“WOAH! Can you guys believe that?!” the American radio DJ is loud in the studio. “I can not believe my ears and I am in the same room as them. What we just heard was 5 Pieces singing LIVE their new song [Pieces’ Invasion] that will be released worldwide on April 1st, don’t forget to check it out. Now, 5 Pieces, you sure got some pipes! Can you hear the reaction outside, the crowd is going crazy!?” We have just sat down around the table at the radio in California after singing our song live for the first time, after revealing the song for the first time as the album won’t be out in a few days and the music video will be out tomorrow. But to sing the song live, for the first time, I am laughing behind my hand actually hearing our fans outside. It is Sunday, the day after Kids’ Choice Awards and we are promoting the album all day long, and though we have spent the weekend doing just that it is the first time singing it. Wherever we have gone in California there has been a crowd with us, fans holding up banners and shouting our name, screaming and jumping and that is exactly what they are doing now. It is amazing. I can’t even remember what the DJ asked us; of if he has even asked anything because when I laugh I look over Carolina’s shoulder to see out the window. On the other side of the window our fans are, pressing their signs against the window and cheering over the song we just sang for them. “This is insane,” Maria comments in English, looking at our fans. “It is indeed!” the DJ laughs. He keeps talking, saying we just had the world premiere of the song [Pieces’ Invasion] and talking about the song and again I don’t really hear him though I do smile widely at Maria who is as excited as all of us. We are nervous and excited, promoting a new song not heard before, and the questions we are given is the basic ones about our career and going global, past hits like [Daze] and [Girls Power]. I am sitting in a super soft white/fuschia plaid button-down that actually is ed so far down that my bra is slightly visible at times, which is supposed to be my fashion point, along with a long black necklace, some gold rings, bracelets and a smaller golden necklace. It is all about fashion now, to show ourselves as icons both in music and fashion and I am slightly alright with it because though the shirt is ed it is soft and comfortable and I am wearing black skinny jeans and a cool belt to it. “5 Pieces is doing a promotion tour now, right? Where are you going and for how long are you doing it? What’s your plan, girls?” Girls, I smile at that word because in Korea we are called ladies but I don’t mind, I don’t mind at all because I am high on adrenaline thanks to my ladies, the album and our fans. “We just started it this weekend and we are going around in … America and Europe for the next three weeks to promote the album,” Emelia says, smiling widely. She surely looks great in a swingy and crinkly deep-v tank featuring beautiful embroidery and bead detailing throughout, cropped by her waist in charcoal blue, she wear silver accessories like rings, earrings and necklaces (no bracelet) and fitting pants of thinner material than mine, showing off her long and slim body with her hair long and beautiful. “How is your ride? I saw something very interesting earlier…” the DJ says and we laugh at what he is mentioning. “We got a really nice ride,” Julia comments. “We got our own bus,” Maria adds on with a fun pronouncing on ‘bus’, doing it with style. “The bus even got your faces on it!” the DJ laughs and we are cheering. “It is a promotion bus, it is the coolest bus ever and … we wish our promotions were longer just to keep it,” Emelia says, making the DJ laugh in agreement that it would be cool to have your own face on a bus like that. “What’s so cool with the bus? Other than your faces being on it, of course” “Oh everything,” Maria laughs, “We got a lot of space in it, we even got a fridge, and the speakers are good-” “Carolina sang karaoke for us yesterday,” Julia points out and she looks pleased when the DJ starts laughing. “Sang karaoke, how does that work in a bus?!” he is laughing and I find myself laughing too when three voices starts talking at once. Carolina gets the word, as Maria finds it her thing to speak of; “There is a microphone for the driver to talk to the passengers on the bus, right?” Carolina starts explaining, “I got to borrow it, and I sang songs from my phone to everyone.” “It was like seven in the morning,” Julia continues, “And everyone was half-asleep and she was just singing and jumping-” “The bus was not moving at that time,” I whisper and Julia nods, saying the bus was still when she was jumping – all for the safety. It is midday when we attend the radio and afterwards we step outside to write autographs, take pictures with