{Instagram, 5P_HANNAH: 22 years ago, the birth of our leader. The warmest person I know, the strongest and most faithful friend I will ever have by my side; Maria, it’s your day, make sure to not waste it!}

 “Yaaaaaay!” Carolina is happily cheering, laughing when the hundred of people in front of them starts screaming loudly, absolutely agreeing to the random cheering of 5 Pieces’ mascot in the middle of a fan-signing.

They are outdoors, the fan-signing set up on grass and though the fans are lining up in front of 5 Pieces, there are so many people there that the sides are crowded as well and twice as much security has been brought in to keep track on everyone. 5 Pieces have come all the way to Busan for this signing, wearing a yellow strapless sweetheart party dress with flared skirt and crystal adornments that cascade along the bust and down the centre front. Not much is shown when the ladies are sitting down behind the tables but the fans saw the clothes when they were arriving and taking pictures.

Carolina stands up after her random cheer, holding on to the microphone. Maria looks at her as if she has gone insane, and Hannah sitting on Carolina’s other side is just smiling at their fans.

“I just wanted to say a few things before we continue,” Carolina tells everyone in the microphone. “Is that okay?”

She cheers again when the fans says ‘yes’.

“5 Pieces have come out with our fourth Korean album called [Girls Power],” Carolina starts to saying, then pausing to clear because Maria rests her elbow on the table and puts her head in her hand to look up at Carolina, looking interested in what the mascot has planned to say – making Carolina nervous. “Through this album we have taken on a different concept and we have participated differently as well, both with the music and by working differently with our staff as we have a live band with us for performances. With not just our crew on the stage growing, I see more and more fans growing by our side and I speak to all of us when I thank everyone who is here today, for welcoming us to Busan this time just as you have the other times we have come. As … as our time as 5 Pieces continues, getting older every day, with beauty thanks to all of our fans… there is one lady who individually is a number older today than what she was yesterday-”

Maria smiles out at the audience that is cheering in agreement, and Carolina takes a deep breath as if she has remembered exactly what to say.

“I know a lot of you have already wished her a happy birthday, but my request is for us all to sing the birthday song to our Captain… Can we do that?”

While the enormous amount of people starts cheering, wanting to sing, Maria asks the ladies who are standing up if they have planned this. But Maria loves it, her smile is big as she is the only one staying seated, and she looks around while hundreds of people start to sing the Korean birthday song to her; her members sings too, and she glances over her shoulder to see the staff and their managers singing along. Maria looks back at the fans, trying to look at as many faces she can before glancing at her members, just to in surprise get up from her chair. She gets up so sudden that the chair falls behind her but Maria is so surprised to see Julia step up in front of the table with a birthday cake that she doesn’t even notice the chair until her manager touches her arm so she won’t back up on the fallen chair.

Finishing the song it is a mixture of laughter and applauses, and Maria receives a microphone to ask Julia where she got the cake from.

Maria is smiling happily, having their manager helping her with the chair to sit down again and Emelia tells her to blow out the candles. Maria puts her hands together and makes a quick wish before blowing out the candles, fans and ladies cheering and congratulating her again.

“Woah!” Maria laughs in the microphone as they ask her to say something. “I don’t think my birthday could be spent any better than this… Carolina, for how long did you prepare that speech, ha-ha? Thank you everyone, for coming here to 5 Pieces’ signing, for loving our album and for singing so beautifully…”

Hannah suddenly grabs a hold of Carolina’s arm, stopping her from doing something, but Carolina doesn’t seem to get the hint as she uses her other hand. She is just about to get some of the cake’s cream on a finger when Maria’s reflexes slaps her hand away, the fans are laughing so much when Maria scolds her, asking what she is doing and explaining that the cake is hers and hers alone because it is her birthday and it was given to her. Maybe she overdoes the explaining a lot because the fans are entertained by it and Hannah smiles as she can imagine Maria saying she has an image to withhold; therefore her overdoing explanation to say the cake belongs to her.

