- “5 Pieces stole the stage at 20’s Choice, seriously, these girls know how to pull off a performance!”

- “Damn that was hot! It was worth the wait, people, now I am prepared to be stunned for three hours at their up-coming tour. It will be blow-minding!”

- “Who cares what others lie about Hannah? She is a terrific performer! Just look at her O_O”

- “EM’s rap is great, and look at those eyes… oooooh no one goes up against 5P, shocked they didn’t get more than one award.”

- “Anyone else who got up to dance for 5 Pieces’ performance? Perfection from beginning to end”

- “I was expecting to see interactions between Jonghyun and Hannah, but I saw nothing =( anyway, congrats to the winners and 5 Pieces surely had the best performance of the night ^^,”

- “5P never fails to impress. Not a big fan of theirs but man, those girls know how to throw out an excited performance. I got disappointed when I thought it ended but yeeeeeez the rest was just hard rock impressing”

- “I got sad when I thought it ended after Hannah’s [Black & White] (I was like ‘wooot, just a mix of their past hit songs?’) and then they came back stronger than before and I couldn’t stop staring and drooling o___o”

- “It was great to see them go through their songs, and they really have improved for each comeback. Around their debut they were just kids, and for each song we have seen them grow. 5 Pieces achieves doing the impossible possible, my heroes! Looking forward to spend my whole life looking up at these goddesses”

- “If this is what they prepare for an award show, just imagine how a whole concert with these songs will be like! BLACK & WHITE, we are ready!”

 

Hannah looks up at Manager Lim when he leaves his seat after reading the comments with her. She has a pure childish smile to her fresh face, happy over the response to yesterday’s 20’s Choice Awards, especially now when she need inspiration to their concert. All the bad comments and responses she has received lately because of what her sister said to the media has been holding her down a bit, feeling like it doesn’t matter if she is on stage or not, but with this response of fans looking forward to the concert because of their performance yesterday… she has to do great. Because they had the award show yesterday, they hadn’t finished until early in the morning, and after getting some hours of sleep they are back at rehearsals for D-1. But also because they got an extra day of rehearsals, they have come much further than how it would’ve been without that extra day.

“Have you checked the teaser too?” Emelia wonders when she comes back inside the waiting room. She is drinking a bottle of water through a straw, glancing from Hannah and Manager Lim (who she asked the question to) to the cameras around the room filming her and the other ladies.

“I liked it,” Hannah answers. Emelia is making a Japanese solo comeback with the single [Private Business], which the first PV teaser for came out today. The Japanese fans are shouting happily over the surprise, praising Emelia for adapting her style to Japan with a more rock-style than the girly style, being different from others by being … her self.

“Honestly?” Emelia wonders, pointing a warning finger to Hannah.

“I like it!” Hannah laughs and is just about to throw someone’s toy at her when they are told the break is over and Hannah hurries up on her feet, giving the tablet to her manager when passing by him.

“Blanket,” he reminds her, holding out his hand for Hannah to stop and give him the blanket she has been sitting with around her legs. Hannah gives it to him before she heads out of the room with Emelia. She walks slower when a camera-man wants to film her from the front, and he can’t really walk in her pace as he is walking backwards.

“Are you nervous for tomorrow’s concert?” he asks both Hannah and Emelia when trying to film a little on the side to capture both girls.

“Do we look nervous?” Emelia challenges and Hannah is fast to make a nervous face-expression, not knowing that Emelia does the same thing and they both laughs when spotting the other one.

“I’m nervous,” Hannah admits after some seconds. She is keeping an eye so the camera-man doesn’t walk in something. “I’m always nervous for a performance.”

“But this is a concert,” Emelia reminds her in a low voice, “our second tour, our fifth year… and the two-day concerts in Seoul was sold out within minutes….” She takes a deep breath and Hannah does the same.

“Definitely nervous,” Hannah repeats with a worried face-expression, nodding.

The two girls come back to the stage together, bowing to some staff on the way and Hannah smiles when reaching the stage where Carolina is sitting and waiting for everyone. Carolina is sitting on the stage with her guitar, playing a ballad song she just came up with, and Hannah notices that the other girls are coming now too.

*Baby~ Baby~ Oh~ Where have you been~ We have been waiting, oh~ For you-ou-ou~~*

“Shut up!” Maria calls out when she enters the hall, and staff laughs at them because Carolina hurries to play a little more before she has to put the guitar away.

