In the midst of promotions, going around everywhere in Seoul to perform [Like This] on the streets and at schools, 5 Pieces spends the late evening and most part of the night practicing for their up-coming concert. On Thursday it is countdown D-22, and it is also July 17 meaning another lady is having her special birthday. Carolina has asked all week what the ladies are preparing for her, and though they spend every woken second next to each other doing promotions she still asks. The ladies have waved the subject off each time Carolina asked, and now the day has come and the day has almost passed and beside from cake and singing at M Countdown, Carolina hasn’t gotten a surprise like the others; being teased is something she gets every day. Though she did spend some time with fans being congratulated before M Countdown, and she was congratulated by friends as well – mostly over the phone.

After M Countdown they fill up the practice-room with talk about the concert, practicing with dancers and the band.

Hannah is in a pair of cropped leggings to a long top that even if it is wide it shows off her figure. Her body can never be hidden anymore. The secret to a successful night of practice is to change shoes; Hannah has the imagination that her feet doesn’t hurt as much is she changes from high heels to flats back and forth during the hours they are practicing. Nothing stands out as much as Emelia’s patchwork harem pants in navy blue and orange colours, wearing a simple gray tank top to it.

“We make it longer, so if you – Hannah – do your adlib like … twice as long, then Carolina can do the same.”

“Mm,” Hannah nods, glancing at Carolina before they all turn to the band to have them play it out.

Hours practicing, most of the dancers have gone out to get some rest while the ladies and the band are still working. It is tiring to work and then go home, sleep three hours and repeat the days with a bunch of things on their schedules but the ladies are actually enjoying it. Julia’s mother is taking care of the pets this week to let the ladies focus on work and while the house doesn’t seem to have much improvement Julia’s mother is actually cleaning things up every day.

Its midnight when Hannah is lying on her back in the practice-room, her legs lying up along the wall: that is one of her ways to stretch her back when it hurts. It is deeply helpful.

“So what did you wish you had done on your special day?” one of the band members asks Carolina, the chatting about Carolina’s birthday has been brought up while talking about what they have gone through for the concert today.

“Oh, um…” Carolina starts to dream away at the thought of what she wanted to do. “I wanted a home-cooked meal, jambalaya – dad used to cook that on my brother’s birthday and I suddenly want to eat that.”

“You want to eat again?” Emelia sighs, shaking her head.

“On my day I wish we had been able to go out to the country and have a picnic too,” Carolina happily says, holding her hands tightly together.

Hannah just smiles, hearing the others for not wanting anything normal like a birthday cake or birthday party; to which Carolina looks surprised and says they had cake at the music station and she has celebrated her birthday with everyone today. In a way it is really nice to not have five ladies all wanting to have big birthday parties. At the same time, they know that is impossible because most their friends can’t come and they obviously have no time for it either. It is a really good thing Carolina is easily satisfied on her birthday. But after today, Hannah wonders if anyone will try to surprise her on her own birthday – she worries, not wanting anything to be said on her birthday. She would be happy if everyone forgot her birthday.

Maria crawls over to Hannah, showing her cell phone screen to the youngest lying there on the floor stretching her back.

‘We are ready in three minutes! Be ready!’ Hannah reads from a text message that makes her smile. The dancers are back.

She gets up from the floor, standing up to start warm up her body and Julia asks when seeing Hannah get ready if the others are ready to begin practicing again. Emelia sighs and holds up her hands to be pulled up on her feet, Carolina does the same and Hannah groans pulling them both up.

They are about to take positions, putting water bottles and whatnot on the side to be given space in the room, and Carolina lazily takes her position without helping the others – smiling as she knows she isn’t helping out.

“Seems like you’re still taking your birthday seriously,” Maria tells the mascot.

“You always say that my birthday is my day,” Carolina smilingly answers.

“When did I ever say that?” Maria rolls her eyes and takes her position, putting her hands on her hips.

“Like, every time it is someone’s birthday,” Carolina answers. Maria looks at Hannah, seeing the youngest is nodding.

“Carolina is right,” Hannah agrees.

“Oh…” Maria shrugs her shoulders, as if it is no big deal. “In a few minutes it’s not your day anymore.”

Carolina smiles widely, not bothered by that her birthday is coming to an end. She has had fun today, and even if it has been a weird birthday it has been a great day of promotions with her members and the crew, the whole week actually, and she did have a bunch of fans congratulating her during the day.

Before they have time to begin practicing again the door is opened and dancers starts entering, in loud voices asking why they aren’t practicing and pointing out that the ladies are just being lazy. One of them even turns off the lights in the room and the ladies starts complaining with laughter, but stops making noise as someone among the dancers is spotted entering the room carrying a candle-lit cake.

*Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you!* the dancers are singing and the ladies starts joining them quickly, the band members as well and everyone backs away to give Carolina the focus.

Emelia said Carolina would cry being surprised like this, but all they can see in the dark practice-room as the candle-lit cake is put below Carolina’s face is how she is smiling widely at the cake and nodding along to the singing. The whole crew loudly screams at her to blow out the candles with a wish when they have sung for her and Carolina takes her dramatic pause to make her wish before blowing out the candles. The mascot doesn’t cry. With everyone cheering at her blowing out all the candles on her second time, Carolina joins in the cheering and laughing, saying she had no idea and she is just smiling widely thanking everyone.