Maria tastes the cake before the fan-signing continues and Maria’s smile seems bigger as she talks to the fans coming one by one in front of them, the leader thanking everyone personally for coming and for wishing her a happy birthday. One fan asks her what she got from her members as a birthday present, and Maria comically answers that they promised to clean her room for the rest of the year – which no one would ever promise to do, and the fans knows that though it is fun hearing Maria joke about it.

The other members are asked about Maria’s birthday as well, Hannah laughs so much when a fan tells Emelia to be a little nicer to Maria on her birthday and Emelia says it could be difficult to do that. Everyone is joking with each other, 5 Pieces and their fans. Maria actually receives a confetti by a fan, and she throws it away at the ladies, excited about it because Carolina looks like snow is falling over her and she can’t understand how that happens in June while it in fact is long threads of confetti.

“Thank you, guys,” Maria happily says in the microphone when sitting down again.

The fan-signing goes well. The ladies keeps smiling and talking to the fans, having a great one and a half hour there before the signing is done.

It’s a pity that the ladies can’t stay longer because there are so many fans there, but they need to catch the train to the next city. It will take about one and a half hour to get to Daegu, and when 5 Pieces were on the train going from Seoul to Busan for four hours they made sure to sleep; now, they are too speed-up to even try to sleep. Maria is so moved from the fan-signing and their devoted fans, really excited to meet the fans in Daegu as well and disappointed that they only have two fan-signings today when travelling in South Korea because she really wish to meet more fans than what two signings allows. All of them are excited. To promote an album on TV shows, doing interviews and answering the same questions all the time, all of that is no fun unless you take time to actually meet the people who support you and actually show up on all these events. A fan-signing is so much more than just writing your autograph on your own picture and hand it to a stranger.

Hannah is excited for another reason too when they are on the train. Excitedly she leans over her seat to show Maria something, and the leader laughs seeing it is a text message from Jonghyun; ‘I am back home but you’re not here. How come you had to leave when I wanted to surprise you with a back hug and butterfly kisses? Hurry back into my arms, I will be waiting – but you only have 24 hours or my heart will turn black with sorrow’.

“He’s dramatic, that puppy of yours,” Maria laughs after reading it two times.

“I like it,” Hannah whispers and leans back in her seat with blushing cheeks, dreamily looking at the text message again. Jonghyun is back from being abroad, and this is the text he sends to her to let her know he is back. But she has no idea of what to answer; Hannah is not the kind of person who is good at writing things like that, though she is probably better at writing it than saying it. Therefore, she turns to Maria again for help.

‘These small wings of mine have been flying me around waiting for you to come back, wait a little longer and I will soon be back in your arms. Kisses <3’

“It’s so cheesy,” Hannah laughs when she has sent it and Julia, who has been listening to them, agrees completely.

“I think it’s romantic though,” Maria admits. “And it’s nice that you two are like … taking turns on how to write to each other. Like another time you showed me how direct he was that he wanted to throw you down on the bed-”

“Ooooh,” Julia sounds interested as she hasn’t heard that part and Hannah can feel how her cheeks are burning from the memories. Jonghyun really texts differently, going from this sweet romantic talk to this dirty talk.

“It’s a wonder you two haven’t had phone yet,” Manager Lee whispers from the seat next to Hannah. For once, Julia and Maria are actually sitting next to each other, while Hannah and Manager Lee are sitting next to them. The lack of people in the carriage is the reason they can talk about this at all, and because Manager Lee is sitting next to Hannah it is honestly no surprise he gives a comment to the conversation.

“For once, I agree with him,” Maria nods her head, not bothered by Hannah hiding her face out of embarrassment.

“Maybe it would be weird to talk like that over the phone because they are working all the time, it’s not like they can have phone at work, right?” Julia says, as if she understands if Hannah hasn’t had phone yet.

“Oh please,” Hannah whines over the conversation.

“Is he coming over tonight or something?” Maria asks, suddenly remembering that Jonghyun had written 24 hours.

