In most parts of the world, when they say it’s raining, it is definitely raining; pouring rain! In Sweden when you are indoors with no window nearby and meet someone who tells you that it is raining outside, you are curious on how much: Will I need an umbrella or is it just a few drops falling? Sadly, that question was not needed when 5 Pieces today went to Japan. They knew there would be rain falling, and you needed an umbrella no matter what. A strange thing happening in Asia is that they only have one kind of rain falling; the pouring type. Whenever it rains in Japan or Korea, Hannah misses Sweden so much. What the ladies didn’t know was that the wind kept blowing outside the city too, so not until the buildings were covering the wind from blowing the rain hardly on the windows of the van, the girls could relax that the weather wasn’t all that bad. It’s a good thing they will be performing indoors.

The Japan Live Concert is like any other concert where a bunch of artists that have released something during the year will perform some of their songs. The amount of songs is decided by the broadcast station; how much time you get. 5 Pieces is one of two artists from Korea and they will be performing a total of nine songs this evening, including Emelia’s Japanese solo song [Private Business], Hannah will surprise by performing the Japanese version of [I CRY] and Maria will blow minds with the Korean song [Princess], while they also will perform all of their hit songs through 2013. The other one from Korea is 2PM.

There are many artists from Japan (of course) and when 5 Pieces walk around greeting everyone, the ladies are greeted with loud voices. 5 Pieces may have promoted a lot in Japan, but they have mostly gone on variety shows and talk shows, which means they haven’t met that many other artists. But most faces are familiar, other faces more than others and there is a difference is a lot of the artists on how they approach 5 Pieces; they either stay intimidated and on a distance, awkwardly greeting or they approach with admiration and confidence, fascinated to talk to the ladies. In other words there are artists afraid of 5 Pieces and there are those thinking they are good friends. When it comes to 2PM, it’s like meeting an old friend during a gathering with colleagues you never met more than two times or not at all. 2PM debuted the same year as 5 Pieces, about two months earlier though, and though they did promote and meet a lot during their first two years after that, they have barely talked or met for the later years. Yet, to meet in Japan as the only two from Korea mean they are good friends even if they have lost the contact they once had. So there is no trouble at all for them to start of talking between rehearsals and serious talk about the show, whenever they meet in the corridors it is friendly and familiar smiles and conversations between them; 5 Pieces keep being congratulated by everyone there for the awards the received recently.

The actual show doesn’t start until 21:30, which means the three hours in between rehearsals and the show, 5 Pieces doesn’t just do a bunch of interviews but also head off to do a quick appearance somewhere else in Japan as well. By the time the show starts, 5 Pieces come back and they warm up bodies and voices and does a final go-through of the songs before their turn comes. The schedule for the past hours has been tight. They had gotten time to eat after rehearsals but during the schedules afterwards it was go-go-go from interview to another; not that they complain, they had a lot of fun talking in Japanese and talk about their year in Japan and remember all the great things they have done this year, being reminded that 2013 is coming to an end.

When 5 Pieces performance starts off with [Run Out] – their most popular Japanese song of all times –, the crowd seems to like it a lot. The girls performs like they always do, live singing and good dancing, and they perform their hit song; they perform [Knockout] where they get the crowd jumping up and down, then back to the dancing with [Let Me Love] (Hannah’s personally favourite song from their album), and then Emelia performs her solo song. The crowd did definitely not expect that, because they do scream loudly when the music begins to play.

Backstage, 5 Pieces waits to continue, drinking some water. Hannah is nervously going through her own song. It will be her first time performing [I CRY] in Japanese. The single came out a while ago, she had heard the single reaching the charts in Japan right away thanks to [I CRY]’s earlier popularity, but she isn’t sure how the response will be like. And she will perform it all alone; no piano, just the instrumental blasting through the arena and Hannah alone on the stage. By now, she should really have gotten used to that – she hasn’t. Before Hannah’s turn, Maria performs [Princess], and the crowd is actually dancing along to it. They know Maria’s Korean song.

A year ago, when 5 Pieces performed at Mnet Asian Music Awards, Hannah performed [I CRY] on her own on the stage – it was her first time performing the song alone after promoting it with Taemin on the music programs and on concerts – and towards the end of the song, the crowd started to sing along. It was perfect. Their voices sounded like a choir singing the chorus with her, and Hannah had gotten such a shock, not knowing that every time after that – during concerts and simple performances – the crowd would sing just that part with her. That’s why she during 5 Pieces’ concert just reaches out her microphone for them to sing. During their Arena Tour in Japan, the crowd sang along to the Korean version. Now when she performs the Japanese version, she doesn’t expect them to sing along, though she hopes they will still like the song.

The first reaction to Hannah’s solo performance is silence. She imagines it is because it is a ballad, that the Japanese crowd is quiet for respect because she starts singing almost right away while for Emelia and Maria’s performances it was some intro before. Behind the stage, Maria is worried, wanting to see the faces of the crowd. Hannah keeps singing, trying to focus on the singing instead of her mind wandering off to all the bad things she has done this year that could be the reason for the silence; she has a boyfriend (her fans showed a lot of disapproval to that), she fights with her family (an idol not liking her own family, good or bad? Probably bad), she acted as Kim Jaejoong’s wife in a Korean drama (Korean dramas are popular in Japan, and Jaejoong beats Hannah in any kind of popularity contest).

