Chapter 05

Youngest of Pieces - [Black & White] (7)

 

The jacket has been pulled down to her elbows because of the chilly practice room that has gotten warmer the more hey have practiced; she is sitting at the side of the practice room and focusing her eyes to follow the choreographer and Emelia who are going through the choreography for their comeback song, [Black & White]. Hannah’s chest is moving up and down, sweat is dripping down at her forehead and her hands are sweaty in the sleeves of her jacket. She pulls up the sleeves to let her hands get visibly and she pulls up the jacket when the choreographer tells her to come try it too.

Learning a totally new choreography is not easy, and definitely not when the choreography is more difficult and complicated than what they have danced ever before. Not every part of the choreography is this deadly difficult (as Maria expresses it) but most parts have this that you really need to focus on every single motion by your body and keep an extremely close eye on the others around you because it is a lot of position shifting that are difficult so you definitely need to make sure you don’t trip on someone’s foot or let or clash shoulders or hands together. A lot of times they make mistakes; hitting each other on the face and tripping and just simply making the wrong move, but that is why they are practicing. Mistakes are there for us to learn, the choreographer tells them; without them we won’t remember as easy.

It could be true. When Hannah is taking a step forward and accidentally steps on Carolina’s foot, she knows the next time that she should take a longer step forward to not make the same mistake again.

A part in the choreography that some seem to be excited over is Hannah’s part. It is a challenge for her, but the choreographer had done his best to come up with something that makes her stand out. Hannah’s first part is before the chorus, and it is sung like;

*Cry, cry, cry, if your heart tells you to

Scream, scream, scream, if your heart tells you to

Go right when they tell you left, show them, show them*

The third line they have come up with this boxing dance; Hannah will throw her left fist over to the right and then she will lean her body towards left when kicking up her right leg in a side kick. What made the choreographer come up with this idea is simple; Hannah has an image of knowing boxing every since she learned it for her Japanese drama back in 2009-2010, and this is a good chance to show that she still knows it. Hannah does practice to hit the sand bag and some kicks when she goes to the gym, but it has been a while since she even got time to go to the gym. She ends up sitting and stretching on the floor when she is starting to practice for her part in the song.

Maria is kneeling down on the side with a stupid smile in her face when looking at Hannah doing her part and Carolina is fooling around trying to do the same choreography. Hannah is the only one who will kick her foot up like that, so the others in the room seem very interested when she is practicing it.

Her fist hits the air to the right before she gives a kick, and when kicking, she gives too much power that she falls sideway down on the floor, catching herself with her hands. Though some voices asks her if she is okay, Hannah just laughs. She pulls herself up, starting over again so the others soon can join in learning their parts.

All tired and sweaty, the girls are still focusing on practicing a few hours later. They are going through the dance slowly without music, making sure they are all doing the choreography they are supposed to do. The dancers are doing it with them, everyone correcting each other over and over again over every single gesture and Maria walks out of the formation to tell everyone to start over again because it is just messed up. Tiredly they walk back to their first positions to do it from the beginning again. The choreography is cool, though they still need time to learn it to make it cooler. They are planning on making it look cooler through confidence, but before they can come there they still have a lot of practice to go through.

Since a few days ago they have been starting to learn the choreography for a third song too, and though it isn’t as tough as the choreography for the other too song it isn’t as easy as the songs they have had before. This comeback must be worth it, because the girls are exhausted just thinking of performing these songs.

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“Can’t we just make the most amazing songs?” Julia mumbles for herself, repeating what she has heard Maria say before. She is leaning over the table in the recording studio, looking through the lyrics to a new song they will record. The song they recorded yesterday was a fun song named [Let’s Play], but the song they will record today is a touching ballad named [The Rainbows Colours]. She, just like the others working on the comeback, has gotten the greed to do better and better and the last thing they want to do is to disappoint their fans who are anxiously waiting for a comeback. With impressive choreography, they need impressive songs too. Though these songs won’t be performed as main songs, they must still be good to fit in the album as that is the whole work is focused on the album.

