Going from the late autumn weather in Canada to the hot sunshine in Manila, the ladies are not surprised with the different weather when landing at the airport outside South Korea’s big city and are met by rain and a chill air. Hannah is relaxed in a white short-sleeve top with a black figure at the front and a black loose skirt ending right above her knees, hiding the top under her leather jacket and having her legs bare she wears a pair of simple sneakers. It’s like coming home once again, making it hard for Hannah to not smile. She doesn’t know what makes her the happiest; that she can sleep in her own bed for some nights, that she can cuddle with five pets that she loves, that everyone around her are speaking Korean meaning the staff at the airport speaks Korean when she passes by them or that she will meet Jonghyun today or tomorrow. Probably all of them, it’s hard to choose though the Korean speaking staff isn’t among the top.

“You think she’s doing alright?” Carolina asks, walking in front of Hannah and talking to Julia. “I asked if she wanted me to stay but she didn’t want me to…”

Julia smiles at her. “It was our manager saying you couldn’t stay. Oh, and yes, she’s probably doing alright,” Julia answers. “Why wouldn’t she?”

“She doesn’t have us next to her,” Carolina says with a worried voice.

Hannah is smiling behind them, amused by Carolina’s worries that Emelia is alone in Singapore filming a music video for the Chinese version of her up-coming song. Her first Chinese song. While Hannah has been planning a future wedding during these weeks away, Emelia has been planning her next solo release. One song in three languages, featuring three artists and for that she needs three music videos. Today she went to Singapore to work with a Chinese artist named JJ Lin, a singer Emelia had reached out to somehow during the summer, and when coming back to Seoul tomorrow she will work with the Korean artist. Hannah is excited, not because her friend is releasing a single but because her friend did everything from song-writing, she made the music, she is the producer for the three versions of the song and on top of that, she waved in the artists all by herself through her own contacts. Emelia is quite the talented one, and committed. She has worked more on music during this tour for four weeks than what Hannah thought someone could focus on anything else than this thrilling journey they have started with the WORLD INVASION tour.

Their fans knew they were coming back because there is a committee welcoming by the arrivals. At first the ladies are relaxed as they can’t hear anything, thinking people are at work or in school this Monday noon, but when going through the doors, the cheering begins. Shocked voices that have waited for them makes the ladies smile. Hannah peeks out behind Manager Lim, their manager is tired and he definitely needs to sleep for at least a week as it seems the tour has made him lose the energy while the ladies are still excited from the past weeks. He is tired for them too.

Hannah is smiling at the fans waving and welcoming them back and Hannah, leaning back to peek out behind Manager Lim, waves back to them as if she is excited to be back. Carolina is overjoyed compared to Hannah, she even bounces when stopping her steps to wave both hands in the air as if she tries to get attention from someone far away. Manager Lim gets behind her, motioning his hand for her to keep walking and Hannah walks past them to head out after the others.

“I want jajangmyun,” Maria comments when stepping outside to see the rain. She looks over her shoulder to see Hannah step up next to her. “A hot and long shower, my bed, jajangmyun and a call to Hyunsuk just to hear his voice. Maybe he can come over with jajangmyun for me.”

“If you go to the movies with me, we can eat jajangmyun on the way,” Hannah suggests, waiting for the others to come so they can head to the van standing somewhere.

Maria starts to giggle, smiling at Hannah. “That’s nice of you baby, but you know I don’t like The Hunger Games. I’d prefer someone coming home with the food to my bed. Hyunsuk better be free because I am craving jajangmyun.”

“And if he’s not?” Hannah smiles.

“I’ll ask someone else.”

Maria looks behind them before they start walking as she saw Manager Lim finally bringing Carolina out.

The drive to their house is quiet. Barely a word is said. Hannah is curious to know what plans everyone have for the rest of the day and what tomorrow will look like but in the end she is quiet, not asking anything. She just sits in the back of the van, listening to music and smiling out the window. As soon as they come home, she is in a rush to go inside. Not as quickly as Maria though, who runs straight to the bathroom.