At the part of the ballad where the crowd usually sings along, Hannah has a weird feeling in her stomach. As if she really wants to cry at this very moment. She closes her eyes to remember that this is the Japanese version; she can’t come with any Korean adlibs. And as she closes her eyes, she can hear it. Angels singing along, like thousand of low voices singing together as one, and she smiles when glancing down, holding back the tears before she can look up at the crowd. Hands are slowly waving in the air, the crowd singing along as simple as they always have done, and Hannah has to really pull together to come through the adlibs and high tones and singing with them. A part of her is awkward with a camera swishing by right in front of her face, but later she will be able to watch this performance and see the camera capturing the audience several times, capturing their faces and their singing. It was respect they had shown at the start; that this is a ballad that does not fit with the screams of support like the previous two songs. But singing along was something they knew to do, without even practicing because whenever [I CRY] is played on the radio, whoever hears starts to sing along at some part. The ending of the song, Hannah tries to not smile as it is a sad song, but the moment the song has finished she bows deeply, hoping the audience can understand how grateful she is.

The stage goes dark during her bow, and Hannah gets up right away, turning around as her members joins her on the stage, and when the lights turns on again, [Sleeper] begins to play – the first Japanese song of the year they came out with. They perform one ballad together after that, [What Would It Look Like], from their summer single, and then get off the stage after that song. The audience is chanting their name, and 5 Pieces just waits backstage, smiling at each other. One song left.

“JAPAN!” Emelia cheers in a loud voice, her Japanese comes out fluently as she in calm, charismatic voice adds; “Are you in a daze?”

The crowd goes wild.

 

“Thank you so much for all your hard work in 2013!” Hannah cheers with a glass up in the air. The VIP room at the restaurant is crowded with staff that has worked with 5 Pieces this year, all gathered for a New Year celebration. Hannah speaks loudly for the girls, her Japanese the best among them and her smiling face shines up the whole Japanese restaurant though they are in a separate room. Everyone sitting around them have their drinks held up as well. “On behalf of 5 Pieces, I want to thank everyone here for everything you have done, and most of all for coming here tonight to stand up with five childish ladies for another hour this year. We hope you all the best of luck and health in 2014, the drinks and food are on us. Cheers!”

“CHEERS!” everyone raises their glasses some more, some cheering a little louder at her revealing it’s free for them. Hannah hears Emelia’s voice loudly when taking her seat.

After their live concert in Japan, they went to a restaurant to eat and to celebrate the successful year with some of the people they have worked with the most this year. It was planned beforehand as the restaurant was reserved for this gathering. It’s difficult to say it is a dinner, because it’s after midnight, but they do get to eat. And since everyone knows each other it is a delightful time; everyone is talking while eating the small portions, and when people are starting to get done eating there is a lot of walking around to sit next to someone else you want to talk to. The ladies spread around doing the same; Carolina is stuck by Hannah’s side, wanting someone to translate everything for her, so Hannah is stuck having to translate rather than personally joining the conversations. Maria isn’t good at Japanese (not fluent, but she can have a simple conversation) so when she walks around talking, she makes a lot of people laugh as she makes so many mistakes – they are laughing with her, not at her. And with Maria’s personality she isn’t always understood, so Emelia slinks by like the wind, translating it for her group to understand and then disappears. Like always, 5 Pieces creates a great mood around them. Even when most people weren’t done eating, they started to walk around with their plate to not miss the chance to talk to someone. It’s fun to see some people still eating, like a buffet.

When a few people have left, the female Japanese manager comes up to the ladies; the ladies are spread around the room, so she walks from one to the other. When she comes up to Hannah, she tells the youngest that Yohio is by the door. Hannah makes a face.

“Who?” she automatically asks in Japanese, picturing a Japanese photographer they have worked with a few times

“A Swedish boy,” the manager explains, “a visual kei artist?”

“Oh…” Hannah says while the picture of a blonde, skinny teenager appearing in her mind. He is popular in Japan and Sweden apparently, but a year ago no one in Sweden (or 5 Pieces) knew about his existence. By the time Hannah is told he is there, Emelia and Julia have already gone over to greet him. Hannah doesn’t know why he is here, but he is from Sweden and he had done like 5 Pieces; crossed the globe to reach his dream. On the way to greet him, Hannah and Carolina tries to see them over their staff, Hannah stopping when a female staff who worked on the drama with them exchanges some words.

