“Mmmm,” Julia breathes calmly, her hands holding on to the cup of coffee as if it is what’s keeping her alive.

“It’s delicious, isn’t it?” the producer says in Japanese, smiling at the lady.

“Delicious,” Julia agrees.

Monday has come quickly. The ladies went to Tokyo and have spent the day in the studio. Just as Hannah predicted, there has been no chance for her to meet Jonghyun. The ladies had dinner in the building, taking a short break from recording but close enough to continue when they were done eating. Julia had said after dinner that she wants some coffee and one of the staff members had said he knows a great coffee place, which is what Julia nod has in her hand. Carolina and Emelia have coffee too, while Hannah and Maria got hot chocolate instead.

Julia looks like she is freezing the way she is holding on to the cup, her hands warm holding the cup while she in fact is holding on to it because it is what’s keeping her awake. Julia says in Swedish to Emelia that coffee is the source of life, and Emelia translates it to the staff in the studio. After all these years, Japanese is still hard for some of the ladies.

While Hannah is in the booth recording, Julia steps outside to see if Maria and Carolina are still awake in the other room. Emelia has been watching all the other ladies record during the day, being in the back writing the rap. There is a lot of rap in the song, a song that seems to be their comeback track in Japan, and Emelia is in charge of writing and rapping it. She is also a translator for the ladies whenever there is a communication problem.

“What are you doing?” Julia asks when coming inside the room.

Maria is lying in the armchair, head over the armrest so is wide open, looking like she is sleeping. It is a resting room, small and cosy with a sofa and a few armchairs, a table by the wall where the ladies had their dinner earlier. Now, Carolina is sitting there, completely focused on her tablet. Neither react at Julia’s question. Manager Kim is in the room too, lying in the sofa with a jacket over her, indeed sleeping. Julia walks over to Carolina to see what she is doing.

“What are you doing?” she asks again while looking over her friend’s shoulder. “Playing games?”

Carolina gives out a sound in response, her finger moving over the tablet to try catch the candy in the game; she is super focused.

“You said you’d be practicing,” Julia simply comments. She pulls out a chair to sit next to Carolina, taking out her phone.

“I have practiced,” Carolina answers and gives her a glance. “I was practicing really hard when she told me to stop.”

Carolina points over at Maria and glares at the sleeping lady before looking back at her game. “What do you think will be said tomorrow?” Julia wonders out loud, glancing at Carolina. “At the meeting. Do you think they will say ‘let’s release a single within five weeks’?”

“Why would they say that?” Carolina looks surprised. “Isn’t Emelia having her vacation before our comeback?”

“You can never know with the agency,” Julia mutters. She shakes her head.

“We’re not making a comeback until after summer,” Maria mutters from her armchair. She moves to lie on the side, lying like a ball. “Appa said we can do the comeback after Hannah’s movie.”

“Hannah is making a movie?” Carolina looks up with her jaw dropped. Julia turns to look at her in a shocked expression, as if she didn’t just hear that question.

“Are you stupid?” Maria mutters.

Carolina looks like she has never heard about it before though. “I thought she was going to do a drama?”

“You’re really stupid.”

“Hannah said months ago she is going to make a movie,” Julia tells Carolina.

“It’s a drama. She will be a spy, right?”

“Ya,” Maria sits up with a sigh. “It’s a movie and she is going to be an assassin, where the have you been?”

“I’ve been in Sweden…” Carolina answers with a pout.

“Ya, I’ve been in Sweden and I know it.”

“Don’t fight, ladies,” Manager Kim groans from the sofa.

“Not even knowing that she’s making a movie…” Maria mutters, getting up on her feet. “Are you sure you’re part of 5 Pieces?”

She leaves the room to go to the bathroom, shaking her head on the way. Hannah said it when they were in London too, that she will have to stop eating all these delicious meals if she wants to get in shape for the movie. Maria is tired. She has been back for a few days but has been practicing and attended an award show, and now she is in Japan. Yesterday was a day off, giving her the chance to unpack the rest from her time in Sweden.

“Don’t mind her,” Julia tells Carolina, patting her back.

“She’s really making a movie?” Carolina whispers, seeing Julia nod. “I had no idea. I thought she was going to start filming a drama in a few weeks.”

“Unnie,” Julia turns to their manager. “Wasn’t Hannah supposed to film in February? She is still not preparing for it?”

