japanese.

Hannah laughs in her hoarse voice. “Rest your voice,” she corrects her.

“Rest your voice,” Carolina repeats and leans her head to Hannah’s on the side. “Pretty.”

Hannah laughs, and too embarrassed to film any more she turns it off.

“Why did you turn it off?!” Carolina complains right away while Hannah is just laughing badly. Their manager is glaring at them, because Hannah’s voice is so hoarse when she is laughing.

Hannah uploads the video on twitter no matter how it ended and how boring it seems to be for her – because fans always seem to like anything that comes from them.

{Twitter, 5P_HANNAH: Waiting to get on the stage! What’s wrong with my voice xD (video)}

And like always, as if fans are waiting on twitter for an update all the time, fans are commenting almost right away, writing that Carolina is funny and Hannah is adorable, telling them to rest their voices and worrying it she can do the concert with that hoarse voice and so on. And of course there are comments telling how pretty they are, added with writing that Hannah’s English and Japanese is either good or cute… So many comments arrive within minutes.

 

Performing live is horrible if your voice isn’t good. Already on the second song, Hannah starts to swallow extra much to try relaxing her voice between her parts. But like a professional singer, she knows a few tricks to not make it too obvious her voice is tired from having to work hard every day. For some songs she can slink away by letting the audience sing, while for other parts where they are dancing she just has to not sing as loud because the music and other members manages to be loud enough. And when getting backstage between the parts she drinks water – not much, but enough to not have a dry throat. At a few parts she overdoes the dancing (y or charismatic) to not have to sing those parts, like a special fan service which gets a loud response.

So in other words, Hannah manages to complete the concert without all too many mistakes and voice cracks.

But it does happen, and Hannah gets embarrassed each time. She isn’t the only member with issue though, as Julia seems to be close of loosing her balance a few times and Carolina’s voice makes a big-time crack only once at the concert. Hannah doesn’t notice anything else other than the usual of Maria maybe going a little too wild at times.

Coming backstage today when the concert ends, Hannah is exhausted. Not just her body, but her voice too. She doesn’t speak, just nodding or shaking her head for answer if she gets a question or comment by those backstage.

It takes an hour backstage; to calm down, change clothes and say goodbye to all the dancers, the band and staff and wish them a good week until they meet again in Osaka. At that time, Hannah is hugging the jacket around her body, so tired that she is freezing, and she is getting ready to leave, waiting in the corridor with her shoulder leaning against the wall and eyes barely open. They will stay at a hotel here in Hiroshima over the night (as they have been during their stay in Hiroshima) before in the morning going to Kobe with train in the morning (a two hours ride) for fan meetings and radio there; their schedule begins in Kobe at 8AM, which means they will take the train leaving at 5AM.

Tiring…

Hannah smiles and lifts up her hand to hide her face when Emelia comes out of the room and points a camera towards Hannah.

“Hannah, what did you think of tonight’s concert?” Emelia asks in Japanese, and Hannah takes down her hand, not having the energy to keep it up.

“It was fun,” Hannah whispers, doing it on purpose to not have to clear her voice or hear it crack when she talks. Her voice is now officially dead.

“We had so much fun so our voices have disappeared,” Emelia gives a joke and Hannah chuckles tiredly at her using English now. “And where are we going now?”

Since the camera is focused on Hannah, she guesses the question is for her. Her head is so tired that it even takes a few seconds for her to understand that it is English the rapper is speaking to her in now. “We … are heading to the hotel. To sleep. And get strength for tomorrow’s schedule.”

In the background you can hear Maria talk in Swedish when telling Carolina to bring something with them and Emelia calls out for them in Swedish to not forget the bracelet on the table, and Hannah smiles when hearing Maria say something that reveals she had forgotten it.

“Hannah has forgotten Pikachu!” Manager Lee calls out and Hannah is fast to step up to Emelia to peek inside the room.

“I didn’t forget- Oh,” Hannah interrupts herself to tell the manager he is wrong but when seeing her manager inside the room showing the Pikachu mask that he hands over to Hannah, so when Hannah turns around to face Emelia and the camera in her hand she puts the mask to cover her face. “I got it from a fan at the concert.”