Yohio is three years younger than 5 Pieces, just 18 years old and not very tall (seeing him stand there next to Emelia, he looks to be of the same height, which is short for a guy), but he has that typical Japanese style about him with flawless doll make-up without going for the girl-concept, and his medium long blonde hair is styled the same way the Asian artists styles their hair; the same way Maria styled her hair back in 2008 when it was medium long and black, a strong lock crossing his nose. And he is super skinny. At first glance at him, Hannah doesn’t like him; she hasn’t liked him at all for some reason when hearing about him other than he is a Swedish working in Japan, and now when hearing him talk to them she comes to the conclusion – she doesn’t like him. She love what he has done; going to Japan on his own to become a visual kei artist, but it is his … personality, she can’t seem to like.

“I was sitting in a room nearby when I heard you were here,” Yohio tells 5 Pieces when they have taken a seat around one of the tables. It’s weird speaking Swedish all of a sudden. He is sitting with one leg resting over the other, leaning back in his chair with wrists crossed over his lap and he has a face-expression that always looks the same, as if he can’t smile and he barely even moves his lips when talking. Hannah gets annoyed after a few minutes because his hand keeps going up to touch the lock of hair crossing his nose, looking like he is going to move it but it is stuck from hairspray and whatnot that it doesn’t move an inch, and after noticing him do the same thing a few times, it is annoying. “I thought it would be fun to meet like this.”

They had never met before, but whenever 5 Pieces went to Sweden this year, they were asked about him. Not just is he from Sweden and works in Japan; they are from the same hometown and Maria even went to the same high school as him (not that she recognized him since she spent her high school studying in Korea).

He looks and sounds bored talking to them, saying he saw their performance tonight and mentioning what he is doing here as well as saying he is so popular that some girls outside the restaurant are waiting for him. Maria gave Hannah a glance at his recent comment, and Hannah almost smiles knowing they have the same thoughts.

“You should come work more in Japan,” Yohio continues, shifting the position of his legs slowly. “It’s much better than in Korea where everything is about .”

Maria openly scoffs at the comment, as if she was swallowing wrong. “What?” she smiles at him, amused by his comment.

“Korean music is all about ; k-pop,” he grimaces with deep dislike. “I hate it.”

Hannah is surprised at his comment, but maybe more surprised over their leader’s response because Maria actually laughs as if he is telling them the funniest joke ever; she laughs a lot at it. Yohio doesn’t seem to like that. Maria sees his face that doesn’t change a bit, and she opens with a laugh. “Oh jeez, you’re serious?” She glances at Emelia sitting next to her. “Is he serious?” Julia and Carolina weren’t interested at all in the Swedish friend of theirs; Carolina had run away as soon as she had greeted him, finding it more fun talking to some female staff with Manager Lee translating for her.

“Why wouldn’t I be serious?” Yohio wonders in his bored tone, and Hannah would really want to just walk away but she can sense that Maria will answer him well and that isn’t something she wants to miss. “But you have to agree with me that k-pop is all about . They copy the American industry.”

“And j-pop is not?” Maria is still staring at him as if she expects him to say it is a joke.

“Japan isn’t about .”

“No. Because in Japan, guys make out on the stage and that isn’t sensual at all,” Maria rolls her eyes, biting back at him. “Ah, but don’t take me wrong, I love guys making out on stage… But if you think Japan is not like every other country on this planet, you can not be seeing the same things everyone else does.” Hannah knows that Maria and her siblings all love Japanese rock, and both Emelia and Maria have listened to different kind of Japanese rock music for as long as they have been listening to k-pop so she isn’t at all putting this in a negative way. They love Japanese rock, but what they don’t like is Yohio now saying that Japan is different from other places.

“But making out on the stage is not about .”

“Oh it isn’t?” This time it’s Emelia, who couldn’t stay quiet anymore, “Because tongues playing in each other’s mouths are all about music, right?”

“But k-pop is more about , that’s all they sell.”

“We don’t sell that.” Maria leans back with arms crossed over her chest. “You can not say that k-pop sell while j-pop does not; most girl-groups in Japan are in bikinis or high school uniforms in their videos. What does that sell?”

“I’m visual kei, not pop.”

“Pop music is the same around the whole world. J-pop is part of Japan while rock in Japan is not seen anywhere else, but it is horrible for you as a representative in Japan from Sweden to say anything like that. Just because you are not in pop, that does not make Japan any different,” Maria is trying to reason and Hannah nods as she understands what her friend means. Emelia is quiet again, lately not finding any use to say much because Maria basically says it all. And Maria has a better temper most of the time when talking to people; Emelia would have been all over the table if she had been the one keeping the conversation going, but with Maria’s reasoning Yohio really has nothing more to say other than repeat himself; he knows the girls are right, but he doesn’t stop talking.

“But that doesn’t change the fact that k-pop is all about ,” Yohio repeats.

“It’s not all about , but Japan is just the same. You are stating the obvious. And as said; it is not all about . How the heck do you think we got here? Not through , that’s for sure.”

“That’s why I like 5 Pieces, you didn’t start off like that. But you have to admit that you are still going there. I saw your debut here in Japan; you looked exactly like everyone else here.”

“I have never worn a bikini in a video,” Maria says, sounding offended, and Yohio almost laughs as she misunderstands him.

