Glitter and gold, 5 Pieces are wearing dresses for the New Year celebration. All evening they have been doing interviews dressed up for their performance. At 22:52, 5 Pieces take the stage for the last time of 2015.

Julia looks like a lady in a short white sleeveless dress, full of glitter and light fabric to sway around her movements. What makes her look like 5 Pieces is the leather boots and leather jacket, she looks so cool with the glittering dress underneath. All five ladies wear the same kind of leather jacket and similar leather boots, but their dresses are all different. Emelia’s is glittering black, only one sleeve. It’s different from what she usually wears but it looks really great on her. Hannah’s dress is black with sequins all over it and a deep V-neck (stylist Yong Hyun has set his mind to make that Hannah’s style; V-necks), short sleeves. She has tights underneath, something they all have but Hannah’s are not see-through like the rest. Carolina’s even have glitter on hers. Carolina’s dress in in glitter and beige-purple, as long as Hannah’s to above the knee while the others’ are a bit shorter, it is styled with a neck to show her bra underneath so her bra is of the same colour, a see-through fabric covers her chest. Carolina loves it, loving how her bra doesn’t look like a bra and doesn’t take the focus off her dress. Maria’s dress is golden, short and tight and golden with a sidelong neckline, a stylish dress.

One of Sweden’s favourite outdoor stage, it’s small with the orchestra taking up half the place but it’s long and it’s where 5 Pieces is performing for a large audience as well as viewers watching the pre-show. 5 Pieces is facing Sweden. Their first song is [Pieces’ Invasion]. Hannah feels off during the song because she knows they are a charismatic group but everyone else performing tonight are performing classic and ballads and opera and whatnot. 5 Pieces is the only pop tonight. Maria says it is an honour, Hannah isn’t so sure of what it is. What she do know, is that she can see Emelia’s mother and father sitting at the front row to the left, right next to Carolina’s mother, father and brother. It is the absolutely funniest thing to do; perform and see your friends’ families at the front row watching you. Carolina is the happiest, Hannah would guess. Her voice says it all when they are singing, all the focus and overuse of her voice is to show how proud her parents can be of her.

Hannah hears her own voice clearly when she sings her part, looking out at the audience and wondering if someone she knows is watching this at home and feel maybe just a little bit proud over how far she has come. It’s not like Hannah has a family like Maria’s, a family with parents, siblings, cousins (around twenty relatives) that are all gathered in front of the TV with champagne ready to call in the New Year after watching Maria perform on national TV.

But do she really care about that?

Maybe her own family don’t care, but there are people that do. Like parents of those kids out of nowhere standing at the front. Kids, children that aren’t even ten years old, have gathered at the front. It looks like they are singing along, bouncing to the music and looking up at the stage where 5 Pieces are performing. The kids know the song, it’s easy to tell. Hannah wonders what their parents say about 5 Pieces. Like the parents of teenagers that stayed up half the night to wait for 5 Pieces outside the hotel, do they secretly talk about how proud they are that girls from Sweden have come so far internationally?

A cousin of Maria’s had during a phone call today said that his teacher is a fan of 5 Pieces. He is twelve. And his teacher is a fan of 5 Pieces; his classmates are fans too, he said. Her cousin said he is proud because a few years ago when people mentioned 5 pieces in school it was a lot of different opinions, students laughing at 5 Pieces for going to South Korea to debut and asking where South Korea even is, but now everyone know their songs. Is it a difference just for her cousin or is it at other places in this country too?

[Pieces’ Invasion] comes to an end. Hannah has no memory of how the ending went, she can’t remember doing the high note with the others but no one has shown a reaction so she must’ve done it by memory. With the song ending, the ladies head to the side of the stage. Maria stays at the centre, smiling at the crowd before turning around. She walks to the orchestra, a table has been placed in front of the orchestra on their right side, and the musical director is sitting on his chair a bit behind with a silly smile on his face.

Maria clears when sitting down on the table, pushing her back a bit and lightly placing one leg over the other. She holds the microphone by her lips as she looks out at the audience.

“Sweden,” she softly says in her parental tongue, looking confident and determined, “It’s about an hour left of 2015. I hope you’ve made your New Year wishes.”

She glides around to lift her legs up on the table, one hand holding her body up behind her, and Maria leans her head back, showing a great profile for the viewers as she starts to sing gloriously in Korean;

On the side, Carolina turns around with dropped while Maria sings. The reason for to drop is the whistles and cheers coming from the audience.

“They know what song it is.”