Though they brought cake, they just let Carolina take a taste of it before putting it aside to continue practice – saying she can eat it tomorrow as none of them is allowed to eat at this time. It , Carolina says, and she keeps saying for the next three hours how delicious the cake was by her one taste of it.

Going home after practice, the ladies wash up and go to bed.

Hannah head inside Emelia’s room, seeing her friend is lying in her bed and looking through her cell phone.

“Yo,” Emelia coolly says seeing her there.

“Mm,” Hannah quietly says, leaning against the doorframe. “What was the dish Carolina said she wanted on her birthday?”

“Jambalaya,” Emelia answers.

“Oh…” Hannah nods and holds up her own cell phone, “thanks.”

Leaving the room without saying anything else, she doesn’t know Emelia smiling after her. Hannah doesn’t go to her bedroom but to the kitchen, and she looks up the ingredients on internet.

“Are you going to surprise her in the morning?” Emelia asks, surprising Hannah by standing in the doorway to the kitchen.

She nods in response, about to say they don’t have any ingredients when Emelia adds;

“Let’s look in the other house’s kitchen. I’m sure Julia’s mother has bought sausage with a lot of other ingredients that we can use.”

“Now?”

“Yeah,” Emelia nods, “come. If anyone’s awake I’ll just say we got hungry and wants a sandwich or something.”

They sneak over to the other house, walking inside in silence and standing in the doorway listening at the sounds in the house. It does seem like everyone have gone to sleep, so the two ladies sneak in to the kitchen where they start packing a little plastic bag with the ingredients they think can come useful. Hannah looks at the list on her phone while Emelia just takes this and that.

“What’re you doing?”

By the quiet voice the two ladies turns around, looking completely caught standing by the fridge.

Emelia sighs when seeing it is just Julia, standing there and hugging a happy Ryo.

“Ryo-chan,” Hannah whispers in excitement and puts the plastic bag in Emelia’s arms to rush over to the happy dog, put him in her arms and cuddle with him. “Don’t you miss living with me? I miss you, Ryo-chan~”

Hannah completely ignores to explain to Julia what they are doing there, not sure what to answer really, and even turns away when Julia repeats her question – but Emelia covers for them by in a low voice explaining exactly what Hannah has planned to do. Because Julia wants to sleep – complaining nonstop that they have come over at four in the morning – the two ladies hurries back to their own house. Emelia helps Hannah out for about ten minutes before going to sleep and Hannah continues to cook by herself for the next maybe twenty minutes before she goes to bed too. She really should focus on preparing her bedroom some day soon, but for now she just falls into sleep, because in two hours they are all supposed to leave the house to go work.

It is one and a half hour later that Hannah wakes up by the front door strongly being shut closed outside her bedroom, as her room is right by the hall. All dizzy from sleep she turns back and forth to find her cell phone; finding it under her pillow she sees what times it is and groans as voices outside her door are asking if anyone is up yet.

It is Mi Young and Manager Kim who have arrived, the sound of luggage and plastic bags being carried inside the house are heard as the voices moves further away as well.

Hannah checks her cell phone again, trying her best to focus her sleepy eyes on the display. It’s Friday…

With a sigh she throws the quilt off her body, preparing herself to get up but rolls around on her stomach in the bed to enjoy it a little more. One second becomes five minutes and it knocks on her bedroom’s door.

“Wake up, lady, rise and shine,” Manager Kim quietly says on the other side of the door.

Without anymore hesitation she flies out of bed, gives out a sound to let them know she is up and she starts getting dressed before heading out of the room to wash her face and get ready.

Stylist Mi Young has set up in the kitchen with hair and make-up equipment, and Hannah walks right past without a word to go to the bathroom. Emelia is brushing her teeth in there, giving space when Hannah walks in like a zombie to wash her face.

Maria comes running down the stairs. All ladies are up in the two houses, preparing for the day’s activities. Manager Kim has come with breakfast since the first house lacks that, and Mi Young is warming up curlers and mirrors in the kitchen.

Hannah sits down by the kitchen table when she has washed up, but is quickly up on her feet again to go to her bedroom where she puts on a cream before she can put on make-up. Make-up she can put on herself, a natural concept is it today, and all ladies do it themselves more or less. Mi Young helps the ladies in this house with a few things, as helping Hannah with her hair to get beautiful curls and a few locks put back in a bun hanging down with the rest of her purple hair. Manager Kim gets the outfits from the van as well, and she disappears to the other house to give them their clothes too.

A little more than an hour is what it takes for 5 Pieces to get styled and dressed by themselves, and eats breakfast. Since they do it themselves it goes faster, the stylists only helping out with a few things. When Manager Kim went to the other house with the clothes, Hannah asked her to bring the food she had made before going to bed with her.

Though it is just a few meters and walls parting them, Carolina gives Hannah a call on the phone as she doesn’t have the time to come over, just to go into this cute phase to thank Hannah and say she is thoughtful and how well she listened and what not – all because Hannah made jambalaya for her.

“When the heck did you have time for that?” Maria is frowning by the mirror, fixing her own hair. “And where the heck did you get the ingredients?”

“We sneaked in to the other house when you were asleep,” Emelia answers. “They had it all.”

“Clever,” Maria nods.

Hannah is happy over Carolina’s reaction, especially when hearing how she asks ‘you stayed up for me?’ and ‘did you really make it for me?’ and so on.