“I’m talking about your style. You kiss asses and do what they tell you to. If they want you to wear pink dresses, you do that; if they want you to mention something on TV, you do that. You are puppets in k-pop,” he tells them and Hannah looks away with a deep sigh. Frustration goes through her body and out with the sigh.

Maria just smiles, that mocked smile when she looks at the ladies, leaning forward as if she can not believe they are being accused to be puppets by a younger boy from their hometown when the ladies are known in Asia for being the opposite. She looks at him again, resting her arms on her legs and she looks at him with eyebrows raised, still smiling as she can’t take him seriously. “We are puppets? You seriously think we do what everyone tells us to?” It sounds like she is going to laugh at him again, and Yohio just sits there as if he has no care in the world.

“And you don’t?”

“Hell no! How the heck do you think we would survive living in Asia and we would just have to go with the rules? That ,” Emelia grimaces and then waves at their Japanese manager to come over, asking her in Japanese to tell Yohio the nickname she has given 5 Pieces.

“5 Pieces are called Rebels here in Japan,” the manager explains in Japanese to him and Maria is nodding, then continues when Emelia tells her to; “Because they are these free spirited people that say whatever they want and does pretty much whatever they want too. They have the same image in Korea, but not the nickname.”

“We are no puppets,” Maria shakes her head at Yohio.

Hannah sighs again, not wanting to hear this anymore. She leans over to pat Emelia on the leg. “Could I go talk to someone else – anyone else?” She can hear how her voice is almost begging for it.

“See, even asking permission to leave the table,” Yohio points out with his arm stretched out towards Hannah, chuckling in belief she just proved his point. Hannah gives him a glare.

“I asked if they will be okay with me leaving or if they need someone to hold on to them when they want to punch you.” She wants to punch him.

“Woah… For being a pretty puppet of k-pop, your eyes can really look annoyed,” Yohio says as a mean joke, and Hannah stands up to leave without a word, but Maria is fast to bite back at him;

“Don’t be so damn rude!” Several faces turn towards them at the loud voice, Maria like always not caring because he just crossed a line and she just glaring at Yohio who does not look like he expected her to suddenly scream. “Just because you have come to Japan and shown you are badass at visual kei does not mean you are above everyone else. Stop acting like a damn brat and start show some respect to other living people. Whether you agree or not, we are ing badass at what we do without kissing asses and unless you have turned your back against the news, we – 5 Pieces – are not some idiotic puppets to anyone. We love what we do and we have learned to compromise (compromise!), so I don’t give a damn what your real thoughts are but don’t you give us any crap about being puppets when we have worked our asses off to get here for all right reasons.” She looks to be done but quickly adds; “And don’t talk to Hannah as if you are better than her because as far as I have noticed, you show no concern about the people you meet. So off!”

“MARIA!” Manager Lee comes running over as the whole room got paralyzed by her screaming. Well, at first it got paralyzed, but when most of them saw it was Maria lecturing someone, no one seemed to care more than wondering who the idiot she got angry at could be. Manager Lee is fast to apologize to Yohio in Japanese and Maria shouts at the manager in Korean that the brat should have someone telling him when he has gone too far. The manager’s face is turning red in embarrassment for the scene she creates, and actually Maria looks like the only one this annoyed, but both Hannah and Emelia are backing her up without a word, just standing with her.

“Having opinions are alright, that’s unique,” she calmly tells Yohio then, one hand on the table and one holding on to Manager Lee’s arm as he wants her to step out and calm herself. “But to be rude to other people makes you no better than those people dancing half- on TV and singing about ; the thing you said was awful. There is a difference in talking down to someone and speak your mind. Just because you have an opinion doesn’t mean you have to see yourself above everyone else.”

Hannah walks by behind Maria, caressing her back briefly as if letting Maria know it is over before walking away, rolling her eyes at Yohio. She had right; she doesn’t like him at all. And don’t take the ladies wrong; they love that he is popular in Sweden and dares to show himself to be different, but his attitude . Maria and Emelia knows more about him than Hannah as they actually have read articles about him; how he has turned down on k-pop and saying bad things about it but somehow liking G-Dragon, then saying Nicki Minaj and other artists are awful because they sing about while little kids listen to them – that’s why Maria reacted, as she thought magazines has misunderstood him but she figured out they didn’t. Of course there are a lot of things they all seem to have similar opinions about, but his attitude is what makes the ladies walk away from him.

Yohio still leaves with a Japanese polite bow towards the ladies, not looking like Maria’s outburst effected him at all, while Emelia later talks to his father outside the door and the father apologizes and says that Yohio only had good things to tell him when he came back. It’s so weird! Yohio had apparently after this burst out told his father that 5 Pieces is not like other artists; he basically seemed to have changed his opinion about them. Thanks to Maria’s outburst. He apparently liked that, and when Emelia tells that to the ladies, Maria just scoffs and curses in Swedish before telling them that entire he stands for something great but his attitude towards them and k-pop was the downturn. “He sounds like a normal Swede,” was Emelia’s only comment.