“We will make the best comeback in history,” Carolina assures her. “I have a feeling we will do that.”

Carolina is sitting next to her, looking very much confident in what she just said. On the inside she do have some doubts like everyone have when preparing a comeback, but she is confident that the music they have been making and the choreography they have been practicing will be worth all the time and thoughts put in it. She nods for herself after assuring Julia about their comeback. Emelia is leaning back in the comfortable chair she is sitting in, placing one leg over the other and holding the paper in one hand, looking at the lyrics. “Are we supposed to do a lot of highlights or what?”

“A lot,” Hyekyung answers and takes her paper to place it on the table. All the girls’ lean closer to watch as he points out the parts and the girls can sense right away that it will be a challenging ballad. “We will start with the chorus and the harmonies, where all of you record together.”

The girls are nodding. They have practiced a lot of harmony for the past few months, whenever getting the chance they have been singing acapella, so their harmony has improved a lot for their comeback.

For a filming for their ‘Behind the Scenes’ DVD for this album, Maria had sat down for an interview before they were going to start the recording for the day. She had slinked in there while the others were still in the practice room, so Maria is without make-up and still having a shining skin from the dance practice. She puts her hands together in her lap when sitting down on the chair, smiling at the man filming, but Maria looks out in nowhere when talking. “What we want with the new album is to show more of our growth as singers to our fans. People often mistake us for just fooling around and not taking things seriously, so we want to show that we are serious.” Her voice is soft, she is talking in a simple tone and you can hear that she is serious. “I want us to feel that every word in the album has a memory in it. We must bring our 20 years of living in to our voices for this album. I expect a lot, but even if we don’t reach that level, as long as the songs and the album can reach the hearts of our fans, I will be satisfied. We won’t have the will to rest until we can feel we can proudly present the album.”

Now, standing in the booth with the other four members, Maria is serious. She is taking in every note, every tiny sound, to correct it. She can’t stand a single mistake when they are practicing in the booth before they will start recording. The song must have the perfect feeling, and she must direct her members to make the perfect feeling. Their harmony must be perfect. Their vocal teacher is there too, just nodding when Maria has corrected their harmony so they can start the recording.

The ‘Behind the Scenes’ cameras are there to film them, just like they were yesterday when they were recording [Let’s Play]. All members are seriously recording. Hannah glances at Carolina when the group is doing their harmony recording. Carolina gives off the perfect emotion; that emotion the song needs. [The Rainbow Colours] is a song for their fans, a song that will show how much 5 Pieces appreciate their fans for always being there. Hannah knows that if they sing the song right, with the harmony and feeling, the meaning will come out easier even if you don’t know the language.

Maria and Carolina are the two starting the song with high notes. They are amazing.

Hyekyung, the one helping out with the recording, knows exactly how he wants their voices to sound as he have heard them recording songs for the past four years and when imagining how the song should sound he got an idea of exactly how the high notes could sound like. Of course he just came with the ideas; they talked it through together of how to make is sound the best. Carolina and Maria gets to record that part several of times to see what sounds the best in the song. Maria’s voice is simply amazing, Carolina’s too. No wonder they have the best parts.

Hannah has a part of her self that she likes. It is recorded in the booth with the other members who are doing harmony of the lyrics while Hannah’s voice is clearly the main part there. She leans a little back as she is using a stronger voice than the others; still her voice is clearly heard.

[5P harmony] *Every time I loose confident in myself,

([Hannah] I don’t have the courage)

Every time I loose sight of what’s before me

(I loose sight, I fall, I cry)

That is when you are there

(You are always there)*

The whole song is just simply explained as beautiful. Those listening outside the booth are impressed with every sound the girls are pulling out from the tip of their toes to go beyond the things they know, to make a better song than planned.