Hannah glances up at their manager, who looks straight ahead as if he has nothing to do with it. She would want Jonghyun to come over, or if she could sneak out to meet him, but their managers wouldn’t like it because the ladies are supposed to sleep whenever they have the chance – lack of sleep is not something they like.

Yesterday after filming Running Man they all went out to eat together, the members of Running Man had to bring up every tenth minute how scared they will be in the future if 5 Pieces will come again; because 5 Pieces always makes Running Man loose when the whole team shows up. Dinner was fun, they all took pictures and the ladies got to give signed albums to the members of Running Man; the EXO members signed their album as well. They didn’t have a schedule after that so the ladies went home to sleep, just to take the first train in the morning going from Seoul to Busan. They had gotten up around four in the morning to go fix hair and make-up before getting on the train.

Arriving in Daegu, the talk about Jonghyun is far behind them (though Hannah has kept texting him) as the excitement to meet their fans is bursting out. They get in the car, fixing hair and make-up on the go and the ladies are curiously looking out the windows.

“All of them are here for us?”

It is twice the amount of people here than what it was in Busan, but the location is bigger too so it is possible. Even here they are lucky with the weather; the sun is nowhere to be seen but at least it’s not raining, and the amount of people surrounding the fan-signing place is really a lot. The ladies stare in amazement out their windows while their manager is on the phone with the security in charge, being told how the last two hours have been like and how they should let 5 Pieces make their entrance and so on. The ladies aren’t really paying attention as they are too busy looking out the windows and pointing for each other to see this and that. It’s not just a lot of fans there, the fans have brought banners and cards and a lot of things; wishing Maria a happy birthday, congratulating the ladies for breaking records and on their comeback, welcoming them to Daegu, there are a lot of couple-pictures of the ladies, like Emelia and Carolina’s faces put together on a banner with the names Tom & Jerry…

Dedication. That’s the word the ladies use in the van seeing all of this; seeing their fans dedication.

Emelia has to gain their attention since the ladies are too immersed into looking out the windows that they don’t listen to their manager, but getting their attention isn’t too difficult as they all want to make their appearance. It’s sad they won’t perform when this many people have appeared, but the ladies hope the fans will be happy anyway with the signing.

A lot of TV-crews are there, for news programs and entertaining programs; there is no way the media could let this huge crowd gathered to see 5 Pieces slip away from others to see; just how popular 5 Pieces is even in Korea. The ladies take one final look in their cell phones or mirrors before the van makes its final stop. Along with the people nearby starting to point, scream and then wave, there is security surrounding the van while 5 Pieces’ manager head out to exchange some words and then the door slides open.

The screaming just goes louder and louder. Those actually seeing 5 Pieces starts screaming and the rest of the fans there starts screaming too because they hear that 5 Pieces is there, and when Hannah lastly steps out of the van she can not hear a thing because of the loud screaming for 5 Pieces. She only grabs a hold of Emelia’s hand and is lead with the other members by the security and managers. Carolina laughs and waves her hand up in the sky to the loud cheers; all of the ladies look up at the fans before reaching the platform prepared for the fan-signing.

One by one the ladies walk up to stand by their chairs behind the tables, standing next to each other in their usual positions and Hannah really can’t help but to look before them with big eyes – the whole place is filled. Even buildings have people standing by the windows, waving over at them.

“Pieces of one,” Carolina starts off saying and like always the ladies in choir greets; “Hello, we are 5 Pieces!”

“Kyaaaaaah!” the fans loudly responses

“Thank you all for coming to 5 Pieces’ fan-signing event. We wish for everyone to not push each other and be careful as there are a lot of people here today. Thank you!” Maria says, taking the stand as their leader.

And it continues with the cheering as the ladies sit down by the tables, the fan-signing procedure continuing. Hannah sits down and fixes the blanket over her legs, fixes her hair so it covers her shoulders and she glances to see what is on the table – three markers, a bottle of water and 5 Pieces’ fourth full-length album; all of it set up in five sets for the ladies.