Fifteen minutes later they are parting. Hannah has gotten dressed in a white flower print pullover to a pair of jeans shorts rolled up, a brown belt and a pair of red canvas sneakers. In the car she is going through some papers and warming up her voice, riding with Manager Lee.

It’s close to nine in the morning when the two of them arrive at the high school grounds. All students are inside and a teacher along with some security guards meet up with Hannah and her manager after parking the car.

“All students are gathered in the gymnastics room, there are three different broadcast stations here and a person from your agency as well, I believe,” the teacher is informing them. Hannah is so nervous to be on her own, wanting to freak out while waking up. No matter how nervous she is, she has not woken up yet.

Manager Lee keeps looking at his side to make sure Hannah is keeping up with them. He sees she is nervous because of her fingers fiddling with her nails.

Entering the school building, they are walking towards the big gymnastics hall where all teachers and students are gathered now for the last day of the school term. All week the ladies have been visiting schools and streets to join flash mobs, to lead flash mobs and to perform or practice with school students now when it is the last week for Seoul’s students before summer break. A lot of schools have been practicing 5 Pieces’ choreography for [Like That] as a final project before summer, to get up and move a little and the reaction has been explosive. All week has been about dancing to 5 Pieces’ [Like That]. Today, the ladies have parted ways to be able to appear at five different schools to join the students dancing to their song. The teacher and Manager Lee talks all about it, of how they will do and how it is planned, but they hide in another room waiting for the person from SM Entertainment to brief them of the situation.

Hannah is smiling at that moment, standing and stretching to prepare for her appearance, her whole heart is shaking of excitement mixed with nervousness to do this alone – but she has practiced all week appearing here and there with her members.

She waits and waits, greeting a few more people from the school and a broadcast station interviewing her on the way.

“Can’t you see how excited I am?” Hannah laughs in the corridor walking with a bunch of people to the gymnastic hall. “I heard the students have practiced all week to appear on TV with their performance, so I hope they don’t think I will interrupt them.”

The students in the schools 5 Pieces are visiting today have practiced all week for the choreography as they were requested to appear on TV for these broadcast stations, to show how popular 5 Pieces’ song is among students and schools for everyone to spend the summer moving their bodies. They are supposed to just dance to the song, not having a clue that a lady from 5 Pieces will appear.

The door to the gymnastic hall is in the further back, meaning everyone will have their backs towards them. So even when the song begins to play and all the students filling up the hall are dancing, Hannah can peek inside with the others and she really looks excited when pinching her manager’s arm and gaping at the hall moving along to 5 Pieces’ song. They are all so good! She whispers to the teacher that everyone is dancing so well and she is told they have practiced a lot for TV. At the front and on the sides a few camera-men are standing, filming the students doing their best.

The chorus is about to begin and Hannah checks how she looks in her cell phone reflection before standing there waiting for the chorus to begin. She looks like she is going to squeal of excitement, moving her body already to her group’s music and hearing how so many students are dancing to it.

On the command, Manager Lee walks inside and points to Hannah along the wall, and she glances inside the hall before starting to jog along the wall, followed by people and she smiles brightly when students starts screaming; it should be obvious to who she is with her purple hair and foreign looks.

Hannah joins the students at the front, starting to dance as if she has been doing it the whole time in the shadows and the students keeps dancing while screaming and staring at her. Hannah lets go of the leash holding her back. She dances freely and looks from side to side at the students while dancing happily to [Like That], pictures taken from students and staff standing on the sides flashes and cameras are rolling and Hannah is smiling at the students that keeps shouting out at her presence. They are so good. Hannah can’t stop smiling at the energy in the hall, amazed and looking at the students actually pulling through the whole song and though Hannah is fooling around a bit at the end, they keep dancing.

But as soon as the song ends, she laughs at the loud screaming from the students echoing like an alarm and she joins in the applauses.

“You’re so good!” she cheers on some of the students standing closest to her, not hiding how impressed she is and she smiles widely at how they scream and blush and make weird noises.

It takes more than ten minutes for the hall to calm down, and even then Hannah is still clapping her hands and praises the students. She is there for quite some time, first taking a whole picture with everyone in the hall and then going around chatting and taking pictures with the students, promoting herself, 5 Pieces and their current activities while praising everyone about the performance and asking if they have put a lot of energy behind it. Manager Lee is on her side most of the time, constantly watching her while being amazed knowing how nervous she is without her members but you can’t see it at all. Being around the students Hannah is smiling and being polite, staying strong as a role model, while her inside is constantly terrified what would happen if she makes a tiny mistake or if she looses her smile or if someone comments something. She is on the guard though no one notices that, mostly because you can’t see she is on her guard since she is laughing and smiling the whole time. Manager Lee can see through it though, most of the time, and he smiles when Hannah turns around to see where he is a few times; she would be terrified if she couldn’t see him, if she didn’t know he was there. She puts a lot of trust in her manager when her members aren’t around.

By the time they are back in the car, Hannah falls back in her seat with an exhausted expression. Manager Lee just smiles from the driver’s seat, not saying anything, and Hannah spaces out, not even looking at her phone during the ride to the music program. Her social ability has reached its limit already for the day and she is planning on just being with herself in her shell for the rest of the day – but the hint of a smile from how fun it was can’t leave her.

