“Is everyone ready?!” I call out with a laugh, hugging the jacket around me. “Does everyone have champagne?” Shiwon asks and holds up the large champagne bottle to make sure every single person standing outside on the balcony is holding a glass of champagne in their hand. I am wearing a golden cone hat saying happy New Year, most of us are wearing hats and some are even wearing funny colourful glasses, we are standing ready on the balcony at the ski resort at night, with champagne in hand and some are holding poppers, party horns, confetti and more. Kyung Ho is standing next to me, holding as many things as possible and having more confetti and poppers in his pockets. The balcony is crowded with the camera crew along with eight dancers, two members of our band, my new stylist Chae Hwan, Manager Lee and Kyung Ho’s manager. Kyung Ho has a glass of champagne too; non-alcohol. He looks excited to spend New Year’s with us. The minutes are being counted, the last minutes of 2014. “EVERYONE!” Shiwon says and puts his arm around Ji Young, being the oldest two from my crew. “It has been a dramatic 2014. I think we should make it even more dramatic in 2015!” “Yaay!” I cheer with the others. “And since 5 Pieces is known for undying speeches; Hannah,” Shiwon says and holds out his hand for me to say something. I laugh, not having a choice as I’m the only member of 5 Pieces here. “I’ll keep it short then,” I say and clear my throat. Kyung Ho looks up at me with expectation, Min Na is already laughing. “Thank you for all for coming here on New Year’s Eve, all of you have worked hard and it has been a joy meeting you all.” “‘Keep it short’, she said,” Manager Lee jokes to Shiwon who nods. I grimace at them but continue to talk since the mood is great; “Let’s all grow closer in 2015, stay healthy, wish for happiness and for you two-” Shiwon and Manager Lee, “-don’t make Myung too jealous tonight.” The laughter fills the air at my joke and I hear the female dancer Na Yeon joke about our “lovers” Shiwon and Myung. Shiwon says it’s no jealousy as he pulls Myung in to be standing with one arm around Manager Lee and the other around Myung. I love these people, seriously, they are great to be around and the mood is always good. Suddenly people start counting. 10… 9… “Get ready!” someone shouts. Kyung Ho quickly gives me a popper, we start counting down loudly. “8! 7! 6! 5!” “I love you, guys!” Shiwon calls out and Kyung Ho laughs. “3! 2! 1! HAPPY NEW YEAR!” The noise of poppers, confetti and cheers is so loud, not even the fireworks surrounding the ski resort in the black sky distracts us as we cheer with our glasses and hug each other. Confetti is thrown over us though, Min Na wraps confetti around my head and neck and Myung do the same to Kyung Ho. I don’t forget to hug my brother, kissing his cheek when wishing him a happy new year, I cheer with the filming crew too. The cheering continues for minutes, the firework in the sky grab out attention and it continues for twenty minutes. The night air is so cold but it is really fun and I like how our dancers are so warm towards everyone. Shiwon is impossible, walking around hugging everyone and he keeps lifting Kyung Ho up and giving him more poppers. “It’s a good thing Kyung Ho has a friend here,” I say while patting Shiwon’s back, joking that he is just as much a child as Kyung Ho. There is snow at the ski resort, so an hour in on the New Year people is heading outside to start a snowball war. Kyung Ho is quickly outside too and I come along with Min Na and Chae Hwan to attack, throwing people down in the snow and running around screaming when being chased. I hug on to Kyung Ho from behind, threatening to throw him into the snow when male dancer Haneul comes up with soft snow in his hand, ready to rub it in my face so I hide behind Kyung Ho until we both fall. Our camera crew is busy tonight, trying to follow Kyung Ho and me as we run around with our friends, celebrating and welcoming 2015. When Kyung Ho has gone to bed, things are calming down as most of the people go to bed. I sit up for a bit more to play a game inside with the others. The house we have rented fits everyone, we have a common living-room and kitchen and a two-floor house where everyone can sleep – mattresses has been laid out in rooms for everyone to sleep in the same house. I share room with Chae Hwan, my new stylist who has kept following me around tonight because she isn’t familiar with the people around us. When playing games I know she is comfortable, she is laughing and playing around with the people around us. She is just nineteen, but Hyeyoung (female dancer) is also nineteen so she has someone her age here. The reason I had asked her to come along was to get friendlier with each other. I think it works. We stay up until after three, at least I go to bed then. Chae Hwan goes to bed too, so while washing up and lying down we talk a bit. “Are you setting the alarm?” Chae Hwan asks when watching me apply lotion. She has the upper bed, resting her head on the side to look down at me. “Um… yes. Just in case,” I answer, “I don’t want to wake up too late. Are you sensitive towards sounds?” “No,” she shakes her head, “I sleep very well. What about you, Unnie?” Eh, it’s so weird to be called that. It’s our first time sharing room, obviously since she just started working, but its fun actually, getting to know her like this – she is a bit awkward since there is a camera at the corner of our room, filming for Good Sister. “I… am sensitive at times, depending on how tired I am,” I answer her question. “I’ll be quiet if I wake up before you.” We keep chatting in low voices even after lying down in bed, she asks if I have texted the ladies, which I haven’t so I explain that we know it will be difficult to connect at midnight so we said our New Year greetings after the performance. I upload a picture on SNS that I took with Kyung Ho, of us in our party hats and happy smiles. {Instagram, 5P_HANNAH: Happy New Year ladies, sending all my love to 5 Pieces and wishing you a great start of 2015!