Coming home it’s no celebration at all. Maria’s birthday ended at MBC, they stayed for over an hour after finishing recording to eat cake with their crew, but once they go home the ladies only want to sleep. They wash up and in silence go to their own bedrooms to get some sleep before Wednesday begin with new fan-signings and promotions.

Hannah is done washing up, wearing pyjama-shorts and a gray t-shirt, and she is again doing her exercise on the floor in her bedroom as her back is still uncomfortable. And she is waiting for someone. She has really missed Jonghyun and though she should be lying dead asleep in her bed the blood in her veins are burning hot that she can’t be still, too excited that Jonghyun is coming.

Even Emelia has fallen asleep after ten minutes of silence in the apartment, and Hannah hurries down to wait when Jonghyun says he is on his way. Even in the hall she is moving her body, stretching doing various exercises in hope she will fall asleep peacefully.

Opening the door, Jonghyun enters. And it is like being pushed inside without even being touched, just having his eyes focused on her the second the door is open and his gaze is so intense that Hannah automatically backs away.

“Is everyone sleeping?” Jonghyun whispers.

Hannah nods. “I think they have fallen asleep already,” she answers, “We have to be quiet.”

Jonghyun smiles, glancing up at her when taking his shoes off and Hannah is just looking at him. It feels like every time they meet she is so amazed, as if she doesn’t expect him to be real or something, and she holds out her hand for him to head upstairs. Her hand is warm while his is cold, but Hannah doesn’t lead him upstairs; she walks further away to go inside the office Hannah and Carolina shares.

“What are you doing?” Jonghyun whispers, turning around to look confused but is quickly smiling when she hushes him, quietly closes the door behind them and wraps her arms around his neck to kiss him. Jonghyun wraps his arms around her too, turning them around while kissing each other so Hannah’s hits the desk. As soon as their lips touched, the room becomes hot; their lips are burning for each other. Jonghyun leans his body away, pulls down Hannah’s shorts so she in shock leans back just as his hand slips in between her legs, watching her gape with a moan.

“I missed you, Nabi,” Jonghyun breaths.

“I missed you too,” Hannah pants, standing up on her toes because of his hand but she leans in to kiss him on the lips again.

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“Baby,” someone whispers.

The bedroom is dark, light coming from the hall outside shines in on the bed where the couple is sleeping, and a third part is leaning over the bed to poke the blue-haired girl on the arm. Hannah frowns as she can hear the voice whisper for her, eventually mumbling out something in response but snuggles closer to Jonghyun’s bare torso.

“Baby, we have to leave in an hour,” Maria whispers.

“Mm…”

“Do you want me to come back in ten minutes?”

“Mm…”

Maria is really not sure if Hannah is awake or not, struggling of the decision if she should force Hannah up right away or let her get some time, and lucky for her she doesn’t have to make the decision because Jonghyun mumbles that Hannah will be ready in an hour. Pleased with the response from at least one of them, Maria leaves the room and closes the door after her, the bedroom again dark. Jonghyun groans when turning around to lie on the side, throwing his arm around Hannah and breathing out in her hair.

“You have to leave in an hour,” he sighs. He brushes her hair away to kiss her cheek and Hannah sighs too.

“What time is it?” Hannah whispers, turning around to lie on her back, so Jonghyun is lying on the side next to her. He turns around to reach for a cell phone to look at the time before turning back to Hannah, leaning over her to hide in her hair again.

“It’s not even six in the morning,” Jonghyun sighs tiredly. Hannah laughs when a big hand is put on her face and Jonghyun chuckles as he starts caressing her cheek – which was his goal, but he couldn’t see in the dark. “Do you sleep during the day?”

Hannah doesn’t answer, at first, thinking of what to say. “At times,” she answers, as she has been so tired some days that when the other ladies are all sleeping backstage she tries to sleep too, though she only closes her eyes most of the time.

“You need to sleep more,” Jonghyun lovingly says in her ear. “But I’m happy you are having fun.”

Giggling, she tries to put one arm around him but his arm is holding hers under the quilt. “I always have fun with the ladies.”

“And I will forever stay jealous of it,” Jonghyun mutters against her cheek. “But I know not to mess with the pieces.”

Hannah leans her head away, trying to see him in the dark. “Was Maria here?”

“… Are you serious?”

“I don’t know,” Hannah grunts and hides in the pillow. Jonghyun laughs, kissing her hair and rubbing her back with his hand.

“Sleep,” Jonghyun laughs, “I can’t understand a thing coming out of your mouth.”

Smiling, Hannah turns around again, this time she finds his lips to kiss him. Jonghyun laughs in delight at how she turned his words into a kiss, and whispering, he says he can understand that part.