“You stole it from a fan during the concert,” Emelia corrects her, them both stepping to the side to not be in the way when people are passing by.

“The fan personally gave me and told me to keep it, so I wore it at the end and … I’m taking it home.”

“Who would you choose: Pikachu or Ace?” Emelia is giggling. She is so tired now.

“Ace!” Hannah answers with a laugh and when looking at Emelia them both starts to giggle.

“I would choose Ace wearing a Pikachu suit,” Emelia giggles and Hannah laughs.

“Don’t do that,” Hannah laughs, grimacing by the thought of their cat dressed out as Pikachu.

“I would choose Hannah wearing a Pikachu suit,” Maria comments when stepping up next to Hannah, pointing at the camera with her eyes telling fans to look forward to that. Hannah and Emelia both laugh at it. They are all tired.

Cutely, Hannah says ‘Pikachu’ in a light voice, giggling when Maria gives her a weird look. “I’m going now,” Hannah quietly says before walking away. She walks out of the frame a few steps before hurrying to rush behind Maria to get on the other side where Manager Lee is asking if they are ready and the two girls filming laughs at her.

“I’m gonna film the view outside,” Emelia comments to the camera when she starts to walk with the others, turning the camera around in her hand to film herself when walking to the doors.

Fans have a bad habit of waiting outside after the concert, wanting to catch a glimpse of 5 Pieces. And that is why Emelia decided to film outside. In the middle of the night, fans are crowding and cheering by the sight of 5 Pieces leaving the arena, and they all loves it when seeing Emelia is filming them.

Hannah first thought Emelia was filming for a DVD or something, but apparently she is filming for their blog. At their concert in Tokyo, she had filmed Carolina too backstage, which she uploaded on the blog the day after. Their managers had approved it, as it is 5 Pieces’ personal fan service.

 

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After getting some sleep, 5 Pieces are heading to Kobe. Sitting on the train, the girls are checking online the comments about yesterday’s concert. They always do that. Today they are also filming for their Japan DVD, but not on the train. Hannah is sighing when seeing comments that says 5 Pieces looked exhausted, and though no fan writes that it was bad or they are disappointed, fans are still writing that 5 Pieces seems exhausted and just that makes Hannah feel disappointed. It’s good to know that their fans had a great time and noticed the ladies’ effort on stage to give their best, but … yes, Hannah is hard on herself and she knows she can do better.

Fans though do comment on that 5 Pieces looks so bright and happy on stage, and thinking back of yesterday and the other concerts in Japan, she do admit that the girls have an endless energy on the stage. She remembers giving a sudden shout and singing some parts loud and excitedly when her voice let her, running around and being cute to the audience.

While looking through the most recent articles about the group, a new one pops up that makes Hannah grimace. A picture of Hannah together with Jonghyun’s sister seems to be going around on the internet, which the article is about – them being close friends. Hannah reads the article, and she is confused how it is one single picture of Hannah and Sodam walking the street together and people say they are close friends. Hannah wouldn’t say they aren’t friends, but she wouldn’t say they are that close either. After looking through the boring article that Hannah really doesn’t think needs to be an article at all, she sees the comments. One comment is kind of true; ‘This picture is old already… I’m not surprised they are friends; Hannah and Jonghyun are good friends and everyone knows that Jonghyun adores his sister so he has probably introduced her to exactly every female idol he knows off ^^.’ But Hannah’s manager as well as Maria tells her to not think too much of that article; it’s not like Hannah knowing Jonghyun’s sister can blow their secret.

 

Reaching Kobe, the girl-group goes straight to the radio. They get to sit there and go through the questions and such a while before going to do the radio broadcast. Hannah’s voice isn’t completely gone just because of the many things she has used since last night to make it better – it doesn’t hurt beside from a little now and then and her voice sounds normal, but then again, the day has only begun.

The radio DJ is a woman and she has a really simple voice, not loud or too excited and it really fits the morning program. After getting to introduce themselves in Japanese, the DJ asks the girls about their concert in Hiroshima.

“It was really fun,” Maria says with the group agreeing.

