“So I was thinking,” Maria says, kicking off her sandals in the van as soon as we sit down in it after being at the gym, “Now when you’re back with Mr Hannah, we won’t be five single ladies taking on LA. What are ya gonna do about that, baby?” I am sitting comfortably in my seat next to Maria, feeling great after sweating at the gym and washing up, it’s as if I am ready to take on the day. And my hands are free from bandages though I have patched them up a bit easily at the moment. Maria’s question is nothing new, we have talked a lot during the two and a half hour at the gym about our summer in Japan, our up-coming month in LA and missing relationships and whatnot – it’s always free to speak about anything when hanging out with Maria. We also talked about Carolina and the song we trashed last year, which she hasn’t heard anything of so Maria looked a bit confused when I tried to explain it all for her. “What do you mean?” I nonchalantly ask her with a smile at my phone. “Single, life. That’s like … what we’re going for.” “I’m just as dull and fun as always,” I make a weird smile at her, “With and without Jonghyun, I’m the same when it comes to single life.” I’m probably the same. I missed Jonghyun when I was single and I miss him when I’m not single? I guess I feel better knowing I’m in a relationship with him, as if I am certain of what I am doing knowing I still have him. I can party and have fun with happiness as not a single lady. “True,” Maria admits and I laugh at how easily she agrees with me. “But you will still be part of our Single Ladies club. I am not spending a month in LA with those three girls as my only single ladies. That would .” “Are you aware of that we are going to LA to practice for the tour?” I ask Maria. If I could raise one eyebrow at her I would, but I can’t so I try to raise both. “5 Pieces is what, exactly? 5 Pieces is a mix of work and play. And we can not spend a month in LA without play.” “Can you ladies even spend a weekend without play?” Manager Jiji asks from behind the steering wheel. “Oppa, you’re coming along, right?” I laugh at Maria’s sweet tone and Manager Jiji smiles at the front. “It would be fun to have me around, wouldn’t it?” he jokes with us. “You’re not going??” Maria sounds shocked. He laughs, the man two years older than us. “It hasn’t been decided yet. We’ll see. If I’m told not to go, are you going to fight for me like you did with Manager Lim?” “Ya!” Maria suddenly bursts out. “Don’t ya dare compare yaself to the one and mighty father of Pieces. You are faaaar behind him.” I realise I’m barely even trying to understand Maria when she adds in slang and made up words or … maybe it’s just Korean words I don’t know but her whole attitude is something I know to just let pass by while Manager Jiji looks to be entertained, maybe he too knows Maria well enough to not take her attitude seriously. “Anyway, LA will be awesome,” Maria concludes. Whatever LA will be, Seoul at the moment is not that great. Or our home is not that great. I have missed texts and calls from Manager Lee asking if I’m ready to go to the gym, which was two hours ago while the calls are just recent – I haven’t answered them because I don’t want to talk to him. Julia hasn’t texted or call. When we come home, already out on the street I start consider going somewhere else. We stopped by a restaurant to buy pizza, we get some more for the staff currently being at our home and that is what I see when we come home. Cars are on the driveway, Manager Jiji just leaves us as his car doesn’t fit anywhere and I carry the pizzas while Maria doesn’t take much, instead she open the doors for us. Inside the house, it’s not that many people at first glance, but the staff for the photo shoot is around 11 people, plus the photographer and they are all currently working outside in the yard with the glass doors open in the living-room and the heat outside is pulling out the nice air we have indoors. I put down the pizzas in the kitchen before I go outside to see how things are going; kindly greeting the staff spotting me and warmly asking how they think it’s going. Emelia looks beautiful in a long summer dress, posing around in the yard with Milo, who looks to be leaning on her a lot because of the strangers. According to the staff it took about an hour of trying to do the shoot before Milo turned into this softball just doing whatever Emelia tells him to do. Turns out it wasn’t that easy anyway, though it looks like that now. Maria walks past me to get move involved in the photo shoot, taking on the role as 5 Pieces’ leader and fashionista, while I decide to prepare for our plans to be in pyjamas upstairs, eat pizza and watch Criminal Minds – and still be decent for the people working on the first floor. I change into pyjama shorts and a t-shirt, and then I kick a toy mouse around heading to the kitchen, having Tiger run around to catch the mouse. Standing by the table looking what type of pizzas we have bought is not the manager I want to see. Manager Lee is here. I had no idea, and since my focus is on the floor playing with Tiger I notice him after he has noticed me. “You went to the gym without me?” is the first thing he brings up, for some reason looking likes he has a reason to be upset. With my manager, I can do the silent treatment. I turn my heel around and leave the kitchen without getting the pizza I came to get, Tiger dashes past me and Manager Lee