“One more time. And Ana, remember that you are badly in love, okay? Let your voice show it,” the producer is giving directions to the girl in the booth. Ana nods her head and they try it again.

After the concert, Hannah and Ana went to the studio to continue the recording. They are working on a different song now, with a different producer. Pete is still working though; several used coffee cups are at the side of the desk. Hannah isn’t doing anything. She has spent two hours just waiting, not getting to record or anything and she is sitting bored, wondering if she should go take a walk or just fall asleep right here in the sofa.

“Again,” the producer simply tells Ana.

“Okay,” she answers, taking a deep breath.

Quietly the door to the studio is opened and a black-dressed man slinks inside. His skin is pale white, hair black and lips thick. Park Hyekyung is another producer at SM Entertainment, only 27 years old but for several years he has been called a Genius in the studio. He smiles when seeing Hannah dozing off in the sofa and steps over to the others by the engineer table, listening to Ana singing her line again.

“How’s it going, Producer Kim?” Hyekyung politely asks his colleague.

“I’m not pleased, I’ll tell you that,” the producer answers before telling Ana they will do it again and that he wants her to show obsession over this love.

“She’s too young to know,” Pete shakes his hand at him. Producer Kim looks strict as he continues with the recording. Hyekyung stands for a few minutes to listen at Ana sing the same line repeatedly. Eventually he glances behind him to see Hannah is sitting with her head leaned back like she did when he came in, but she is looking at the booth where Ana is.

Hyekyung takes a seat in the sofa, taking off his slippers to sit tailor in his sweatpants.

“Come out,” Producer Kim ends up telling Ana, waving with his fingers for her to step out from the booth. “Let’s take a break.”

He spins around in his chair and Hannah is suddenly sitting up, yawning behind her hand.

“What do you say, Hannah?” he asks her. “Want to give it a try?”

Ana comes out with a sad face, taking a polite stand in the room as the producer explains to her what the song is about, asking if she has ever felt such love before and so on. Hannah is warming up her voice, drinking some water too, preparing to step inside. Ana sadly apologizes for not having experience of bad love.

“You’re too young to have that kind of experience, no need to apologize,” Pete says in a sweet voice.

“Don’t flirt,” Hyekyung grimaces, obviously not liking the tone Pete uses when addressing Ana.

“I’m not flirting. I’m just telling our Ana that-”

“Our Ana?”

“If you two are going to fight, step outside,” Producer Kim points at them, “No couple fights when I’m around.”

Pete and Hyekyung are an item, not actually a couple but they are always working together and can nag at each other the way old married couples are said to do. At SM Entertainment, they are a married couple. Producer Kim, on the other hand, got divorced a few years ago and has forbidden his colleagues for any kind of fighting that sounds like a lover’s quarrel. Hannah gets on her feet when she is ready, bringing her water bottle with her as well as the lyrics sheet and a pen. When passing Ana, she touches her friend’s arm before going inside the booth.

“Hannah,” the producer says to the booth, speaking through the microphone in front of him.

“Yes?”

“We will begin with the first verse. Remember: bad love.”

“Yes,” Hannah repeats.

Ana is sulking when sitting down where Hannah just sat in the sofa, regretting how she just did her recording and wondering how she can do it better. She is almost glaring at the back of Producer Kim’s head, upset with him. They have only worked together twice before, and he is the same as he was those times. Strict and not easy to please.

Her thoughts are turned to Hannah when her senior starts practicing the part. Producer Kim gives out some directives and nods his head when hearing Hannah sing, telling her they can try to record it. Ana puts her arm on the armrest, leaning her chin on her hand with that upset look on her face. Though Ana thinks Hannah does brilliantly, Producer Kim makes her repeat it, asking Hannah to do some words differently, to find a rougher tone and so on. At first, Ana thinks he treats Hannah the same as he treats her; never being pleased. But it doesn’t take long until Producer Kim says he wants to listen again to what they have recorded, asking Hannah to wait.

He is pleased. Ana almost wants to kick off her shoe when hearing him say they will move on to the next part, just because Ana has spent almost two hours trying to sing her parts and he was only pleased once, while Hannah is in there for fifteen minutes and manages it.

“It’s different, don’t you think?” Pete mentions. “It’s different because Hannah wrote the lyrics.”

Producer Kim presses the button to his microphone to tell Hannah; “Again.”

“Yes,” Hannah answers with a nod.

Ana looks at her right side where Hyekyung is sitting. He is just observing. Watching the recording.

“Hyekyung Oppa,” Ana quietly whispers. He nods his head without looking at her. “Oppa, does Producer Kim act differently with Hannah Unnie?”

Hyekyung nods again, not even hiding it so Ana starts pouting again.

“Producer Kim has worked with the ladies a lot of times, which means he knows who he is working with,” Hyekyung explains quietly.

“He has worked with me before too,” Ana mutters sadly, watching Producer Kim tell Hannah to do it again.

“Yes,” Hannah nods.

“Ana, you can’t compare yourself with the ladies.”