“The filming is delayed,” Manager Kim mumbles from the sofa. “Something about setting the schedule didn’t fit everyone or something.”

“Delayed for how long?” Julia wonders.

“As it looks like now, she might start filming in March.”

“Wait, if our comeback is after the movie… and the movie is delayed…” Carolina is saying, looking out in nowhere while moving her finger to put the pieces together.

“A month is no big deal,” Julia tells her.

“But still… Besides from [Mr Handsome], we haven’t promoted in Korea since 2014. And now it’s 2017,” Carolina keeps pouting. Whatever they say, they can only speculate about what will happen, Julia says. Tomorrow they have a big meeting with SM Entertainment to decide 5 Pieces’ year. It is nerve-wracking because the ladies haven’t promoted in Korea for some time so they look forward to have a comeback.

When Hannah is done recording, she comes inside the room where the others are resting. Maria is back in the armchair looking as lifeless as before while Julia and Carolina are both playing games. Hannah quietly walks over to Manager Kim, who is lying in the sofa with her phone.

“Unnie,” Hannah whispers after squatting down next to her, “I am done recording now.”

“Mm, good job.”

Hannah grimaces and pokes their manager on the arm. “Unnie… can I go?” she whispers. Manager Kim gives her a quick glance.

“Go? Go where?”

“Uh… you said that if I am done early I can go see Jonghyun?”

“Ah that’s right,” Manager Kim remembers and nods her head. She checks the time on her phone before looking at Hannah. “Two hours.”

Hannah smiles brightly and nods, repeating ‘two hours’ before getting on her feet. She tells her friends in the room that she will see them later before hurrying out. She is almost running while putting on her scarf, with bag over her shoulder and phone in hand. Their driver is waiting in the van for her, as she texted him as soon as she got Manager Kim’s approval.

Her smile is big when getting in the van, the driver asking where they are headed.

“Eh… wait a second,” Hannah says in Japanese and looks at the text she just got from Jonghyun. She thinks of saying it out loud but ends up just showing the address to her driver that Jonghyun has taken a picture of; “This place?”

Her driver nods. When he starts driving, Hannah leans back in her seat. Since she and Jonghyun couldn’t meet up for dinner, Hannah told him that they are taking the last flight back to Korea; he suggested for them to meet up if her recording ends early.

Jonghyun practice has ended already so he meets Hannah by the street, for the two of them to take a walk together during the short time they have. He is dressed in black today, from top to toe, hiding under the hood of his jacket, a cap and a mask. Hannah smiles when she gets up to him, moving her head to look at his eyes; besides from all the blackness, his eyes are the only thing she can see.

“Are you cold?” Hannah asks.

She smiles widely when he puts his hands on her cheeks. “My hands are cold,” he answers. He smiles behind his mask when taking her hand in his to start walking. “How much time do we have?”

“I said about an hour to the driver,” Hannah answers and points behind them. “But if you have to leave earlier-”

“My schedule has ended for today,” Jonghyun interrupts her. He is tightly hugging on to her hand, as if trying to warm her while he is the one who seems to be cold. Hannah likes it, mostly because they are meeting up in Tokyo when she thought they wouldn’t get to do it.

It’s late and not a lot of people outside. They are walking around slowly on streets where there isn’t a lot of things to do, some saloon and small boutiques that all are closed at this hour. There are more cars driving past them than people walking by, giving the couple enough privacy and from what they can see, no one recognizes them.

“Have you seen If Cats Disappeared From The World?” Jonghyun wonders when they have been walking around and talking for some time. Hannah shakes her head. “A staff member recommended it to me. It’s about … a guy who finds out he is going to die and he thinks about death and life.”

“Did you watch it?”

“Let’s watch it together,” Jonghyun says, smiling at her. “I saw about half of it, I think, but I kept thinking about you when I saw it.”

Hannah gives him a grimace as he just said the movie is about a dying person, and he thinks of Hannah? Jonghyun laughs at her face-expression and explains that the main character asks questions in the movie that reminds him of questions that Hannah could ask; what would I do if I found out I’ll die tomorrow? How would the world change? She laughs at his explanation because she hasn’t asked such question in a while.

“Let’s watch it together when I come home,” Jonghyun tells her.

“Sure,” she nods.

“Sure,” Jonghyun repeats. He leans closer to kiss her forehead. “It’s not an action movie but I think you’ll like it.”