After their sudden appearances at the schools, 5 Pieces joins up at KBS Music Bank to do a pre-recording of [POWER UP]. Hannah might’ve thought in the car that she can’t be social anymore after her school visit but the second the ladies are gathered they are talking about their similar experiences of surprising the students and they are constantly talking. Their room is so loud of the ladies and stylists talking in mouth on each other while getting dressed; before their pre-recording, they talk between the music for the pre-recording, after the pre-recording when getting ready for the real show and they continue to talk – now about their concert practice – waiting for Music Bank to begin.

For the broadcast of [Like That], Hannah is wearing a white crochet-sleeve lace-up top in white tugged lightly in inside a pair of black shorts with high buttons at the front and a pair of green over-the-knee socks to a pair of sneakers matching her members. From the flashy [POWER UP] performance, they had to remove their make-up to put on a softer layer for this performance.

The ladies doesn’t chat much with others while being backstage, they are stuck in their room with an ‘do not disturb’ sign on the door while they are talking work and work. In three weeks they have their concert in Tokyo, they talk about that; this weekend is their final promotions of their fourth album; tomorrow they will have a performance in Japan so they have to decide what songs to perform; and as typical as it is, in the middle of serious work conversations they bring up that it is SHINee Taemin’s birthday today so even if the ladies have sent text messages congratulating him they all together gives him a call to have the whole room congratulate him. But if it is Taemin’s birthday, that also means it is their stylist Yong Hyun’s birthday. Everyone already knows that, mostly because he had his morning off to have a romantic morning with his boyfriend – which the ladies got all details on for lunch.

Yong Hyun and his boyfriend are so cute with each other that Maria once again talks about getting herself a boyfriend. That girl is impossible, according to Emelia. Yong Hyun had been served breakfast on his bed along with a birthday present and even when heading to work, Yong Hyun had been surprised with a thoughtful message in his bag. He has the whole dressing-room squealing in delight of how cute his muscle boyfriend is, and Hannah was the one ruining it when reminding him that he has to do something romantic on his boyfriend’s birthday as well.

“Hannah, not everyone feels as pressured as you to give back as much as you receive,” Yong Hyun calmly had told her.

In ten days it is Hannah’s birthday, and she has been terrified for what Jonghyun will do. he hasn’t asked her what she wants on her birthday – she slightly hopes he has understood she doesn’t want anything at all – but he did ask how her schedule is, as to which Hannah found out she is filming a music video on her birthday. One thing covered but another question rises; Jonghyun can’t celebrate her birthday with her because she will be working, but at the same time Hannah will spend the whole birthday with her members – what will they do? Based on the  other four members birthdays, she should expect to get a surprise, and Hannah wonders if she should begin telling them to not do ANYTHING at all on her birthday to let them know how serious she is when she doesn’t want to celebrate her birthday. She would love to run away to a distant island for her birthday, all alone.

Being backstage waiting for dinner, before the show will begin, the ladies are in a sort of meeting talking about their concert. It’s not a serious meeting since they have been talking about it most of the day backstage, and they are not interrupted by the knocking on their dressing-room door.

Only when Manager Lee opens the door are they interrupted; by Julia’s mother.

“Annyonghaseyo,” the Swedish mother greets in Korean and shoots a smile at the five Swedish girls in the room before greeting the others.

“Mom!”

Julia is quickly out of her seat and welcomes her mother by the door, seeing a staff from the agency is with her and the happy puppies are running inside the room, receiving light-voiced greetings.

“I came with food,” Julia’s mother says and shows the big plastic bag filled with food containers. Speaking in Swedish, not many people in the room can understand her, but the ladies all stands up by the mention of food and gives out a hand to Julia’s mother.

“How come you all only focus on the food?” Manager Lim – the only Korean there understanding some Swedish – says with a sigh, “You should give her some space and allow her to take a seat before you take out the food.”

Julia shows her mother where to sit while Emelia tells their manager that Julia’s mother can find her own seat since there are quite a lot in the room. The room is filled with the talk of food and the ladies goes all insane when seeing it is meatballs and pasta that Julia’s mother have brought with her; homemade. Everyone sits down to eat, eating the delicious homemade meal that Julia’s mother has thoughtfully prepared for them. The sauce has mushroom in it, so while Carolina is completely in love in it and asks for ingredients, Hannah avoids eating it. the food is delicious, it has the taste of Sweden in it – maybe because of the meatballs or just because Julia’s mother made it – but it is really filling the room with a glorious appetite.

With the nice company of their pets and Julia’s mother, they eat their dinner and get ready for their performance. They stretch and warm up while checking their outfits and looks, and soon enough the ladies are heading to the stage, feeling ready to perform [Like That].

Starting off their performance, the audience is already up on their feet when the music starts playing with Emelia counting up to 5 Pieces. The ladies dances behind their dancers until Julia starts singing, and Julia almost laughs in her microphone when hearing the audience sing almost louder than her. She sings her part, dances her thing and Hannah realises that the ladies will focus more on the audience than the cameras for today’s Music Bank. The audience, mixed of fans to different artists that have performed and will perform, they are singing loudly (obviously not everyone, but those singing are so loud) and Emelia starts singing her part. The audience is so loud! Hannah smiles at Julia when their eyes meet briefly, and the dancers are smiling too when Emelia keeps singing but holds out her microphone briefly, hearing those in the audience singing even louder. This is awesome. Not just do they sing along, but the audience looks to be dancing or at least bouncing along in the steps and rhythm of their song. When Carolina sings the chorus it sounds like she wants to be heard more than the audience, the power she puts in, the energy in their steps, and Hannah is just smiling from beginning to end; she can’t focus on the cameras unless she is singing because she is too busy being amazed at the audience.