Hannah grabs one of the pens, rolling it on the table while glancing around at the enormous amount of fans looking at them. There are so many cameras and cell phones held up that each face she tries to see is blocked by a camera. One person starts jumping when Hannah looks at her and Hannah smiles while cupping her face in her hands, resting her elbows on the table. The fan holding the camera she is looking at starts waving and Hannah lightly waves her fingers without moving her hand away from her cheek, smiling widely at the reaction from more fans.

She sits up straight when hearing their manager say something to Carolina, and Hannah doesn’t have to be told personally to sign the album before them as she heard when he told Carolina – that doesn’t mean their manager doesn’t lean next to her shoulder to tell her too, taking the two pens away from her as she holds the third in her hand. She signs the cover of the album a little quickly before having Maria stretching over Carolina to ask Hannah for the bottle of water; the manager had taken Maria’s for some reason, and Hannah hasn’t opened her yet so Hannah gives it to the leader, leans back in her seat and smiles out at the fans again.

Two minutes later, Hannah is smiling up at one of the first fans in line to get her autographed album. Some fans have such an accent that Hannah has to ask them to repeat themselves, but with a flashing smile no one seems to mind. She is pretty sure not even a quarter of the fans thinks it is because of their accent she has to ask because most of them are either hiding behind their hands, crying or talking so nervously that it is a must to ask them to repeat themselves.

They have just started the signing when the enormous amount of fans starts to sing. At first it is just a few of them, then it gets more and more until you can clearly hear they all are singing Maria’s [Princess], her song from last year, and Hannah first glances at the crowd before smiling up at the fan in front of her and singing along a little while joking with the fan. Carolina even gets a microphone to sing along, and you can hear Maria laugh before she gets her own microphone to clearly sing along with their fans, excited that they are singing her own song like this.

The song ends and the ladies all take time to clap their hands to their fans, entertained by how the fans congratulate Maria on her birthday. Only that the fans are not done; they start singing the birthday song too, making Maria laugh even more and the ladies are all smiling brightly at the fans in front of them.

“Are you jealous that we are singing only to Maria?” a fan asks Emelia. Emelia smiles hearing Hannah laugh at the question on her left side.

“It’s the Captain’s day, let her have her song,” Emelia coolly answers, finishing her autograph in the album and hands it back to the fans.

“On your birthday, they threw snow at you in Japan,” the fan quickly mentions as the manager standing behind Emelia wants her to continue to not hold up the line, as Hannah has given back the album for the next fan.

“Ha-ha-ha,” Emelia laughs at the reminder, “I’ll upload a picture for you later.”

What she means with that, the fan doesn’t know, but she doesn’t have time to ask either as she is lightly moved to step over to Julia. Hannah doesn’t understand it either but she is too busy smiling and exchanging a few words with a fan while writing her autograph. The next fan that steps up in front of Hannah makes her smile widely as she is searching for Hannah’s picture in the jacket album. The fan seems like she expects Hannah to help her but Hannah only smiles at the fan; it is a teenage girl, still in her uniform and she has been shaking for many meters, nervously flipping the pages in the album to find the right picture.

“Could you please…?” the girl finally asks, looking at Hannah with teary eyes.

Hannah smiles so her eyes almost disappears in half-moon shapes, she takes the album and turns it around, without problem finding her picture as she has spent two weeks doing this. “What’s your name?”

“Choi Sungah,” the girl answers and wipes her cheek from tears, “You’re really pretty.”

“Thank you,” Hannah smiles up at her, quickly finishing writing her autograph.

“Thank you,” the girl bows deeply, almost hitting her head in the table that Hannah in reflex stretches out her hand over the table just in case, and she laughs when the girl apologizes and moves over to Emelia.

“Hello,” Hannah laughs up at the young man coming next.

“Hi, Hannah,” he shyly says and hands her the album, holding out a gift bag as well. “I really like what you did with your hair; it suits you really well.”

“You think?” Hannah kindly asks, knowing he means her blue hair. “I don’t look crazy then?”