The ladies surely got annoyed at him and no matter how much their manager and Carolina tries, the mood between them doesn’t change. Just the way he acted towards them was annoying. 5 Pieces had been treated with respect at the live concert, people had praised them and liked their music, they weren’t respected as goddesses or too much, just having a name that has a strong meaning and approach for people. And then he came, just spitting in your face about being puppets and selling . Everyone knows that sells, that’s why so many does it, but 5 Pieces have never wanted to go there. They don’t want to be linked to those things, they want what they have; respect. Fans have mentioned it too, saying that 5 Pieces is different because they gain respect with their performances. That’s what they want. They want to be taken seriously, to let people know that their opinions aren’t just clouds you can wave away to non-existing, that’s what 5 Pieces go for; respect for each other, not just as a group but as people living on this planet with a billion of other people. Hannah really doesn’t know why he bugs them all so much, but that night was not a good night for 5 Pieces; just because of what he said! He accused them of being puppets, and then went to his daddy to say they were oh-so-awesome? Hannah wanted to curse at him too like Maria had done (she didn’t).

In the morning when heading back to Korea, the mood hasn’t changed. Hannah is tired. She has a stomach-ache and Maria has a headache. None of the ladies is ready for KBS Music Festival 2013, only Carolina gets a little excited when their manager again tries to cheer them up by mentioning who will be there. A lot of SM Town artists as SNSD, SHINee and EXO – almost everyone then – and also Beast, 2PM that they met yesterday, 4 Minute and KARA, Ailee…

“Have you guys noticed how we don’t get along with the girl-groups outside out agency?” Julia mentioned in a low voice when they were in the van heading to the KBS Hall. Carolina blinks at her and Julia sighs when adding “beside from Carolina….”

Carolina is the opposite of the other four ladies; she gets along better with girl-groups than boy-groups, both outside and inside their agency while the other four somehow can’t seem to do that. Emelia said it is because Carolina is afraid of boys, while their manager had once said she got a lot of contacts when she was a radio DJ – both are probably true.

“4 Minute doesn’t speak to me,” Hannah mutters, looking out the window.

“Beside from Hyuna,” Carolina adds. Hannah sighs. Beside from Hyuna and perhaps Sohyun, no member in 4 Minute seems to like her. In fact, not many girls in k-pop seem to like Hannah. She gets along better with the boys, even if she is awkward around them.

“Yeah, but they don’t like Hannah because of jealousy. There is no reason to dislike me,” Julia continues. Hannah just gets more and gloomier resting her forehead against the cold window, her eyes suddenly very tired. Maria isn’t listening to anyone else than Ed Sheeran in her earphones, trying to get some sleep to ease her headache. “And it’s not like I take much space either. Hey Carro, could you take me around and befriend everyone?”

Carolina’s eyes shimmers by the suggestion, and starts talking right away about some of her friends in the many girl-groups and they go through who they will meet today and so on. Hannah ignores them completely, not interested to make any friends. She can’t seem to get in a better mood, not even thinking of Jonghyun helps. Hopefully, meeting him might help; meeting their friends in SM Town at today’s festival might help them all.

But she doesn’t think Yohio has any right to say anything about being puppets and selling . He is 18 years old! He isn’t even taller than Maria and he is stalked by his own father, he looks down at everyone and everything and actually, Maria did say in the van after meeting him that he many times on Swedish TV had disliked the Swedish fans because they were kids not understanding what he was doing, also disliking everyone else’s music is probably not anything you should repeatedly say on radio and in interviews. Hannah actually is grateful working under SM Entertainment, for all the guidance and helps the ladies have gotten or they might have gotten that arrogant image as well. In other words, she hates the fact that 5 Pieces could have turned out the same way. What if they had gone to Korea, without signing a contract with SM Entertainment; would they have become rude and arrogant, coming off too strong and saying the wrong things all the time, creating scandals by saying they don’t like this and that and definitely hates that person. It would be horrible.

She is upset when getting out of the van. She pulls on the hood of the fleece-line hooded red check jacket, buttoning it and hugging her jacket wearing dark gray fingerless mittens. She is still not in the mood, wanting to just cover herself. She is wearing skinny jeans and sneakers, pretty sure she looks like some dirty farmer though she showered this morning. Though being in a bad mood, Hannah sticks to her members like always. She knows this is their territory, but after being in Japan she isn’t so sure how she feels about this place. How do the other artists see them? Intruders, colleagues… neither? She knows it is the same questions she asked herself for the first two years in Korea, but something is bothering her deeply.

Julia and Carolina stick close to each other, as Julia wants to befriend every girl-group member for this New Year and Carolina is the one knowing them. Emelia is walking first, muttering something about getting the schedule and then eat while Maria is hugging Hannah’s arm tiredly, quietly asking Manager Lee when their Manager Appa is coming.

“It’s starting,” Maria whispers as if hell is coming, as she can hear Carolina’s loud voice greeting someone further away. She asks Hannah in a mere whisper who they are greeting and Hannah sighs when leaning her head back and forth to see beyond Carolina’s head.

“I think it’s Secret,” Hannah answers the same time they can hear Sunhwa laughing.