After six years, the ladies have made the country dance to their music.

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[Emelia] *Number eight

No time for that I get up on my feet across the place now I can start the chase,

I see you wave with me if you follow the beat, okay… okay…*

The park and the streets outside has been filled with hundred and hundred of people of all different ages this Saturday, everyone dancing along like a true flash mob, following the live singing from the girl-group performing on the stage prepared for this special Music Core performance. Children are standing on their own platform in the middle of the crowd, dancing along while big screens have been put up for everyone to see the live performance of 5 Pieces to dance along to their moves. Cameras are surrounding the place as Seoul dances along to 5 Pieces’ [Like That].

After Emelia’s part, Hannah hurries out at the front of the stage and she starts off the chorus in a loud excited voice, moving her body along with the others and feeling the music in to her core. It is a dream seeing these hundreds of people all dancing to steps to the right and then doing the same to the right; in rhythm, at the same time. It feels like they can move the world like this.

[CHORUS, Hannah] *I CAN’T WORRY ABOUT THE BEAT TONIGHT, a little fun haven’t hurt nobody

Why are you standing by the wall, I am sure you can move like htat

If you move like that, I can move like that (like that), just like that(like that)! Just like that! (like that)

You’ll move like that(like that), won’t you move like that(like that), you’ll move like that(like that), hey*

*I wanna be with you tonight, we can move like that, I wanna be with you tonight honey

Can you move it like that, I wanna let it be like that, throw a party, we dance, party all night

I wanna be with you tonight, we can move like that, I wanna be with you tonight honey

Can you move it like that, I wanna let it be like that, throw a party, we dance, party all night*

[Carolina] *Baby all I want is to let it go, we can dance like that,

Dance with me, with no worry, we can dance all night

Just like that~~~

[Hannah] Can you move it like that, while we move to the beat

It’s like that*

5 Pieces perform the song with their dancers like they have done this weekend. They had dropped their chin when arriving, seeing the crowd waiting for the special performance to begin, and ever since 5 Pieces got up on the stage they haven’t been able to stop staring at the large crowd of citizens being ready to dance with them. Earlier this week 5 Pieces had invited fans to come here, telling them to dance with 5 Pieces’ [Like That], but never did they really believe that so many people would come; and on top of that have most of them really known the choreography. Today’s weather is hot and cloudy, but they are lucky with no rain though the sky is super dark.

[Like That] comes to an end and as the audience starts cheering, those on the stage start cheering as well.

By now they have performed the song three times for Music Core and the ladies are in loud voices through their microphones saying how amazing everyone is for pulling through. Once again they are impressed and amazed by their fans, by the people listening and participating in their music.

Music Core is over for them, they have gotten their performance, but for 5 Pieces they are staying on the stage talking with the crowd and exchanging their thoughts and thanks for the love and support not just today but for their promotions for this album. Tomorrow is their very last performance, on Inkigayo.

“But before we will run off the stage in disbelief…” Carolina says and glances behind them to see if everyone is ready. “We would like to give you one more performance, just to thank you all in the way we are the best at. Please enjoy it and thank you so much for coming and participating!”

The ladies take their positions and the audience is already screaming even before [POWER UP] begins to play.

Performing for these promotions has honestly been a great joy. The ladies had so many troubles and worries before the album was released, and even before the album was released they were asked on an international ground why their promotions wouldn’t reach outside Korea for the fourth album. Honestly, the ladies have been happy the promotions have been in Korea; it was ages ago they were in Korea for such a long time without going abroad. It has been a gift to the Korean fans and Korean viewers, and comments online or during events in Korea have let the ladies know how important these promotions have been for the fans. “You won’t forget us,” a Korean fan had told Maria, because the ladies had said in an interview that the Korean album will only be promoted in Korea – no matter how popular it has gotten abroad, the ladies haven’t turned down on those words. For a start they even worried they would have to go promote the album abroad because it got such a sensation, just to smile when hearing even their agency held their words to keep the promotions nationwide. A total of eight weeks promotions of [Girls Power], and now the first section of it have just one day left of promotions.

But then again; 5 Pieces have a repackage album to prepare for and a concert coming up, so the promotions will continue with that. But for now, their promotions are coming to an end.

“It has really been fun,” Carolina is sitting with a smile printed in her face when 5 Pieces have arrived at Gimpo airport after their Saturday’s schedule in Seoul has ended.

Hannah smiles at her, agreeing completely. They are sitting by their gate, waiting to board the plane that will take them to Japan. Hannah is wearing a pair of zipper detail skinny pants in black (skinny and tight but comfortable with stretch-fabric), matching with a pair of bow-accent wedge boots in black with a 9cm high heel; to not look all too black, she is wearing a white long-sleeve lettering t-shirt. Though Hannah has been told too many times to think of what she wears at the airport; black and white always works, and it is comfortable so she shouldn’t complain this time, but she did complain when seeing that Emelia is wearing a pair of patchwork harem pants – they might be a present from a fan, but on that skinny figure of Emelia’s it is really weird how that size even fits her. Hannah wants a pair too. Especially to wear at the airport: her stylist would never allow her to wear something like that at the airport, and probably mostly because Hannah can’t lift those clothes up the same way her members do.