An hour later everyone is leaving the apartment. Hannah is hiding behind sunglasses, knowing it is not okay because it is raining outside (sunglasses are supposed to be used in the sun), but she is too tired to argue with her own demands to hide sleepy eyes from everyone. The ladies all seem tired today, moving like zombies to the saloon and not speaking, not even talking about what they want to eat for breakfast.

Breakfast is eaten in the van heading to Incheon for the day’s two fan-signings. After being at the saloon the ladies stopped by at their stylist’s to change clothes and finally head out on the one-hour ride. Hannah finds the ride comfortable because she can rest her eyes, text with Jonghyun, and eat little by little for an hour.

Starting off the first fan-signing in Incheon, all five ladies are wearing the blue pumps they wore yesterday, wearing either skinny jeans in light blue or black, or ripped shorts. It is a stylish outfit for each lady, yet laid back with top and cardigan. Hair and make-up has been prepared to suit last night’s pre-recording to their Show Champion appearance this evening, so it is almost that they are half glam-up to the stage. At the fan-signing, 5 Pieces are smiling and once again been laughing and talking to the fans. There seems to be a lot of fans interested in 5 Pieces’ fan-signings; coming even if they are not given a spot in the line to receive the autographs. A lot of fans congratulate Maria today too, asking if she had fun on her birthday and saying they saw the pictures of Maria crying, all ladies being asked about Maria’s birthday. That seems to be the highlight of the day; Maria’s birthday.

They are in Incheon for almost four hours before getting in the van heading back to Seoul where they will head to MBC Show Champion.

In the van now, the ladies fall asleep really fast. Hannah is sitting in the back on the left side with Carolina next to her and Julia on Carolina’s other side, all three of them leaning on each other and sleeping with their own earphones to play their own music; Hannah has a blanket over her, resting her head against the pillow on the window, and she is hugging a brown plush dog. Carolina is resting her head on Hannah’s shoulder, borrowing some of the blanket and Julia is sleeping with her legs over Carolina’s and head leaning back against the window so is open. They look to be in heavy sleeps. Maria is sitting in front of Hannah, her seat leaned back so she is almost lying down, lying on the side with a blanket and cardigan over her and feet put up on the driver’s seat so her long legs spread open with the blanket in between and she has one arm held out to hold the other seat next to hers; taking up enough space for two.

One manager is sitting next to Maria, on the seat in front of Julia, while the second one is driving and Emelia is sitting at the front on the passenger seat because of her easily getting car sickness. No one is wearing the blue pumps now; the blue shoes are on the floor in the van as they all took them off to be more comfortable.

“They won’t get mad, right?” Emelia chuckles, the only one awake among the ladies. She has taken a picture of the view behind her; spotting Hannah hugging her plush dog behind Maria and it was difficult getting Julia in the shot but her legs are in the picture at least.

“Maria will probably try to get revenge,” Manager Lim answers behind the steering wheel, glancing at Emelia. “Emelia, try to get some sleep, we still have a forty minutes rides.”

She hums to the music on the radio in response, too busy with her phone before she will try to get some sleep and glance at the road ahead.

{Instagram, 5P_EMELIA: They don’t know our song is played on the radio… Tsk tsk tsk… But don’t worry, I won’t wake them up ;)}

When they arrive at MBC, 5 Pieces have put on their blue pumps and jump out of the van one by one. Hannah struggles to take the plush dog (it was a gift from a fan who said it reminds of 5 Pieces’ puppy Michin) along with the blanket and her bag, struggling the most when getting out of the van in the high heels and her hands holding on to her things so she is lucky to have Manager Lim hold on to her arm to help her out like he helped the other members, and for having Maria stand there with an umbrella in the rain. Stumbling out the first two steps before gaining her balance, Hannah lifts up one hand where she holds her bag and blanket to wave over to the fans that are screaming to 5 Pieces from a distance.

Julia laughs at her as she is the last one to get out of the van, and the three last girls with their manager walks together to head inside.

“Maria looks like a stick on high heels,” Julia giggles to Hannah, these two walking behind Maria and Manager Lim because Maria didn’t want to hold an umbrella and Hannah’s hands are full. They both look at Maria walking on her skinny legs in the high heels, her legs skinny and beautiful but she can’t seem to walk straight in her tall height. As if knowing they are giggling at her, Maria turns around, looking slightly surprised to see them look at her.

“What?” Maria asks, pulling out an earphone from her ear and stops her steps so they walk up to her.

“Nothing,” Julia answers and Hannah agrees by shaking her head.

“You’re pretty,” Hannah adds to answer.

