“Yokohama!” Emelia calls out and raises her hand with a chuckle as the crowd screams out in response. “It’s my birthday today.”

They scream out HAPPY BIRTHDAY as she mentions what they already know and Emelia keeps looking proudly out over the crowd. Her fans have been amazing the second weekend of touring in Japan. Tonight, she is finishing the last concert in Japan for her tour and a plus, it is her 25th birthday. Emelia is the first lady of the year to celebrate her birthday, and while she isn’t someone who is much for celebration, turning 25 is still a big deal to her.

“I got to share something with you all. Because it is my birthday, I receive a lot of birthday messages. Do you get that on your birthdays?”

Puzzle answers loudly that they do get birthday messages on their birthdays, still full of energy though the concert only has four songs left. Emelia nods at their answer, continuing to chat about the kind of messages she usually receives and so on. Finishing up the conversation, she starts smiling again.

“On my tenth birthday, I was having cake with my family after school. There was one friend I invited over to join us. We had cake together and played with the presents I got, like any other kids that age. Today, fifteen years later, she still eats cake with me on my birthday. … But you guys might know her more as a cry-baby.”

Emelia knows how to make her fans scream, and every fan of 5 Pieces, whether this person is a fan of Julia or Emelia or Hannah, everyone knows who the cry-baby is. With her proud smile, Emelia turns around as Hannah comes up on stage, the youngest also smiling and the crowd cheering. Today she is the cry-baby, at the concert two days ago she was the busy lady and last week she was the pretty one. Emelia seems the most pleased whenever she calls Hannah one of those things during the concert, fans enjoys it too.

The two friends have fun performing the song together for the concerts, acting charismatic and playing around though it is a serious song. After the second chorus, in the middle of Emelia’s final rap, Hannah is standing at the centre and blocking the lift that rises behind her to show a small table with a cake on it. Emelia is focused on the crowd and her rapping that she doesn’t see it. Without being caught, Hannah puts some of the cream on her fingers and walks over to Emelia when starting to sing. Her friend turns around, a bit taken back that Hannah comes up to her and just as she is going to put her arm around Hannah’s back to play along, Hannah reaches out her hand to put the cream on Emelia’s face.

Fans are screaming, laughing as Hannah is quick to dash across the stage in fear that Emelia will get mad but the lady is just shocked, checking what it is she has in her face and when seeing where Hannah goes she spots the cake on the stage.

The youngest is laughing while continuing to sing the last lines, sounding happy and looking thrilled that she managed to put cream on Emelia’s face. It got on her cheek and nose, though Emelia tries to take it all off with the back of her hand.

As the song comes to an end, Emelia starts complaining and asking what the cake is doing there all alone, but Hannah ignores her and starts directing the crowd to sing HAPPY BIRTHDAY with her. Emelia is laughing hearing the crowd sing along with Hannah, the rapper walking over to the cake to taste some more of the cream while enjoying the song they sing for her.

That is how they enjoy the concert to the end. They talk a bit after singing before Hannah leaves with the cake to save it for later and Emelia gets to pause on stage to collect her thoughts a bit while she is about to start a ballad.

“She got me a cake this morning too,” Emelia informs the crowd, pointing over at the side where Hannah left, “I love cake so yeah… I’m moved. And now I am supposed to sing [Little Shadow]. Bear with me.”

Hannah is smiling widely from behind the stage, liking the crowd’s cheering Emelia on and that Emelia after-hand shows she got moved from the small surprise. Fans knows that Emelia loves cake; there are at least five different cakes backstage (gifts from fans), so Hannah was happy when she surprised Emelia in the morning with a cake in the hotel room, before all the other cakes showed up.

When the concert does end, Hannah has about half an hour to celebrate with her friend and the crew for wrapping up in Japan and that it is Emelia’s concert before the youngest must leave. Emelia is going to be out celebrating tonight while Hannah will head back to Korea as she has a lot to do the next day.

