The First Ranking Ceremony (2)
In the third team match, contestant Gal Neoul takes first place in the individual vote and wins the parachute card!
“Waaah! Neoul got first place! Yes!”
The home support fan sitting in front of the monitor shot to her feet, kicking her chair back as she shouted.
She could see the teammates gathered around Gal Neoul erupting in cheers.
Gal Neoul, smiling with obvious pride, was shoved forward by Woo Cheong and, before he knew it, ended up performing the ad-lib part he had done on the I’ll Come Get You stage.
He must be crazy. A cappella is too good…!
The home support fan slowly let out the breath she’d been holding, silently thanking Woo Cheong in her heart. Her lips trembled with happiness.
“All right. Now all he has to do is land in the top ranks of the overall vote. You’re doing great, Neoul!”
She didn’t even consider, for a second, that Gal Neoul might fall outside the top fifty and have to use the parachute card on himself.
To her, the only question was whether he would make it into the top tier—the First Class group.
So whether he received the parachute card or not hardly mattered, but the fact that he had placed first in the team match’s individual vote made her absurdly happy.
Looks amazing! Sings well! Great on variety shows! Brilliant on stage! If Neoul doesn’t debut, who will?
He had been briefly dragged through the mud over his blunt words, but the situation had already turned completely around.
In the end, the only thing he lacked was dancing—and even that he was overcoming at a rapid pace. Wasn’t he exactly the sort of contestant who should be expected to rank high?
Last time, First Class had included ranks one through twelve, but this time it had been cut down to eight. Up to twentieth place was Business Class; everyone else was Economy Class.
I hope he makes the top eight. No—if everything goes well, maybe even the top five?
She gulped down a whole bowl of kimchi-jjigae-like optimism and waited for the overall ranking announcement.
Once the individual results from the one-on-one team match had all been announced, MC Jeong Ondo gathered himself again and opened his mouth with solemn gravity.
“Now! Passengers, the long-awaited first popularity vote rankings of Idol Travel are finally being revealed....”
“Yes! Finally!”
“Before that!”
“Damn it...! What now!”
How much longer were they supposed to drag this out? Who did they think they were teasing?
This kind of thing was always cruelly drawn out to waste time, of course, but knowing that didn’t make it any less infuriating.
And then there were the shameless commercial breaks they had inserted in the middle, plus the MC who paused forever before revealing each ranking one by one.
“I’m gonna die from frustration.”
The home support fan blurted out a curse in a thoroughly petulant mood, then panicked and hurriedly tried to take it back.
Ah, my mouth again!
Thanks to Gal Neoul, she had resolved to be reborn as a refined new person, one who would use only graceful, proper language from now on. She wanted to leave the past behind and become an elegant, cultured fan.
She closed her roughened mouth again in a pretty, ladylike way and sat politely back down in her chair.
Jeong Ondo looked straight ahead and delivered the next segment of the announcement.
“The self-introduction videos of all seventy-eight contestants, uploaded to MewTube! Has anyone still not watched them? I had such a wonderful time seeing the contestants’ wide-ranging charms.”
“And here are the behind-the-scenes clips you didn’t get to see in those self-introductions! There are plenty of fun videos still waiting to be released. Let’s take a look together!”
The home support fan remembered Gal Neoul’s self-introduction video, filmed against the background of the folk village’s horror-experience zone. That was where he had won the “team member exchange pass.”
Videos from contestants who had visited the Olle Trail, the tea fields, and the ranch passed by one after another, and at last the folk village appeared.
The ranking announcement had been delayed, so he had been sulking just a moment ago. But the instant Gal Neoul appeared in conversation with Ha On-ha, the home support fan was happy again.
So cute!
The viewers seemed to feel the same way.
And then, a little while later, the long-awaited ranking announcement ceremony began.
A heavy silence and a palpable tension settled over the room. The suspenseful background music was just a bonus.
The contestants kept wetting their dry lips with their tongues or taking sips of water, unable to hide how nervous they were. They jiggled their legs, fidgeted with their hands, and squirmed in their seats.
Even the contestants who were usually good at keeping their composure looked tense when it came time for the ranking announcement.
“Then, starting with the forty-fifth contestant who survived this class announcement ceremony.... The forty-fifth-place contestant is....”
And yet only Gal Neoul, with no sign of trembling, stared at the stage with calm, steady eyes.
Seeing that, the home support fan suddenly grew uneasy.
Why isn’t he nervous at all...?
If it was because he was certain he wouldn’t fall, because he was brimming with confidence, then that was fine.
But what if. What if...
What if he thinks it doesn’t matter if he gets eliminated?
After all, Gal Neoul had been an ordinary civilian contestant who joined the shoot suddenly and without any plan. He had just happened to be on that beach, and then—through another contestant’s misunderstanding—got swept into filming by chance.
He worked hard, yes, but it also didn’t seem like he had ever dreamed of becoming an idol in the first place.