“No, no, no, no,” he shakes his head energetically.

“Thank you,” Hannah smiles widely up at him, giving back the album. Next up is a little girl; she must be in second or third grade. Hannah looks at her with a soft smile, getting the album. “Hi, what’s your name?”

“Lee Minsang,” the girl answers. She looks as Hannah starts writing, in a low voice she says; “I always listen to your songs, you always cheer me up…”

“Oh, thank you,” Hannah smiles widely, glancing at the girl with the smile and she gives a second glance when seeing how the girl looks down with blushing cheeks. Hannah giggles lightly. “You’re really cute.”

“You think so? I mean … You probably tell everyone that, right? You’re always so kind… Mom says so too, 5 Pieces is really kind.”

Hannah keeps smiling widely at the girl when leaning over the table with her body to touch the girl’s face lightly with both her hands, looking at each other. One thing Hannah can’t stand is insecurity in a child; children tend to be so full of them selves and confident, so it’s sad hearing this girl doubting her.

“You have the most adorable face I have seen in days,” Hannah tells the girl without looking away, “If you don’t believe me, I want you to look in the mirror and don’t look away until you see what I see.” She takes down her hands and smiles wider at the girl. “Can you do that for me?”

Teary, the girl nods her head, hugging on to the album she receives from Hannah.

“Thank you,” she sobs and Hannah nods at her.

Emelia smiles widely when the girl steps up to her, holding out hand to get the album. “You’re Hannah’s fan?” Emelia asks the girl who only nods in response, still sobbing. “Hannah always has the prettiest fans.”

Hannah is smiling at the next fan, but she smiles wider hearing what Emelia says; Emelia says it just because she had heard what Hannah had told the girl. Before the girl moves on, Emelia tells her to be good in school.

Fans from not just Daegu but from other cities nearby are there as well. Most fans come with gifts of different kinds, all from clothes to health products, one fan is even handing out lollipops to each lady; starting with Maria, letting her choose from the different flavours, and going to Carolina, Hannah, Emelia and then Julia gets the final one. Hannah looks like a child when she has to choose between three flavours and she picks the cola flavour, telling the fan it is her favourite and happily thanking for it. Emelia unwrap it and puts it in right away.

After half an hour at the fan-signing, Hannah is stretching her back, turning right to left and pouting out her lips a little while grimacing.

“My back hurts,” Hannah tells Emelia, only looking at her friend and glancing up at Manager Lee standing behind them.

“We’re almost done,” he tells her. “Or do you need a break?”

Hannah shakes her head and turns to the fan stepping up in front of her, smiling anew as she starts signing. She has been impressed with how well her body has handled these two weeks, the new pills is doing wonder, but after dancing like crazy for two weeks to sitting down a while day at the train and for fan-signings, her body is getting stiff and starts hurting – especially her back. She knows she will have to stretch and do a lot of exercises later.

The male fan in front of her must’ve either seen her stretch her back or heard what she said because he asks her to please take care of her body when working so hard, and Hannah nods, finishing signing and giving back the album to him.

“I’ll take care of myself for you,” she answers, and by ‘you’ she means their fans. He thanks her and shakes her hand and Hannah smiles at the next fan.

The next fan has a post-it note on Hannah’s picture. It reads ‘who is the most handsome?’ with the alternatives ‘Jonghyun’ and ‘Puzzle’, and after finishing signing (Hannah sees how the fan gets nervous when Hannah covers the post-it with her hand, while Hannah does it for the manager to not see it) she quickly writes down a third alternative, writing ‘both’ and a smiley before closing the album and giving it back to the fan before her manager can spot it.

Stepping before her next is an older man, and Hannah smiles at him and asking for his name before starting to sign the album.

“Hannah, you are really pretty,” the man tells her in an accent and she smiles, probably looking more shy than usual just because this man is older. “It’s my first time seeing you up-close like this.”

“You’re from Daegu?” Hannah wonders and looks up at him when returning the album, seeing that he is shaking his head.