At the airport, Hannah sees that Emelia has shared a picture on Instagram. She did it hours ago but Hannah only sees it now. Emelia shared a picture of a conversation with Julia, who is in Korea while these two have been in Japan. Julia had sent a heart that reads HAPPY BIRTHDAY and sent it to Emelia. It was nothing more than that in the chatroom Emelia shares and she captions the Instagram post with #EM25thbirthday as well as ‘I can feel the love’. Hannah comments with a heart too, no happy birthday comment because she has said that already.

Hannah heads home and goes to bed after washing up. Jonghyun comes back from his radio after she has fallen asleep and when he wakes up at noon, Hannah is not in bed. They miss each other this time.

At ten in the morning, Hannah was at the combat training. Like it has been the other eight times she has been to the combat training, she leaves about five hours later with a sore body. Only that today, she is going to the dance practice as well. She started practicing last week for the Musketeers comeback, just like last year realising she is not as good as a dancer like her three friends in the project group. So, that is what she is doing today and tomorrow; combat training and dance practice.

Dressed in active leggings and a 3/4-sleeve t-shirt, black from top to toe including her sneakers, Hannah quietly enters the practice room where her friends are already learning the choreography. Ana is in shorts and sweater, a dancer next to her is going through the steps with her while Taemin, dressed in jeans and a white t-shirt, is being taught by a male dancer next to them. Kai isn’t in the practice-room, making it feel empty in the large room as a third dancer is sitting in the corner just waiting. At the sight of Hannah, she receives some greetings and ‘hello’, but no one stops practicing.

Hannah heads to the back to leave her things on one of the chairs by the wall. Her body is warmed up from the hours at combat training but she still starts stretching, warming up her body again as she has had about three hours of rest. Besides from being tired, her body does alright during the dance practice. She knows that tomorrow, she will feel dead. The dancer who was sitting on the side gets up on his feet while Hannah is warming up, getting ready to go through the steps they went through last week and continue to go through the last part of the choreography. Kai is the last one to arrive, bowing when entering the room and starting to do what everyone else does when arriving; warming up. Taemin and Ana have already learned the choreography and ends up practicing on their own while facing the mirror.

When everyone is on the same page they start practicing together. Mistakes happen but overall, they do alright. They are learning the choreography for a song they actually recorded last year at this time. It will be released as a single without promotions before the group will come back with a mini album. During the break, they are not moving from the floor they are sitting on, massaging their muscles and using their mouths instead of bodies to talk and talk and talk. Besides from Hannah, all of the others are on tour these months, all of them being busy as always yet they have fun practicing together.

They don’t practice for long it feels like when Ana starts to pack her things to leave. She is sitting on the floor in the back with her bag between her legs, looking like she is regretting life as the other three continues to practice.

“I think she’ll start crying,” Taemin mumbles when passing by Hannah to reach his next position. Hannah turns her head around to give Ana a smile, their youngest starts pouting as if she really will start crying.

“Can’t I stay for another hour?” Ana then asks her manager over by the door.

Her manager shakes her head. They have a schedule tomorrow, which is why Ana is leaving earlier. Finishing packing her bag, she throws it over her shoulder after standing up and she hurries in between her friends to dance with them a last minute before she has to leave. All bubbly she jumps over to the door, turns around to bow and thank everyone for their hard work, her hair flying up and down in the deep bow. She makes them laugh by saying goodbye like that.

Ana gets out the door but just a meter away they can hear her voice get all loud and cheery again. Taemin laughs out loud when hearing her and as they keep hearing her voice he goes to see what she is doing outside the practice-room. The door closes after him but his voice gets just as loud that Hannah and Kai give each other a glance before going to see what’s going on. Hannah motions for Kai to go first and they get stuck by the door, not wanting to go outside.

The ones Ana met outside the practice-room was members of NCT Dream. Cute boys start bowing politely when seeing Kai come out too and the bowing continues with Hannah’s head leaning out the room. There is a question-mark on what has been said because Taemin sends Ana away and tells the NCT juniors to keep up the good work before parting ways, so all Hannah and Kai did was just to greet them.

“Have you eaten yet?!” Taemin suddenly calls out when turning around by the door, Hannah already getting in position to keep practicing.