sounds shocked behind me. Hurrying to my room to hide, he actually goes after me. “Get out,” I say when turning around, pointing at him to head out my room. “Let’s talk about this.” “Get out!” I hiss. “You want to create a scene right here, right now?” Manager Lee asks with eyebrows raised, “There are a lot of people out there that would love to get some insight of the drama going on-” “YOU create the drama, not me,” I cut him off, furious that he is putting it on me. “Get out of my room or I will create a scene and tomorrow morning the scandal of you two will be out. Get – out.” Manager Lee looks like he is trying to read me, if I am serious or not, and then he just sighs and leaves the room. I am not going to calm down when it comes to my manager and my best friend having . I am not going to forgive Ji Young for it and I am not going to forgive Julia for it either – I am planning to stay mad at them both for a long time. By the time Maria comes upstairs I am sitting with our pizzas, a glass of water prepared for Maria and a glass of Coca Cola to myself, and Tiger playing in a blanket I have brought with me to the sofa. “Ya,” Maria laughs when seeing me. “I’ll be done in like ten. I have to use the bathroom too… BTW, did you see how pissed Ji Young was?” She stops by the bathroom door to look over at me, leaning on the door. “He came here looking for you, Appa told me, and was told we had gone to the gym. You had planned to go with him, hadn’t you? Bi*ch,” Maria chuckles and closes the door. Through the door I can hear her call out; “Carolina came out looking for you too! Apparently you’ve got a schedule in the studio!” I groan when she brings up Carolina and I roll around in the sofa tiredly. I don’t have a schedule in the studio, we argued last night and never came to a conclusion. “She can call me if she wants to set up anything,” I say, not sure Maria can hear me because she is in another room and I am not calling out like she does. When Maria comes out from the bathroom she starts talking. She keeps talking to me when going inside her bedroom and keeps talking while connecting her laptop to the TV for us to watch Criminal Minds. I start eating my pizza out of hunger while she keeps setting things up and our talk starts focusing on the show we’re about to watch. Pizza, TV and curious pets is probably what the perfect day-off can contain, and that is what we have. Maria and I are toe-flirting after two hours in the sofa, Ace is lying on the floor and Tiger has been walking in front of the TV, she has even walked on the laptop so everything got messy on the TV but now she is just rolling around trying to catch Ace’s tail. Ace is not bothered at all by it, in fact he is actually moving his tail the same way you play with someone much younger than yourself, teasing a bit. He is a good older brother to Tiger. “HELLO?!” it calls downstairs. I sink down in the sofa at Carolina’s voice calling downstairs and Maria chuckles at the TV. “He’s freaking y,” she breathes. Of course it is Derek Morgan she dreams off. The stairs are heard when Carolina comes, she stops above the stairs and looks over at us, I know because I glance at her. “Hannah, you’re not answering your phone.” “You haven’t called,” I answer and wave my phone, the one I have held in my hand struggling to get working correctly as it is my new Samsung phone. “I have…” Carolina mutters. Maria chuckles again, but it isn’t for the TV as she lifts her head to look at Carolina. “Hannah has a new phone, including a new number.” The sad look filling Carolina’s expression makes me wonder if I should’ve told her I have a new number. The only ones with my newest number are Jonghyun and Maria. I haven’t even sent it to Kyungho. And that is only because I am struggling to figure out how my new phone works and how to transfer the numbers from my old phone to my new phone. Jonghyun had texted me on the old one while I was getting the new one working so I gave him the new number, and Maria has been next to me all day so she of course got the new number – she has been helping me too. “I haven’t figured out how it works yet,” I say as an excuse to Carolina. “You said we’re doing the song with me today,” Carolina brings up in an upset tone. “I have been waiting for you.” “We never decided on anything though,” I point out, “We got upset at each other and I left. We never decided anything.” She sighs and looks like she wants to tell me to forget it, but her eyes looks around a bit before she looks at the TV. “Come to the studio and finish the song, please,” she asks without looking at me. Maria smiles and pauses the TV; “She’s going to beg you, baby.” I think Maria and I lie in the sofa like two lazy meatballs after eating pizza and Carolina is trying to pull herself to get me to work on the song with her. “Can’t we do it later? It’s a very thrilling episode,” I point out and nod at the TV. “I want it done so we can get it accepted,” Carolina mutters. “We don’t even have to be at the studio. We just have to fix the lyrics, we can do that in my room or on the balcony.” “Oh! I’ve got an idea,” Maria burst out and hits the backrest. “We can like make weird sounds on the balcony when they are shooting out there.” I laugh but I know I am not going to do that. “They have moved location though,” Carolina points out to us. “What?” “Can’t you hear them downstairs? They are shooting right under us.” “Ha,” I can’t help but to