“No, I am from Okinawa – I’m half Japanese,” he tells her.

“Woah, then you came here for 5 Pieces?” Hannah looks surprised and he nods happily.

“Yes, I came just to see you. But I saw you last year when you were filming in Okinawa too, do you remember?”

She smiles widely, remembering filming with her members in Okinawa for their Japanese mini-drama last year. “Of course I remember. Okinawa is really beautiful too, I can’t wait to go there again,” she tells him and shakes his hand while he hands her a bag at the same time.

“Please come again,” he says, “My wife made you some sweet deep fried buns; please enjoy it on your way home.”

“Oh, thank you so much,” Hannah gratefully says and looks inside the bag, seeing it is plastic bags in it – definitely more than just sweet deep fried buns in it. the man has already continued to Emelia when Hannah looks up, and she looks at the next fan before turning around to her manager, telling him she wants this bag in the car and not in the plastic bag with the other things; she can share this with her members, an Okinawa sweet that they actually saw during last year’s filming but never tried.

They finish the fan-signing with some words, Maria saying hoer moved she was when they were singing and thanking for all congratulations and wishing everyone a safe trip home. By the time they are leaving, all five ladies have a lollipop in their mouth – it probably doesn’t suit their concept, but the fans love it and the ladies like lollipops.

It will take a little more than two hours on the train to go back to Seoul, and the ladies are eating and talking about the fans they have met today – Emelia brings up the little girl who Hannah had told to look in the mirror until she sees what Hannah sees, and Maria says ‘aaaaw, you got that from me!’ because Maria’s mother used to tell Maria and her sisters to look in the mirror and with confidence say “I am beautiful”, every single day. True, Hannah got it from Maria, and the leader feel touched that her mother’s words continues to go around. While eating they are talking; Hannah uploads a picture of herself with the Okinawa snack she got;

{Instagram, 5P_HANNAH: Yummy~ yummy~ Today was great, thank you Busan and Daegu! Until next time, eat well and stay healthy!}

And the ladies slowly drift into their own things. Maria is writing a letter, not telling anyone about it other than it is a letter, so Hannah is curiously looking at the leader seriously writing the letter. With all that thought put into words, Hannah knows the letter is to their fans, there is no one else Maria would write to with so much dedication. The personnel at the train seem to know it is Maria’s birthday as they send in some champagne and strawberries. Julia has gotten a new weird hobby; she is looking at apartments (villas too, but mostly apartments), she has been doing it a little now and then, but now on the train she seems very focused on it. Hannah doesn’t question her friend’s new hobby, and no one else seems to do it either.

There is no rest when coming back to Seoul; 5 Pieces head straight to MBC to pre-record for tomorrow’s Show Champion, they had changed into their own clothes on the train to then change into another set of clothes at MBC. Arriving at the broadcast station they see there are fans outside. After such a successful day, the ladies enter the building while waving to the fans but once they get inside they look exhausted; only smiling and bowing to the staff.

Hannah’s back is hurting so much that the first thing she does when entering 5 Pieces’ room – where their stylists are – she takes a blanket on the floor to lie down where her back can be straightened out. It hurts so much when lying down that she has to slowly lie down on her back, and slowly, slowly she starts turning her hip and lifting her legs and doing these exercises that she has been doing ever since the car-accident almost four years ago. She keeps her eyes closed to only focus on her back but she think the others know she is listening to them because their manager starts talking about the time, when they are doing the rehearsals, when they have to do this and that.

5 Pieces wait for rehearsals to begin; they stretch in their own way and then warm up their voices together, they go greet the band and dancers who all of course have to congratulate Maria on her birthday, and they prepare hair and make-up in between before heading to the rehearsals.

The stage is great, like always, and it is set up to fit the band, a table and for everyone to dance. Rehearsals are okay, the staff and crew is great, and the ladies takes it easy to keep the energy for the actual recording.