Maria frowns at Hannah’s words, not sure as to why Hannah would give her a compliment now – especially after sleeping in the van – but she waves it off by showing them her cell phone screen, walking all three of them together with Manager Lim trying to not let Maria get wet from the rain. “Look what Emelia uploaded.”

The sleeping pictures of them makes Julia take the phone to look up closer, at first upset you can’t see her face but then happy about it as she know she wasn’t sleeping prettily. They keep looking at the picture when getting inside, taking a closer look at it and commenting on each other. Hannah looks like a baby – Maria likes that – while Maria looks super weird with her limbs all over the place, Carolina they joke looks just strange. But based on the comments there are two reactions; “you look cute” or “take care of yourselves”. Still sleepy, the girls head to their room and start to fix their makeup as well as changing clothes to prepare for interviews and to appear here and there for Show Champion’s live airing.

But after arriving in a good time, the ladies have time to lean back to get some more sleep; their manager suggest them to do so as they will still have around nine hours left of work. The ladies crowds to fit in the sofa; Julia ends up sitting on a chair next to the sofa but resting her arms and head on the armrest and the ladies have blankets, Hannah is hugging her plush dog, Maria has her legs laid out on a chair while Emelia is sitting like a small ball, they look really close and sleepy wearing their stage outfits. Within minutes they are all sleeping or being half-asleep, being comfortable sitting like this.

“You have all changed,” stylist Yong Hyun jokes with the ladies, not sure if they hear him but he still says it while snapping pictures of them sleeping. “You didn’t sleep this much backstage in the earlier years. Is it that your bodies are getting older, perhaps?”

“Definitely not that,” Julia mumbles and stretches up against the wall with a yawn.

“Ooh, you’re awake,” Yong Hyun smirks, though he expected at least one of the ladies to hear him and react.

He continues to talk to Julia and a few minutes later, Hannah wakes up too, only to ask Julia if she wants to take the first chance going to the gym (not knowing when, exactly) and after settling that, Hannah closes her eyes anew but she can’t sleep anymore and her body is in pain so she head up to start stretching and do her usual exercises. That too, Yong Hyun comments she has started to do more frequently since the comeback, telling the ladies that they are really working hard this year. Hannah thinks her body is just too tired to work all the time, either sitting down for hours or performing for hours; not managing to sit for a few minutes, perform for a few minutes, sit for a few minutes and repeat; its hours instead of minutes and that is what is making her body stiff and hurt.

5 Pieces is still smiling and joking in front of the cameras filming for Show Champion when the music program begins; when doing a brief interview and a sudden pop-up appearance to present the next performer. They talk to members of Infinite and U-Kiss backstage too while waiting for the ending, and again 5 Pieces’ pre-recorded performance is the last one to air but during that time the artists are getting up on the stage. The ladies stands at the front next to MC Kangin – Super Junior’s Kangin – and they are bouncing to their own song along with their senior and the audience, at the same time as the staff is going through what the MC will say.

Right before they go live, Kangin gives a laugh and pats Emelia on the shoulder.

It is the first time [POWER UP] wins on Show Champion. The ladies look surprised and raise their hands to cheer right away with the audience, and laughs when receiving the trophy and microphone from Kangin, who as the host asks Emelia to say the speech, and when the encore starts he is the first one to hug the ladies and congratulate them.

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Early Thursday morning. A Swedish reporter has woken up very early to be present outside the at the studio building, the female reporter and the small crew with cameras and staff (around seven people in total) are hiding from the pouring rain under umbrellas and looking from cell phones to the cars they hope will turn in from the road nearby.

“It was here we would meet, right?” the reporter asks as the clock has passed the appointed time.

“They said they could be a few minutes early or late,” a staff says and looks at the cell phone to make sure they really are at the right location. A minute later, the location is confirmed to be right as a van stops right in front of them. A Korean man steps out from the passenger seat, unfolding an umbrella above him and kindly greets the Swedish filming crew when closing the passenger door and opening the slide-door behind where one short-haired lady covered in a long cardigan steps out first, having her own umbrella with her and when looking up the camera captures her pretty make-up.

“Good morning,” she greets the filming crew when rushing past them to get inside the building.

The next lady is tall and slim, her lips red and her hair covers half her face when she gets out of the van, saying something to the man before he takes a bag and walks with the lady under the umbrella to follow the first lady inside.

She calls loudly to greet the Swedish team in the rain. “Hi! You can come along inside.”