Maria leans back in the sofa, lifting her feet up to the seat and she leans her head back on the side of the backrest. Hannah is recording another part of hers in the booth, focused on her singing and being instructed by Hyekyung and their vocal teacher to do better when starting over the part. Manager Lim has come in to the recording after finishing some paper work, but it is Julia sitting next to Maria who notices it first. Julia had turned her head around when seeing Maria leaning back, thinking she might be falling asleep.

“Are you crying?” she asks surprised.

The cameras that are filming are fast to capture Maria hold her hand over her eyes, facing the ceiling. “I didn’t plan to,” Maria mumbles and looks down, wiping the tears that seem to come out without any control. “I was reading this… and… and it just came.” She was reading the lyrics for the song they are recording, and she just felt the emotions turning around inside of her. Just the thought of that four years, over 1600 days, have passed since they came to Korea. They have fans now worldwide supporting them; they have fans in Sweden that they in a few days (a week) will be meeting. Everything just swells up inside her.

Julia smiles, glancing at the others before she leans towards Maria to hug her arm just for a few seconds, more like leaning towards her. Hyekyung stays focused on helping Hannah, but Emelia chuckles and asks why Maria is crying, throwing a piece of paper at her.

“Ya, I got feelings too, okay?” Maria cries and takes a tissue that Carolina hands over to her. Emelia smiles and jumps over – shockingly – to sit on Maria’s lap, pulling down Maria’s feet on the floor so she can sit and she gives Maria a hug with her own feet on Julia and the girls starts to laugh over Emelia’s hilarious way to try comfort Maria. Maria is laughing loudly, but she can’t come out with any strange comment in all the laughing.

After finishing the recording, Hannah is the one sitting in a corner of one of the resting rooms at the agency. Not all of them are done with the recording, but Hannah is done and she is the one who is now being interviewed for their ‘Life of Pieces’ that just arrived. The woman asks Hannah how she feels for going to Sweden in a few days. Hannah opens , hugging the leopard print hoodie around her closer, sitting tailor on the floor wearing sweatpants. The hood is up and her light blonde hair is hanging down under it. She closes , spacing out while wondering of what to say and she stretches her back before answering.

“I’m excited but mostly nervous,” she answers in a low voice. She has to move the microphone on her hoodie closer as her voice is so low. “I am still trying to grab that we are going to Sweden. Our tour has taken us to a lot of new places, we have been able to meet fans from Taiwan and in other countries we yet haven’t been able to visit… but… Sweden is like… our past.”

Hannah gets quiet; her eyes are following someone behind the camera and the camera that is just focusing on Hannah gets someone walking by. Carolina sits down next to Hannah, who just looks like she was interrupted with something. Quietly the two girls are sitting there for a few seconds, Hannah glancing around while Carolina smiles at the camera. The woman filming then asks Carolina what she thinks of them going to Sweden.

“It’s this strange feeling in all of us, of going to Sweden… to go home and meet our families, and for the first time it is not for school. As 5 Pieces, we will have our very first concert outside Asia, in our home town,” Carolina is answering, a smile shown at the corner of her smile but even she is talking calmly. She hugs Hannah’s arm, and Hannah is nodding and swallowing the saliva in . “It…” Carolina starts to say but she stops herself and smiles when looking at Hannah, “It will be a different feeling to meet our fans in the city where our lives started.”

The two girls smile at each other after Carolina’s words. It will definitely be a different feeling. Their families will watch their concert, fans from all around Europe will watch them; everyone will be gathered in the city where the members of 5 Pieces grew up, the place where 5 Pieces all this time haven’t been anything else but part of their families, being students and just one in the crowd. This will be their first time going home as the idols, as the fighting idol group 5 Pieces.

