Watch Out for the Rising Waves of Neoul Castle

In truth, the reason opinions of Neoul had improved so much was largely thanks to Gye Tae-seok’s arrest. People loved nothing more than drawing the world into neat little binaries—good and evil, us and them, black and white.

Once Gye Tae-seok, caught red-handed with drugs in his system, became an unmistakable criminal, people automatically placed Neoul at the opposite end of the spectrum. His image changed into that of a “moral guy who can recognize evil and draw a line before it gets too close.”

He even picked up the funny nickname “the dolphin who can sniff out narcotics.”

Not bad.

No, it was actually a good turn of events. It wiped away the image of him being rude and ill-mannered, which had clung to him since Episode 1.

After the rehearsal scenes, the barbecue stage appeared.

There had been a lot of stress-heavy moments—getting scolded, criticized, and locked in a constant war of nerves—so it seemed the production team had added a healing segment to ease the viewers’ fatigue.

During the barbecue party, all of Neoul’s mukbang moments were included. The scene where Baek Yuri, who handled the grill like a chef, handed tongs to Neoul, who couldn’t use chopsticks properly, was edited in a way that made it feel oddly heartwarming.

“Gal Neoul really eats well.”

He looked adorable when he couldn’t handle spicy food, and when he ate meat, he seemed hearty and satisfying, all neat little bites and earnest chewing.

The production staff, hurriedly deleting Gye Tae-seok’s screen time, scoured the remaining footage of other contestants to patch the gaping holes left behind. The first choice was, of course, Neoul, whose popularity had suddenly skyrocketed.

Since the reaction to Neoul was so explosive, they decided it might be worth stretching his footage a little more and packing the episode full.

So in the spaces left empty by Gye Tae-seok’s removal, they inserted clips that emphasized the chemistry between Gal Neoul and Baek Yuri.

They added a warm filter over the scene where Neoul approached Yuri as he cut watermelon and struck up a conversation with a strange, offbeat question, then slipped in Yuri’s honest thoughts after losing his chance at the signal song center spot.

Behind the bold subtitles, which dressed up something trivial as though some dramatic event had unfolded, the screen cut to another scene.

Neoul’s image was enlarged as he stared at Baek Yuri while eating snacks. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠At the time, Neoul was mainly wondering whether Yuri was really a rabbit at all, but to anyone watching it might have looked like he was feeling guilty for intruding.

Only, there was one problem....

“Looks tasty.”

“Those snacks are kind of salty, but he’s eating them fine. Is this PPL?”

Neoul ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ate the snacks so deliciously that his cheeks puffed out on both sides.

Because of that, viewers were thrown into confusion by the gap between the deeply dejected subtitles and Neoul’s blissful mukbang face.

And then Baek Yuri finally broke the silence.

Next came a brief scene of Baek Gi-yeom and Baek Yuri, who had gotten up since dawn, coaching Neoul on how to walk and run properly.

The three of them didn’t know the cameras were rolling, so the footage captured them looking even more natural than usual. Since they weren’t wearing microphones, their conversation wasn’t heard.

Still, Neoul’s barefoot, pajama-clad figure rolling around on the grass, dancing, walking, and running with unrestrained innocence filled the screen.

If you looked at the image alone, with nothing but a flower absent from his hair, it might have seemed like a barefoot lunatic. But once proper editing and a background track full of summer and youth were laid over it, the whole thing transformed into something like a music video.

Baek Gi-yeom laughing as he rolled around with him, and Baek Yuri watching with a faint smile, made it look like a scene from a coming-of-age film. Though at the time, Yuri was in fact deeply wary and suspicious of Neoul’s true identity.

Neoul’s face, grinning from ear to ear every time he ran, filled the screen. The sisters who were watching so intently found smiles spreading across their own faces as well.

“They say you automatically start smiling when dogs and little kids run.”

At her younger sister’s words, the law student nodded as if in agreement and murmured,

“I feel like the corners of my mouth are about to split.”

“Me too. I think I’m kind of happy today.”

“Just today? I think I’ll be happy tomorrow too.”

The sisters snickered and leaned back into the sofa. The younger one stretched and shouted,

“Aah! I hope all three of them debut!”

The law student nodded again, as though under some spell.

The latter half of the broadcast was packed with the center selection evaluations. Since Neoul had already been eliminated from the center candidacy, he barely appeared, only popping up now and then with short reactions.

He was so intensely focused that every time the camera showed him, he was simply staring at the stage without so much as a twitch. If the contestant sitting next to him hadn’t moved, it would have looked as if the same clip were being replayed over and over.

With Woo Yong-dam’s scathing judging remarks and Ha On-ha’s outrageous charisma leaving the strongest impression, the center evaluations brought Episode 2 to a close.

