Entering the hospital room where Emelia is sleeping, our eyes are on our manager though as we round the bed to put some distance between us. He is sleeping too. Manager Lee looks harmless with his arms crossed and head down, breathing heavily, and when I look at my friend lying in the bed I start to tear up. “You all look like you were expecting a bomb to go off when coming inside,” Emelia chuckles. She isn’t sleeping. “You’re awake,” Julia sounds relieved and steps up to take Emelia’s hand. “How you feeling, friend?” “Silly,” Emelia keeps chuckling. She touches the cover with her hand, caressing it awkwardly. It’s strange. I am used at this situation, having four worried friends leaning over the hospital bed while the fifth lies in the bed feeling awkward and silly. It’s strange because I am used to be the one feeling awkward and silly. Maria sits down at the end of the bed, blocking my view to look at Emelia so I slowly walk over to the other end of the bed. “Ji Young Oppa said he told the four of you to not come here, to get as much sleep as you can for the morning’s schedule,” Emelia points out. “I’m glad you didn’t listen.” “Well, it’s not like we could just leave you here, alone,” Carolina sweetly says, making me laugh while Julia gives her a glare, Carolina who didn’t want to come to begin with. “Alone with him, that is,” Maria says and nods at Manager Lee. She then pouts at Emelia. “But how do you feel, really? Have you eaten? I told Oppa to bring you some sushi.” “I’m alright,” Emelia softly smiles. She looks tired. “I told you to not stay up too long,” Julia mutters. “This one has been up half the nights working on music.” “Hey, guys, I fainted because I was tired. I didn’t hurt myself or anything. I’ll be fine in the morning,” Emelia assures us. I’m probably the only one who can’t stop pouting at her. I keep noticing her pale skin that has gotten some colour this summer is paler than it has been all week, her eyes are tired and with the blonde hair she looks like a sick person. Her smile is awkward. She should get some rest. “As long as you know you made us worry,” Maria mutters. “I heard you did well at the concert,” Emelia comments. She is sad, that’s why her smile is awkward. I sob wondering what thoughts she has gone through, knowing we had to finish the concert without her. Emelia isn’t the kind to admit those thoughts, but I have known her more than half of my life, so I know. “What does that mean…?” Julia grimaces. “Did well,” Maria scoffs, “Ya, we were in pain because of you. Our fans are in pain too. You made all of us worry and it is not alright to do that, you know. We all need to take care of each other when things like this happens, which was why we pulled through with the concert.” Emelia nods while I don’t understand what Maria means. But I don’t think I am paying too much attention either. My attention isn’t even on Emelia. I have turned around to glance at Manager Lee over my shoulder. We aren’t really keeping our voices down, and he can’t be that deep asleep, or can he? He is still breathing heavily so maybe he actually is sleeping. I glance at my members, all busy explaining exactly how dreadful the concert was after she left and that we should warn each other when we get dizzy on stage, to create a signal or something. I think we tried that back in 2009 too, when all of us were quite exhausted promoting our first album, dieting and for the first time doing actual promotions with tons of things to do every day. I bite my lip when walking over to the cupboard, opening it to find what I look for inside; a blanket. I keep biting my lip and nod to what my members are saying when I put the blanket on my manager, careful to not wake him. I am unable to find anything good to say to Emelia during our short visit, but she assures us she is alright and that we should head back to the hotel to sleep so we won’t get in trouble. At the hotel, I still can’t stop thinking of how Emelia is doing. I couldn’t really say anything, ask her anything, I don’t really know how to express my worry and care for her the way the others were talking to her. Is this how my members always feel whenever I go to the hospital? I can’t even imagine how it must’ve felt for them, as most of the time I haven’t been at the hospital for fainting.   