The third and last lady in the van comes jumping out with her blue hair and soft make-up only when an older man has walked around the van from the driver’s seat, and she is standing with a blanket tightly wrapped around her when staying under the umbrella with the Korean manager as a Korean woman comes out of the van to walk together inside; the Swedish crew follows as they now have filmed all three ladies arriving. Then it is a break from filming, as when they come inside it is greetings between them and explanation of what to film and what to say, and 5 Pieces’ three members have to go around greeting the staff of their actual reason to be here; a commercial filming. 5 Pieces is spending the whole day filming for a Swedish reportage, of how a day with 5 Pieces is like, and they will film the whole day and then once their official schedules have ended of the day they will sit down and do an interview with the reporter.

They continue to film 5 Pieces in the dressing-room, where the two stylists are helping them to get dressed and fix the last touch of hair and make-up. They look professional, managing to take care of their own make-up and giving their comments when looking through the clothes hanging on the racks and also of what accessories they want to wear.

“Is this how your mornings usually are like?” the reporter wonders as she has gotten to sit on a chair and have 5 Pieces’ Julia pretend to fix it.

“Um… We are usually up this early, but when releasing something new it is always all five members doing things together. I think this is the first filming we are doing in a few weeks without all five members present,” Julia is answering in Swedish.

While Hannah, Julia and Maria are filming a commercial now in the morning, Emelia will be focusing on her driving license and Carolina is either sleeping or working on music by herself.

“Usually on these days we are at music programs,” Maria explains too, “But since we recorded our performance last night for today’s show, we don’t have to be there until air time.”

“Ooh…” the reporter, Lisa, nods her head. “Then at what time did you get home last night?”

“Our schedule ended at one in the morning,” Julia answers and glances up at the clock, “Which means we had two hours of sleep before going to the saloon.”

“And that is your everyday here in Seoul?” reporter Lisa looks shocked at them in the mirror, her hands held out randomly.

“Pretty much, yeah,” Julia answer.

Hannah isn’t saying a thing. Being tired and it is morning, she is far from being the talkative person. She might start to talk in a few hours, but until then she will quietly do her thing. Not even when they start filming does she say much; mostly because what they film doesn’t require a lot of words though it requires a lot of reactions; she can give reactions even if her voice isn’t awake and between the takes the girls get more and more talkative, fooling around with each other about what to film. The chips commercial they are doing is a fun one where Julia will sit down in the sofa and start looking through their music video, humming along to it but when opening the bags of chips, Hannah and Maria will peek inside the room with funny expressions and after some commercial-talk the ladies will sit down together in the sofa and watch their own music video while eating chips. The ladies are smiling watching through the result with the PD, and the Swedish reporter standing on the side can comment to her own camera that 5 Pieces is relaxed and comfortable working, even if they haven’t slept properly for a few weeks and had only gotten two hours of sleep. Maria comments to the camera one time that the chips are really delicious, even explaining the name of the chips in Swedish as its name is Delicious Chips, so she translates it and explains that it lives up to its name.

As soon as the commercial filming is done, the ladies are seen thanking the Korean staff for their hard work and thanking for today, and they are already leaving, telling the Swedish crew to come along.

They take out the middle seat in the van to fit another person; Hannah is sitting in the back of the van with two stylists, Maria, Julia and the reporter are sitting in the middle of the van and a camera-man is sitting on the passenger-seat to film them while the others of the crew are taking another car. The reporter keeps asking question, asking if they have their own positions in the van, asking whose fashion magazines it is she finds – noticing that 5 Pieces is on the cover and laughing at it though she shows off the pictures, amazed by how good they look – and asking what they do in the van and so on.

“Our van is always filled with things,” Maria says and starts doing something by her feet, taking up a plastic bag. “Here I have some snacks that I eat when I’m not sleeping… And I keep a small bag here too where I keep an extra pair of earphones, socks, accessories… …”

“It was Maria’s birthday recently, so she has a little more things than usually in the van, because we went to Incheon the other day and she was picking out things to keep in the van,” Julia is saying while Maria shows off a little photo-book of herself, which she explains has been personally made by a fan for her birthday.

“You did anything special on your birthdays? Do you spend your birthdays differently here in Korea?” the reporter wonders now when it has been mentioned.

“Um, we pretty much celebrate it the same way, I don’t think it is much of a difference other than there is a specific meal you eat on your birthdays – a traditional way for the Koreans,” Maria answers and Julia adds;

“For us, since we most of the time work on our birthdays, we tend to do events with the fans or find some way to congratulate her during the day.”

“How was Maria’s birthday spent?” reporter Lisa asks. She is leaning forward in her seat to look at them, and she look so interested in not just the answers but to just be able to spend the day with 5 Pieces.