For the rehearsals now, they are going through the concert from beginning to end, including the videos in between. The video is shown on the screen, for this introduction it is taken from their Japanese tour a clip of ‘emotional girls’, and the girls are smiling when taking their positions for the ballad act, starting to perform the ballad [Broken] very beautifully and emotionally.

Though the staff is well aware of 5 Pieces fooling around in between of smiling, kicking each other, teasing each other with words and interrupting one another just because they like the reactions, once the mood is set for the ballads they are not surprised to see a one-face 5 Pieces. Because even if the girls are fooling around they are focused, it is only when it is ballads like this they are quietly doing it in the right mood, making everything sound perfect. Not many knows there is a secret behind that; 5 Pieces knows how to fool around to certain songs they rehearse to, like when they are dancing or running around it doesn’t matter in rehearsals if their voices are strange because that is not the focus; in ballads, especially the ones they rehearse to now, are vocally in the focus, their voices are the charm of the songs and 5 Pieces didn’t start off their careers having voices like this five years ago so they are more serious as this is an important thing in the act.

Hannah smiles behind the microphone when her members take their seats on the stage to watch the youngest rehearse [I CRY]. It will have the same video introduction as it had in the Japanese tour, and the pianist Song Giyoon is sitting by the piano as she did for the other tour. Giyoon had been smiling widely the other day when she came to the rehearsals and she got to hear that Hannah had praised her in front of others by saying she likes performing together, and Giyoon has been really cute since towards Hannah.

“Make us cry, baby!” Maria cheers like a diva.

Hannah pouts. She doesn’t like the attention, but she goes to take her position and do the rehearsal. Singing is alright beside from the parts she laughs in, because her members are singing like a little choir on the side and arms waving in the air (cameras are focused on them, and Hannah is happy they steal the spotlight from her a bit) but Hannah still doesn’t do the rehearsal as emotionally or passionate like she does during the actual stage (she rarely do during rehearsals). And the song comes to an end with Hannah sitting still on that middle stage, turning to look at the screen where the end video will pop up. The message she always had during the Japanese tour will come in Korean for this one, and Hannah looks satisfied with it all until someone calls from the main stage;

“Captain is crying!”

Hannah is up on her feet, jogging over to the main stage where Maria on the side rolls down on her back with hands over her face, the other three ladies giggling next to her, patting her on the leg. Hannah sits down by Maria’s legs to lie down over her, hugging the leader when lying down next to her. Maria puts one arm around her sadly.

“I love that song,” Maria whispers, wiping her tears but she is still crying with her head on the stage. She laughs when a camera is right above her, capturing every single moment.

“Everyone loves that song, silly,” Emelia chuckles next to her, smiling at how sensitive Maria gets whenever this song is played.

“And it deserves to be loved,” Maria says in a matter of fact tone, filled with tears. Emelia smiles at the director when he walks up below the stage near them, stretching his arm out to reach Maria’s head, just almost.

“I was thinking we can do this one song now and then take a short break if you need it, can we do that?” he asks the ladies, not looking at just Maria but at the other ladies too.

“Ask the captain,” Carolina answers, as it is her tears that made them all stay seated on the stage. Maria groans and tells them to begin.

Hannah gets up on her feet, looking at Maria when the leader gets some tissues to blow her nose and when Maria is standing up, Hannah gives her a hug. Hannah loves that her members love that song, because each time she performs this song, her members let her know it. That Maria cried just now maybe means she is tired and need some sleep, too stressed out over the concert, but Hannah still likes that it was for her song she cried for.

They finish the last song of the act, taking just a brief break to go through some things. They don’t even leave the stage.

The youngest goes to sit down on that corridor stage heading out to the middle stage, talking to the female choreographer about a reminder for the next song they will rehearse. Her feet are hanging over the side and she is nodding to what her teacher is telling her. Hannah hears Julia when her friend stands next to her to join in the conversation, being reminded of a few things too, noticing the cameras filming them. All day long, cameras are surrounding them. With Julia and the teacher talking, Manager Lee sees his chance to walk up to them. He stands next to the teacher below the stage, but he walks up closer to Hannah to talk to her alone, so the cameras on a distance can’t hear what he says.

“Your mother has called,” he tells her and Hannah’s face darkens right away. It is like a switch, the moment he says that she changes.

“Why?” she asks shortly. She doesn’t get it; why would her mother call? She has never called before.