Then the preview for the next episode flashed by in a rush of highlight scenes.

“Gasp. A fight broke out.”

“Looks like Baek Yuri’s going bald.”

“But his hair looks really full...?”

“Maybe he’s hiding a bald spot?”

While everyone was blurting out nonsense in a daze, the stage footage swept past in a blur as well.

“Wait, wait, wait! Did I just see Gal Neoul...!”

It had looked like Gal Neoul in a hanbok had flashed by!

The law student’s eyes went wide, and she leaned toward the screen as if she might be pulled into it. But staring holes through it wasn’t going to rewind a scene that had already passed.

The preview had already ended, and the TV had moved on to commercials.

“Ah.... That’s a shame.”

“Wow, unnie. Next episode’s gonna be a riot. The fourth team match was seriously insane.”

At her sister’s words, as she flopped back onto the sofa and kicked her feet in excitement, the law student swallowed her disappointment and stood up.

A full 100 minutes had gone by in an instant. Episode 2 had been so packed that there hadn’t been a single dull moment.

Since Idol Travel aired at 10:50 p.m., the clock was already pointing to 12:30.

Gasp. I should go to sleep quickly.

That long 100-minute viewing time—available only until Episode 5—was wonderful, but it was about to wreck her sleep schedule. If staying up late became too hard, she could always watch it later on FLu’s OTT platform, FLu-ing....

But live viewing! I can’t miss it!

Her patience was too short to want to put it off even for a day.

Ugh, next episode...! How am I supposed to wait a whole week!

Just as she was about to crawl under the covers and try to sleep, she opened MuTube out of lingering regret.

Surely the Episode 3 preview must be up by now.

Let’s just check Neoul’s hanbok again!

As expected, the preview had been uploaded. But it had flashed by so quickly that, from the clock sound and the hanbok alone, she couldn’t tell what song they’d performed or what kind of concept it was.

Ah! What is it! I’m curious!

Neoul had only appeared for a single second, but even from the look in his eyes and the outfit alone, it was obvious something serious was going on. Thanks to her sister hyping her up, her curiosity only grew until she was practically going mad from wanting to see it already.

She had work to do and needed to sleep early even on the weekend, but she couldn’t leave MuTube and ended up replaying the preview again and again.

And then....

New videos had dropped.

And all at once.

* * *

Clunk!

Just as the fan girl was on the verge of falling asleep, she opened her eyes groggily at the sound of a notification.

[Unnie: I can’t be the only one who stays up late.]

[Unnie: You watch it too!]

[Unnie: (link)]

Following the link into MuTube, the fan girl’s sleep vanished at once. She hurriedly clapped a hand over her mouth. She almost screamed in the middle of the night from excitement.

Behind-the-scenes! Fancams!

The behind-the-scenes video preserved dozens of scenes that had been cut cleanly away from the performance music video.

The contestants persevering through dozens of takes of the same dance in the sweltering heat without a single complaint, the tiny interview clips, Neoul downing two liters of water in one shot and still somehow looking more astonishing for it, the way they tossed light jokes back and forth while waiting around—everything was there.

They must have gone through a lot.

In the beach fancam, Neoul’s bobbing, buoyant dancing stood out, his feet sinking deep into the sand and making each step look a little awkward.

So cute! He did so much better in the first team match...! So this is what he was like then!

But the most striking of the three videos was the rooftop fancam, shot mostly from the waist up.

The “day” version and the “night” version were stitched together, and throughout the entire dance, Neoul kept looking around with bright, expectant eyes, like someone seeing the world for the very first time.

Wow.... It was a shame how fast it passed in the music video, but seeing it at length makes my heart race even more.

How could a person’s eyes be so transparent?

The fan girl couldn’t look away until the video ended. It felt as though the excitement in Neoul’s gaze was contagious. Her heart began pounding to a slightly faster rhythm.

If this was acting, then Gal Neoul could debut on a screen right this instant and blow up overnight.

And yet the fan girl could bet her 400,000-subscriber channel, her subscribers’ precious hair, and her sister’s student ID that this absolutely wasn’t acting.

That’s real! It’s genuine!

When the video ended and she went to leave a comment, it seemed everyone else had felt something similar.

The comments about him lacking manners or decency had become almost impossible to find now; the tone had grown overwhelmingly favorable.

Thank goodness.

The fan girl admitted it to herself as she felt a huge wave of relief. She had already been completely won over by Gal Neoul.

And as a fan girl who loved K-pop itself, she made a second channel separate from her existing one, which had been packed with videos of various idols.

Caution: Rising Neoul Waves

It would be a promotional channel focused on editing and uploading Neoul’s videos from this point on. The fan girl had evolved into Gal Neoul’s first fan-tuber!

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