Half an hour later, 5 Pieces is sitting in a meeting about their Sweden concert. It is extremely late, but the whole day has been spent having a dance practice and recording a song, so this is the final chance to have a meeting. ‘Life of Pieces’ is filming how the girls, tired from the day’s activities, are focusing on the meeting. They were the ones coming up with the idea of having a special song on this concert, a Swedish song that the girls know. They spend two hours going through song after song that they remember from their childhood, or a song that for the past few years have been popular. As long as the song is Swedish or from a Swedish singer, they consider it. The song is important because they don’t want a sad song, and they want it to be a song that every Swedish should know about. Though they know people will come from other countries, it is a concert in Sweden. It is their home.

Hannah sneaks out of the room, stopping outside with her forehead towards the wall, her fingers under her eyes to try hold in the tears. A camera sneaks out after Maria, capturing how Maria walks up to Hannah and embracing her. Emelia leans out from the room. No one judges them these days if they are crying. Whether it is about their comeback preparations or their return to Sweden; the girls can cry as much as they want. Hannah hides her face from the camera under her hair and hood, but it is impossible to hide from it when Maria starts to wipe away the tears in her face, revealing her pouting face. Maybe her members are happy to go back to Sweden, to meet their fans and families, but the only reason Hannah can pull through to go back to their home town is just because of the fans. If someone told her they were having a vacation and they can have it in Sweden, she wouldn’t go.

Truth is that when she had done the interview earlier, after that Carolina had made a visit, Hannah finished the interview on her own. She had been sitting there and looked at the woman, who even last year was filming ‘Life of Pieces’ with them.

“Honestly, I’m scared,” Hannah confessed, “to have a concert in Sweden. We will perform in front of our families; meet our fans where we grew up… It’s scary.”

“Why?” the woman wonders.

Hannah shrugs her shoulders. “It has always felt like a safe zone. Like the place we were no one… It will be our first time performing in front of our families, and perform in our home town at all. It has a big meaning, because … I don’t think we have ever thought we would have a concert there.” She looks at the woman, Hannah’s expression is blank and it is unsure if she is waiting for a question or if she will continue to talk. She stays quiet. She got so much she wants to say, but finds it not safe to say it in front of a camera. Hannah forces out a smile and you can see it is forced. She doesn’t know what to say. “We have to do well.”

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It is the few hours left in Korea before they will head to Sweden. The time is spent practicing for the Swedish concert. SHINee will feature in the concert, but Minho won’t be coming along so they are changing some things for the songs they will feature in. the girls also practices the two Swedish songs they have decided to perform at the concert – the two songs have been cut off to not take too much time of the concert. Hannah feels like she wants to cry the whole day. Maria seem like she is on the verge to cry too, just the thought of having a concert in their home town makes them all feel strange.

Heading to the airport, 5 Pieces is getting ready for the long flight. SHINee will come a few days later, as 5 Pieces have other schedules in Sweden too beside from the concert. When waiting to board the plane, Hannah is sitting with her cell phone, listening to music through the earphones connected to it and she just checked her hand bag if she forgot something in the van. Everything is there, so she turns her focus back on the cell phone. Sitting next to her is Emelia, also busy with watching a practice video on her cell phone but she looks up when Manager Lim comes up to them. He has been nervous to go to Sweden for the first time and for the past week while the girls have been busy with their schedule he has been busy with preparations for the trip, planning with interviews, media meeting, schedule, free time… he has definitely been busy. Even now their manager is busy checking something on his cell phone after just finished a phone call.

“I know I have assumed you will be staying at your families while we are in Sundsvall, but Lee Sooman told me to ask you anyway,” Manager Lim says and glances at the girls sitting around there. Hannah sinks in lower in her seat, pausing her music but pretending to not really hear them.

Fans are watching them from a distance, giggling and filming or taking pictures and there are also some giving sudden shouts to wish 5 Pieces a good trip and do well on the concert. Whenever being at an airport, there are fans like that. The girls are used to it, so they are just sitting there and waiting to board the plane, pretending they aren’t being watched. Maria is sitting on the chair across from Hannah’s, and she looks at Hannah by their manager’s words. “I’m going to sleep in my mother’s bed.”