Hannah calls out for their pets the second she walks through the door; she throws her shoes off and runs inside the house to search for them. Milo, the only dog living in this house, is found under the kitchen table, his safe zone. Hannah had just looked briefly in her own bedroom before looking elsewhere, maybe missing her own pet but as soon as she sees the light brown young dog under the table she falls down on her heels and hands on the floor to look under, staying a bit away to not scare him too much and as soon as she sees the adorable look on Milo’s face, Hannah almost squeals out of happiness.

“Hi Milo,” she greets and stretches out her hand a bit.

Seeing it is the ladies coming home, Milo doesn’t hesitate to step out. He has lived with the ladies for almost a year now, going from an abandoned puppy in the trash to a happy puppy treated with candies and showered in love. Hannah wraps him in her arms to mess up his fur and to just feel how lovely it feels while planting kisses on him, whispering that she has missed him and asking if he is alright. Milo must’ve been treated badly by his previous owner because he was terrified of everything when he first came into this house, for weeks they had to treat him delicately and be careful around him, but now … now he has learned how weird the ladies are and he doesn’t mind being showered with love either. He has adapted well.

“How YOU doin’?”

Hannah happily looks up when hearing Manager Lee’s voice, he enters the kitchen and walks past Hannah after imitating Joey from the old TV-show FRIENDS. He looks to be doing well, even his hair is styled and Hannah can clearly see he is wearing those jeans for the first time.

“How are YOU doing, Oppa?” Hannah wonders, actually checking him out. “Are you going on a date?”

“What makes you think that?” Manager Lee chuckles. He is too happy to not be going on a date so Hannah ruffles Milo’s fur, not answering him. Instead, she asks when he came here. “Right after you, Hannah. Where’s Maria?”

“Upstairs,” Hannah answers, now sitting on her to keep playing with Milo whose tail is hitting her knee hard from happiness.

“I got a text from Mi Young asking if I could give you a ride to the cinema later,” Manager Lee tells Hannah. He takes a seat by the kitchen table, placing his phone on the table. Hannah looks at him, wondering most of all why Mi Young would ask such a thing but also wondering why Manager Lee looks so troubled by it.

“And…?” Hannah asks for him to explain. Milo lies down while his head turns towards her hand to be continued petted.

Manager Lee touches his phone, hesitating a bit before looking at Hannah. “I’ve got a date that I can’t miss.”

“Didn’t you just say-”

“I don’t want anyone else hearing about it, alright?” Manager Lee sighs, nodding to the stairs. “If they hear about it there won’t be an end to it.”

“They already know you’ve got a girlfriend,” Hannah points out.

Manager Lee sighs. “Mm… About that…”

The hesitation and disappointed look on his face makes Hannah loose hers. She gapes without even knowing it and Manager Lee is sighing at his phone.

“I’m sorry,” she whispers. She wants to apologize for talking without knowing but at the same time she is pretty surprised she hasn’t heard about this before. Last time she spoke to Manager Lee, everything seemed fine. “Wait… if you’re… um, who are you meeting tonight?”

“First date,” Manager Lee sighs. “The last one felt threatened once she found out I am not just working at SM Entertainment but I’m a manager for 5 Pieces.”

For some reason that hurts a lot. Not that his relationship is broken but the disappointment in his voice and expression when saying 5 Pieces was the reason she broke up with him. Hannah’s manager got dumped for working with 5 Pieces.

“She didn’t deserve you then,” Hannah mumbles, looking down at Milo.

Her manager chuckles. “She was hot though,” he says with the tone of regret and Hannah gives him a glare.

“What about tonight’s date?” Hannah asks, just to change the way this is going.

“Also hot,” Manager Lee smiles proudly, then motions to his face, “She has gone through a bunch of surgeries though so I’m not certain of how it’ll go but mom wants me to have a date this Christmas…”

Hannah looks strangely at him and Manager Lee starts to smile at her expression.