“I’m not…”

Hyekyung nods, not explaining it any further. When he doesn’t say anything more, Ana gives out a sulking face and turns to look at him.

“Oppa, why can’t I do it right then?” she whispers. She is upset because she was told to take a break instead of finishing the recording. It’s over midnight already. Ana is grimacing when Hyekyung gives her a frown, looking like that uncle who is too nice to tell you when you are being childish but having a hard time keeping his face straight. They hear Hannah answer with ‘yes’ again to Producer Kim’s directives.

“Ana, instead of asking me questions, you should focus on listening to your senior. Because what she is doing now, is what you’ll have to do later,” Hyekyung whispers and puts a finger to his lips for Ana to stop talking.

Ana turns to look at the booth, of Hannah moving her finger in the air as if it helps her sing better. Ana can easily sit and admire her senior like this, it’s what she usually does, but tonight she is just upset for not doing well herself that even admiring her senior seems like an annoying thing to do. But there are still things for her to learn. Ana is young and talented, yet she finds that there is a lot she doesn’t know. For example, right now, when sitting in the studio with the producers and assistants and listening to Hannah, the junior knows she must work a lot harder to be given the respect that Hannah is given.

“Good,” Producer Kim raises his thumb to Hannah. “Come out and listen.”

“Yes,” Hannah diligently answers. She brings her things from the booth to stand where Ana stood earlier, putting her bottle on the table next to her. Hannah looks more comfortable than what Ana did though.

They listen through the parts they have recorded, Hannah standing with pen and paper in hand, seriously listening and Producer Kim is staring out in nowhere listening to it as well. Pete looks like he always does, busy checking his phone as he isn’t in charge of saying what sounds good and what should be redone. Hyekyung, on the other hand, has closed his eyes to listen too. Ana is watching them all in their mood, observing and waiting to hear Producer Kim’s judgement.

The producer turns off the music and looks at Hannah. She meets his gaze before looking down at her paper.

“You heard that?” Producer Kim asks, but the question isn’t to Hannah. He turns his head a bit more to look at Ana. “That’s how you sound when you are badly in love. The obsession and roughness in her tone is exactly what the song is about.”

“I told you, it’s different because she wrote it,” Pete comments without looking up from his phone.

“Hannah has a feeling. She can grasp a song like no other,” Producer Kim disagrees with Pete, that it is not because Hannah wrote it. “Hyekyung caught it years ago, didn’t you? When she was around your age.”

He points at Ana when he says the last words, not seeing her drop her head as he looks back at Hannah. Hyekyung doesn’t say a word.

“You’ve grown well,” he compliments her.

“Can I do the last part again though?” Hannah kindly asks. “Wouldn’t it be good if ‘I want it bad’ was a bit different?”

“Different how?”

“Rougher,” Hannah repeats the word he had used.

They listen to it again and Hannah repeats the line she wants changed, singing it live about three times to get it the way she thought it would be and on the third time, Producer Kim points at her and tells her to do exactly like that in the booth.

Again, he compliments Hannah, saying that she has learnt to hear what sounds the best. In the sofa, Ana feels like sinking further and further down in her seat with the disbelief that she might never hear Producer Kim talk to her that way.

Though Ana goes back inside the booth to continue the recording, after another hour they end up rescheduling to finish recording another day. Hannah won’t be there though, so when Producer Kim leaves, Ana turns to Hannah with a sad and tired face.

“Unnie,” the teenager lowly whimpers. “Why can’t I do it? What am I doing wrong?”

Hyekyung has sat down where Producer Kim was sitting earlier, wanting to work on his own songs. He and Pete are both sitting with their backs to the two girls as Hannah tells Ana to go home and sleep on it. According to Hannah, Ana is just tired. She is always working so she doesn’t have time to rest her voice, that’s what Hannah tells her.

“Drink some honey tea, and practice your parts after what Producer Kim said,” Hannah says as advice. “And rest. I’m sure it will go better next time.”

“I’ll ask Taemin to practice with me,” Ana nods.

Hannah gives her a tired smile. “He hasn’t recorded it himself yet so you two can practice it together,” Hannah tells her. Ana looks happy at the thought of practicing with Taemin, nodding as she is suddenly in a good mood.

“Ana,” Pete whispers.

The two girls look at him to see Pete resting his elbow on the table, smiling over at the two friends in the sofa.

“Do you want to know why Producer Kim treats Hannah differently from you?” Pete asks, as he heard what she had been whispering with Hyekyung about earlier. Hannah frowns at the weird question while Ana wants to know. “It’s called respect. Not just any kind of respect, but the kind that you get by working hard for eight years.”

Even Hyekyung seems to be grimacing a bit at his friend who once again is talking strangely sweet just because he is talking to Ana.

“Hannah, just as the other ladies, were not just bad in the studio when they first debuted, but they were really difficult to work with. It was not easy convincing producers to work with them at first; but as brilliant as this place is named SM Entertainment, it worked. Like others, Producer Kim first met the ladies during that difficult time in the studio, so he has seen their growth. Which is what he talked about before. Hannah has now become a young woman, known as an author, song-writer, singer…”

“Oppa,” Hannah ends up cutting him off, shaking her head as it is weird hearing him talk about her like that. Pete just smiles at her, looking proud that he has witnessed 5 Pieces’ growth.