“Hiroshima is the third city for the tour, and it is really fun to see so many different fans come to enjoy the concert with us. Though our voices were a little restrained yesterday after screaming too much on the first day, we really had a great time with the fans,” Hannah continues to say and she sees how the radio DJ makes an impressed shape with when Hannah says ‘restrained’.

“Everywhere you go there are a lot of fans waiting for you. 5 Pieces got a lot of popularity in Japan by your activities in Korea even before you made your Japanese debut, and though it is over a year since you made your official Japanese debut, what does it feel like to have an arena tour and meet this many Japanese fans that have waited for you all this time?”

“At each concert we have, we get a huge surprise over the amount of fans. Even during the rehearsals, we wonder how we will be able to fill out that whole arena, but our fans are just really amazing…” Hannah is answering; she was told to answer the questions long, and now she glances at her members as if their silence will help her out to say more. “What I actually think is that our fans look forward to the concerts just as much as we do, so while they have waited, we have waited too.”

“We do think the fans notice our excitement,” Emelia comments.

“And along the arena tour, 5 Pieces are making stops to promote the album, right? Like you are now.”

“Yes, that’s right. We have come to Kobe to promote the album [Run Out] after finishing the concert in Hiroshima last night,” Hannah nods.

“Is there a city in Japan you have looked forward to promote in? This is your first time promoting around whole Japan if I’m not wrong…” the DJ asks.

“This is … the first time,” Hannah slowly answers after checking with the members and Maria says it’s the first.

“I know Carolina is looking forward to us going to Osaka in a few days,” Emelia says and though they are on radio she still points over at Carolina, “because last time we went there we tasted takoyaki, and Carolina can’t stop talking about it.”

“Ooooh, you like takoyaki? But that’s why you want to go to Osaka?” the DJ is laughing and Maria says in Japanese that food means a lot.

“Takoyaki is delicious,” Carolina simply comments in Japanese.

The DJ keeps laughing, entertained by the ladies. “All our listeners should know that all five members in 5 Pieces got something sparkling in their eyes when food was mentioned,” she is laughing.

“Ah, sorry,” Hannah apologizes for it, “all fans seem to believe we only think about food all the time because at every interview we do, it seems like we ends up talking about food. It actually isn’t like that.”

“We mostly think of our fans and performing, and AFTER that, we think about food,” Emelia jokingly corrects and the DJ laughs again.

“So to talk about food. Carolina wants to eat takoyaki. What about the other members?”

Hannah looks at Julia, motioning for her to say what she wants to eat.

“Ramen,” Julia shortly responses.

“Ramen for Julia,” Emelia says clearer.

“I want ice cream,” Maria answers, “it … for weather.”

They giggle at her Japanese before Hannah corrects for the listeners and DJ to understand that Maria wants to eat ice cream because it matches the warm weather. “And whenever I am in Japan, I want to eat nikujaga.”

“Hannah always wants to eat that,” Emelia agrees to the youngest. “That is why we never let her decide what to eat when we are in Japan.”

“You only eat nikujaga?” the DJ sounds surprised.

“No! No!” Hannah laughs. “But it is my favourite food. It’s so yummy!”

“Do you eat it when drinking?” the DJ is curious to know. “Nikujaga is popular to eat when you are drinking after work, with sake for example... Are you of the age to drink?”

“We can drink,” Emelia answers, the only member reacting to ‘sake’ mentioned.

“The first time I ate nikujaga was at a company dinner,” Hannah answers the other question with a nod. “But I didn’t drink sake.”

“It is really good,” the DJ tells Hannah with a nod, telling her to try it.

“What happened with the talk about cities we want to promote in?” Emelia suddenly gives a laugh, as they have gotten a little off the topic and the others laugh too.

 

They have a TV recording before going to the fan meeting, still being in Kobe. They will though go to Tokyo after the fan meeting to perform at Music Japan. But first: the fan meeting.

It is a hilarious fan meeting, starting off with 5 Pieces performing [Run Out]. And it just takes half a minute of the song, when the group is all focused on the performance, when the music suddenly is cut off. In the middle of dancing and singing, Hannah stops singing to give a laugh but for fun continuing to dance another few seconds before she can’t hold her laugh and she gives a bow to the now completely shouting fans for the interruptions. It was hilarious because of 5 Pieces’ reactions of the song suddenly stopping and the fans love to see it.