our fans and talk to them, face to face without it being so official. Then we head to the next place to continue promoting, just as we have been doing since morning. “You are flying a lot back and forth, now when releasing your album worldwide, will you miss your family even more?” we are asked at one interview and Maria explains; “When we promote worldwide, we have done it before briefly for singles, but at those times we meet our family more than usually because our families live in Sweden and we are currently living in South Korea, so … I am actually looking forward to these promotions so I can catch a glimpse of my family once in a while. I don’t think I will miss them more.” It is fun how the questions are for each interview, whether it is at radio or for a magazine or for some online site or a TV interview, everyone want to ask about 5 Pieces’ as a group; how we live, where we live, how we manage to live together for so long. I like the questions about how we live. Everyone get such a shock to know we have lived together since 2008, in the same house, in the same apartment, we once shared the same room, pushing in five beds in one room to sleep together. We tell some fun stories about living together, how crazy we drive each other at times and we laugh while telling these stories because most of them are so silly while others really don’t matter. Throughout the day we go around among fans and journalists, we do interviews and get personal with our fans on the streets. It is three levels of the day; interviews, fans and bus. In the bus it is just us being by ourselves, we practice and sing, and with our fans I think we are having the best time ever, and the interviews are quite funny too. When the interviews ends it is dark outside, but we go out with our crew for a late dinner and tomorrow morning we are doing a photo shoot before getting on the flight. Midnight, the music video will be released. In Korea it is almost dinner time, already Monday for them, and on SNS we ladies have been counting down the hours with our fans. They don’t know what we are counting down for, but we do. {Instagram, 5P_HANNAH: It is out! Be ready for an invasion this year, because it is officially starting ;)} “IT’S OUT!” the roaring goes through the room we are in, our crew and members. “OH MY GOSH THIS IS FREAKING…. IT’S FREAKING… YA!” Maria wraps her arms around Carolina and Manager Park, kissing them both on their cheeks and she is shaking her hands in the air walking over towards Emelia but the rapper steps away, warning her from getting too close so Maria turns to me instead, pressing my head with her hands to kiss my head. Our music video is out. Maria is even speechless, which is probably the biggest shocker as she always has something to say. We can’t sit still the first few times we try to watch the music video and once we have managed to watch it, we scroll down to read the comments. Emelia is in control and she reads quickly, making Carolina complains and Julia laughs. It is all good though, all amazing comments. “You are trending worldwide since morning on SNS,” Manager Park says, reading on his phone. “Now your music video is number one priority on YouTube and SNS, the most searched too.” “Puzzle all across the world is looking for this,” Carolina is boasting and stretching up her arms in the air, looking proud over the comments and the online reaction for our music video. We all are. I can’t believe how different it feels than when earlier music videos have come out, maybe because [Pieces’ Invasion] means so much. Our first international album, our first global promotion tour, it is the official start of everything, and soon our world tour will be confirmed and it will be insane. The music video is absolutely amazing though; we look great in it. Each member looks both y and charismatic and it sure looks like an invasion. I love it so much. Emelia uploads a set of pictures from the music video filming on Instagram when promoting the video release and before we can leave the room we take a few group pictures of ourselves cheering and we are holding a hashtag for our [Pieces’ Invasion] that has been trending worldwide these days. It is basically all promotions, constant promotions from when we wake up to when we go to bed. On Monday we have a photo shoot, and then I am alone, without my members, heading back to Korea. I spend a direct flight from Los Angeles to Seoul in almost 13 hours, and when I arrive it is Tuesday evening. Manager Jiji picks me up and I sleep an hour in the van before reaching the hall where I will spend the next two days wrapping up my solo concert. The last two days of NEW ME. My fans are sitting outside, lining up already and I feel horrible because the rain is pouring down and they are still sitting there. “They have