The Self-Introduction Video Goes Public
However, contrary to Neoul’s worries, the image that had taken a nosedive after the bus scene, where he’d been branded a “friendless creep,” was visibly recovering thanks to the Baby Octopus clip.
Neoul’s Baby Octopus scene was edited into short videos overnight and swiftly took over social media and video platforms.
Neoul’s self-composed song, Wave, also spread rather quickly after Baby Octopus, and its views climbed with it.
As the grade-evaluation video gained traction and surged upward, short clips meant to drag Neoul down naturally began appearing on the main pages of various video platforms again and again.
But the reactions were milder than the naked abuse pouring out in the live broadcast chat.
Gal Neoul’s personality on Idol Travel
(clip)
He doesn’t have bad breath. He doesn’t smell like cigarettes. Gal Neoul says he smells rotten from the soul. What do you think that means? Does he really mean an odor you can physically smell? It means Kim Ji-rok and Gye Tae-seok have something rotten going on.
As the popular comments on public video platforms slowly began to tilt in Neoul’s favor, anonymous private communities flooded with posts condemning both Neoul and even the commenters who defended him.
Is Gal Neoul handsome?
I’m not sure... Woo Cheong or Yeo Do-bin are way better. Gal Neoul is a bit too overwhelming, isn’t he? He’s too tall, and his arms and torso are thick, so I don’t like him much...
That’s just because you like slenders.
I hate long-haired male idols so much.
I’ll admit he’s a real civilian... But everyone keeps hyping him up as if he’s the handsomest of them all, and that just makes me want to push back. They keep saying he’s better-looking than any celebrity, and it’s annoying.
Yeah, he got dragged down because of his personality issues, lol.
Because of GNN, I’m rooting for Gye Tae-seok.
I hate survival shows, but because of GNN’s rude mouth, I’m going to watch every episode faithfully, lol.
Gye Tae-seok has that decadent older-man vibe, and his skills are fine, but damn... lol.
Because of GNN, his evaluation got nerfed. Thanks to that, I ended up stanning Gye Tae-seok. Appreciate it, damn it.
I’ve decided to support Gye Tae-seok too.
I’m talking about Kim Ji-rok... Ji-rok oppa has that cool thug look, he dances well, and he raps well too. But I’m angry that because of Gal Neoul he’s been pegged as the stinky one T_T. It’s not like he was smoking in school; he’s a grown adult, he should be allowed to smoke a little T_T
On the recapper channel Mutube, they grabbed it fast and churned out videos like Gal Neoul Causes Trouble From the First Broadcast, Idol Travel Contestant Caught in an Personality Scandal, and He Says “Shut Up Because You Stink,” Viewers Erupt in Fury.
Then the netizens who watched those clips swarmed the comments to insult him, and another recapper would scoop up those comments in turn. It was pure chaos from top to bottom.
On social media, some had already started calling him by search-blocking nicknames that twisted the syllable in his name, using “Narong” or “B-rong.”
The average viewership for Episode 1 was 1.5 percent.
That was a little higher than the first episode of a survival program aired by another cable network, but it was still the first day of broadcast, so most viewers were watching with a light heart.
They were checking to see whether there were any promising contestants, wondering what had happened in the situation shown in the trailer, or tuning in because they were fans of the judges.
Aside from Lee Gal-chae, the former child actor, and Ha On-ha, who had taken the center position in the signal song, very few contestants had a core fandom of their own yet. As a result, discussion on community sites and social media centered mostly on those two.
But as short clips spread rapidly through social media and Mutube, Neoul suddenly became the issue and heated the whole scene up.
Positive and negative reactions clashed wildly, and the name Gal Neoul slowly spread even to people who had not yet watched Idol Travel.
Production announcement meeting photo of Gal Neoul
With contestants who already had some recognition, popular judges, trailers that stirred curiosity, a polished performance music video, and even the buzz created by the ordinary contestant Gal Neoul, Idol Travel succeeded in seizing early attention with everything it could use.
It also racked up high views on FLu’s own OTT service, Pluing, and quickly entered the real-time ranking charts.
It was the kind of result that made it reasonable to expect a rise in Pluing’s new subscriber count as well.
Sensing a chance, the production team stepped up the promotion by releasing the self-introduction videos they had shot all over Jeju Island on Mutube.
Not long after the video was uploaded.
At some point, Neoul’s self-introduction video began racking up comments and views explosively. Viewers who had seen Neoul appear in Ha On-ha’s video were flowing over to Neoul’s own clip.
Ha On-ha’s video, which had introduced him through the signal song center spot, was also climbing rapidly in views. Viewers who had watched Neoul’s clip first were flooding in, doubling the count.
The synergy Baek Yuri and Baek Gi-yeom had aimed for was happening in Ha On-ha and Neoul’s videos as well, and the two clips were now competing for first and second place among the self-introduction videos.
Ah, that was fun lol. I should sleep next to my mom haha.
I hope the garbage-personality algorithm doesn’t start recommending this to me.
The already noisy scene grew even hotter the next morning, after the article dropped.
* * *
“Hey! Gal Neoul! Neoul-neoul-neoul-nul-nul!”
Neoul, who had gone to bed late after watching the entire broadcast the night before, cracked one eye open at dawn because of a noisy human barging into his room.
The one who had rushed in, calling his name faster and faster until it turned into a blur, was Ha On-ha.
He shoved his smartphone right in front of Neoul’s freshly opened face. While Neoul winced at the brightness and blinked sluggishly, Ha On-ha shouted without even giving him time to read it.
“You were right! Dolphin eyes that bully pufferfish!”