“Chunho Hyung is talking to her now, but his Swedish is limited… He asked me to tell you that she is on the line now, so if you want, you can go talk to her and save is the language barrier issues or…”

“I’m working,” Hannah tells him, not knowing what she would say to her mother. Further away she spots Manager Lim stand with a cell phone, waving at her to come. He had just come as he took the call outside, but he went after Manager Lee to wave Hannah over. But Hannah shakes her head at him, looking angry when Manager Lim gets this fatherly strict face-expression when waving at her to come again.

“Just help us converse, she must have called for a reason,” Manager Lee begs her.

Hannah gives out a frustrated low sound before jumping down from the stage, leaving her microphone behind to frustrated walk up to her manager over on the side. She does not look happy when looking at him, hearing him say in broken Swedish on the phone that Hannah is there now. Still glaring at her manager she takes the phone to her ear, answering by saying ‘Charlie’, just to be an annoyance.

“Mhm,” she mutters when hearing the voice of her mother’s on the phone, talking. “I don’t care… Well, she said it and it can’t be taken back, it’s nothing you can do about it.”

“Be nice,” Manager Lim whispers but Hannah just glares deeper at him at his comment.

“I don’t need you to talk to anyone,” Hannah mutters angrily at her mother, “Well I get that, but I don’t think you have to step up and try explain everything by saying Julie is on drugs and can’t think straight because of that… … But it’s the truth, isn’t it? … I talked to her, mom; that’s not how she sounds when she is drug-free!” Hannah frowns when listening to her mother raising her voice back at her, and Manager Lim is frowning as well as he can hear Hannah’s mother’s voice through the phone. “Then why did you even bother to call?! And don’t say you expected me to listen without being upset because last time we spoke to each other I found out you were using my money to treat yourself some luxury when I sent them for grandpa. AND you sold my stuff!”

She listens just for a few seconds on what her mother says before she says she is hanging up, and she does it before getting a response from her mother.

“Happy now?” Hannah angrily asks her manager when handing the cell phone to him and she goes back up on stage in a hurry to not have him try to talk to her.

Her mother wanted to talk to the media. She had heard about all the articles coming out and all the mess Julie’s words have created for Hannah, and her mother felt bad for it, wanting to fix it somehow but Hannah is not interested in that. She is not interested in explaining to everyone that her sister lied for the money, a part of her thinking fans will pity her and she definitely does not need that at all.

“You okay?” Emelia asks when Hannah comes up to her to continue the rehearsal. Hannah nods, but the moment Emelia reaches out her hand for Hannah to not walk by her, Hannah embraces her for a hug. “Oh…”

The youngest smiles at Emelia’s unexpected sound, as these two aren’t the two that hugs that often she guess that’s why Emelia didn’t expect it. Hannah just wanted a hug. And Emelia hugs her back before patting her to go out on the middle stage.

“All my ladies!” Emelia raps in her microphone, bouncing up and down. “Get up here so we can change the microphone, now!”

“Diva sound,” Maria mumbles when walking up to them, trying to untangle the cord to the headset microphone. She looks all focused on that for quite some time until she laughs and sits down on the side to have a staff help her with it.

It is the only act for the concert they will wear headset microphones, so it hasn’t been used much today during the rehearsals. Maria smiles at the staff when saying they can’t struggle with the messy cords tomorrow for the concert, but she knows the staff will stand ready backstage tomorrow to help them put it on. While putting on the headset microphones, they go through the act with the directors and choreographers, the male dancers are on the stage too. Hannah is angry at her family, and at her managers, and she holds on to that anger when they start rehearsing [WHO-I AM]. She maybe is too angry for the song, but it is still a song talking back; it fits her mood, but it doesn’t help her to loosen up.

“I’m sorry!” Hannah says in the headset microphone when bowing down deeply to the staff, apologizing as she just made another mistake. She feels bad to the staff for messing up all the time, because they need to do it good to not repeat the same mistakes again. She turns around to bow to the staff apologetic again before turning to the choreographer who is going through the part with them to not have Hannah make the mistake again. She looks upset and sad when listening to the choreographer, copying what he shows her even if she already knows it. Hannah knows the step; she is just distracted; her mother’s voice is echoing in her head from when she on the phone said ‘why can’t I ever have a normal conversation with you?’ Hannah hates that her mother called, as if she wants Hannah to think she cares. Hannah knows her mother has a back thought with it all; if her mother does something good (like fixing Julie’s words), maybe Hannah gives something back. Is it money she wants? She is furious-

“You are not paying attention.”