Before I know it the sun has risen and we are on our way to Tokyo. Emelia is with Manager Kawayama, still at the hospital and she will meet us tomorrow morning in Yokohama, meaning we will attend today’s schedule in Tokyo without Emelia. I am sitting with my head back in the seat on the train, tired and deeply concerned for how we are going to perform live on TV tonight without Emelia. “Did you sleep well?” I look up at Manager Lee with a small glare. “Did you sleep well?” I ask, feeling offended that he asks that when Emelia is at the hospital but also slightly guilty that we didn’t do as he told us to by not going to visit our friend. “I slept … warmly,” Manager Lee says and start to smile for some reason. “Emelia is doing a lot better too, it seemed that rest did good to her. Just as pale as always but I don’t think we can change that.” Without a word, I nod in agreement. My friend can spend the whole summer in the sun and still not really get much of a tan. Manager Lee keeps smiling strangely at me, making me look questioning at him. He chuckles. “Thanks for putting the blanket on me, by the way.” I look away from my manager with a frown. Did Emelia tell him? Why would she tell him that I put a blanket on him? Wait, wait, wait, to put the blanket on him I must’ve been at the hospital, or is he meaning another time? When did I put the blanket on him? Oh, this is confusing. I look back at him with the frown still in my face, as if looking at him will tell me what he means, but Manager Lee is just smiling at me. But at the same time, when I think of last night…? “You were awake?” I whisper, it hits me as it comes out of my mouth, and I see the pleased look on my manager’s face. “Slow, but correct,” he plays with me and I feel my jaw slightly dropping. “You were awake?!” I hiss and shift position to face him. “Why? Wait, so you let us get away with … sneaking out?” This is probably the most confusing thing I have ever come over. Manager Lee was awake when we visited Emelia, but he pretended to sleep, he hasn’t even scolded us now in the morning. Is he plotting something else? Like keeping this up his sleeve to threaten us in the future with? Manager Lee starts moving his hand in the air when telling me quietly; “The whole … sweet moment between you all that happened… How dead would I be if I interrupted? I am very fond of my own body and life, Hannah-” “You were eavesdropping,” I point out, suddenly feeling upset that he was awake when we were having that ‘sweet moment’. “That’s mean, Oppa!” “Ssssh,” he starts laughing and glances behind us. I know Maria sits there, sleeping and listening to music. “It’s more like you all disobeyed the rules by breaking inside the hospital room you were not allowed to be in, in fact, you all left the hotel after midnight, which I remember I told you definitely not to do… So by eavesdropping, it means you all must’ve broken the rules, right? Which … Manager Lim would not like to hear, I guess.” “So you are going to threaten us,” I mutter while making a face. He responds with a smile, no word is said and I keep having a weird face-expression for the next couple of minutes. “Tokyo today, Yokohama tomorrow,” Manager Lee says, lifting up his tablet to continue working. “Emelia won’t be with us today so for the interviews we are doing, I want you to be more focused and make sure to cover the other’s mistakes.” Language mistakes, that is, as I know my ladies doesn’t make other mistakes during Japanese interviews. But while he talks work, I am still wondering if he was really eavesdropping to our talk at the hospital, pretending to sleep, yet knowing I was the one putting the blanket on him. “How did you know I was the one putting the blanket on you?” I quietly ask while stretching forward, my back stretching out comfortably. Manager Lee smiles at my question. “Emelia told me.” “So you weren’t awake?” “I was awake,” he points out, “I just didn’t know who put the blanket on me.” “So … Emelia just told you?” “Yeah, we bonded quite well during the night. Chatting. Maybe I should do that with the other ladies too; spend some hours alone with them. You think Maria would stop going on my nerves if I did that?” “She’d probably break the walls to get rid away from you,” I smile, imagining Maria’s face-expression if she is stuck in a hospital room with Manager Lee keeping an eye on her. It would be hilarious, but with a glance at my manager I guess he has the same scene in his head. “Yeah…” he breathes out. “I gotta use the bathroom.” I move my feet and lean back in my seat for him to pass me, and I look at his back when he walks over to the end of the carriage. All the times he has been at the hospital with me, you do end up talking. He hasn’t spent time with my members the way he has with me, both at the hospital and during my solo promotions. It makes me wonder just how close he has gotten with Emelia after spending some hours at the hospital. I wonder if Emelia too thinks they have gotten a bit closer, her and my manager. I miss Emelia. And it doesn’t get better. The whole day, after every interview and TV appearance I put my arms around