She can’t hear what their juniors answer but Taemin says he is going to order soon, so they can eat together; which obviously means they haven’t eaten. Taemin leaves to go talk to those in the room next to theirs while Hannah and Kai continues to practice. All Hannah can think of though is food. It is late so she is not allowed to eat, but having them talk about food makes her hungry (or imagine that she is hungry). Taemin comes back and they continue to practice. Apparently, he has ordered food already because Taemin’s manager comes inside to say the food is here.

Hannah isn’t supposed to eat. Her manager isn’t around. And Taemin says she must come. They are having a late snack in the room next to; where NCT Dream are taking a break from their practice to join in the eating. All of them eat well, and then there is Hannah, who explains she is on a diet to prepare for her movie. She drinks water and listens to what everyone are saying.

NCT Dream is in the middle of promotions but came to practice because the agency told them to, and as good seniors, the three friends are trying to point out what they can think of and what can be improved. They are good performers already and they have fun on stage, which is the biggest point according to Hannah and she lets them know that. She hasn’t watched a lot of their performances because she has been in Japan over the weekend, but she has watched enough to know they do well.

It is Hannah who says when they should leave, telling Taemin and Kai that they should let their juniors swallow the rest of the food properly; because NCT Dream have been nervous from beginning to end, only answering questions and asking questions but being timid and careful when eating. Kai brings one of the boxes of chicken with him to snack on before the trio continues to practice. Only that Hannah leaves after about fifteen minutes, stopping by NCT Dream’s room to cheer them on and tell them that sleep is important too. she said the same to Kai and Taemin, but they can sleep out in the morning. For Hannah, she goes home and falls asleep almost right away because her body is exhausted.

At home, it is empty. Jonghyun is at his radio and for the second night, she is asleep when he comes home.

Wednesday is the same as Tuesday, besides from that Hannah’s body is tired from the day before. She actually gives out shouts during combat training just to try get the strength to do the exercises and training set up for her. at the dance practice, she spends surprisingly a lot of time lying on the floor, receiving massage to loosen up her muscles so she can have the strength to practice. It is insane how tired her body gets after combat training, which basically means she has to go visit the gym to keep her body prepared for the hard trainings she has two times a week.

Coming home on Wednesday night after dance practice with the Musketeers, she is packing her bag to go to Los Angeles at noon. 5 Pieces are going to do some recording again, a month since they went to Japan to record some songs and this time going to Los Angeles.

Because she is leaving the next day, Hannah does her best to stay awake to when Jonghyun comes home. In other words, she is lying in the sofa being half-asleep watching series on Netflix without watching it because she is falling asleep. Jonghyun catches it. He does his best to be quiet when coming home because even if Hannah said she will try to stay up, she added try because she said she was tired so he is quiet just in case she is asleep. What he sees when coming home is Hannah lying in the sofa, facing the laptop on the living-room’s table with her arm hanging down to the floor and eyes closed, looking like she has fallen asleep watching something.

Jonghyun goes get ready for bed, going to check on Hannah in between and when he is ready for the bed, he walks over to the sofa to squat down in front of her. while she seems to have been asleep, Hannah has been half of both. She has heard movements in the apartment but have been more into sleep to wake up to it until she feels someone next to her and her eyes are opened to see a soft smile on Jonghyun’s face.

“Hi,” he sweetly says, putting his hand on her head to caress her hair. “Did you have a tough day?”

Her answer in a tired whine. Hannah is sleepy and waking up to see that he actually is home already makes her disappointed because she fell asleep. Jonghyun lowly laughs when she holds out her arms to hug him and he tells her they are going to bed. He has to pull her up on her feet, her arms wrapped around his neck and they are both giggling from it. But he doesn’t complain, instead he just kisses her head and her cheek when finally having her on her feet.

Though she is tired she stays awake talking to Jonghyun when they have gone to bed. They cuddle and talk in low voice about this and that before Jonghyun puts his arm over Hannah and tells her they need to sleep. It isn’t difficult to fall asleep, the hard part is waking up in the morning.

09:24 is when her alarm is set to ring and Hannah turns it off before she moves closer into Jonghyun’s arms. Her body is super sore after two hard days working out so just moving in bed is painful. It’s worth it, but painful. She gets up on her feet within seconds or she won’t get up at all and starts getting ready with the last to pack, get dressed and all that before she lies down next to Jonghyun again.