Hannah looks at the choreographer, noticing she is the unfocused one and she is fast to apologize.

Her family has the worst timing ever. How can they contact her a week before the concert, and then again the day before the concert? She is terrified she will ruin it all because her family makes her all messed up, that the most important concert day – the first day – will be ruined because Hannah can’t handle it.

Continuing with the rehearsal, Hannah is feeling sick. She is feeling worse and worse but she tries to focus, waiting for the next break to run off the stage. How can her family make her feel sick like this?

It is good their songs are sung live, because Hannah needs to let her emotions out. She loves to sing; to let music speak for her and the only one understanding the meaning behind her voice is herself. The music is great, she loves 5 Pieces music because the ladies have a mix of songs; just for this act, they are the charismatic 5 Pieces they have spent a lot of time being: Their first album main track [Once Upon A Time] from 2009 has been together in a remix with [Switch] from beginning of 2012 (they did the same remix in their Japanese tour), their first hit song [Original] from 2010… [WHO-I AM] opens the fifth act for these songs and more, and Hannah loves to perform all of them. She loves it all. But she hates how one phone call ruined her good mood to do well, her inspiration from yesterday has been thrown out the window and she hates it, she hates it so much.

By the time they are taking a break, Hannah thinks she is going to throw up. She doesn’t care about cameras when she gets off the stage, all she care about is to reach the toilet before she throws up.

She doesn’t know what happens behind her or if anyone follows her, pretty sure everyone is just focused on their own things to get some rest and something to eat before they will continue. Hannah gets inside the clothing room nearest the stage and walks to the room further in to reach the toilet, locking the door after her before she sits down on her heels.

Stylist Yong Hyun has been sitting in a chair in the room, sewing some details on clothes for tomorrow when Hannah rushed by, and he is now sitting there and looking at the door, glancing at one of the camera-women who is filming. He can hear when the water starts running in the bathroom, and that makes him drop his things and get up on his feet. He looks over to the other door when Maria comes inside. She looks tired from all rehearsals, but her eyes are focused when scanning through the room.

“Didn’t Hannah come here?” she asks when not seeing the youngest in there.

Yong Hyun nods his head to the bathroom’s door. “Did something happen?”

“Appa said her mother called,” Maria mumbles when stepping up to the door to know on it.

On the other side of the door, Hannah is sitting on her heels with closed eyes. She doesn’t think she will throw up. She was so sure she would, but she doesn’t. Her stomach hurts though. It knocks on the door and she sighs. “I’ll be right out,” she mutters, annoyed that she can’t be left alone for just a second.

Maria respects that though, as she steps away from the door to take a seat, knowing Hannah will never be forced out and Yong Hyun takes a seat too, both of them patiently waiting for the youngest to come out. While they are waiting, they look at manager Lee when he comes inside the room, and the manager stops his steps when seeing them look at him as if he has done something. He hesitates, wondering if he should retreat or ask what it is, and just in that moment Hannah saves him for a bit by stepping out from the bathroom. All eyes are turned to her and Maria is quickly standing in front of her.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Maria whispers.

Hannah shakes her head, holding it down because of the cameras. “I’m feeling sick.”

“You probably need to eat,” Yong Hyun comments from his seat, pointing a skinny finger at her, “Mama is here with food for you all.” Maria looks surprised at the stylist, and he answers the question she doesn’t say by nodding his head.

Yong Hyun calls her ‘Mama’, 5 Pieces calls her ‘Omma’, and Manager Lim calls her ‘wife’. Manager Lim is the father of 5 Pieces, whether he wanted to take on that role in the beginning or not, he has been stuck to it since then and his wife treats 5 Pieces warmly like a mother. And today she has brought dinner with her, always wanting to give 5 Pieces a good home-cooked meal as she knows they often gets to eat restaurant food.

They walk to 5 Pieces’ waiting room, where food has been put up on the low table between the two sofas where the other ladies are already sitting, eating the yummy warm meal prepared by the woman standing up to help stylist Mi Young serve some food. The woman – Mrs Lim – smiles wider when seeing Maria and Hannah come inside, spotting right away that Hannah is upset so she walks away from the table to meet them and give them a hug each. Stylist Yong Hyun gets a hug too, loudly greeting the woman with a comment on how yummy the food smells.