The ladies are talking about their activities when they first arrive at the airport, but after a few minutes they just drift into their own worlds. Hannah walks away from the seats to go sit down by this round bench next too, just to talk to Kyung Ho over the phone without hearing her members’ voices right next to her.

In the middle of hearing Kyung Ho tell her how popular [Like That] is – after he has told her about his week, which she has heard five times over the phone the past days already – Hannah looks to her left where her members are sitting. Maria is about to go to the bathroom, dragging Carolina with her, but the two of them have stopped a few meters away and Hannah smiles seeing it is SHINee’s Taemin they are talking with. SHINee are going to Japan too; with the same flight. Hannah knows that for sure, and Taemin has just come back from Los Angeles earlier today; she is certain he has a lot of fun things to tell them. While talking to her little brother over the phone she tries to look for more members in SHINee to come; she can’t see them and Taemin is stuck talking to Maria to go take a seat. Hannah looks down at her lap where her right hand is resting, watching the simple couple of bracelets she is wearing and the pretty nails in a summer neutral colour added with sparkly details. She is amazed how her nails look good after today’s performance; but delighted because that means she doesn’t have to renew them for the performance in Japan.

“Who are you talking to?”

Looking up she smiles at Taemin taking a seat on her left side, looking young and tired in his black hair hiding as much as possible under a zip-up hoodie. To a pair of jeans and a white shirt underneath the hoodie he looks like any other guy his age, laid back and relaxed, but the sunglasses gives him away for many reasons. First, he is indoors, and second, there is no sign of a sun outside. He still makes her smile, turning her phone down to speak without having it directed to her brother.

“Kyung Ho,” she whispers for answer and turns back the phone to to hum an answer to Kyung Ho. She smiles seeing Taemin listening to the buzzing from the phone; Kyung Ho talks so much.

Taemin sits there quietly with his own phone while Hannah finishes talking to Kyung Ho. Her friend is leaning back and looking down at his cell phone, glancing up behind the glasses when Hannah hangs up.

“How was LA?” she asks him, glancing at Taemin and then over at her members and she shoots a smile at Jonghyun who is standing next to his manager, talking on the phone and looking at her. Everyone else is gathered over there; not Carolina and Maria as they haven’t come back to the bathroom, but Key and Minho are also there with Hannah’s members.

“It was tiring,” Taemin answers, not forcing out a smile to her and it makes her smile at him. He is too tired to smile. “But the choreography is cool, very Michael Jackson.”

“I can’t wait to see it,” Hannah sighs and Taemin gives out a small laugh.

“It will probably be like when you prepared for your solo debut; you will hear my song countless of times and see me practice whenever you are at the agency,” Taemin says. He leans his head back for the hood to fall off and he takes his hand through his ear-long hair before hiding it under the hood again.

She keeps looking at him. “You’re nervous?” she asks. Something tells her he is really nervous. Even if he is tired she can both hear and see on the way he moves that he wants to practice and practice, just to make his solo debut as good as possible.

Taemin nods and glances over at the others before looking back at her. “Is it obvious?” he wonders in a low voice.

She shakes her head, and then shows with her fingers. “Just a little,” she answers; “Or I just know what a pressure it is.”

He groans tiredly and does the same thing with his hair as earlier, and Hannah smiles up happily when Jonghyun walks over to them.

“He told you about LA?” Jonghyun asks when taking his seat on Hannah’s other side, giving her the pressure to sit in the middle and he removes her bag to put it down by their feet carefully. Hannah nods but it is Taemin who says;

“Hannah says it’s obvious I am nervous because of the pressure I have on me.”

“I didn’t say it exactly like that…”

“The pressure is a lot, especially since you are from SHINee,” Jonghyun nods and smiles when both Hannah and Taemin gives him a sort of glare. He finds it hilarious because he sees Taemin behind Hannah’s back (because Taemin is leaning back so much) and it is really fun to see Taemin glare just to have Hannah give him a similar glare. “What? Our name and image is important, so he can’t screw up-”

He ends up laughing when Hannah hits her elbow on his arm for him to be quiet and he smiles seeing Hannah turn her back towards him, turning to Taemin.

“Don’t listen to him,” Hannah tells Taemin, as a good friend. “You will do great, we all know that. Jonghyun is just jealous that you will take on the stage without him.”

Jonghyun puts his chin on her shoulder, making her smile. Oh, she has missed him!

“Like usual, she is probably right about this,” Jonghyun tells Taemin.

She fails to hold in her smile and Jonghyun puts up his arm on the backrest to touch her arm. He is wearing a white t-shirt and a pair of black jeans, a pair of black and red sneakers. The watch on his left wrist feels cold against her skin when he caresses her lower arm on the backrest, and this boy too is showing his celebrity status with a pair of black tinted sunglasses; though instead of wearing a hood like Taemin, Jonghyun is actually wearing a black beanie. Compared to when Taemin had sat down, Hannah can’t take her attention away from Jonghyun. It’s not that she has to look at him, but his mere presence effects her. She breathes in through her nose more than necessary just to breathe him in, and each slight touch makes her heart flutter. She wonders if he knows that, because when she sits correctly again he keeps his hand on the backrest to let his hand touch her back, and when he talks to them he is leaning slightly forward for his other arm to rest on his knee; for his hand to reach her leg and each time one of them moves his fingers touches her.