“Yuck. Why not sleep in your own bed?” Julia grimaces, sitting on Emelia’s other side.

Maria looks a little surprised – her diva face expression of hearing Julia say ‘yuck’. “I love my mother so much that I am going to sleep in her bed and remind her of my existence even in her dreams. I will definitely spend as much time I can with my family, clinging myself on to them, when I am not being followed by your girls.”

She does some smirk to Emelia, simply just have told them that she is their leader and they are following her.

“Of course we will stay with our families, what did Lee Sooman expect? If we are in Sundsvall, there is no other place,” Julia shrugs her shoulders, finding the subject useless.

“I’ll stay at the hotel with you, Appa,” Hannah mutters and she sinks even lower when feeling eyes on her.

“Don’t be silly,” Julia chuckles and she raises her eyebrows when Hannah gives her a glare. “Are you seriously going home and stay at a HOTEL?”

“Julia,” Manager Lim says in a low voice, his voice warning over the raise of her voice. “It is her decision.”

Julia turns to their manager with a shocked face expression. “And you will let her? Appa, we haven’t been home since June LAST YEAR. You can’t let her go back and just stay at a hotel.”

“It’s my decision, Julia, and what does it matter to you where I sleep?” Hannah asks out of annoyance.

Julia is about to fire back when Emelia stops her, helping their manager who waves his hand for Hannah to get up. With a sigh she leaves her seat, holding the cell phone in her right hand and the hand bag in her left, following Manager Lim with her head down. He glances behind him to make sure she is there and he lets her walk up next to him before walking the last bit, stopping by a map of the airport by the wall. Hannah avoids looking at her manager after stopping, instead she glances around the place at the other passengers’ and further away some fans. She doesn’t look at Manager Lim until he says her name.

“Are you sure you won’t regret it? Not staying with your family,” he asks her in a low voice, crossing his arms over his chest. He had that fatherly face expression when looking at her, that kind of face that you can’t be angry at. Hannah nods, calming down by his voice.

“It is no option,” she tells him.

Manager Lim keeps looking at her, as if he expects her expression to tell her something else than her voice. “It’s your decision,” he finally sighs. “I just don’t want you to regret it. The other ladies are worried about it too, that is why I am asking.”

“It is no option for me to sleep somewhere else, Appa,” Hannah sighs and she hugs his arm when directing them back to the others. “And I won’t regret it. And you got enough to think of already. We will take you to the best Swedish restaurant so you will never leave.”

He laughs, a deep laugh and he puts an arm around Hannah. “That’s sounds good.”

Maria is smiling widely when they return with laughs, she is curious if they have joked about Carolina’s failed attempt to look fashionable by wearing sloppy jeans and three layers of tops. Carolina looks shocked down at her clothes. “You said it looked good before!”

Hannah takes her seat with a smile, telling Carolina that it looks good while Maria keeps joking with her. Emelia ignores them all when out of nowhere saying Maria gets behind in the speed during the chorus. Maria wrinkles her forehead. “I am not,” she says and within seconds is standing above Emelia to look down at the video Emelia is watching of the group practicing one of the new songs. “Ah, there? It’s just a second late… Let’s practice it when we are at the hotel or something, remind me.”

“Could you five people think of the concert and things we have to do in Sweden instead of your comeback? You got time to fix the choreography when you come back,” Manager Lim suggests, but he is a little proud over to hear the girls helping each other to correct things even when they are at the airport. Or maybe he should worry about that. The girls doesn’t hear it though, all of them focused on the practice video.

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HEADLINE 01ST: 5 PIECES’ ARRIVAL IN SWEDEN TAKES NOTICE IN SWEDISH MEDIA

5 Pieces’ five members made their return to Sweden earlier today after almost a year since their last visit. And the group was wildly welcomed by hundreds of fans and media from not just Sweden but from all around Europe as well as Asia. Everyone wanted a piece of the group’s return to Sweden.