“I got some for you too, skinny boy,” she tells him warmly, being the mother of everyone and she laughs when seeing how happy the skinny stylist get when walking over to take a seat close to Julia. Mrs Lim puts a hand on her hip when turning back to Hannah and Maria, her eyes on the youngest. “You better go take some of your favourite food before Carolina eats it all up,” Mrs Lim suggests to the girls. She knows Hannah is upset over something, but she still wants her to eat first.

Hannah hasn’t talked to Mrs Lim about her family for quite some time, not about her sister calling or the evil comments she is receiving lately because of that, but she is happy she is there. Mrs Lim always prepares a lot of food – she is the one who leaves all the frozen food in 5 Pieces’ freezer, wanting them to not eat unhealthy food when they can just warm some of her food instead – and she knows what the girls likes even if she add some other things too, that is how a mother is like. They don’t meet often, but she is always greeted the warmest and most welcomed by everyone in this little family. She is the counsellor who makes a difference with her rare visits, always knowing where she is needed and what to say.

Now during the rehearsals she had seen something was troubling her husband when he was helping her to bring in the food from the car. He told her about Hannah’s mother who called, and Mrs Lim had nodded and said she will take care of it.

Hannah likes Mrs Lim’s food. All of them do. She sits there with her members, the stylists and managers – the family that always is together – and she do smile when noticing how they are joking and talking with each other, thinking that this is how a family is supposed to be like. She likes how Julia and Yong Hyun keep eating each other’s food, how Mrs Lim suggests Carolina to eat more vegetables, Emelia talking about her new Japanese single with the others (especially stylist Chan Hyo) listening to and Maria laughs as she is in a different conversation with Mi Young.

This is her family. She knows that. They would listen to her if she wants them to, they try to feel with her when she isn’t feeling well just the same way she would do to them, and they keep trying to make her smile.

“You have a boyfriend?” Mrs Lim looks shocked by Yong Hyun’s confession. “Will you introduce him to me soon?”

They laugh at the manager’s wife. She is so simple minded that she is the perfect mother for this family. Mrs Lim looks so happy to hear that the gay stylist has found a man worthy him, and she even walks around them all to go give him a hug.

“I can not believe you got a boyfriend before Mi Young,” she says as a joke and they all laugh again while Emelia says Mi Young needs someone very special that you can’t find just anywhere. Mi Young gives her a high-five, seeing it as a good compliment.

“Wait, does that mean you think I found my man just anywhere?” Yong Hyun asks with a diva-finger in the air.

Hannah laughs with them now, smiling honestly for now. Her family in Sweden will never beat this family. She wants to cry thinking of how happy she should be for having the family she is with now, and she smiles when seeing Manager Lim sit and look at her. He worries for her, because he can never understand the way women are like and Hannah is the youngest girl with the most fragile heart, but she has the most things to cry for. He smiles when she smiles, happy to see that she knows how to do that at least.

She gets up from her seat, trying to just sneak around the sofa without taking anyone’s attention, and she walks up to put her arms around her manager for a hug. He is sitting on a chair as he doesn’t fit in the sofas with the most others and he is, like Emelia was before, taken back by the hug. For him it isn’t rare for the ladies to hug him, he always welcomes hugs from the girls and even takes some from them, but for some reason it feels more this time; to have Hannah out of nowhere walk up and give him a hug during dinner, with the voices and laughter of the others in the background.

“I’m sorry,” Hannah whispers to him, wanting only him to hear it, hugging her manager and father since five years tightly. She likes that he has gained weight, it means he has gotten to spend time with his wife; he only gains weight with her, their healthy manager. “I’m really sorry.”

Manager Lim smiles as he hugs her back now. “I rather want to hear you say other words.”

“Thank you,” Hannah giggles and he breathes out. Rather than apologizing for her behaviour or that she was angry at him for wanting her to talk to her mother, he wants her to say other words. ‘Thank you’, he knows is not for that he made her take the call; is that why she hugs him? He doesn’t know. He has lived for a long time, but the only woman he close to understanding is his wife, and these ladies he always spends so much time around are impossible to understand.