“My birthday…” Maria starts off and she laughs when Hannah in the back says she cried. “No, no, no, you can’t start off with that. Here’s the thing. For my birthday, we spent the whole day having autograph sessions in other cities that we haven’t visited in a while, and the fans were singing for me and they brought out cake and it was really lovely. Then when doing a performance that night, our whole crew started to sing for me and they brought out cake and surprised me so much because I thought my day was really nice so I thought it was done. They surprised me, I wasn’t prepared for it.”

“So you cried a little?” the reporter laughs when showing with her fingers little-little, and the ladies laughs saying she did cry. “But it’s okay to cry! Isn’t it?”

“Yes, of course! We cry all the time,” Maria answers and waves her hand, followed by more laughter.

Continuing, the reporter asks if the girl hiding in the back has any hidden items she keeps in the van, as she has been talking so much to Julia and Maria, the youngest has just showed her head between their heads from behind once in a while. When this airs of them in the van, fans taking notice of Hannah in the back will see her whisper to their stylists and trying out earrings with her cell phone as the mirror.

Hannah blinks innocently for being mentioned and then starts looking around before Maria tells her to show her puppy.

“At an autograph session a few days ago, Hannah got this cute dog,” Maria says and lets Hannah show the plush dog over the seat, “She uses it as a pillow in the van now.”

“You seem to get a lot of things from your fans!” the reporter exclaims and Hannah takes back her dog.

“I think there is not a single thing in the world our fans can’t give us,” Julia answers, “We can receive all kind of gifts.”

“What kind of gifts do you mostly receive?”

“Mostly it is letters, for all of us,” Maria lightly says and then points back at Hannah again, “Hannah has a record of receiving a lot of these soft things like the dog you just saw. Ever since our debut she has been receiving those kinds of things-”

“Why is that?” the reporter wonders, fascinated that a 21 years old girl receives such childish pillows.

Maria turns for Hannah to answer and the youngest rests her head on the backrest. “When we first started promoting here in Korea, a fan gave me a stuffed animal, and since I walked around with that one, I received more and more. A few times I have asked my fans if it is okay to give them away for charity because I kept receiving so many and I promised it would make a child very happy, so with the acceptance from our fans… that’s what I did…”

“But why did you walk around with the stuffed animal to begin with?” the reporter doesn’t understand and Hannah can’t help but to smile of the memories.

“It was one of the first gifts I got from a fan,” she shyly says and then laughs when Maria says in Korean that she is cute. “I wanted to show that I really liked the gift and appreciated it, so I kept carrying it around.”

“Ooooh,” the reporter finds it cute.

Maria keeps smiling. No matter which country they are in, if Hannah is being interviewed she will eventually be seen as either cute or shy – probably both – and Maria finds it all adorable. The ladies said they are going to the music program where the other two members will be, but they end up at a restaurant; only Julia, Manager Lim and a small camera filming for the TV is there, the reporter amazed when the food is already waiting in white plastic bags for them to have them pay and leave. Julia says that they had ordered before getting in the van, which is how the restaurant were ready for them; and she says they are regulars at this restaurant, which is why they received extra on certain things and the workers talked friendly with extra care.

“The thing about eating in our group,” Julia is saying to the reporter while taking the bags, “is that once we have found a good restaurant, we become regulars… We come here almost every day during our promotions because we all like the food on the menu and it is close to the music station.”

“Are you all used to the Asian food?” the reporter asks with curiosity.

“Mm, pretty much,” Julia nods, “Carolina really love spicy food, so she had it very easy when we first came to Korea. And for the rest of us, we have gotten used to it. It’s really delicious, though spicier than any food in Sweden.”

They have bought lunch for the Swedish crew as well, to let them have a taste of what 5 Pieces likes to eat. Getting back in the cars, they travel the last minutes before arriving at Mnet to head backstage and join Emelia, Carolina and the rest of their crew. The reunion is as loud as it always is; the ladies are catching up on each other’s morning as soon as they enter the same room, Emelia explaining how her driving went and Carolina wants to show off some melodies she has been working on and the other three talk about the food they have brought (the ladies are talking while putting the food on the table, seeing what is there) and this morning’s shooting; only after catching up with each other does they introduce the Swedish reporter and the small crew.

Everyone sit down to eat, to talk a bit and go through the schedule; the ladies switch between Korean and Swedish the whole time to talk to the reporter. As expected, the Swedish crew isn’t the biggest fans of the Korean food, admitting it is spicy (though this meal is the less spicy kind) and it is good but just not suited for the Swedish flavourless tongues. There is a lot of things going on according to the reporter while the ladies are eating; they go through their schedule, a staff from Mnet comes inside to confirm a few things, they look through pictures and talk about styles with their stylists for the weekends performances on how they will have their hair and ideas about make-up, yet they manages to eat and entertain the reporter by being chatty.