It is Hannah who sees Julia wave them over when they are allowed to go onboard; they had been too busy talking to notice their managers saying their names. Taemin keeps talking about his solo debut when they get their things and starts moving; Hannah keeps close to hear what he says, fully focused hearing how he says not all songs have been recorded yet either and he is meeting up with some producers this up-coming week to finish the recordings. All the worried things coming out of Taemin is soothed down with Jonghyun calmly commenting to let Hannah know it isn’t serious; but she understands Taemin’s worries. Many times for solo activities she has had a lot of worries and questions, and she is happy her members have always been there for her. Smiling, she knows Jonghyun and Taemin have been there as well, both to tease and give her advice. Maybe a little bit of that makes her want to help Taemin too, just like Jonghyun telling him he will do great.

Standing in line to board the plane it takes a little time until Hannah realises she is standing with her boyfriend and Taemin instead of her members, and in front of her she has Minho and their manager covering the view so she has to take a step on the side to see where her members even are. But they are right in front of them. Jonghyun smiles when he sees how she got worried there for a second, and he manages to hold his arm away from her shoulder by looking down at his passport and ticket in hand.

“Kyung Ho will start filming a new drama at the end of the month,” Hannah tells Jonghyun with a smile.

“Oooh, really?” he smiles down at his passport. Hannah leans a little closer to try meeting his eyes behind the glasses, smiling at him when he looks at her.

“What is it?” she asks. Of course she noticed he avoided looking at her, and now he takes off his sunglasses, smiling out in front of them at her question.

“I want to hug you,” he answers.

Hannah frowns. “You want to hug me…?”

She doesn’t understand what he means and that makes him smile more, putting on the sunglasses again and glancing away from her, looking at something at a distant.

“What?” Hannah asks and stands up on her toes to see what he looks at, and when spotting what he meant she sinks back down and turns to face the front, her cheeks are burning. “Oh…”

She hadn’t noticed there were fans present. There are very far away, but she had no idea they were there. Jonghyun have been aware of it since he entered the hall, he knew exactly who saw him sit down next to Hannah earlier and he is certain that if fans want, their hawk-eyes would not have missed his fingers touching her leg earlier. If it wasn’t for them he would stand there with both arms around Hannah and just enjoy meeting her at the airport like this, but he had a choice by sitting next to her earlier and standing next to her now – if they are too touchy, the fans will turn black of jealousy, so he has to keep at least some distance.

Hannah walks in front of him when going through the gate and she continues to walk while he catches up to her. Taemin walked before them, not talking to Minho. Jonghyun reaches out his hand to take Hannah’s ticket, checking her seat and pouting when seeing they aren’t sitting close to each other.

She smiles apologetic at him. “I promised Carolina to practice through our performance anyway, sorry,” she tells him.

“She doesn’t know your own songs?”

“We are performing [Rainbow of Summer] for the first time, I think she wants help to just go through the Japanese lyrics,” Hannah answers and smiles at the air-hostess welcoming them.

Carolina is already sitting in her place, letting Hannah struggle past her to take the window-seat, and Hannah has barely sat her down until Carolina begins talking and wanting to go through the lyrics and saying Maria is going to sleep on the flight so she would want to sleep too and it is just a bunch of words entering Hannah’s right ear and leaving her left ear without much of it really is understood. Even if Maria is sitting right behind Minho and Taemin, she shows no interest in having a conversation because as soon as possible she is preparing to get some sleep.

For Hannah and Carolina, the talk about lyrics is there for about two minutes before Hannah asks Carolina to not be in a rush, and Carolina takes a deep breath to e quiet.

“SHINee is here,” Carolina then comments as if Hannah wouldn’t know and the youngest gives her a questioning look.

Carolina smiles: being all weird by not saying anything else. Hannah sighs and writes a text message to Kyung Ho that she has boarded the flight and they can talk more tomorrow, and when she is turning her phone off she can see Carolina lift up her own cell phone and starting to talk; she is filming. Carolina waves cutely to the cell phone filming in her hand, holding the cell phone to film Hannah sit next to her as well. She then stops filming and explains to Hannah what she wants her to do before starting over;

“Hello everyone! We are Carolina and Hannah-”

“Hannah and Carolina,” Hannah adds and waves slightly.

“We are on the plane, and guess who is here?” Carolina says in a low excited voice and has already turned the phone around to point out where whoever is. “It’s SHINee and 5 Pieces! There we have … Minho and Taemin, I think, right in front of the sleepyheads of 5 Pieces. Oh, and over there it is Jonghyun and Key.”

She turns the cell phone back around and Hannah isn’t sure if she is smiling or just looking weird, not really sure what Carolina wants to get out of this.

“We are going safely to Japan. Bye,” Carolina finishes and waves. When she glances at Hannah, the youngest is fast to start waving too, leaning her head to Carolina’s shoulder. Tiredly she keeps her head there when the filming is stopped and they look through the video. Hannah is quickly off in other thoughts, turning to her bag and preparing for the flight and to have her notebook out so they can practice for their performance tonight.

{Instagram, 5P_CAROLINA: with @5P_HANNAH seeing celebrities}

The flight feel like it takes forever. Hannah and Carolina focuses for barely half an hour before Hannah falls asleep and Carolina is sitting there, drawing instead of sleeping because after ten minutes trying she didn’t manage to fall asleep. Hannah fell asleep without even wanting to, and she sleeps hard until they land.

A little shaky from the sleep they are getting off the flight. She would want to wear a cap or something to hide that she hasn’t woken up from the powernap, but she didn’t bring one because it would ruin her hair; though sleeping and being on the flight didn’t do well for her hair either it is easy to fix, it would be impossible to look good after wearing a cap.