Hannah feels bad for always treating her manager so badly when she is not in the mood, just because he is the one who has to push her to continue working. She knows he has a work to do, but when it comes to her family she wants everyone to just shut up and let her ignore them on her own. The more she talks to her family the more they fight, the more upset she gets and the more she can’t focus. And when she walks back to her seat, Hannah knows she has to talk to her family. She has to clear this with them, to speak the words of that she wants nothing to do with them if they are just going to complain or ask for money.

She lifts up her feet in the sofa to lean her side against the backrest in the sofa, hiding her face in her knees and her hair falls down too. She blocks everyone else, a part of her knowing she wants, need and must focus on the concert, but another part of her is so tired of her family in Sweden that she has to do something about that before they ruin her completely. The others around her are talking and enjoying the rest of the dinner, but they do notice Hannah locking herself away from them. Hannah knows she can’t walk away without having someone follow, so she stays there, showing that she does not want them to talk to her. Maria rubs her leg one time, just to let the youngest know they are there for her if she need them, and Hannah always somehow will know that.

Mrs Lim pushes her to sit outside Hannah in the seat, her arm put around Hannah’s knees when leaning close to the girl to talk to her. Mrs Lim does not like the cameras that have kept filming them during the dinner. They can’t even eat without being surrounded? No wonder the girls are so stressed! But she knows that her husband will take care of cameras if it is too much.

“Tell me everything,” Mrs Lim tells Hannah in a low voice. The others in the room make sure to make enough sound to let those two stay in their bubble.

Hannah isn’t crying. She is angry at the whole situation, maybe scared of ruining for 5 Pieces, but she isn’t on the verge of crying when she tells Mrs Lim about her sister’s drug addiction for all these years, how Hannah thought she had quit. She tells her about the phone call, how her sister hadn’t known Hannah was in Korea, how her sister had come up with an excuse to why she didn’t see her when Hannah was at home for the music festival, and how her sister right away had asked for money, her whole mood changed when Hannah said she didn’t have any money for her. Hannah tells Mrs Lim about the things her sister had said to the media (for money). Julie has never called Hannah for Charlie, not once, and all the other things are just absurd. Mrs Lim says that word. Hannah also says that she has failed her fans, those that believe she is a liar and two-faced and someone who is ashamed of her family, because Hannah isn’t like that. She tells what her mother had said earlier today during the phone call, what Hannah had said too.

“What I don’t understand,” Mrs Lim tells Hannah in a low voice when Hannah has said everything, “is why you don’t want to explain yourself to your fans? They are hurt because no one says anything to clear what your sister said, and you are hurt because they show it through anger and disappointment. Why can’t you explain it?”

Hannah leans her head to the side, biting her lip when holding back the tears that suddenly wants to come out. Mrs Lim puts some hair behind Hannah’s hair to see her face.

“It would seem like a bigger lie if I told my fans that my sister said those things because she is on drugs; they wouldn’t believe me, they would just think I want pity. I don’t want that,” Hannah whispers.

“Do you want to stay like this then?” Mrs Lim wonders, seeing how Hannah pouts for answer. “I think you should talk to Chunho and your agency; talk this through, handle it somehow by explaining the situation to your fans without bringing up your sister’s flaws. And I think your fans will understand it, Hannah. Like Maria behind me here keeps saying; your fans understands after five years, they know you in a way no one else do, and they will still come support you tomorrow just like they always do. Do not doubt that.”

Hannah nods, and she shows a weak smile when Mrs Lim takes out her arms as she expects to get a hug now. Hannah leans forward to hide in her arms.

Nothing beats a real family; a family that cares for you – always.

Mrs Lim and Hannah both give out a scream when Emelia jumps on the sofa and lies over Hannah who falls down against the backrest. Mrs Lim laughs happily when Yong Hyun and Carolina struggles to hug them too, or lie on top of them, it is difficult to see.

“Have you all finished eating now?” Mrs Lim asks when seeing the table.

“Thanks for the food!” Emelia shouts, groaning when Julia comes to sit on top of them.

“Thanks for the food, Mama!” Yong Hyun repeats and they all thank Mrs Lim for the food while laughing. Hannah is whining at the bottom, someone’s elbow is hurting her ribs. Manager Lim laughs too, hugging his wife and quietly thanking her. She is the true peacemaker in their family.

Hannah doesn’t feel sick anymore. Talking it through with her Omma, she feels better, and she can wait to talk with her family in Sweden because she has regained her energy and inspiration to continue the rehearsal. The first thing she does when coming out of the room is to apologize to the staff for her behaviour earlier.

