30. 1st Team Match
Time flew by and the contestants were already on a plane back to Seoul.
When they came to Jeju Island, they had to pay for their own plane tickets and go to the filming location themselves, but this time, the production team had already booked group tickets in advance, so they all traveled together.
When they arrived in Seoul, the contestants stayed at accommodations prepared near the set. They were scheduled to rehearse the next morning and film the first team competition in the evening.
Neoul looked out the window with his mouth wide open on the plane he had never ridden before.
'We're above the clouds! Above the clouds!'
We're flying in the sky!
It felt like he was a bird looking down.
Neoul was extremely excited from the moment the plane took off.
I thought the plane would run over land like a bus, but I never imagined it would suddenly take off.
But suddenly, my ears became deaf, so I called Yeo Do-bin, who just sat next to me.
"Yeo Dobin, my ears are weird."
"Oh, really? Do you want some candy?"
Neoul didn't understand why he was giving him something to eat when his ears were weird, but he ate it anyway.
This time, he didn't forget to open the plastic wrap.
Crack!
The broken candy in his strong teeth made his mouth sweet. As he swallowed the saliva that had accumulated in the artificial sweetness of the candy, his blocked ears cleared.
"Oh?"
Neoul satisfied himself by putting the stick attached to the candy into his mouth.
"Spit it out!"
Yee Dobin shouted in surprise. Perhaps because his voice was too loud, the people around who had been talking quietly also closed their mouths in surprise and looked at Yeo Dobin.
When everyone's attention was focused on him, Yeo Dobin hurriedly bowed his waist with a red face and apologized.
"I'm sorry… I'm sorry…"
"Customer, what's wrong? Are you okay?"
When the flight attendant came over and asked to check the situation, Yeo Dobin's pupils shook. Yeo Dobin shook his head when he saw Neoul spit the stick on his palm.
"Oh, it's nothing. It's okay. Sorry..."
People's gaze finally turned away.
Ha On-ha, who was sitting next to Yeo Do-bin on the aisle, laughed quietly and giggled.
"Do you like the stick? Your teeth are strong~"
Then he said friendly to Yeo Do-bin.
"I've never heard Do-bin's voice this loud before."
Yeo Do-bin covered his face with his bag in embarrassment and shame, leaned against the back of the chair, and collapsed like melted cheese.
Neoul, who was blankly staring at Yeo Dobin, was calm.
"Why are you doing that?"
"It's because of you... I screamed on the plane."
Yeo Dobin whispered in a small voice that was barely audible.
"Then it's not okay?"
"...? Of course...?"
"Why?"
"Well, it's polite to be quiet, isn't it?"
Yeo Dobin's face, which had been gloomy, turned into absurdity.
Judging from Neoul's behavior, it seemed like it was his first time on an airplane, but isn't this etiquette that should be followed not only on airplanes but anywhere? It could cause harm to others.
Even in a private space like home, you have to be careful about noise between floors.
Yeo Dobin corrected his impression of Neoul.
At first glance, he was definitely a warm and wise person who would talk to you first, but the more he saw him, the more he seemed to lack common sense and seemed strange.
Yeo Dobin looked at the small stick on Neoul's palm. The stick had snapped in the middle after he bit it once.
'That thing must be hard, but his bite strength is amazing.'
Yeo Dobin took out a wet tissue from his bag and handed it to him.
"Wipe your hands quickly and wrap the stick with this and keep it safe."
"Why do you want me to keep this? Is it important?"
"Oh, no... You should throw it in the trash can when we get to the airport..."
"Ah, okay."
Neoul wiped his hands, wrapped the stick in a wet tissue, held it, and held out his free hand to Yeo Do-bin with sparkling eyes.
"Yeo Do-bin. I think my ears are blocked again."
It was a lie because he wanted to eat candy, but Yeo Do-bin believed his words and obediently gave him another candy. After eating seven candies like that, Neoul reached out his hand again.
"My ears are weird again."
"...Do you have otitis media? If it was like that every time you get on a plane, it's going to be hard in the future. This is all that's left~ What should I do..."
Yeo Dobin took out the last remaining candy and handed it to him, making a pitiful face.