Before even being done eating, Maria has to sit down by the make-up table; sitting with her feet up on the seat and the plastic plate of food held in one hand as she eats with the other, letting their stylist begin to fix her hair the first step. Emelia and Carolina have already their make-up prepared, and the reporter can’t help but to look in amazement seeing how the ladies after eating throw the dirty things in the bags to clear out the tables, where the ladies and the stylists begins getting to work with make-up and hair.

“You always have to re-do make-up for each event?” the reporter ends up asking seeing as Hannah, Julia and Maria were earlier in a lighter make-up for the commercial filming but are now doing make-up again.

“Not always, it all depends on the event,” Julia answers, being the talkative among them.

“Is the make-up different from the earlier filming to this?” the reporter wonders, sitting alone by the table with Julia and Carolina now as Hannah has sat down to get her make-up fixed and Emelia is standing by the mirror looking at how she looks.

“Ah, the make-up is a lot heavier for the performance than for the commercial,” Julia answers. “And with the concept for [POWER UP] we have to put a lot of details into how we look.”

“And this is your every day?”

The ladies nod in response. Hannah glances through the mirror to see Lisa’s face-expression, and though the ladies look to take it positively the reporter does not look like she would want to spend her days like this. Emelia catches up on the reporter’s tone first, turning around to say; “Every day is different even if it might sound like we repeat it, we meet incredible people and get to expand our own personalities and knowledge, it is really a great journey, this thing we are doing.”

Hannah is still when getting her make-up done, but she can’t help but to smile at the pride in Emelia’s voice when bragging of 5 Pieces’ weekly attendances at these South Korean’s music programs.

Definitely, the Swedish crew is impressed with the passion the ladies show. 5 Pieces might be laid back and treating this as the most natural hours in their lives, just doing things their way, but the second they talk about their schedule and events and work; this passion pours out of them like a wild waterfall. Lisa had noticed it when three of them were filming the commercial, how easy it seemed for them to just do as told and shine in front of the cameras, and now too how all five members of this girl-group really live for the life they have here in Korea. Working so hard, they deserve the world’s eyes on them, Lisa thinks.

5 Pieces get ready with hair, make-up and outfits, around two hours after arrival 5 Pieces are dressed up in a tight corset top with a matching skirt (put together like a dress) with silver fringe at the same length of the skirt to just be for effect when moving. The dress is in magenta colour with silver details all over. The platform peep-toe stilettos in magenta makes their legs look long and pretty, with hair and make-up all glamorous they look like real ladies; like the 5 Pieces people are used to see on the stage.

Backstage they are greeted by juniors, but at the same time the ladies walk around to greet their own seniors – Taeyang has his comeback stage today with [Eyes, Nose, Lips] and the ladies show their respect by handing over their album and of course they first have to go through the basics of explanations to let the cameras film him. 5 Pieces’ doesn’t have a close relationship to any member of Big Bang, but since they are all over six-years seniors in the industry they have their connection backstage compared to with the juniors who only look at them from a distance. Taeyang is friendly; he is a really cool guy and more than gladly introduces himself in English.

“Wassup Sweden, I am Taeyang,” he says in a pretty good English, moving his hand like the hip hop artist he is, and Emelia is standing next to him, nodding to the melody in his tone. “I have heard nice things from 5 Pieces about K-Pop fans in Sweden, thank you for loving K-Pop.”

“Woooh!” Maria is fast to clap her hands on the side, and laughs when realising she is the only one giving such a big reaction; Hannah is the only one who lightly clap her hands as well.

Lisa asks Taeyang what his impression is of working alongside 5 Pieces in Korea, and with the question being asked in English he only smirks at the ladies. Maria can’t look away from him, obviously charmed by him; who wouldn’t?

“Well, their music is entertaining. I listen to their music all the time and they’re inspirational for me, just watch their performance; everyone loves them,” Taeyang says and laughs when looking at Emelia nodding next to him. He glances at her again, in Korean asking; “Did I miss to say something?”

“No, no, you say good things,” Maria tells him with the thumbs up.

Taeyang laughs and turns to the camera again; “I am happy to work alongside 5 Pieces, they are not only beautiful but they are true artists as well.”

He shakes the ladies hands with a laugh when eventually they are going to move on, the ladies thanks him and he jokingly says they can pay back by inviting him to dinner sometime.

For some reason, Hannah and Julia can’t stop thinking of eating dinner with Taeyang sometime. Just that he said it makes the two of them giggle together; it is probably just a polite phrase, but still, to hear THE Big Bang’s Taeyang say it makes their ears wiggle as if they have just tasted sweet candy. Julia laughs when Hannah giggles with her, asking how Jonghyun would like it if he saw Hannah’s face right now.