The rest of the members and their dancers struts out on the stage for [POWER UP], light on their feet and movement and in front of them, Sweden is moving. It’s thrilling to see bodies of old and young follow the beat of their song, some tries to do the choreography on their spot while others are just offbeat but still moving.

Performing [POWER UP] is completely different. The whole mood has changed. The song is recognized, it is inviting and cheerful, it’s a song in Korean but no one seems to care; the choreography is easy to follow along to and it must be the use of instruments they have in the song that makes it liked by all generations here.

Here it is no time to think, the song passes by too quickly and the ladies are moving everywhere.

Out of breath when the song ends the ladies are in bright smiles. Their dancers are off the stage and 5 Pieces stands next to each other. They do a brief greeting and are given the chance to talk for three minutes before they are told to continue with the last song.

Those kids at the front are adorable. When performing [Come to me] the ladies are having a blast going to the front and having fun with the kids. [Come to me] has a choreography but it is simple compared to the previous ones but the ladies are everywhere on the stage, the audience is energetic from [POWER UP] and keep moving around to this song. The kids at the front are still the best. One of them look to be stomping her feet along with the ladies, they are clapping their hands to the beat and they really feel the music. It’s wonderful to watch the kids let loose. It’s a fun song to perform too, they can just silly around during it.

As soon as it ends, Maria grabs Hannah’s hand and all five ladies give a polite bow before hurrying off the stage for the next performer to step out.

Hannah is smiling, awkward when thanking the staff member taking the microphone from her backstage and she seeks out to meet one of her friends’ gaze.

“We did it,” she says when bumping into Emelia, giggling in her friend’s ear and Emelia laughs as she puts her arms around Hannah for a hug.

“2016 next,” Emelia seems just as thrilled that they have just performed live for the nation at New Year’s Eve. They laugh in each other’s ears before letting go of each other to head to their dressing-room. Hannah laughs again when spotting the camera that probably caught that hug. She forgets they are surrounded by cameras now, for about a month.

She is in a hurry to get to their room, awkward around all Swedish people and scared she might not recognize an artist because she has been missing those things all the time they have been here. It’s not her fault for not listening to classical music.

In the dressing-room, their dancers and stylists and staff are waiting, telling the ladies they did well and Manager Park waiting for them all to be back before asking if they are ready for an interview in ten minutes. Ten minutes to calm down, drink water, use the restroom and wipe off that sweat.

“Did you see those kids?!” Maria asks in a loud voice when coming back from the restroom, laughing happily. “They were amazing! Can we see them? I so want to talk to those adorableness!“

“Please calm down a bit,” Manager Lim is smiling at her. Maria smiles widely, happy for how well their performance well.

What they said was an interview is in fact just the ladies standing by the wall outside the room and giving a few words about this experience. It pass by quickly and when it’s done, they are told it’s fifteen minutes left of 2015.

Carolina and Emelia both leave the dressing-room to go join their families at the front of the stage while the others are in the room with champagne to celebrate the New Year together.

A camera has gone outside to film Carolina and Emelia from a distance. Out there, with winter jackets over their pretty dresses, they manage to stay anonymous. People recognize them but no one steps up to them, giving them the privacy they need to spend with their family. Emelia spots one of the youngest kids that had been rocking along during the ladies’ performance, only three years old, and Emelia walks up to them without hesitation. The parents are young, the grandparents doesn’t know who the stranger is approaching them but the parents know who she is and they tell their child who it is too before it isn’t much time left of 2015.

“Happy New Year,” Emelia tells them friendly before going back to her parents.

Backstage the room is getting warmer as everyone are on their feet, keeping an eye on the time while talking and joking about that South Korea had this seven hours ago.

“Countdown!” Yong Hyun calls out.

“COUNTDOWN!” Maria roars out and raises her glass in the air, “Stay healthy and lets love all through 2016!”

“And thanks for 2015!” Shiwon loudly calls out too.

“Yeah, thank you all for 2015!” Julia agrees.

“15!”

Hannah is standing next to Myung, ready with a glass in hand like everyone else. When they start counting down from 10, the room is screaming out the numbers. The room is crowded but everyone is feeling good and right in this moment, Hannah hopes their lives will stay like this. Happy. Cheering. Celebrating.

The bell is on the TV all around the country, ringing in the New Year, and the room backstage bursts out in cheers. People are drinking their champagne, hugging everyone they can and Hannah is trying to stay hidden behind backs to not have to hug everyone though she is cheering along. There are so many people that she don’t really spot Julia or Maria among everyone but she see their stylists and dancers and the managers, the camera-crew – everyone seems to be cheering in 2016.