Though it’s just for an hour, the two of them enjoy their stroll around the streets. They will see each other in a few days again. An hour passes by quickly though, and before Hannah knows it, she is heading to the airport with the other ladies.

The drive to the airport seems to last forever though. Carolina is sleeping in the back, Julia and Hannah are talking about cinnamon buns next to her, Maria is listening to music, Emelia is listening on the radio up front with their driver and Manager Kim is sitting behind her, eyes stuck on her phone. Those in the front are speaking Japanese, those in the back are speaking Swedish; it’s not much for their Korean manager to join in on.

“Did you know there is a poll on the internet about which member in 5 Pieces people think would be the most successful if the group disbands?” Emelia raises her voice a bit to be heard to the ladies, speaking Swedish to them.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Julia asks from the back. Maria is listening to music so she probably didn’t hear it.

“People are laying their votes on the lady they think would be the most successful if we disbanded,” Emelia explains again. “Dreadful, really. They should vote on something better. Like which lady will weep on our comeback stage.”

“Who would cry on our comeback stage?” Julia grimaces.

“Why vote about anything…” Hannah mutters.

“Obviously, the cry-baby will cry on our comeback stage,” Emelia chuckles. She mixes in Korean words with the Swedish, more used to say ‘cry-baby’ in Korean. Hannah shakes her head at that, not thinking she will cry.

“So, who is first on the poll?” Julia wonders. Hannah rolls her eyes and starts taking up her earphones to listen to music instead.

“Our cry-baby,” Emelia answers with a lower chuckle. “People say she is already the most popular among us when we have solo activities, with her book releases and such. I’m second. Some comments say they chose me because of my album, saying that if it was before 2016, they wouldn’t have chosen me but you know, I’m popular.”

“I’m probably last then,” Julia grimaces in the back. “Since I don’t do solo promotions.”

“Hm,” Hannah lowly nods.

“Hey,” Julia suddenly scoffs at Hannah’s response. “I’m still popular, you know. I’d do perfectly fine without you four, no doubt about that.”

Hannah didn’t mean anything bad with her response. She thought of that among the members in 5 Pieces, Julia does the least promotions. Hannah has done acting, published her own books, released her own music, and she is part of the Musketeers. Emelia has released music in both Korea and Japan, singles and mini albums, appeared a lot of programs in Japan, she even acted in a drama once. Carolina has done it all; she has been a radio DJ, been writing and producing music both to her own releases as well as to other SM artists. Maria has done well when she has released music too, and she is the most active when it comes to modelling among them. For Julia, she appeared on Carolina’s radio a few times and has released a single. It’s not like Julia has asked their agency for something to do either, whenever Hannah talks to her it seems like Julia enjoys the free time.

“Are you having an argument again?” Manager Kim wonders, turning her head to look back. She can only see a pouting Hannah and a sleeping Carolina as Julia is sitting behind her.

“Unnie, speaking Swedish doesn’t always mean we are arguing,” Julia answers.

“It sounds like it though.”

“Hm,” Hannah agrees and Julia gives her a laugh for responding the same way again. Manager Kim tells Carolina and Maria to wake up when they are nearing the airport. Maria is awake though she has been lost in her music.

Carolina is holding on to Julia’s arm when they go through the airport, saying she is sleepy and repeating it a few times until Julia tells her to hug someone else’s arm. By that time, they are already getting in line to board the flight so Carolina just turn around and makes a tired face to Maria.

“Forget it,” Maria lowly tells her before Carolina can ask to borrow Maria’s arm.

Emelia smirks behind their leader and steps forward to get in front of her, friendly putting her arm around Carolina. “I’ll let you borrow my arm,” Emelia says.

While Maria and Julia both look at her as if she has gone mad, Carolina happily hugs on to their rapper with a bright smile.

“Are you sick?” Maria asks Emelia.

“Yeah, I was going to ask the same thing…” Julia lowly says and tilts her head over how weird it is. “Emelia letting Carolina hug her…”

“She’ll owe me own,” Emelia simply smirks.

Her words make them laugh and Carolina doesn’t look as happy anymore. With Emelia, there is always a catch. Borrow something from her, you’ll be prepared to when she will ask to borrow in return. It almost sounds like a threat, but Carolina still hugs on to her until they are boarding. It’s easy to tell there will be sleeping on the flight. Carolina falls asleep right awa