So when standing in the line entering the airport in Japan she sneaks up behind the y figure to wrap her arms tiredly around Jonghyun. He gets a shock at first, his whole body tenses and he is about to turn around with his hands on hers, but smiles when somehow noticing who it is.

“You haven’t woken up yet?” he asks in an amused tone. She rests her head on his back, her eyes unable to be kept open.

“Mm,” she comfortable mumbles, feeling his big hands holding on to hers.

“You looked really cute sleeping on the plane,” he chuckles. He had seen her when he went to the bathroom; he had wanted to talk to her but since she was sleeping it wasn’t a good time, but he was still happy seeing how she was sleeping leaning towards the window and her hair covering her face as much as possible.

She stands with him as long as possible, hugging him from behind and holding on to his belt, feeling him breathe and hearing him talk to others. It is Julia who makes her stand up on her own, and Hannah tiredly pouts. This is why she doesn’t like sleeping at other places than in a bed; she gets super tired. She yawns and ends up hugging someone’s arm anyway, and after going through all controls at the airport she is walking behind her manager, trying to focus her eyes on something to not blink for too long. She can hear Taemin talk to Emelia about his solo debut too, keeping their voices low but since they are right behind her it is hard not to hear.

Just as she is about to look around to try see where Jonghyun is, he joins side next to her with cell phone at hand.

“Are you going back to Korea tonight?” he asks her, and she finds it so obvious that he is acting nonchalant because there are other people around them. It’s cute.

Hannah nods in response to the question and watches him look up, glance at her and then look straight ahead again.

“Oppa, you’re too obvious,” she can’t help but to say and Jonghyun looks down with a chuckle.

“I just really want to touch you,” he says in a helpless tone. “And you keep telling me I am not allowed inside your new house.”

“You’re not allowed in there because it looks horrible,” Hannah answers. It’s true, their house still look like a mess.

“All I need is you and some private space,” Jonghyun says.

“Not at my place then,” Hannah shrugs her shoulder.

He sighs and looks at her behind his sunglasses. “You are testing me.”

Hannah smiles widely at his assumption and she turns to look in front of them. They have already reached the doors, and she is surprised that both 5 Pieces and SHINee are leaving together. But there isn’t a bunch of journalists or fans there; there are fans present, but not crowding the airport. It’s relaxing actually to be given so much space, she had for a second forgotten how different the fans in Japan are compared to at other places.

Both groups walk together and they all stop on the side to wait until they will cross the road. And when crossing the road they head to different vans waiting for them. It’s not a special goodbye, and Hannah is aware of eyes watching them: the idol couple going to Japan together. She avoids touching him when parting, but she wishes them all for a good trip in Japan – they are here to record songs – and she waves cutely to her friends, smiling at Jonghyun and then smiling more seeing Taemin wave back at them.

In the van, 5 Pieces are getting focused on one thing: Yokohama Summer Concert. They will after all perform a total of seven songs; [Let’s Go] which is their 2014 hit song in Japan, their anime OST ballad [Rainbow of Summer] and previous ballad [When There Is No Tomorrow], followed by last year’s number one hit song in the country [Run Out], simple dance track [Let Me Love], they will surprise with a y ending performance of [Girls Power] and make a quick comeback on stage for [Like That]. It is a concert where they will come, perform, and head back to Korea. Yet, the ladies are excited to perform after not being outside Korea for two months, and the Japanese crowd is always beautiful to perform for. They see it as a warm-up for their Tokyo Dome concert in less than a month.

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Headline 17th: Korean News Brings Up 5 Pieces’ Flash-Mobs Craze As The Latest Trend

Headline 17th: 5 Pieces Is The Number One On Every Chart In Korea For The First Half Of 2014

Headline 17th: Carolina Celebrated By Fans On Her 22nd Birthday

Headline 17th: 5 Pieces Performs [Like That] On M Countdown + f(x) Congratulates Carolina During Winner Speech

Headline 17th: 5 Pieces’ Carolina Celebrates Her Birthday Backstage, SM Entertainment Shares Pictures

Headline 18th: South Korea Finishes The School Term With 5 Pieces’ [Like That] Flash Workout

Headline 18th: 5 Pieces Says Goodbye On Music Bank With [POWER UP] And [Like That]

Headline 19th: Australia Has 5 Pieces' Hannah & Maria In Their '50 Hottest Women On The Planet' List

Headline 19th: 5 Pieces Counts Down With Fans For GIRLS POWER Tour Kick-Off In Tokyo Dome, D-20

Headline 19th: Music Core Airs 5 Pieces’ Crowded Park Performance Of [Like That] With Dancing Citizens

Headline 19th: Carolina & Julia Tries Out A New Workout Routine On Tonight’s ‘Star King’

Headline 19th: 5 Pieces Performs Their Hit Songs At Yokohama Summer Concert

Headline 19th: SHINee & 5 Pieces Showed Off Their Close Friendship When They Were Spotted Going To Japan Together

Headline 20th: 5 Pieces Thanks Everyone For Their Love And Support To [Girls Power] Album

Headline 20th: 5 Pieces Says Goodbye With [Like That] On Inkigayo

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X. devonalias - Sorry for the late update! Has been working long days so when coming home I haven't had any energy to sit by the computer. Some chapters will be updated today ^^, Enjoy!