“Dating a lot of people is necessary to find the right someone,” Manager Lee tells her.

“It just sounds wrong when you say it,” Hannah comments and she smiles when Manager Lee kicks her on the foot.

“You’re just jealous I’ll get to meet a lot of women while you’re already stuck with one man,” he teases.

In that moment someone scoffs and Hannah is smiling widely seeing Maria by the kitchen entrance. The leader looks slightly annoyed.

“Keeping up with that and you might not be invited to the wedding,” Maria warns Manager Lee. “You’re the jealous one, by the way, as you haven’t found your soulmate yet. And did I hear you’re going on a date tonight? Is it a double date at the cinema? Hannah and Mi Young with Oppa and … um… what was her name again?”

Maria didn’t hear it when Manager Lee said they have broken up, so Hannah feels herself slightly panic when Maria asks the name of his now ex-girlfriend while Manager Lee just smiles, brushing it off as he stands up.

“I came by to leave some stuff and … I’ll be going. Hannah, can you talk to Mi Young about … about driving? Call me if you can’t solve it,” Manager Lee says and starts to leave.

Maria frowns at his behaviour but sits down to pet Milo, asking Hannah if she has seen the other two pets hiding somewhere, not noticing Hannah looking after Manager Lee.

“I forgot to tell him a thing,” Hannah murmurs while hurrying up on her feet, jogging over to the hall to catch up to her manager.

He closes the door without seeing her so Hannah has to kick her feet in her sneakers and get outside to catch him.

“Oppa,” she lightly calls out, slowing her steps when he turns around.

“Yeah?”

“Um… If your date don’t go well, you can always come watch the movie with us. We’re going out to eat first but … you should know you’re welcomed,” Hannah tells him, then realises what she says and she struggles to find the right words; “Um, I mean- I don’t mean, I don’t mean it won’t go well, it’s just … you could bring your date or … no, not that you would want that…”

Manager Lee is smiling at her confusing words. “Don’t force yourself,” he tells her, sounding amused at her try to say something good but ending up talking more to herself than talking to him. He almost laughs when turning away to leave but he stops himself, his whole face is smiling, surprisingly to her. “I know, I’m welcomed to hang with you if I want to. It’s nice, Hannah, but not necessary.”

“I know, I know,” Hannah nods, not sure why she is nervous. Having deep talks with Manager Lee isn’t uncommon, but to know he got dumped because of them, she feels bad, and for some reason that makes her nervous. “Um… I just … I’m sorry about … um… us ruining your relationship.”

“That’s what you think?” Manager Lee’s smile changes. He shakes his head at her, smiling. “You were right about her; she didn’t deserve me. That’s why it didn’t work. Now, go do whatever it is you’re planning on doing today. I’ll see you later.”

Hannah is pouting when he leaves. She will feel bad for some time that she broke up with him because of the ladies, she wants to ask him about it. Going back inside, Hannah lies down on her bed, suddenly tired and completely exhausted. Emelia is dating a Swedish famous actor, Manager Lee was dumped because he works with 5 Pieces but is dating some stranger now, Hannah is getting married next year and it’s all very odd and confusing.

Someone moves on the bed next to her and Hannah turns her head to the side. Tiger looks like she is going on a hunt, eyes focused on Hannah and when Hannah lifts up her hand the cute cat lowers her body to almost lie on the bed, her head tilts up to keep an eye on Hannah’s hand.

“You’re on guard, aren’t you?” Hannah mumbles and puts two fingers on Tiger’s head. Hannah laughs when her cat falls down on the side to be petted on the stomach, at one touch softening up. “I’m home for a week, cutie, should we do something fun?”

Hannah cuddles with her cat for some time before starting to throw a toy mouse back and forth, Tiger dashes after it and comes back. Tiger is actually better at retrieving than their dogs, Hannah doesn’t get it but it’s amusing when Tiger comes up to her and drops the mouse on Hannah’s leg for her to throw it again.