Maria grimacing, her headache really not good this morning, and she quietly tells Hannah; “Their voices are annoying. Let’s hurry past them.”

Quietly they both hurries their steps to pass the dressing-room, Hannah simply bowing when passing them and Maria doing it too with her eyes barely open and they are in search for their own dressing-room. Just to have their manager behind them saying they are sharing room with SNSD. Maria ignores him, and with her silence Hannah think the leader don’t mind sharing with them. After all, SNSD is their sisters.

Hannah actually looks forward to meet them; she can’t remember when they met last time and spending time with SNSD is never really something difficult, other than finding time for it, of course. Tiredly the two of them bows to greet the few idols they passes by; most are either in their rooms or going through for rehearsals. And their manager doesn’t even have to show them to their dressing-room because Yuri is outside the room, talking to a staff but the moment she sees Hannah, Maria and Emelia, her voice goes super loud and she waves her hand for them to hurry come over for a hug. Sunny is fast to peek out by the delightful shout and though being tired and Maria having a headache, the leader as well as the other ladies become teenage girls – their voices maybe doesn’t get lighter, but they get giggly and jumpy and are greeting the members in SNSD (both outside and inside the room) with hugs and bright smiles, also exchanging brief words of each others looks or something else.

Their moods have gotten better. Headaches and stomach-aches still exist for Hannah and Maria, but they are talkative and laughing with their friends, even forgetting they are there to work for the first ten minutes because there is a bunch of girls just wanting to catch up. Tiffany repeats the same thing to each lady, the same thing she has texted them earlier too when their music video teaser for [I Want A Man] came out, and she is so excited telling them she loves the concept.

Manager Lee is busy working though; having to get schedules and talk to staff and directors and he sets up their things, have to call the stylists to ask why they aren’t here yet and so on – the ladies just chats with SNSD.

The only sad thing with meeting SNSD is that they are missing one member; Hannah noticed Yoona’s absence right away, maybe because she knew Yoona is filming her drama and can’t attend the Music Festival. But the other members are just as fun to be around. Yohio’s voice and attitude is almost outside the ladies’ windows by now.

“Bunny,” Jessica puts her arms around Hannah from the side, smirking when Hannah can’t hide how surprised she is over the closeness. Jessica rarely gets close to Hannah, mostly because the two girl-groups have many times come up to the subject where explaining what kind of skin-contact they prefer; Jessica likes that Hannah is uncomfortable with it all, teasing her by it at times (like now). “Hi.”

Hannah bursts out laughing at the cheesy ‘hi’ she receives, since she had tensed up in worry Jessica would say something uncomfortable or or tell her something; anything. Jessica smiles at the reaction, hugging Hannah a little tighter with a cute smile before letting her go, nudging her on the arm.

“Hey, I heard you are performing with Jonghyun on MBC,” Jessica then says, glancing at something behind Hannah, the blonde girl nods to answer. “How does that feel?”

It’s the way she asks, the way she glances behind Hannah that makes her smile. Hannah smiles really big, placing a hand comfortably in her jacket pocket. “Well, you know, Jonghyun will probably be really tough and annoying to ha-” Hannah starts to say but is cut off with a pair of arms embracing her and Jonghyun’s voice in her air whispering tightly what she is lying about. Hannah just laughs, hugging his arms. He has a divine scent about him, and even if Jessica hadn’t glanced behind Hannah, she sensed him coming up behind her. He laughs as he had heard she was just joking and before Hannah can actually explain that to Jessica, she is turned around and a pair of warm, big hands are placed on her cheeks to turn her head up for Jonghyun to kiss her right on the lips. She can’t stop smiling against his lips, warmth and comfort goes straight through her flesh and veins by his touch, a tingling feeling enters her chest and her stomach is slowly turning around. She didn’t know she missed him until now.

Jonghyun must know that because he smiles at her in a way that says he understands. His smile makes her heart stop beating…

“Hi,” Hannah breathes with her eyes unable to look away from his.

“Hi pretty,” he whispers back, taking off the hood from her head to pull a lock of hair behind her ear. If anyone else had taken the hood off her, she would have gotten furious, but now she is in a spell – Jonghyun’s spell – and she can just smile foolishly at him. Jessica makes a sound next to them, both of jealousy and cheesiness, and Jonghyun’s smile grows because no one else makes them look away from each other. “I missed you.”

She smiles. The surrounding had stopped when he smiled at her, looking like the only clear thing in front of her while everything else is a blur. She can’t say the same thing back; though her heart repeats his words doesn’t open to let it out; he looks so good.

“Could I please get 5 Pieces’ attention? Please?”

Manager Lee’s begging voice interrupts them, and at the same time they look away from each other; Hannah turns around to see her manager across the room, and she realises he has tried to get everyone’s attention for some time because his hands are up in the air with the papers. But the room is noisy, only Sunny pushes Emelia for her to listen up.

“Meeting, now,” he tells the ladies and waves for Hannah to come over too as she is furthest away.