And next when standing in a row to do the introductions, Carolina’s microphone has been turned off… A staff has to run up on the stage to help her out before it works again. Thinking that is all, Maria actually makes a mistake by saying a fan’s name wrong so it sounds like she is cursing and though Maria is a person who easily can curse, she gets really regretful and apologizes several of times to the fan – no one wants to curse to a fan who likes you. The fan just laughs it off, knowing it was a mistake and only Emelia actually reacted among the ladies that it sounded like she was cursing, which the fans seem to think is a good thing (that 5 Pieces doesn’t know how to curse in Japanese).

Finishing the schedule in Kobe, Hannah looks at the camera filming them backstage with big eyes when running by.

“Hurry, hurry!” she tells the camera-man in Japanese, laughing when she has said it as it was a joke. Well, they are in a hurry to catch the train to Tokyo, and the camera is there to capture 5 Pieces getting their things backstage and leave right away.

 

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The next day after being in Kyoto for their schedule, 5 Pieces heads to Korea and are just in time to an event there where 5 Pieces performs [Daze] and Hannah gets to perform [I CRY] together with the pianist Giyoon who had went back to Seoul after the Hiroshima concert. It was just announced the other day that they will perform there, and first it was said to just be Hannah with [I CRY] but then added the whole group to perform because … they are better with five pieces instead of one. The reason to perform in the beginning is for Hannah to receive an award for [I CRY], and today too they are filming for some Japan DVD, even coming to Korea with them.

Hannah waves to the camera when leaving the event, dressed in her [Daze] outfits.

“[I CRY] got award,” Hannah informs the camera-man in Japanese, unable to stop smiling.

“What did you get the award for?” he asks her and films the award in her hand that Hannah looks at to read, translate to Japanese.

“Students in Korea choose [I CRY] to have the best lyrics,” Hannah answers as well as she can. “We are at a … university now, in Seoul. I‘m thankful for the award, grateful and thankful, for … those who like the song and 5 Pieces, I’m really thankful.”

“When are you going back to Japan?” he asks her when they come outdoors.

“Um…” Hannah looks up to think about the schedule. “Tomorrow? We got some schedule in Korea tomorrow morning… then we are going to Osaka!”

“Your voice seems better.”

“It does? That’s good! I need to rest it for Osaka tomorrow,” Hannah smiles at him and she gives a polite bow when reaching the van waiting.

 

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Headline 12th: 5 Pieces’ Emelia & Julia Fights Over Chocolate In New Japanese CF, Version 1

Headline 12th: Hannah’s Before-&-After Pictures Appears In American Gossip Magazine

Headline 12th: 5 Pieces’ Arena Tour Reaches Hiroshima

 

Headline 13th: Hyunsuk & Maria Meets Japanese Fans On Their Tokyo Date In ‘We Got Married’

Headline 13th: 5 Pieces Thanks Hiroshima After 2-Day Concert

Headline 13th: 5 Pieces Could Take On Tokyo Dome In Japan

 

Headline 14th: Emelia Reveals Another Self-Camera Shot From Their Hiroshima Concert

Headline 14th: Picture Of 5 Pieces’ Hannah With SHINee Jonghyun’s Sister Close Friendship Soars Online

Headline 14th: 5 Pieces’ Fan Meeting In Kobe Brings In Younger Fans Than Expected

Headline 14th: 5 Pieces Seemed Tired Performing [Run Out] On Tonight’s NHK Music Japan

 

Headline 15th: 5 Pieces’ Carolina & Hannah Runs For Chocolate In New Japanese CF, Version 2

Headline 15th: 5 Pieces Performs At University + [I CRY] Gets Award

 

Headline 16th: Maria Makes People Laugh With New Picture On Instagram Of 5 Pieces In Osaka

 

Headline 17th: SHINee’s Jonghyun & 5 Pieces’ Hannah Rumoured To Be More Than Friends

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X. devonalias