one of the ladies and mumble that I miss her. I miss her so much and I miss Jonghyun and I miss not being the only one understanding the interviews as the other ladies with me seem to have a trouble understanding their fast sentences and questions. Maria is good, but like my manager said I need to stay alert on her mistakes and usually Emelia is the fast one to react on those things, making me extremely exhausted during the day. By the time we are heading back to our apartment in Tokyo, I can barely keep my eyes open. Emelia is apparently at the apartment already, getting some more rest so she is ready for the two day concerts in Yokohama starting tomorrow. I know I’m not ready. “Did you hear her fight with Ryo the other day?” Julia asks in Swedish when we are in the van. “She told me she stayed up working on music but in my opinion, she can’t focus on music because of him.” “What are they fighting about?” I ask. “I haven’t heard anything,” Carolina mentions. “Who cares what they are fighting about?” Maria sighs, “As long as she is doing alright, I’m fine with it. And if it isn’t working, we need to set a sample. Who has been threatening Ryo lately?” I find myself gaping when I turn to look at Maria. These ladies and all of their threats, it is something I hope they will stop with when it comes to Jonghyun. But when it comes to Ryo… “I’m not good with threats,” Carolina points out the obvious, “And especially not in Japanese.” “Just say some bad words and Hannah will deal with the rest,” Julia waves her hand. “Ha!” I gasp. “Seriously, there I no way I will threaten him.” “Or anyone. Have you even heard Hannah try to threaten someone before? It’s dreadful,” Maria grimaces. “Thanks,” I laugh. “You welcome,” Maria happily smiles back at me. “No, I think it’s up to me to deal with the threatening as Emelia is the one we will do it for.” Manager Lee looks questioning at the passenger seat, not knowing the language we speak at the moment and I honestly don’t mind much about that though I do feel slightly bad he can’t join in the conversation. “Maybe we should just talk to Emelia about it,” I remember; “She has said it is just for the summer, right?” “True,” Maria agrees, “But, if it ends up with her going to the hospital, it’s worth threatening just a little bit.” “I want sushi for dinner tomorrow,” Carolina says in Korean. Both Maria and I turn around in our seats to frown at her. “Seriously?” Maria asks. “Here we are talking about our important friend and the importance of threats, and you bring up sushi?” “I like sushi.” I sigh at the randomness of sushi being brought up and it is a conversation I don’t join. We are almost at the apartment so I’m too eager to meet my friend after the long, tough day working without her. As soon as the van stops I am hurrying out. For once I am actually the first one entering the apartment, and as soon as I come inside I call out her name. “Emelia?!” Laughter is heard and I find the biggest smile in my face all day as I run inside, my bag dropped on the side and I hurry straight to the living-room where the TV lets me know Emelia is there. And she is. Sitting in the sofa with a blanket around her, her hair put up in a messy bun and a smile I have missed all day. “Are you going to start crying, Charlie?” she laughs at me. The tears I had held in at the concert are filling my eyes and to not show her that I am in fact starting to cry, I run to the sofa to throw my arms around her. I know she fainted, that no one says it is a big deal as she just needed to get some sleep and food, but for me, I am used to be the one in the hospital bed; I’m not used at being the one worrying about the sick one. And I have just spent the whole day working for two; I need my childhood friend’s hug. “What are you watching, fainter?” Julia jokes when coming inside. She too comes inside the living-room to give Emelia a hug. “Nice to see you, friend.” “I’m watching bad jokes on TV and currently I am given bad jokes by you, friend, is that some new nickname you have come up with? ‘Fainter’?” “It suits you,” Maria comments, not coming inside the living-room. “You better be ready for tomorrow, EM, because we won’t go easy on you.” “Ya, you make it sound like we will play basketball tomorrow or something!” Emelia says loudly with a laugh as Maria walks off. “And Hannah, are you going to hug me for long?” “Yes.” She chuckles and puts her arm around me, hugging me back. “I watched you on TV, it was alright without me.” “Just alright, ha?” Julia smiles “Yeah, it wasn’t really 5 Pieces without me, was it?” Emelia teases.   It truly wasn’t the complete 5 Pieces without Emelia. Which is why the next two days in Yokohama, I feel grateful that we are five