"It's better to let it melt slowly instead of eating it all at once."
Neoul tried to bite it again, but when he heard that there was nothing left, he felt regret and put the candy in his mouth.
Ha On-ha covered his mouth and giggled next to him, wondering what was funny.
An hour later, he got off the plane and took another bus to the dormitory. This time too, Neoul pressed both hands and face against the window and couldn't take his eyes off the cityscape.
The sun had set and the clouds had covered the moon, but the entire city was lit up. It was as if a part of the night sky had been taken away and spread all over the place.
And the next day. While waiting for a while to prepare for the main stage after rehearsing frantically, Neoul looked back on the past time.
While preparing for the competition, he didn't just practice every day.
He had to film a challenge video for the signal song
He did it because the production team told him to, but he really didn't understand why he was drawing on someone else's face while they were sleeping well.
'Did the Sea Priestess arrive at the Dragon Palace safely?'
He was worried that Abamama had woken up and that he might not have regained the spirit or energy to eat anything.
'But let's trust.'
'Sea Priestess and Abama.'
They were much stronger and wiser than the young Neoul. They would definitely be okay.
So, Neoul had to finish the stage successfully, even if it meant seeing the sea priestess who had taken the trouble to deliver the rabbit liver instead.
If he finishes well and wait, the sea priestess who had visited the dragon palace would definitely tell him the news of Abamama's recovery.
"Next! Stand by!"
Neoul got up from his seat at the staff's shout. The team members shouted fighting with nervous faces.
"Let's do our best."
"Yes!"
"Yup! Cheong-i is coming!"
"Fighting! Let's go!"
The team members looked back at Neoul. Neoul checked his condition once and nodded.
"Yes. I'm ready."
***
The younger sister of the law student. She was so serious about idols that she could count the number of idol groups she didn't like faster than the number of idol groups she did like.
She was so passionate about K-POP itself that she didn't know if she could settle down with one group.
She was called a multi fan.
She took a different path from her older sister early on. Her older sister stopped being a fan and continued her studies to study, but her younger sister stopped studying to be a fan.
Is this something that deserves a backsmash from her mother?
—ᴄᴏᴍᴇ ᴛᴏ ʏᴏᴜʀ ꜱᴇɴꜱᴇꜱ! ʏᴏᴜ ʟɪᴛᴛʟᴇ ɢɪʀʟ!
Of course she got hit.
But she didn't give in and opened a fan YouTube channel.
She uploaded a video to refute the claims of the YouTuber who is always making money and defending idols, and she uploaded videos of idol groups that she likes and videos to cheer them on.
The number of subscribers to her channel has increased rapidly and she has recently become a YouTuber with a whopping 400,000 subscribers.
'Oh. I'm a bit crazy.'
Anyway, she, a self-proclaimed 'idol expert' and 'idol veteran', couldn't miss out on an idol survival program.
Fortunately, luck was on her side. She won the first round of the
—ᴏʜ ᴍʏ! ᴛᴇʟʟ ᴍᴇ ᴀ ʀᴇᴀʟ ʀᴇᴠɪᴇᴡ ᴏꜰ ɢᴀʟ ɴᴇᴏᴜʟ! ɴᴏ! ᴀ ᴘɪᴄᴛᴜʀᴇ! ᴊᴜꜱᴛ ᴏɴᴇ ᴘɪᴄᴛᴜʀᴇ! ɴᴏ, ᴀ ᴠɪᴅᴇᴏ! ᴛᴀᴋᴇ ᴀ ꜰᴀɴᴄᴀᴍ!
—ᴋᴇᴋᴇᴋᴇ! ᴡᴀᴛᴄʜ ɪᴛ ᴡʜᴇɴ ɪᴛ ᴀɪʀꜱ~ ɪ'ʟʟ ᴡᴀᴛᴄʜ ɪᴛ ʀɪɢʜᴛ ɪɴ ꜰʀᴏɴᴛ ᴏꜰ ᴍʏ ɴᴏꜱᴇ
Leaving behind my sister's envious roar.
Since Japdeok hadn't picked a single person to root for yet, she came to watch the stage with a light heart.