Her heart misses a beat when Jonghyun’s breath is by her ear. “I’ll see you later, Nabi,” he whispers before kissing her lightly on the cheek and sneaks out the room. She can barely swallow when slinking over to her manager, stopped by Jessica after just a few steps.

“That was not uncomfortable?” she teases and Hannah just grimaces at her, playfully hitting Jessica on the arm and Jessica hits her back. It was far from uncomfortable.

 

Two hours later, while rehearsals are running wildly, Hannah is completely calm standing in Jonghyun’s arms in the room SHINee and EXO are sharing. The groups from SM share the two big rooms next to each other, mostly because they have the largest groups, so all the space is used, and there is no trouble walking back and forth between them. Hannah is hiding her hands behind her back, leaning against the wall with Jonghyun’s arm around her, them both talking with some of the others in the room; a mix of 5 Pieces, SHINee, EXO and SNSD’s Taeyeon.

They talk about a lot of things, Hannah listening with a smile most of the time, but then they have to bring him up and her mood changes right away. It’s like sitting in the sun on a hot summer day, a cold drink next to you and a light breeze in the air; you have no worries in the world for a few minutes when out of nowhere the snow throws down on you in a ice cold storm so you turn into a snowman. Everything turns cold inside her and her whole face-expression changes. It was actually Jonghyun who brought it up, asking Hannah and Emelia about the article saying they met up with a visual kei artist last night.

“HE WAS A BRAT!” Emelia shouts out, making both Baekhyun and Suho give a sudden jump in their seats and D.O standing up stares at her with his big eyes. “I mean seriously, he made all of us so mad. He came in during our celebration dinner, having this attitude about him… jeez, he goes on my nerves. But he is from the same hometown as us, so we sat down to talk. And he accused us for silly things and behaved like a silly little brat. Maria was talking to him; I was just waiting to see how long she would take it, you know.” She talks really well, Hannah just curious on how she is telling it. Her low voice makes her sound angry. “But it wasn’t until he insulted Hannah that our Captain came to attack. She was brilliant and perfect in so many ways the way she scolded and lectured him that what he just before had told us was thrown out of his mind. She was so good!”

She is praising Maria, and that makes Hannah smile. Maria really did a good job. She finished it off cleanly, she had even sounded calm in the end when explaining to him that speaking your mind doesn’t mean you have to push others down; if Hannah had been the one lecturing him, she would’ve ended up using her fists. Hannah doesn’t have the self-control that Maria has, not having the patience for words when your body is so much faster. But next to her, Jonghyun caught up something else.

“He insulted Hannah?”

Hannah’s shoulders sink when hearing the tone in his voice, and she shrugs her shoulder. “Not exactly,” she starts saying but again she is cut off, this time by Emelia;

“He is a little kid not knowing what he is saying. And don’t worry; Captain took care of it all. He won’t dare talk to her if we ever meet again.”

Everyone seems interested to hear more, wondering what Maria had said and how everyone reacted, but Jonghyun looks down at Hannah, repeating his question quietly for her; “An arrogant brat insulted you?”

She smiles up at him. “You think I couldn’t handle it?”

“You punched him?” he frowns a bit, and Hannah giggles. If she had talked to someone else, that person would have mentioned Maria or Emelia, but not Jonghyun. He saw right through her.

“I did not.”

“You wanted to?”

“You sound like you want to,” she whispers at him, biting her lip with eyes looking quietly at him. Jonghyun’s mouth twitches a bit, proving her right, and she smiles widely at him again. “I don’t think it would be fair to hit him; he would probably break into tiny pieces.”

“He is that skinny?”

She nods, looking at the others who sound to be in a conversation about shoes all of a sudden. “And short.”

“He is short?” A light lightens up in Jonghyun’s eyes, and she is almost laughing at her boyfriend.

“Shorter than you,” she whispers. She likes the way he looks at her after that comment, as if she said something awesome.

Hanging out backstage with them is fun. Hannah didn’t know she could be in such a good mood today, but meeting her friends turned everything back to how it’s supposed to be. Backstage in Korea is like it always is; friendly smiles to those you know and awkward greetings with the rest. But Jonghyun is always somewhere near Hannah during the day, even when have been at two different places and he shows up next to her, Hannah just starts smiling. Endless of smiles.

During the day, 5 Pieces encounter with Yohio seems to spread around among the artists and soon it is probably every other group they meet that brings it up. Yoseob from Beast walks past them once later in the day and he looks to remember something before mentioning he had heard about that, smiling as he first thought it was amazing for the ladies to meet another person from Sweden but even he took a step back when seeing their reaction for it to be brought up again. For some reason, a small flare of irritation hits the ladies each time Yohio is mentioned. Hannah is worried his words and attention took them more serious than they realise, because even their manager tells them they can’t glare at everyone bringing him up.

When rehearsals have ended and everyone leaves the stage, Jonghyun grabs a hold of Hannah’s arm.

“Let’s go,” he smiles at her.

With that smile and those eyes, she would do anything he says. Hannah glances at her members, all busy with their friends, and Hannah lets his hand slink into hers for them to part ways with the rest of the idols. At first she just follows him, letting him lead and she is nervous and ecstatic with his warm hand holding hers, his own feelings rushes through her.