sound shocked and I laugh when Maria kicks me, she is laughing at my reaction. “They might’ve left some pizza if you want some,” Maria tells Carolina, “Or you can leave it and I can eat it tonight.” Carolina is not interested in pizza as she turns to me while Maria talks to her. “Are we doing it now?” She is talking about the song again. I sigh, lean my head back with closed eyes. Should I finish the episode I have already seen or try to see what Carolina wants me to help her with? I am certain I won’t do anything, she probably have a few versions of the lyrics waiting to be looked through already. “I’ll come,” I end up deciding. “Really?!” Carolina squeals, her reaction being a bit a bit too happy and Maria presses play. “Fine, fine, you two go play, as long as you are quiet. I am not done watching this,” she says. I get the dishes we have to bring it downstairs and Carolina walks after me, asking me if I am coming to her room. I think she is worried I will do something else because she is walking after me to the kitchen, to the bedroom and she is after me everywhere that I have to stop and ask her if she wants to follow me to the bathroom too. The other house is quiet compared to our house. No one is here. Julia isn’t here, it seems like she is out with her mother and the two dogs (I think Michin and Ryo are better outside the place at the moment to not disturb the photo shoot) and I like that Julia isn’t here as we haven’t talked at all. Carolina’s bedroom is her wonderland. The walls are covered in fan-made things and posters, she has a table full of music making equipment, a keyboard next to that and a bookcase full with books that are the opposite of the books I read. Her bookcase is full of inspirational books and music sheets, she has a lot of electronics that I think is only used for her hobbies but she only has one chair to sit on. I sit down on the bed and Carolina brings her tablet over, sitting on her chair to get in front of me. “Here’s my idea,” Carolina gets to work right away, “We’ll keep the original lyrics and we can just … change the words to be more suited for what the agency wants.” “And why do you need me?” I wonder. She looks at me as if the answer is obvious. “Because we are the ultimate duo on this,” she answers, “I just need you to help me out because I have tried to change the lyrics but nothing has really worked and Hyekyung Oppa told me to get you in on it as I can’t do it alone. It’s our song.” Whatever I think when we begin, it turns out to not be at all what I expected it to be. Carolina doesn’t show me any suggestions at all, she plays the song over and over again and points out the parts we need to change and then I am basically the one blurting out suggestions of what we can change it with. I am surprised, and impressed, that I am actually in on the making and not just an observer from the side nodding along to Carolina’s eagerness. I’m surprised she is letting me do something, but it also makes me wonder if she was super stuck at this before as she did end up begging for my help. Four hours and 43 minutes later, we are done. It has quiet down everywhere in my house and Maria has texted my new phone saying she has sneaked out to meet Hyunsuk and crash someone’s party (or something) and everyone that was doing the shoot have left, including our stylists and I guess their location is somewhere else as Milo is nowhere to be found. Julia and her mother haven’t come back either, so after sending off the new lyrics for Hyekyung to look through and send to the agency, Carolina and I are outside in the yard being a bit silly with a basketball. “If the lyrics are alright, we’ll record it before we go to LA,” Carolina says while dribbling the basketball on the grass – doing her best. She is good at basketball, but it is difficult on the grass. “I hope it works.” “Did you hear that we are recording new songs in Tokyo too?” I ask her. Carolina passes the ball to me and I try to score in the temporary basketball basket, Carolina catches the ball and scores a perfect score. “Yes, I read that we are recording in two weeks. I wonder what songs it is though.” “Mm… I got a call from the producer when we were in Japan last time; he said the agency was bad at answering some questions so he asked around to get my number to ask me directly how we would want things to be like.” “You’re saying a Japanese producer asked how we want the song to be like?” Carolina looks to not believe me but I am nodding. “Exactly my reaction,” I laugh and applaud her when she scores again. “Do we have that though?” Carolina wonders, bouncing the ball again, “A specific way we want things in the studio?” “I don’t know,” I shrug my shoulder. “I told him we trust him as the producer…” She nods, but I wonder if the way she moves her lips means that we are a bit more aware of the songs we record these days as the ladies are getting more experience and also more interest in making their own music. Including me. But I don’t think we need to have a producer call us and ask how we want things, we are pretty simple most of the time. “I don’t know how else to respond to it,” I tell her, “People don’t usually ask us how we want things; we are usually told what to do, when, and how to do it.” “But not lately,” Carolina points out and scores again before throwing the ball to me, “We are on our seventh year in this industry, we’re like … seniors, in the music industry, seven year