“He wouldn’t mind at all,” Hannah whispers in a matter of fact tone, and she laughs with Julia while she wonders if Jonghyun really would mind that Hannah likes the thought of Taeyang eating dinner with 5 Pieces. She sees him as a senior, a cool senior in the industry because he is Big Bang, but she wonders if Jonghyun would see it that way.

The thoughts are quickly changed as 5 Pieces head to begin their schedule of work; doing interviews. The ladies are at home with this, but the reporter who is watching from the side is impressed seeing 5 Pieces not just doing interviews flawlessly, answering questions, but the fact that they do interviews in different languages. She gapes first when Emelia and Julia almost fluently talks in Chinese during an interview, coolly promoting their album for the Chinese who seem to have big interest in the group, and then there is a brief interview where Hannah takes over in Japanese. Hannah and Carolina who haven’t said much at all for the Swedish reporter both show off a talkative side in these interviews where Hannah says most things in Japanese and Carolina fluently talks nonstop in Korean.

They are still Swedes, Lisa thinks as she thinks more and more about 5 Pieces during the girl-group’s many interviews; Quiet with closed personalities unless they are working. Backstage they were quiet even if we were there, because they were preparing to smile and talk for this.

It makes her happy to realise that 5 Pieces have not changed, that their roots are still in Sweden. Her curiosity rises knowing that 5 Pieces are this big; their name and popularity around the world really has no fairness to what these girls are capable of; these five girls are 21-22 years old, they have learned languages and cultures that others only see from a distance without even trying to understand, they travel the world, meet people who love them and perform every week yet they are humble and down-to-earth; Lisa has talked to these young women like classmates. 5 Pieces is fascinating the more she finds out about them, and she knows that this is the charm of 5 Pieces. They are all of these things, and she noticed how their colleagues are taken back by their charm and power as well yet the rest of the world doesn’t know even a percent of what 5 Pieces is. It’s almost that Lisa wants to stay and join all these fans to stand in front of the stage and cheer on her idols called 5 Pieces. She understands the fans’ addiction to these girls.

During M Countdown, Lisa and the Swedish crew gets to see what 5 Pieces really works with. All the interviews and commercial filming, all those things are worth to do because when 5 Pieces walk up on the stage – their performance may have been pre-recorded, but they still walk up on the stage – the audience are all cheering and jumping in excitement. It’s amazing to see how the audience reacts to 5 Pieces. During the ending of the show, when all artists are standing on the stage, you can see 5 Pieces shining when standing there. Though they don’t win, they cheer and congratulate Taeyang for winning first place this week, bowing and being polite to their senior.

Lisa is excited after the show when she gets to sit down for their own interview with 5 Pieces, her legs keep shaking and she tells her crew how exciting her whole body is to just be able to sit down for this exclusive interview after spending the day seeing these ladies work.

5 Pieces sit down in their usual order, wearing their magenta outfit and looking to be out of this world when admitting they are nervous to do a Swedish interview after showing their silly selves during the day.

The interview starts off, and Lisa is smiling when asking the first question; “How old were you for your first song?”

“Oh,” Maria says and she looks interested when thinking back six years. “We were fifteen when we went to Korea but for our first single we were sixteen. We were still kids.”

“How was it to start your career in Korea?”

Emelia answers; “Debuting in Korea as an idol group meant a lot of things that did not have anything to do with music. The image was important; each member got an instructed personality that we had to show whenever there were cameras around. For us, 5 Pieces, we had gotten spotted during an audition program where our image shaped based on our own personalities, and then before releasing our single we had gotten a full transformation to fit this image and the concept of our group. It was all to the extreme – but not in a bad way. The more we promoted and showed ourselves to our fans, the more they got to see of our different sides and that it is more behind our image than just a rebelling girl-group.”

“Is your image still instructed the same way; you say you have gone through a transformation for this album…” Lisa’s voice lowers as she wants them to answer.

“Oh, no, it is not the same,” Maria shakes her head, “For each album or single that is released we take on a different concept, which is just for the looks. Our image in 5 Pieces is pretty much the same but it has just gotten bigger and wider-”

“Our image has grown a lot,” Emelia says and Maria nods in agreement.

“The talk about K-Pop is growing, and 5 Pieces is a big reason to that. The things I have seen just today are especially not what I expected to see,” Lisa brings up and without even coming with a question she is being told by Maria;

“When talking about K-Pop, most people think of [Gangnam Style], but that song is like one percent of a nation. There is so much more than one song to fill out the wave…”

“It’s not a bad thing though,” Carolina mentions.