They have fun until Hannah remembers she doesn’t have her phone with her. Going on phone search, Tiger is going with her, being adorable as she keeps along Hannah’s legs.

“BABY!” Maria shouts from upstairs.

“What?” Hannah doesn’t shout as high, knowing the house is pretty quiet so there is no need to shout like that.

“Do you want some food brought here?!” Maria shouts loudly again.

“Who is bringing it?” Hannah wonders. She doesn’t want any food, but she is curious who Maria has charmed to come here with food for her.

Maria comes bouncing down the stairs, phone by her ear and happily humming on some melody.

“Hyunsuk is the y beast bringing me whatever I want,” Maria happily answers and Hannah can only imagine the comment Hyunsuk is giving Maria over the phone. “Yeah, so, you’re in or not?”

“Not,” Hannah answers. “Have you seen my phone?”

Maria waves her hand to say she doesn’t know and turns around to tell Hyunsuk what she wants to eat. Hannah goes to the hall to check if it’s there. It’s not in the hall so Hannah head back to her room, looking at her desk and on the bedside table, she opens her luggage to see where it is. Did she loose her phone? How? Where?

“BABY!” Maria shouts again.

“WHAT?!” Hannah shouts back in annoyance, glaring around her room as she can’t find the phone.

“Your phone is in the kitchen,” Maria answers.

Hannah groans when heading to the kitchen. Tiger follows her, eager to be next to her. Maria holds out the phone for Hannah, still holding her own phone to her ear. With her phone in hand, Hannah goes back to her room, seeing that Mi Young has already texted here. Mi Young and Hannah are going to the cinema later to watch the last movie for The Hunger Games, and to eat dinner out. She has gotten text messages from others too, but it is Mi Young’s that is important to answer. The reason she had asked Manager Lee to give them a ride was because she thought of drinking wine or something during dinner, but as Hannah lets her know he is busy tonight so Mi Young writes back a couple of adorable icons before saying she will do the driving, an non-alcoholic night with geek behaviour and good food.

For the next few hours Hannah washes up, unpacks, she visits the other house to cuddle with the pets there and to see Julia’s mother briefly, but what she mostly does is to just play with Tiger, Milo and Ace.

Wearing a brushed-fleece stripe sweatshirt in black and ivory along to a pair of black skinny jeans, Hannah is sitting on the floor in the living-room, Tiger runs back and forth again while Milo is rolling around on the floor whenever Hannah throws something for him.

“Ace is ignoring me,” Hannah tells Maria while pouting at the older cat gracefully lying on the sofa, stretched out and relaxed. He is the only one who hasn’t happily greeted Hannah today.

“He’s grumpy,” Maria answers and pokes her foot on the cat. She is lying in the sofa waiting for her food. Hyunsuk couldn’t come right away, but according to Maria he is finally now on his way with food for her. She and Hannah both ate some scrambled eggs, both hungry after the flight and not having much patience to wait for dinner. “Ace’s tummy has been bad for the past few days, so he is grumpy because he hasn’t gotten the food his body needs. Isn’t that what’s this is about, Snowball?”

Hannah is waiting for Mi Young while Maria is waiting for Hyunsuk, both keeping their phones close. On the TV, Maria is watching a Korean drama that Hannah hasn’t seen, but it seems like Maria isn’t keeping much of an eye on what’s happening on the TV either as she (from where she’s lying) joins in the playing with the pets by throwing toys for pretty much only Tiger as no one else is interested.

“Does it feel strange to you?” Hannah quietly asks her friend.

“I feel tired,” Maria answers.

“No, I mean… With the tour, and everything…” Hannah mumbles.

“I’m fine with the tour,” Maria admits, “It’s more than what I expected… No, the actual tour is what I expected but the people are not. It was almost twice the people outside the stadium in Atlanta than what the stadium actually would fit, right? It was … not strange, but really insanely overw