} {Instagram, 5P_MARIA: Kisses and hugs sent from Family Awesome to 5 Pieces, wearing the coolest glasses of this generation yo #bro #family #2015 #happynewyear} {Instagram, 5P_CAROLINA: It’s 2015! Sleep tight pieces of one, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!} {Instagram, 5P_EMELIA: 2 Pieces dressed in pyjamas, we got the best New Year everyone! 5 Pieces, see you healthy and well in 2015 too (Julia is trying to make Ace come in the picture, fail)} I wake up in the morning after around four or five hours of sleep, turning off the alarm that is not due until one and a half hour. At first I forget all about he cameras; I get ready in the bathroom, quietly do some exercises on the floor in our bedroom (Chae Hwan is sleeping very well) and I even go around in the living-room and kitchen before I spot the cameras put up around the place. I stop when seeing the camera in the kitchen; blinking a bit as I’m not fully awake and then I bend forward to bow at the camera politely. “Happy New Year,” I tell it before I walk over to the living-room and look out the window. It looks like it will be a nice day. Automatically I start cleaning up a bit as we made quite a mess last night. I keep my eyes on the time and wave tiredly when Haneul comes inside the living-room, hugging a pillow and frowning as he seems to be either half-asleep or having a hangover. “You’re incredible,” he mumbles and comes over to lie down in the sofa. “Did you sleep?” “Mm,” I nod, grabbing the cups on the living-room table. “Did you sleep well, Oppa?” Haneul is two years older than me, yet suddenly he looks much older with his hair messy and grimacing against his pillow. “Yeah… it will be a mess in the slope today.” Slope. I actually studied the Korean words for the terms used at a ski resort, how to say slope, snowboard, boots and so on. I know what he means with that. “Oppa,” I remember, smiling when he forces his eyes open to look at me, “Happy New Year.” “Oh…” he mumbles and forces himself to stand up, bowing to me. “Happy New Year.” I laugh when leaving the trash; I greet the camera crew when they wake up and then I can stop cleaning to go see if Kyung Ho is still asleep. He is sleeping in his pyjamas, arms held above his head and the quilt is below his waist, showing a bit of his stomach. He is such a kid. Before sitting down on his bed I take out the clothes he will wear. “Kyung Ho,” I warmly say, lightly pulling down his shirt and pulling up the quilt to cover him a bit. “Good morning and Happy New Year.” He groans when rolling around, glancing at me behind his arm. “Nuna…” Kyung Ho whines and glances around. “What’re you doing?” “Let’s go skiing,” I tell him. He puts down his arm to look at me, interested in what I said. “Really? Right now?” I nod. “Get dressed and we will get breakfast before going,” I answer and pat his leg before getting up. “Your clothes are on the chair.” Most of the people are still sleeping while I get dressed, and I see Myung has come to lie in the sofa when I come back to the living-room. He holds up his hand for me and I take it, asking if he slept well and saying ‘Happy New Year’. “You’re going out already?” he looks shocked when seeing me dressed. “Yeah. It’s already late.” He scoffs at my answer. “It’s… nine in the morning.” “The slope opens at nine,” I answer, “It will be crowded soon.” “Not today,” he says, “Everyone sleeps late today.” “Besides from Hannah,” Sukjin chuckle but points over at the stairs when Kyung Ho come downstairs, dragging the outdoor clothes after him. “Poor boy, did you force him out of bed?” I laugh at the joke and get happy when Kyung Ho excitedly says I will teach him how to ski today. The camera crew comes along as Kyung Ho and I head to the ski resort’s restaurant for a buffet breakfast. I don’t eat much but I wait for the crew to eat too, and for Kyung Ho to finish. During breakfast we keep talking about our surrounding and what to do today. I had actually asked Kyung Ho if he wants to get a skiing teacher for him as he hasn’t gone skiing before, but he didn’t want one but instead said I can teach him. I have never taught someone how to ski before, and though I went skiing every year as a child up until I went to Korea I am not that good at it. It was fun when I grew up. I hope I can make it fun for Kyung Ho because he is excited to learn. After breakfast we go to the shop to get the equipment; helmets, goggles, ski boots, fix the bindings, try poles and skis. The clothes we are wearing (that Kyung Ho was dragging after him down the stairs earlier) were sponsored by a sports brand when we said we would go skiing for the show. The moment Kyung Ho starts walking in the ski boots I sit down laughing at him. “Aren’t they too big?” he asks, looking tired already. “They are big like that,” I answer as I know what he means. “Are you ready to go?” I help him with the helmet before we go outside, and I keep smiling as he is struggling to carry his skis and poles on his own, walking funnily in the boots. I am carrying my own gear, not any