Last time 5 Pieces was in Sweden was in December last year, when the group went around in Europe on their very first fan-meetings outside Asia. The group then made their debut in their home country by performing their song [One and Only] at the Swedish Idol finale, appearing on TV all around Sweden. 5 Pieces has since then slowly been climbing the curiosity charts in Sweden, while their fans all around Europe have spent the year showing their proud love by having flash mobs where they dance to 5 Pieces’ songs on the streets. Sweden, Germany, France, Russia, Poland and Sweden where the six countries, though fans from all over the world participated in the flash mobs, and they had just one message: bring 5 Pieces’ concert to Europe!

SM Entertainment as well as 5 Pieces got the message, and 5 Pieces will on Wednesday and Thursday have their very first ‘Moon Child’ concert outside Asia held. 5 Pieces, being born and raised in Sweden, will have the concert in their hometown and definitely does it seem like whole Europe is getting prepared for it.

On Swedish News programs, 5 Pieces was mentioned as a rising world star, and they also showed clips from the excitement of 5 Pieces’ concert from Japan, Korea and China that has been earlier in the year. How 5 Pieces in different Asian countries made whole arenas of fans from different countries go wild and the clips seemed to show just that the concert is something that no one will want to miss.

“South Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Philippines, those are the countries that this ‘Moon Child’ concert has taken over. Wherever they go, fans will go insane and the whole country will join what is called ‘5P craze’. And the next victim seems to already have gotten the ‘5P craze’! 5 Pieces just came to Sweden for their ‘Moon Child’ concert later next week, arriving at the airport where they where big welcomed by so many people that it was like world stars have arrived, the whole country is talking about just one thing – 5 Pieces.”

It is yet just 5 Pieces arrival, but Europe is truly catching the ‘5P craze’ already. Later in the week, 5 Pieces will have their concert in Sweden but it has been said that Hannah will have her ‘Joe – Under Seoul’s Streets’ book signings in Stockholm, the group will also make TV appearances and do interview and radio to promote 5 Pieces, ‘Moon Child’ concert and also K-pop in Sweden. In other information, it seems like fans in Sweden and Europe are proud to be fans of k-pop and 5 Pieces as a lot of people – thousand of people – are talking about 5 Pieces on all kind of sites like Facebook and Twitter and making sure that their friends and their friends’ friends and strangers all takes notice of 5 Pieces’ presence. 5 Pieces have before been mentioned to confuse people if they are representing Swedish music or Korean music, but the fact that they are from Sweden performing Korean songs have made a lot of fans and also SM Entertainment say that 5 Pieces; “music for the world, from the world”.

It might be true. Sweden is ready to be taken over by pirates – if they haven’t been taken over already – and we can only expect excitement and more from this concert.

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Headline 29th: Video Of EM & Hannah Singing Grease Classic Heats Up Online

 

Headline 30th: New CD Version Of ‘Moon Child’ Concert Released, Including Photo-Book

Headline 30th: 5 Pieces’ Hannah Tweets Congratulations To FT Island’s Honggi On His MC Debut On M Countdown

Headline 30th: MTV Announces Extended Episodes For This Season’s ‘Life of Pieces’

 

Headline 31st: Best Book Of August Month Is ‘Joe – Under Seoul’s Streets’

Headline 31st: Suzuki Reveals Poster Of 5 Pieces’ Emelia & Hannah For New Motorcycle 2012-2013

Headline 31st: 5 Pieces’ Heads To Sweden For First Concert Outside Asia!

Headline 31st: 5 Pieces’ Sweden Concert Countdown – D-5!

 

Headline 01st: 5 Pieces’ Arrival In Sweden Takes Notice In Swedish Media

Headline 01st: 5 Pieces’ Hannah Voted As The Summer’s Hottest Star

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min2key
#1
Chapter 50: OH MY! Jonghyun heard about the kissing... -,-
min2key
#2
Chapter 14: thank you for updating, you just made my day... hahahahah

i was bored before...

waiting for some more... fighting! ^^