Mai Nguyen After taking a brief break, Yejun, Bamby, and Hamin of the virtual idol group, PLAVE, returned on August 11th with a livestream in a new location: the countryside. Treating viewers to an impressively realistic depiction of the countryside, the members chatted while sitting on a low wooden bench (pyeongsang) in front of a small home and earthenware (onggi). To add to the realism, the grass was fluttering in the wind, while the clouds slowly moved across the sky. Birds could be heard gently chirping, and a puppy walked around the yard throughout the stream. However, one thing was off. They were dressed in sleek black outfits, as they “rushed to the countryside after a performance and had no time to change.” And with a jump and the help of “hacking,” the trio appeared in more appropriate clothing, floral grandma pants (halmeoni baji), wide brim straw hats, and sandals.
Each member prepared a timetable to share how they spent their time off, with the other members nitpicking whether the timetables were really accurate. They teased each other about strange things they noticed in the timetables like how Bamby apparently eats in between nearly every activity and Hamin doesn’t make time to shower. Hamin weakly protested that the time he allocated for cleaning also was time for “cleaning his body,” which the other members didn’t find very convincing.
You can’t come to the countryside without playing some games, so the trio started with some warmup activities of “Palm Push” and “Orange,” in which players toss around an imaginary orange that keeps getting bigger in size. Of course, all the members ended up on the floor at some point, as the make-believe orange became boulder-sized. Getting into the real games, they played “Long Jump” to see who could jump the farthest but with a twist. As they were in the countryside in nature, they set the rules that players have to jump like a frog, while making frog sounds. To no surprise, Hamin and his athleticism scored him the title of winner, but his shining moment was when he shouted “OK-gul,” a combination of his signature enthusiastic “OK” phrase with “gaegul,” which is “ribbit” in Korean, while hopping to victory. Meanwhile, Yejun channeled Eunho’s spirit, as he reached into the depths of his lower register to ribbit “Rover” while jumping, but unfortunately that landed him in last place.
The highlight game of the stream was “Watermelon Seed Spitting,” in which a player takes a bite of a watermelon, leans their head back, spits the seeds out, and tries to land as many seeds on their own face. Live viewers were excited about the game, but also shocked that they were able to technologically pull off the game. Bamby came in first, with seeds all over his face, and he topped his victory off by pretending his watermelon rind was a phone and telling his mom he’ll call her back later and not to call him when he’s live. Yejun didn’t fare so well, placing in last again, but at least he made his pitch to become an advert model for seedless watermelon.
Enjoying the countryside, the trio leisurely chatted about all kinds of random things like eating paper and erasers when they were kids, catching bugs, and wondering how fast clouds move. The stream was reminiscent of a carefree summer day, and then the sun began to set. Taking their hats off, they decided to listen to some relaxing music and shared their feelings about how far they’ve come and how grateful they are for their fans’ support. “Rather than having worries, as each day goes by, more and more people like us,” said Yejun. “I wondered a lot about whether we’re doing a good job or whether we’re just lucky. Regardless, we just have to work harder and show everyone a better side of us.” As for what could come next, the trio shared that in the future they might be able to go inside the house and cook, or even tell scary stories – whatever it is, they promise to prepare something exciting for fans.
As it got darker, the stars began to shine in the night sky. While listening to songs like Busker Busker’s “Yeosu Night Sea” and Yejun’s cover of SE SO NEON’s “Nanchun,” they pulled out one last surprise, playing with sparklers and gazing at the stars together until they ended the “healing” trip to the countryside.