Heading backstage they get ready while fans enter the hall. 5 Pieces wear a sweetheart cocktail dress with an ombre beaded bodice, a corset back and a short tulle skirt; strapless and in black-turquoise, wearing a pair of dark blue pump wedge high heels shoes with buckle platform. Once again, the outfit is gorgeous and they cover themselves in heavier make-up. Hannah’s blue hair is all wavy and styled up, Maria is in a short bob wig again, letting Carolina do her crazy red curls and Emelia styled up and around in a pin-up style, letting a few long locks hang down and Julia has styled her hair with a headband.

Going up on the stage this time the ladies are waving and greeting their fans while testing their microphones; Julia laughs when Emelia does ‘testing, testing, hello, testing, can you hear me? Hello everyone, I am so cool… testing…’

“Let’s do our greeting,” Emelia suggests when looking at the members on the stage.

“Maria isn’t here yet,” Hannah tells her and the fans starts screaming for three reasons; Maria isn’t on the stage yet, Emelia wanted to do the greeting without Maria, Hannah said Maria’s name.

Maria gets visible below the stage; which a fan points out, and the ladies right away starts saying things like the captain is late again, asking Maria if she is late because it is her day and so on; whatever they say it is to entertain the fans and to make fun of their leader.

“Pieces of one,” Emelia says when Maria joins them on stage; entering with her hands up and bowing, receiving cheers from their fans for coming late. All members greet together; “Hello, we are 5 Pieces!”

“Thank you all for coming this late to our recording here at Show Champion,” Hannah says as the ladies had told her to do it before, “Does everyone know what day it is today?”

“Yeeeeees!” they scream for answer and the ladies all have the same thought when holding out their microphones for the fans to answer; “Maria’s birthday!”

“Yaaaay!” Hannah happily jumps towards their leader who only bows politely to their fans. Maria is tired.

“Please cheer a lot on our leader for today’s recording!” Carolina randomly asks of their fans and Emelia is fast to react to her, glaring at their mascot.

“You don’t want them to cheer a lot on the rest of us?”

Julia turns to the fans charmingly; “Please cheer a lot on everyone except for Carolina, okay?”

“Okay!” the fans answers and the ladies laugh while Carolina whines she didn’t mean it that way, and while the other members turning away to go prepare for the stage, Carolina cheerfully asks the fans to cheer on all members today.

The recording goes well, with their crew and the fans it is always easier to perform even when you are tired. And also that all of them beside from one is aware of what will happen at the end, they are excitedly recording the performance. They record it three times, and in between the ladies are talking to the fans like usually to ask if they have eaten and if they are tired. The ladies also say that they were in Busan and Daegu today, saying what the fans down there did and asking Maria in a teasing tone if she is happy today. Maria says she is happy and that she is happy to end her birthday here with their fans in Seoul.

The recording comes to an end and the ladies stands at the front, saying some last words to the fans and thanking for staying this late as it now almost midnight. The dancers and the band are getting ready to leave the stage, some of them rushed off first and everyone is taking their time. Not even the fans knows what will happen, which is why they all seem a little taken back when the band and dancers starts singing the birthday song; the MBC staff and ladies follows up and the fans catches along as well, while Maria started off staring behind her at their crew and then laughs as the others follows along. Carolina must’ve disappeared among the dancers as she and one of the male dancers comes up with a cake, making Maria so surprised to see it is a meter long, covered in decorations and it says ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRINCESS MARIA’ along with a decorated high heel shoe.

Hannah takes Maria’s arm when Maria is about to walk past her, wanting to run off, and with Hannah lightly holding her Maria turns around Hannah with a hand over and the fans starts screaming so loudly when the song ends – Maria is crying.

“Happy birthday, Captain!” Emelia cheers, actually holding her cell phone in hand to film this. Their manager is on the side of the stage filming too.

The cake is placed on a table that three other dancers helped carrying up; Hannah leads Maria up to it so she can look at the cake better and Maria looks to really be in huge shock, only staring at it while the others are cheering and clapping their hands over the success.

“You were in on this?” Maria then turns to Hannah, as if she could not believe Hannah kept this from her.