“Where are we going?” Hannah whispers, smiling when he glances down at her.

“Somewhere private,” he answers, pulling her closer so he can put an arm around her now when no one else is around. They don’t go far at all, and Hannah knows he hadn’t exactly looked up where to walk as he is glancing inside some rooms on the way to figure out which ones are empty.

“Here,” Hannah whispers and pulls him to the side with a giggle, getting inside a room used for equipment – but it won’t be used today – and she smiles widely when Jonghyun embraces her for a kiss after closing the door. He seems so warm today, his skin, his touch, his feelings; it warms her. He calms her too, all the eagerness and roughness he can show when kissing her is not there. He is sensual, kissing her slowly and making her unsure of what to do. Jonghyun holds on to her head, backing her up against the wall and Hannah wraps her arms around his neck, letting his lips guide hers.

“Tonight,” Jonghyun mumbles between the kiss, “you’re mine.”

Her whole body reacts to those words, knowing exactly what he means and the tone he uses … her body burns, as if every part of her is blushing in delight.

The short time together in that room is everything Hannah wants. Her heart is lighter when getting back to her ladies, biting on to her lip and a light flush on her cheeks probably makes everyone who will see her realise what she has been doing. She feels guilty, of course, but what her personal life goes like is none of their concern. Thinking she is very close to their dressing-room, Hannah’s face darkened when she met 4 Minute’s Ji Hyun, both of them giving a polite bow towards each other when passing but their eyes are far from being polite. Hannah just ignores her.

“You.”

Hannah turns around by the rude tone, seeing that Ji Hyun has turned around with arms crossed over her chest. Hannah glares at her naturally, not knowing why Ji Hyun glances at her up and down. Hannah is still in the jacket and jeans she has worn all day, even wearing the fingerless mittens, so she thinks those eyes are judging her to the worse. “What?”

Ji Hyun looks at her with dislike. “Do you ever even try to look decent?”

4 Minute debuted in June 2009, about 7-8 months after 5 Pieces. Which means that the one at the moment talking down to Hannah is her junior; even if Ji Hyun is two years older, within the music and here backstage at a music program it is the years since your debut that counts and that makes Hannah a year older the senior. The problem is that Hannah doesn’t know what ‘decent’ means, her lack of Korean making her confused but she does still not like the tone Ji Hyun always uses towards her.

“I mean, you have a boyfriend, right?” Ji Hyun continues with her eyebrows raises a bit with another look at Hannah’s outfit and Hannah automatically glances down too. Indeed, she is not dressed up at all, but she doesn’t know why that concerns Ji Hyun. “You never think a little … well, you don’t think he would like it if his girlfriend actually dresses as a girl?”

“Does it concern you what clothes I wear?” Hannah wonders, trying to not look offended while her whole face shows her annoyance. “I don’t care what you think of that.”

“Obviously not what he thinks either,” Ji Hyun rolls her eyes, about to turn around but sees Hannah take a step closer.

“You think you know what’s going on in his head or what?” Hannah glares. She had almost held out her hand to grab Ji Hyun’s arm for her to stop before noticing she wasn’t actually about to leave so her hand fell down on her side again.

Ji Hyun has the same face-expression with eyebrows raised when meeting Hannah’s eyes, having an I-know-everything expression. “Maybe it’s different from where you come from, but over here in Asia, guys like girls that look like girls. For you, beside from big s, you don’t look like a girl. Do you even wear make-up?”

To ask another idol if he or she wears make-up is like asking a diver if he ever gets wet when he works. It’s the most stupid comment ever and Hannah isn’t really sure what to response to it, but one thing she knows for sure; first Yohio talking crap about her group, and now Ji Hyun talks crap about her look. And over that, she mentions Jonghyun. Ji Hyun smiles when seeing how speechless Hannah is at her words.

“Don’t think it will last,” she says in a low voice as a staff walks by them. Hannah starts to burn on the inside. “The Hannah on stage, who everyone seems to adore, is clearly not the same Hannah off the stage. If he hasn’t noticed that already, he will. Or he has noticed, and sticks around for something else.”

The glance down on Hannah’s body says even more than what her words had done and Hannah is fast to push her with both hands on her shoulders. Ji Jyun gets such a shock that she falls back against the wall, her eyes suddenly enormous. Like Hannah noticed when they talked to Yohio is that Maria is awesome with words; Hannah is not.

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Headline 26th: Fans On A Mission To Have 5 Pieces Hannah’s [Love] Played On Radio

Headline 26th: Japan Live Concert With 5 Pieces & 2PM Performing Their Japanese Hits Of 2013 Is A Success

 

Headline 27th: 5 Pieces Met Up With Swedish Visual Kei Artist Last Night In Japan

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X.devonalias

(Oooooh, girl fight? Opinions, please? ^^, - PS: Sorry for using 4 Minute as the bad girl here... Needed someone bad... Don't take it the wrong way please xD DS.)