“No, I’m not saying that,” Maria frowns at her. “It’s a great song, but to have non-Asian people say they love K-Pop and the only song they have listened to is [Gangnam Style] makes it really show how little people know. K-Pop fans around the world grow into the music and find out there are so many different groups and styles that this wave has to offer. It is really fascinating actually, and to be part of it makes it special for us because the five of us know what it’s like to be in a far-away country and listen to music in a language we can’t understand.”

“When interviewing fans in Sweden, they said it was easy to connect to 5 Pieces as more than just singers because you have experienced the life as a so-called international-fan. Have you heard of this connection before?”

“Oh yes,” Maria answers and Julia adds a weird ‘yeah’. “I think the five of us have mentioned it among ourselves many times as well because when we see comments online from international fans we get this excitement that someone is sitting by the computer somewhere far away and singing along to our music without really being able to sing it correctly. And we love when going abroad and hear our fans say they like us because we are the same as our fans. It’s nice to be taken noticed of as a person and not as a star you can’t reach.”

Lisa looks impressed at the leader’s words and Hannah has a smile growing as well seeing that. Lisa knows that even if 5 Pieces are down-to-earth, their mere presence even when sitting like this makes them seem to be a star you can’t reach even if you feel a connection with them; they have a mixed presence where you connect with them while admiring them greatly.

“This album had worldwide attention long before release, and it is only a Korean release?” Lisa asks about the album next.

“When we release something new, we know that there are fans of ours all around the world that listen to it no matter what language it is. But for this album in particular, we have said that we want to focus the promotions for just Korea because it is kind of like an album showing the mixed colours of who we have become during our time in Korea, so we wanted to kind of like show that to our Korean fans.”

“In the album there are two main songs,” Lisa mentions, “Why did you decide to release two main songs?”

“The song we are promoting now is [POWER UP], which is basically the main track as it directs to … have fun with the music and the sound and just follow the rhythm,” Julia answers, “It is a very up-beat and fun back-in-time mixed with the new, so a lot of people can enjoy it. the song [Girls Power] was pretty much an introduction of the album and our transformation into this new concept and it has a very big meaning behind it.”

“And what does exactly the title – Girls Power – mean to you?”

“Girls Power is …” Maria slowly says, smiling when feeling the ladies glance at her. “Girls Power is … the power of the woman to speak her mind and been taken seriously.”

“The song has been given a lot of mixed reactions, saying you are displaying a y image of being … some kind of strippers, while singing about women’s bodies? How do you react on that?”

“It’s easy to misunderstand if you have that kind of a mind, but the song isn’t ual at all in that way,” Emelia says.

“How do you mean?”

Maria answers in a very mature way; “[Girls Power] is a song where we want to show that women are humans, that we can be y and show our skin without being objects. We want to put the focus on women and try to give confidence in how we look at ourselves, that we are the ones in control of our minds and bodies”

“Another reaction is that you are pushing down men in this song…” Lisa carefully reads out, knowing the questions have been granted but still feeling bad to ask it now when she has fallen for these five beauties.

“Not true.” Emelia shakes her head, looking stubborn and once again it is Maria who takes the word;

“It is true that men are taught of a young age that they are superior over women, and we want to give women the same chance to see themselves as someone who can reach the top by the same standards as the other gender. It is a question of equality. If you boost a man’s ego he will see himself as the king of the world; we want to boost the women’s ego for her to see herself as the queen of her world.”

“That sounds so terrific,” Lisa breathes as if Maria had been holding a world-leading speech about feminism. But Maria speaks for the whole group, all of them thinking the same as Maria said.

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Headline 11th: SM Entertainment Reveals Pictures From Maria’s Birthday Including Surprise Party

Headline 11th: It Is 5 Pieces’ Turn To Scold Kyung Ho In Fourth CF Version Of Mobile Game APP

Headline 11th: 5 Pieces’ Performs [POWER UP] + First Win On Show Champion

Headline 12th: 5 Pieces Hits The World’s Spotlights In [POWER UP], Appears On International News As A World Sensation

Headline 12th: Pictures Of 5 Pieces Sleeping In Stage Clothes & In Van Gets Attention Online - they are overworked!

Headline 12th:  Pieces Performs [POWER UP] On M Countdown

Headline 13th: 5 Pieces Goes From K-Pop Idols To World Icons

Headline 13th: 5 Pieces’ Comeback Stage + First [POWER UP] Win On Music Bank

Headline 13th: ‘Kiss The Radio’ Interviews 5 Pieces About International Popularity & Ideal Men

Headline 13th: Maria Says She Is Looking For Someone With Her Sense Of Humour

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X. devonalias