Emelia and Carolina come backstage with their families and the celebration continues.

08:05 is the time when 5 Pieces are sitting down for the first interview of 2016. It’s Friday and the members haven’t really slept before they had to get ready for the day. Julia covers when yawning just as they are asked if they are ready to answer some questions. She is in smooth leather pants, cool boots without heels, a grey t-shirt and a leather jacket matching her pants. Around her neck she is wearing a necklace Hannah had been given in Hong Kong by fans at the start of December, it reads ‘enjoy the little things’ on it. She has another necklace in silver of the same length. Julia looks cool sitting on the chair with her arms resting on the table they are sitting around, her hair is so short it can’t really be styled but it still looks good.

Hannah bites her own lip to now follow Julia’s lead with a yawn. She is sitting across from Julia, next to Maria for once as they rarely are next to each other for interviews. But this time she is. Next to Hannah is Carolina, sitting in the middle as she had wanted together with the female interviewer, and between her and Julia is Emelia.

The interview is different from usual ones. They are at a restaurant to eat breakfast while doing the interview; there are cameras filming for the interview in front of the ladies and the woman is around their age, holding a large microphone in her hand to do the interview. It’s silly because there is a microphone held above them all, but the microphone has the program’s logo on it so it’s probably because of that.

Before starting the questions (they have only done the introductions) there are two waiters serving them; bringing out breakfast to cover the table and a cart next to Julia. The table is round and not big enough for all the food, that’s why.

“I want to start this interview by asking what you normally eat for breakfast,” the young woman named Sanna wants to know. She has waist-long dyed light blonde hair (it’s beautiful but a bit too light for her) and she is tall, not as skinny as Emelia sitting next to her but she isn’t near the overweight scale. It’s a very relaxed mood.

“I usually don’t eat breakfast,” Carolina is answering while watching the other four ladies focus on the food. Maria tells Julia to send this and that, Hannah asks Maria for something, Emelia asks the waiter on the side if they have lighter bread.

“Are you hungry?” Sanna asks with a laugh, seeing Maria wave her hand over the table for Julia to guess what she wants from the tray.

“Hotel breakfasts are the best,” Emelia comments and stands up to reach for the bread the waitress gives her, she shows her stomach in the black cropped top with a net top over.

“Julia, what do you usually eat for breakfast?” Sanna wants to know.

Julia turns to the table, handing the cucumber plate over to Maria while looking to be thinking of what to answer. “When I am at home I make my own juice. I mix fruits or berries.”

“Oh, that sounds good,” Sanna comments.

“There is one thing Julia can’t live without though,” Emelia chuckles and points at the white cup of coffee that Julia had gotten before they even knew where to sit.

“Coffee,” Julia answers, smiling happily. “The day can’t start without coffee.”

“Do you only drink coffee and juice in the morning?” Sanna asks before turning to Carolina, touching her arm lightly, “You don’t eat at all in the morning?”

“I can eat,” Carolina answers before Maria cuts off;

“The two of them usually drink coffee and then they are done with breakfast.”

Hannah pokes Emelia with her foot under the table, when Emelia looks at her she mouths ‘eggs’ and nods at the cart. Emelia asks Julia for the fried eggs before handing it to Hannah. Sanna laughs again as they seem more interested in the breakfast than the interview, and though Hannah tried to have the eggs sent over without disturbing the others talking, she did block the camera from filming Sanna and Carolina when Emelia handed it over, and she also said ‘thank you’ in a low voice.

“What do the rest of you like to eat in the morning?” Sanna asks, glancing at the table. She wants a bite of the bread too.

“I like pudding,” Emelia answers, “Pudding and scones.”

Her hair is long and wavy hanging down one side for Emelia to easier control her hair to not get in her breakfast. Hannah nods, knowing very well that Emelia can eat pudding any time of the day. Hannah looks over at Sanna, to see what she has on her plate, but instead she meet the interviewer’s gaze and Hannah opens to answer what she eats for breakfast.

“Pretty much anything with eggs is good for me,” Hannah tells her and Sanna nods.

“As long as there’s eggs,” Maria comments next to Hannah before looking up at the camera-crew with a smile. She looks at Sanna to answer the question; “As long as I get to eat, I don’t care what it is.”

“True,” Emelia nods and points a fork at her.

Hannah laughs at Emelia agreeing to Maria’s words, Julia adds that none of