been here all week,” Manager Jiji points out when seeing me turn around to look at the fans when we pass by. “The good thing is that it just started raining today.” I pout though. What if my fans will have caught a cold by tomorrow’s concert? We go inside and though I have just been on a 13 hour long flight from one part of the world to another, I am jumping straight into rehearsals. Work clears my mind, especially since I don’t have my members to hide behind. It is all on me, and my crew, and we work hours going through the concert and making sure everything is alright for tomorrow. It is four in the morning when we leave, and I have then exactly eight hours and 14 minutes before Manager Jiji will pick me up outside the house. Coming home it is empty, quiet, Tiger is overjoyed when I come inside the house so she is creating quite a ruckus by herself, Ace comes walking over when I put down my things in my room but I can’t hear Milo anywhere. With Tiger in my arms and Ace following by my feet we go looking for Milo. He isn’t downstairs and there is no note in the kitchen that maybe Julia’s mother has taken him over to the other house, and I doubt he is upstairs but I have to look everywhere. A tail starts hitting the floor when I come upstairs and I almost start laughing hearing it comes from the dark bedroom we have for Kyungho. Getting closer to the room, I see it is not just him in there. Kyungho is sleeping in the bed. I find myself look around, in search for cameras or people or anything to tell me why my little brother is sleeping in here. I texted with him when I came back to the country, but he never said he was going to sleep here. But it is four in the morning so I don’t wake him up to have him answer my questions; instead I wash up and go to bed, with Ace and Tiger both sleeping in my room. Milo stays upstairs, all until I am about to fall asleep and I hear him make his way down the stairs. He looks around in the house before he comes inside my room; his tail hits the frame of my door then hits the side of my bed, happy that someone has come home. “Hello big boy,” I greet him tiredly. “Go to sleep.” It takes some time until he goes to sleep, and he lies down in my room, just to leave a few minutes later and I listen to him walk upstairs. Maybe he felt I already had enough company. After that I sleep, and I sleep hard. What wakes me up is metal hitting the floor. Not in my room, but somewhere in the house, and I hear Kyungho’s voice whining. I am out of bed right away as I smell something burning and in pyjamas I run inside the kitchen, my head spinning from going from deep sleep to running and I stop by the kitchen, staring at Kyungho who has dropped a pot on the floor, it looks like he was making soup because whatever it was in the pot is flowing out on the floor and while Kyungho looks up at me, frozen where he stands as the hem of his pyjama pants and slippers are drenched in the soup too, I step forward to not let Milo up the hot soup. “Did you hurt yourself?” I ask Kyungho. He shakes his head, surprised of what happened. “I’m sorry, I-“ “Go there,” I interrupt him and point over at the bathroom, “Get anything wet off yourself and if your skin burns you should have cold water on it. Okay?” He nods and does his best to walk to the bathroom without stepping in the soup. Tiger and Ace aren’t in here but as I push Milo out, Ace comes looking and I have to tell them both to not come. Ace is a better listener than Milo, but Milo is bigger so I can easily push him back out. Once they aren’t coming inside the kitchen I can start sweeping the floor. I do it quickly before checking in on Kyungho in the bathroom. He has pulled off his pants and slippers, and he is using his hand to dot cold water on his skin and I can’t help but so laugh a bit. “That won’t work,” I tell him and head out the bathroom. I take out some ice and put it in a plastic bag, seeing that he was making more than just soup, before I walk inside the bathroom, where Kyungho is apologizing and saying he wanted to make breakfast and he whines when I put the ice on his leg. He sobs at his failure; I know it because of that. “I didn’t want to wake you,” he sobs, wiping his tears and I am just smiling. “What were you doing here alone all night?” I ask him. “You should’ve said you were sleeping over.” He keeps sobbing at my question. “Julia’s mom let me in. She took me to school and picked me up, we studied together too… She said I could stay here because you were coming…” “For how long have you been here?” I ask, surprised hearing she had sent him to school. “Two nights…” “Two nights! What for? Why didn’t you tell me? You can’t be here alone without letting us know, are you crazy? What if you did this and I wasn’t here? What if-” “Nuna!” he cries out to make me quiet.