[*Japdeok. This is a term referring to a nerd who likes a variety of things, that is, a person who is interested in and fanatic about various fields.]
[Passengers, hello. Thank you for using the
[Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to IDOL TRAVEL...]
Until the lights went out and the voice guidance message from the performance music video started to flow, Japdeok was very excited.
When the pin lights came on and actor Jeong Ondo, who was the MC, came up on stage, he was very cheerful with the flag in his hand and the backpack on his back.
[
Jeong On-do gave a few words of advice on what to keep in mind when watching, and until the voting method was announced…
[Then, let's head to the first destination! Swoosh~!]
After he introduced the song covered by the first team and the crude team name, he continued with a cheerful comment until the pin lights went off. Yeah. That was good.
But.
'What is this…. It's so bland.'
Actually, it wasn't a bad stage for a trainee stage.
However, for a casual YouTuber who watches the high-quality stages of current idols hundreds of times and becomes a fan and makes videos, the trainees' stage didn't catch her eye.
Of course, it was bound to be lacking compared to the original…
Because my standards were too high, I couldn't fully enjoy the stage and was just spending time comparing myself to them.
The first, second, and even the third team match were all disappointing.
She was starting to lose focus and even thought she came for nothing.
"It's Baek Yuri!"
"Oh~"
In the fourth team match, the participants who had been mentioned quite a bit finally appeared. In particular, Baek Yuri was the participant who was caught on screen the most after Ha On Ha, who was the center in the
The cheers from the audience also changed.
"Yuri-yaaaaah! I missed you so much!"
"Baek Yuri!"
Some people were holding up slogans and shouting with tears in their eyes. They seemed to be fans who had been cheering for Baek Yuri since Clear.
The intro played and Baek Yuri, who was in charge of the introduction, blurted out the first verse.
[Hey, where are you looking?
Why don't you look at me
I don't like everything from A to Z]
Kyaaaah!
Screams erupted from all directions. She was surprised too.
'Wow, what's with that voice?'
It's so good?
Even though she had studied in advance by watching the individual live performance videos, it was surprisingly good.
'What, the video didn't show everything? They messed up the post-production, what the?'
As if he had used a completely different microphone than the other contestants, Baek Yuri's vocals were clean and stable even while dancing like crazy.
It was a song with a very high level of difficulty in both dance and song, with Dunkiss gritting their teeth with the concept of 'intense performance'.
However, while performing that difficult song, Baek Yuri did not make a single mistake in the choreography and did not drop the pitch even once.
In the middle, there were some movements that were different from the original choreography, but they were light movements that allowed them to catch their breath, but they went very well with the song, so there was no sense of discomfort.
'It's finally fun.'
It was completely different from the stages she'd seen so far.
During the dance break, one of the team members fell to the floor with a twist. He fell sideways and it must have hurt quite a bit.
At that moment, Baek Yuri came over like flowing water, gently pulled the team member up, and continued the movements as if they were doing a pair choreography.
'What, what is this? Was this originally planned?'
No? He really fell hard? Just passing it off like that?
Can an idol who has only been active for 6 months be that quick and flexible?
The stage ended with a powerful ending.
'This stage seems to be the only one that properly covered
Japdeok sighed. She had no choice but to admit it. The feeling that had cooled down while watching the previous stages was finally heating up.
Who will be on the next stage?
If it was similar to the previous boring stages, this stage seemed like it would be a huge hit in the fourth team match.
[Okay, the next team to go on stage is the 'I Won't Eat You If You Give Me a Rice Cake' team!]
Huh? What's with the team name?
[What song will the contestants cover this time? She was once called the nation's daughter, but now she was called the nation's singer, and been loved for 15 years, right? It's 'SAIM's !]
'They're doing this song here?'
She clicked her tongue after hearing Jeong On-do's explanation.
is a good song and a hit song, but... She wondered if it would really fit on an idol survival stage.
Since it's a song focused on listening rather than performance, wouldn't it lack impact and be boring?
Especially after seeing the sexy and powerful
"Wow. It's Gal Neoul."
"Crazy! They're wearing hanbok!"
—