 

They re-try all the clothes and finish the rehearsals, but they still don’t finish until two in the morning. By then everyone is tired. Hannah is clapping her hands when she is on her way to leave, telling everyone they have done great today and wishing them a good night of sleep so they can do their best tomorrow.

Hannah is making her leave with Julia and Carolina, all three of them singing some kind of hip hop remix of their song [Flying Free], and they are so tired that it makes no sense at all what they are singing. They laugh half of the time though, especially when Manager Lim comes up behind them and tells them to play the silent-game when heading to the van. They don’t play that game.

But the ladies are determined to go straight to bed and wake up in the morning all ready to begin their tour: The start-off in Seoul.

 

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It’s Saturday morning, D-Day for their 2nd Tour BLACK & WHITE. Hannah doesn’t look ready for it though. She is wearing a pair of sneakers, an ivory logo print t-shirt with a tiny part at the front tugged in the gray distressed cropped jeans and her hair is put up in a bun that she forgets she has all the time because she is messing up her hair so much that hair falls out from the bun and she lazily redo the bun. She hasn’t even opened her eyes correctly when she is dragged out of the van, arrived at the concert venue. And cameras are greeting them outside the van, so Hannah – who sees things with crossed eyes – keeps her head low when walking by them.

“I couldn’t sleep last night,” she can hear Emelia yawn after greeting the camera-woman.

None of them could. The girls even used the Jacuzzi after struggling for a long time on how to even turn it on, and they had been sitting there in bikinis and talking for probably an hour, doing facial masks and what not to prepare for the concert. It felt really good in that moment, but once they had gone to bed none of them could fall asleep.

“It’s always like this,” Carolina is clearly awake, talking nonstop.

She was the only one sleeping like a child all night, and in the van when the girls had been groaning and yawning over how talkative Carolina is this one time for the whole year, Carolina only said; “you should have gone to bed earlier then”. Carolina had left the bathroom first last night (or early this morning), half an hour before the others, and she slept. How she manages to sleep in the nervousness for this concert, none of the other girls understands.

Hannah greets people on the way to the room by lowering her head, not saying anything and once she has gotten inside the waiting room she lies down in the sofa on her back, close to falling asleep right away after she has put a blanket over her. Her hand is put on her head, her fingers goes through her hair as she once again forgets her hair is put up in a bun. She is so tired, not even opening her eyes when hearing people enter the room and she can both hear and feel it when Maria lies down at the other end of the sofa, their legs tangling in each other when Maria wants to lie down comfortably.

“The day hasn’t even begun and you two look exhausted already,” Yong Hyun chuckles when he comes inside.

“Ssssh, we are warming up,” Maria mumbles against the pillow she had taken from the car.

“Where’s your phone?” he asks when going up to Maria.

Hannah keeps hearing the voices in the room and she rolls a little on the side, her hand that is not in her hair falls down over the side, almost touching the floor, she can sense it. Slowly she is starting to realise what day it is, and extremely slowly she is waking up from the coma of sleep and she knows she has to run around soon.

“This will look hilarious,” Yong Hyun chuckles, none of the two girls reacts and Hannah has no idea of who he is talking to because he seems to be talking to Maria but Maria is dead at the other end of the sofa.

{INSTAGRAM, MARIA: Favourite stylist snatched picture of two girls warming up for today’s concert… R U Ready?}

“I can not believe you uploaded that,” Maria groans when Yong Hyun shows the cell phone to her. He used her instagram to upload the picture of Hannah and Maria lying dead in … weird positions.

Hannah has sat up. She looks around in the room with dead eyes, hugging the blanket around her and yawning behind it when Mi Young greets her good morning. Cameras are there today too, but honestly, 5 Pieces has that kind of image of being natural that Hannah does not care that she looks like a tired panda. She hides her face when noticing the camera focusing on her though, just because she doesn’t have make-up and she probably looks like hell. So okay, she does care how she looks like, but she does not care how she acts. The camera-teams are used to the ladies and the ladies are used to them, and no one airs clips of the girls looking bad – they are still idols. Being filmed is alright as long as the bad parts don’t air.

“How are you feeling today?” the camera-woman asks with a smile at Hannah’s tired but clear eyes looking up behind the blanket. She is trying to spot the breakfast somewhere.