poles though – he wanted ones while I didn’t want any. We start off heading up the children slope, I make sure to explain for him to know what to do before, during and after coming up the slope. He does well all the way up the slope but as soon as we are getting off he falls down in the snow. I can’t help but to laugh when he struggles to move, moving the skis standing in the snow and groaning and making a mess and constantly repeating “nuna, nuna, nuna, help nuna, nuna” for me to help him up. I give him directions of how to get up on his own but I end up grabbing the back of his jacket to pull him up – since I am also wearing skis it’s not easy to move up behind him and pull him up but we do it. I go behind him, glide up in front of him, we come a few meters out on the slope but not really down before Kyung Ho falls down on his side, already tired. “Look how I do, okay?” I try as he doesn’t know how to move his super long feet – the skis. I slide back and forth down a few meters, making sure to do it slowly for him to see how I’m doing, though I don’t know if I do okay, but Kyung Ho can’t get back up on his feet so I start stomping my way up on the skis, seeing the camera crew holding their laughter at me. It is fun though. I know from past experience that once he starts coming down the slope it will be fun for him but for a long time he is struggling to not make his skis cross or widen. He falls a few times, he gets angry and all I do is tell him to get back up, that everyone goes through the same thing and that I have done it too. “I’ll just fall,” he whines though, not wanting to get up again, lying on his back and looking sour. “You’re afraid that you will fall?” I ask in a light tone. “Don’t laugh at me!” he cries out, his voice muffled in his clothes. “I’m not laughing,” I assure him, my little brother pouting. “It’s okay to fall, Kyung Ho, everyone falls or it’s not fun to learn.” “You don’t fall.” “I haven’t today, yes,” I nod. “But in your age I fell all the time. It doesn’t hurt to fall, does it?” He keeps pouting, not giving up though he knows I’m right. I sigh and moves closer to hold my hand out at him. “I’ll give you three choices,” I tell him. “You either take your skis off and walk down, let’s end the fun of the day, or you can get up and I’ll help you in every possible way I can, or you can try on your own again.” “What could you do?” he mutters. I hold out my hand. “Let’s find out,” I say, pulling him up when he eventually takes my hand. I move to get Kyung Ho to stand between my skis, so we can go down together with me giving him close-up directives of how to move his skis. It is a bit difficult but when I move my left one, he follows, we take it one step at a time, turning back and forth and getting further down until he thinks he has got it and he glides out on his own. I watch from behind how he stops at the side, slowly moving his skis step by step to turn around and come down a bit more, repeating it the other way. He is getting a grasp of it. And that is just the start of our day. The whole day we are skiing, we take a short break up the mountain to eat breakfast, some of the dancers and friends are spotted after that and we go for some rounds together. Kyung Ho is a fast learner. He isn’t fast in the slope but he is enjoying it when he doesn’t fall every other meter. We even go where I hold on to the end of his poles to pull him along; I did it first when going from the end of the slope to the lift, where he can’t get forward on his own. Sweaty and tired we return to the house in the afternoon, to gain strength to continue tomorrow. Tomorrow at this hour we will be heading back to Seoul, which is about an hour away so it’s not that far. Kyung Ho and I haven’t even taken off all our outdoor clothes when lying down in the sofa, exhausted. I ask him if he has had fun, but I can’t even smile because once the boots are off and we come inside all the energy has left me. On top of it; I dragged Kyung Ho on the skis from the slope to the house. “Do you look forward to go tomorrow too?” I ask Kyung Ho while poking his leg. He holds up his arm before hitting it down over mine for me to stop. “Um,” he tiredly answers with a nod, then rolls to his side to throw up his leg on me. “I’m hungry.” “Make something to eat then,” I answer and he starts kicking me with his leg, making me laugh. “I can’t make food.” “You should learn.” “Please make me food, Nuna,” Kyung Ho groans when rolling around to his stomach, his almost by my face so I lean away, grabbing his legs on top of me. “We should call the others to see if they can buy something on the way back,” I comment, as a lot of the others are still in the slope. I yawn while taking out my cell phone from the inside pocket of my jacket. Just as I’m about to give Min Na a call, my phone starts ringing. I frown, watching the name of my book publisher on the display. Why would she call me now? “Hello?” I answer with a frown, getting up while undressing. Kyung Ho looks confused at my reaction. “Ah, Happy New Year on you too! I hope your holiday is being spent well.” Kyung Ho starts pouting, I see it when rounding the sofa to go leave my things in the hall. He mutters for himself that it is work based on my tone, and I lean over to grab his hat. “I’m at the ski resort with Kyung Ho,” I explain to my published when she asks how I’m spending the day. “Um… Is it better if I call you later? I can go through the mail later and call you tomorrow, okay? … Yes, we’ll say that. Tomorrow evening.” I finish my call and come back to the