09:56, she is out the door to head to the airport.

After landing in Los Angeles, it is still Thursday noon. Emelia is in her hotel room when starting to film for their YouTube channel. She had decided to do a vlog kind of thing whenever the ladies go abroad; she did one when they were in London, forgot when they were in Tokyo but has planned it now when they are in Los Angeles for a few days.

She stands in front of the mirror by the desk, filming her outfit that is a pair of black ripped skinny jeans, an extreme dark t-shirt tugged inside and a camouflage fall jacket. Emelia poses coolly when filming herself, starting to say in a low voice that she is ready to leave the hotel but the others aren’t done yet so she is just waiting.

“And I got company,” she says in English and spins around to film over by the door where Hannah is squatting down to tie her new wine red converse. “Hannah got bored of waiting so we are going to take a chance and walk outside for a bit. Do you think we’ll get far?”

Hannah stands up as she is done tying her shoes but she just looks confused at her friend. Hannah is wearing a pair of jeans that are a bit too big around her legs (which is sick if you ask her because a few weeks ago they fitted her perfectly), she got a long tank top underneath a grey oversized sweater that hides her hands because the sleeves are too long. Emelia turns the camera around to film herself, commenting that Hannah slept so hard on the flight that she fell asleep again on the way to the hotel; in other words, she is not fully awake yet.

While the charismatic lady puts on her khaki green sneakers (matching her jacket), Hannah gets to hold the camera. She holds up the door and steps outside, filming down the corridor before Emelia comes after her, them both bringing handbags with them as they head to the elevator. Emelia holds the camera again, selfie-mode on. The two ladies go to the lobby with one of the bodyguards and within minutes they are out on the street. Hannah is looking around while Emelia is more focused on the camera.

“Just to keep everybody updated on what’s going on right now… Maria flew in yesterday from Paris and was still sleeping when we landed. She is the reason we are waiting. And Julia is coming … she will come tonight,” Emelia updates for the camera. “Hannah didn’t know that so when we met up at Incheon coming here, she got worried not seeing Julia with us.”

Emelia laughs towards Hannah who just smiles out the street.

“The weather is really nice here,” Emelia comments and turns the camera around to film the sun and turns the camera back to film herself and Hannah. “It’s like summer here. We are dressed too warmly but … we look good, we feel good and we’ll be indoors for most of the day anyway.”

“That’s our excuse,” Hannah lowly says next to her and Emelia nods.

“We use those reasons as excuses while we in fact forgot that LA has summer all year long and we are used to colder cities,” Emelia admits, slowing her pace as the bodyguard is talking in front of them. “But it’s nice here. And … … already?”

Hannah stops walking first, turning around to walk back to the hotel. Emelia turns around too, still filming so the large American man behind them is spotted as well as some fans across the street.

“I had hoped we would get to look in some shops while waiting but as it turns out, our fans have spotted us,” Emelia says, smiling when the bodyguard walks to the side to not be filmed. “But we got to walk a little, didn’t we Hannah?”

“Mm.”

Emelia walks up next to her, arm around Hannah’s arms to film the two of them together. “Are you hungry?” she asks and Hannah nods. “We should be knocking on Maria’s door to stress her out because I am hungry too.”

Five minutes later they reach the hotel and they wait in the lobby until it is time to leave. Time to eat. Maria has ditched the makeup after wearing so much of it during the fashion week in Paris this past week but wears BB-cream and she has drawn her eyebrows. Her outfit is a long knitted dress and slippers, an expensive outfit that is super comfortable and chic – that’s what happens when she goes on a fashion trip. Carolina looks beautiful with natural makeup, a white blouse and denim jeans, looking more like she is heading to the office to work rather than going to record in a studio.

The four of them, Manager Park and some bodyguards go to eat lunch. Emelia films herself when they are eating, capturing Carolina sitting next to her but Emelia tells them all that she will edit it well, with background music and maybe speed up their eating moment. After lunch, it is time to hit the studio.

From four in the evening to eleven, after seven hours recording in the studio, the ladies head to the hotel. Julia has arrived at the hotel by then so Emelia tell the ladies on their chat that there is a movie time in Julia’