“I’m excited, don’t you notice?” Hannah laughs awkwardly at her try to joke and she leans back, smiling at the woman. “I couldn’t sleep… But I’ll be awake before the rehearsals … or at least when it starts…” She smiles when she doesn’t know what she is saying and she can feel her stomach growl when Manager Lee reaches a bowl of fruits for her. Hannah takes it and uses the fork to eat, nodding when he puts down juice on the table for her.

Without finishing eating, Hannah hides her bowl of fruit salad breakfast before she heads outside with her juice to go around greet people with Julia.

The two girls walk out in the arena, Hannah with her blanket around her and juice in one hand and Julia in a jacket (even if it is hot outside, the air inside is a little chilly for the concert) and both girls go around waving a hand to staff and say good morning to them. Every morning of rehearsal, they have started the morning like this, and the staff is all smiling when being greeted by 5 Pieces personally every morning.

“Are you more awake now?” the camera-woman asks when filming the two girls who are heading backstage again. She keeps filming them, smiling because even if they are half-asleep they do not forget to be polite and friendly with the staff.

“I’m waking up, yes,” Hannah answers and drinks some juice.

“Hannah wakes up after she has eaten her breakfast,” Julia jokes, “while I’m waking up when we greet everyone…” She bows down to greet some in the room they pass by and Hannah is fast to copy.

They come back to the waiting room after a while and Hannah smiles at Manager Lim who laughs at the sight of them.

“Is it only Carolina and Emelia who are awake this morning?” he laughs when embracing Hannah, who has her arms in her blanket and looks like she is in the early morning walking around to keep herself warm in the winter.

“Emelia looks like a ghost,” Julia says when falling down in the sofa. “Oh so nice!”

Maria is still lying down in the other sofa, not looking like she is going to get up anytime soon. Hannah finishes her breakfast and she is eating the last piece of fruit when the manager is starting to mention the schedule now in the morning with the rehearsals, the microphone check and reminding them to greet everyone, say when the dancers will arrive and so on. The concert has receives flowers and rice wreaths all week, especially today, which the girls talk about too when their manager is trying to repeat things for them

“There is a British journalist coming here later today to observe the concert backstage,” Manager Lee adds from his papers. “He will come in the middle of rehearsals and we are going to have Manager Park here to talk to him in English and this man will ask questions and observe, and he will have a photographer with him. He will also attend the press-conference at 16:30.”

“What does the dog say?” Emelia says in English with a British accent.

“He says ‘excuse me, miss’,” Maria adds up, also with a British accent. It’s a humours joke that only the ladies seem to understand because they are the only ones laughing while the others are smiling and Manager Lim shakes his head at the silly girls.

In the corner of the room, their pets are. They have been part of the rehearsals the whole time, just sleeping tiredly all the time because of the bad weather and heat. All three – puppies and kitten – are boring during this weather, but there is always someone keeping an eye on them. Mi Young had taken them in to the dressing-room the first day, but they are banned from that room as they ruined a pair of shoes and a sleeve of someone’s outfit. It has all been fixed now, but the pets are not allowed in there anymore.

For the next hour it isn’t much action other than the girls warming up. They eat and drink, stretches and warms up their bodies and voices and go around greeting the dancers before they are putting on the microphones and waits for the rehearsals to begin again. They need to go through details today; they have to make sure everything is as it should for tonight.

The girls are awake now. They look focused and serious when practicing, knowing this is the last time before the actual concert. Hannah is excited now. She is jumping around and even when they are supposed to stand still she is bouncing on her place, smiling widely at Emelia who just stares at her as if she is crazy. But Emelia can’t hold her face for long and she is soon randomly dancing with Hannah. They will go insane before the concert.

 

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Headline 19th: 5 Pieces Emelia Announces Japanese Solo Comeback

Headline 19th: EM Is Back In PV Teaser For [Private Business]

Headline 19th: SHINee’s Jonghyun & 5 Pieces’ Hannah Proudly Wear Couple Rings At 20’s Choice Awards

Headline 19th: Julia Performs [Party Tonight] On Music Bank

Headline 19th: SM Entertainment Reveals Pictures Of 5 Pieces’ Concert Practice

 

Headline 20th: Maria Uploads A Picture Of Herself & Hannah Excited For Their Concert D-Day…

Headline 20th: Fans Notice Jonghyun & Hannah’s Couple Rings All Way Back In 2011-2012

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kkkkk over 1016 views.... wonder how many actually reads more than the first chapters :P thanks for those who reads anyway~

X. devonalias