“Everyone was,” Carolina excitedly answers, pointing around, “It was just you and Puzzle not knowing.”

“For the last minutes of your birthday, we thought it would be nice if we could celebrate it a little more,” Hannah says, smiling though she is surprised to see that Maria is crying. “We have actually celebrated your birthday in three cities today…”

Maria cries more as it starts to sink in that she actually has been celebrating her birthday with fans in three different cities. She laughs in her tears when Hannah slips some cake cream on her cheek and someone else suggests her to say a few words. Maria is a mix of laughing and crying, still looking a lot at the cake. “I have actually been holding in my tears the whole day,” Maria starts off saying and gives out a laugh when the crew behind them cheers at her failing to hold back the tears this time. “I was so sure I had done well for holding them in, but never in a lifetime did I expect this. You surprised me, really.”

“We surprised her!” a dancer cheers out and everyone starts applauding again. The staff is laughing on the side; MBC had allowed them to use the stage and hall a little bit longer to celebrate Maria’s birthday.

“Aaaah…” Maria breathes out, eyeing the cake and then seems to be her usual self when commenting; “How did you do this? I really want a shoe like that…”

The reason they have such a big cake is because they will share it with fans, and when the ladies starts explaining that, the fans are even more excited. First, everyone takes pictures together. With the cake and fans and crew, everyone just gathering for the special birthday surprise party. The crew will get to eat cake backstage, but Maria gets the first slice and the ladies helps out to give out cake to the fans who wants it. The MBC staff is told there is cake for them backstage as well.

{Instagram, 5P_EMELIA: (video) As I promised our fans, here is the proof that Maria’s birthday did not end without tears. Happy birthday, our model Captain!!!}

{Instagram, 5P_CAROLINA: Happy birthday, Maria! We were a big crew celebrating your birthday today, going through Busan, Daegu and Seoul… I hope my birthday is just as fun as yours!}

Surprising the leader, all four ladies give her red lips kisses in the face, making the fans scream and even the staff cheer, and Maria proudly shows off the marks for everyone around before the ladies poses for a picture backstage with Maria in the middle, and she shows off the red lips marks once again when uploading that picture;

{Instagram, 5P_MARIA: A special gift from my ladies on my birthday kkkk I do look a little too happy, don’t I?}

{Instagram, 5P_MARIA: I wrote a letter today, it might not be much but I wanted to say a few words:

“Since midnight to the 10^th of June, I kept hearing the same thing over and over for 24hours. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARIA. I can’t believe I am 22 years old, and thinking of my age I also think of my life. Today I spent my birthday in Busan and Daegu, working with my sisters to promote our album, and each face I saw today moved my heart. I am so incredibly grateful to be able to do what I do each day and I think with our fourth album I am getting moved for all the support of my work more and more. All the people who congratulated me today and came out to see 5 Pieces, thank you so much for making me appreciate my own birthday. I hope you all know how moved I was today, thank you and a hundred times thank you so much. I will continue to do my best as the leader of 5 Pieces, as a singer and as a friend, I wish to become more of a person who can proudly represent our name and I will do my best to spend more and more birthdays with all of you, proudly. I was surprised at the recording today when our crew started to sing for me, and the cake everyone had prepared brought me to tears as I had held them in all day, but I am happy I was able to spend my birthday with so many fans from all around Korea, and that I shared my beautiful princess cake with our fans. Ladies, thank you for being my sisters and for planning a day of surprises for me. I love you all, hugs and kisses, your princess leader Maria”}

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Headline 10th: 5 Pieces’ Maria Is Congratulated By Fans & Celebrity Friends On Her 22nd Birthday

Headline 10th: Fans Pull Off A Special Event To Birthday Member Maria During Promotions In Busan & Daegu

Headline 10th: Maria Writes A Touching Message To Thank Fans For Her Birthday Celebration

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X. devonalias - Sorry for the late update again, I have been writing a lot but I haven't really been online to update you all. Here is a few chapters for you ^^,