What is Neoul thinking?
Nothing had been revealed about Neoul’s past. There wasn’t even a graduation photo, which was hard enough to come by on its own.
In fact, the application forms for the additional contestants had been revealed one by one in the early episodes. Amid all the information about where they came from, what they had been doing, what their hobbies and talents were, and what sort of credentials they had, Gal Neoul’s application form as shown on broadcast contained only his name, age, and the fact that he was currently living in Jeju Island.
Is that some kind of mystery concept...?
Except that didn’t quite fit, given how he had already shown himself to be a total weirdo from the moment he appeared. Gal Neoul was less mysterious than he was utterly 4D.
I bet he was the weird one all through school.
She imagined what Gal Neoul must have been like in high school, middle school, elementary school, and even as a little kid.
Had he been taller than his peers even back then?
As she pictured a teenage Neoul with a towering height and lingering baby fat, she found herself smiling for no reason at all.
He must have been ridiculously cute!
No, no. She shouldn’t worry.
Gal Neoul had never looked nervous, not even during the class evaluation or on stage.
That’s just his personality! He was born to be an entertainer!
When she looked at it positively, there really was nothing to worry about. In the rehearsal process, Gal Neoul had shown more than enough seriousness and effort. Whatever his start had been, he was doing well and working hard.
Having soothed herself, she went to heat up some frozen water dumplings while the lower-ranked contestants were being announced.
I’m only thinking negative thoughts because I’m hungry! Let’s fill my stomach first!
Once her belly was full, her mind would surely feel lighter too.
In the meantime, the announcements continued, and before long it was time for 29th place.
“Twenty-ninth place is... contestant Ko Un-gu!”
He had been on the team called If You Give Me a Rice Cake, I Won’t Eat You. The middle schooler contestant, the youngest of all, had often been doted on by the older brothers.
“I’m alive! I survived!”
Ko Un-gu shot out of his chair as if he had been launched from it, nearly toppling forward until Gal Neoul caught him.
“Whoa. I survived, but I almost died right after....!”
“Be careful.”
“Un-gu! Go down slowly! Slowly! Don’t run!”
Ko Un-gu, taking his seat at number 29 amid the older brothers’ cheers and concern, made it safely down to his place. Daiki was called soon after, and the other team contestants filled the middle ranks one by one.
“Fifteenth place is... contestant Baek Gi-yeom! Congratulations!”
Baek Gi-yeom had been drinking water nonstop because his throat was dry, so he was startled when his name was called and nearly choked. He covered his face and coughed until he finally recovered, then stood up. His face was still bright red.
Baek Gi-yeom high-fived every member of the team, then walked up to the podium with a broad grin.
“Everyone, thank you so much! There’s still a lot I haven’t been able to show you yet, but I’m grateful for the chance to stand on stage one more time, and I’ll work even harder. That’s all! This was Baek Gi-yeom!”
He finished his remarks neatly, saluted with crisp precision, and headed back up.
Neoul’s name still had not been called by ninth place.
“All right, we’ve finished announcing through ninth place! From eighth place onward, these are the First Class rankings. The number of debut spots has not yet been revealed, but for now, the First Class seats are probably the closest thing to a debut ticket!”
The home support fan’s hand holding the chopsticks was trembling so badly she couldn’t tell whether the dumplings were going into her nose or her mouth.
“Then we’ll begin with eighth place! Eighth place is a contestant who climbed quietly but powerfully. He made an enormous leap from Economy Class all the way to First Class!”
“The contestant who soared to eighth place is...! Congratulations! Contestant Lee Gal-chae!”
Despite his high recognition, he had hardly spoken or shown much reaction on broadcast, so he had seemed somewhat low-profile. He was the former child actor contestant.
Still, he had such a solid core fanbase compared with the other contestants, and since he had been beloved by the public as the “National Wonson,” it only made sense that he would settle comfortably into the upper ranks.
Up until now, his rankings had not shone especially brightly because they had been determined by judges’ class evaluations and blind voting, but there were viewers who were watching Idol Travel specifically for Lee Gal-chae, so he had done more than enough to build serious popularity.
Thanks to the production team’s editing, which highlighted his cute, quiet, kittenlike side as though he were a cautious little cat, there also seemed to be a lot of new fans falling for him.
Lee Gal-chae rose from his seat, stepped down two stairs, and then poked Neoul’s shoulder, who was sitting nearby.
“……? Congratulations?”
When Gal Neoul, looking puzzled, offered his congratulations, Lee Gal-chae, as though receiving a formal bow in return, nodded and headed for the podium.
“Huh?”
Did those two know each other?
The home support fan tried to think of any connection between Neoul and that tiny, precious National Wonson, but nothing came to mind.
After Lee Gal-chae learned that Gal Neoul didn’t know who he was, he had become much more friendly and, whenever they ate, would break off half of his own meal and share it with Neoul. But that part never made it to air, so it was only natural that viewers were confused.