“And that, our Ana, is why Hannah is treated differently. It takes years and a lot of hard work to get that far, so you’ll have to wait a few more years.”

“Unnie is amazing though,” Ana mutters, glancing at the lady next to her. “I can’t wait to have Producer Kim treat me like that.”

Hannah ignores their words and looks at her phone, asking instead when Ana is leaving. It’s embarrassing, Hannah thinks, mostly because Hannah has a lot more to learn before she can be said to have other’s respect in this line of work. On the outside, people are said to respect 5 Pieces because the ladies are popular, but on the inside it is more that people talk to the ladies as if their success has come easily. Producer Kim is one of few producers who respect the ladies. He said even a few years ago that he respects their bravery for daring to come all the way to Korea to strive for their dreams – especially since they were bad singers, he had told them.

Ana leaves after a few minutes, saying she will rest and practice hard so she can impress Producer Kim next time. After she has left, Pete says that ‘our Ana’ wants to grow up too.

“She is still young but has already won Song of the Year Award,” Hyekyung comments.

Hannah nods in silent, wondering when 5 Pieces won Song of the Year Award. She remembers their first times attending the award shows were in 2010 and 2011, only being nominated after two and three years since their debut. It was in 2012 that their popularity rose on the award shows, thanks to their third album [Black & White]. Hannah has to search online just to see what awards they won, not remembering what year and awards they got. Song of the Year Award was first given in 2013, for the song [Daze] that made international charts take notice of the girl-group as well. It was five years after 5 Pieces’ debut, though they the year before had won both Album of the Year and Artist of the Year.

Again, Hannah misses her members, to promote with them. Their last album in Korea came out in 2014, that’s a long time ago, Hannah thinks.

“Are you staying the night?” Pete jokes as Hannah isn’t leaving the studio.

“No…” she mumbles. “Jonghyun is out celebrating his concert so it’s boring going home early.”

“Hmm,” Pete says with a tone saying it is hard to believe. Truth is, Hannah doesn’t want to go home and pack for her European trip. “Why aren’t you at the party?”

“What?” she asks. She had gotten lost in thought for a second, not hearing what he said.

“Jonghyun’s after-party. Why didn’t you go?”

Because she doesn’t want to intrude, it’s not her concert after all. Hannah smiles at Pete’s question though, out loud telling him that she expected to be recording the whole night. Well, most of the night has passed already so it’s not like she is wrong.

With a sigh, she gets on her feet. “I’ll get going then.”

“Is Ji Young driving you home?” Hyekyung wonders.

“No. Park Jiji is driving me.”

“Ah, that’s right, Emelia wrapped up her promotions tonight, didn’t she?” Pete remembers and points a finger in the air. “Woah… She has worked hard these months, hasn’t she?”

Hannah agrees with him, smiling kindly when wishing Hyekyung and Pete a good night before she leaves. She can hear Pete continue to talk to Hyekyung about Emelia’s promotions before the door closes behind her. She sighs on her way down the stairs, wishing she could be promoting too. To be on the stage and perform like she did at the award show the other day, but do it several days of the week. She misses it greatly, promotions.

Manager Jiji is yawning when giving her a ride home. He doesn’t talk much but he gladly answers Hannah’s questions. She asks about how it has been working with Emelia these few months, what he will do for Christmas and so on. She isn’t tired now when heading home, wondering what she can do when coming to the apartment. In her head, she is deciding what to pack, wondering if she should bring the hood she is wearing now.

Jonghyun had been right about the hoods: it was all sold out when Hannah went to buy one. She hopes he won’t bring that up, that he was right and she was wrong.

Coming home, Tiger is rolling around in the hall again, happy that Hannah is back. Like usual, Hannah picks her cat up in her arms and talks to her while taking a seat in the sofa. She doesn’t want to pack now when she has gotten now, wondering where all her thoughts in the van went. Her plans of what to do when coming home have just vanished.

With a yawn, she picks up her phone, feeling it vibrate. Tiger has gotten out of her arms to lie down further away in the sofa, looking relaxed now when Hannah is back. Jonghyun is texting her, asking if she is awake. Then he sends another text, asking if she is working. A third text message arrives while Hannah is answering the first two, and she find herself laughing to herself that Tiger lifts her head to stare at her.

“What do you think, Tiger?” Hannah asks and lies down to look at her cat while glancing back at her phone. “Should I pick him up?”

In a cute language, he asked in the text message if she feels like driving him home because his drunken heart doesn’t want anyone else. That’s a drunken text message, just as he wrote to her when she was in the studio that he is having a superb night. After finding out where he is, Hannah gives Tiger a kiss, goes to the bathroom and is then out the door again.

The night is black at this hour but the streets are bright from all the city lights. The street is empty from cars too, the best hours to be out driving. Hannah is still new behind the wheel, but she has been driving a lot since she got her driving’s license so Hannah is quite good driving around in Seoul now. She st