Deokyeon’s Daughter, Wasn’t It Far?…RESCENE Touches a Sensibility K-POP Had Overlooked [HT Focus]

“Auntie, I’m Deokyeon’s daughter~.” With that one line spoken in a Gyeongsang-do accent, the neighborhood shop auntie handed over side dishes. And millions of people who watched the scene laughed.

RESCENE leader WONI’s personal YouTube channel 'HelloThisIsWoniNiceToMeetYou' is drawing attention. Launched in February this year, the channel has recorded 790,000 subscribers, surpassing RESCENE’s official YouTube channel subscriber count of 510,000, and the video 'I Came to Geoje With a Gyaru,' released on May 22, recorded 6.6 million views. The channel’s popularity carried over to music. 'LOVE ATTACK,' the title track of RESCENE’s 1st mini album 'SCENEDROME,' released in August 2024, re-entered Melon’s TOP100 chart one year and 10 months after its release and climbed to No. 7.

The spark behind the reverse run was Geoje. WONI is from Geoje. It began with the video 'I Learned About Gyaru Attitude,' uploaded on March 20. In the video, when WONI told Japanese member MINAMI, who was styled as a gyaru, “If you go to Geoje looking like that? Geoje citizens will really scold you,” MINAMI replied, “Geoje, yay~,” and the scene became a meme. After the scene received great love, a video was uploaded on May 22 showing MINAMI actually visiting Geoje in gyaru style with WONI, who was wearing a tracksuit. On the same day, RESCENE was also appointed as an ambassador for Geoje City. WONI confidently said in front of the camera, “My mom’s territory is here, so my parents sometimes come here for a drink of soju. So if I say I’m Deokyeon’s daughter here, they give me things.” She then actually entered a neighborhood shop and greeted them by saying, “Auntie, I’m Deokyeon’s daughter,” and came back with side dishes and chicken. Later, when RESCENE visited Geoje City Hall on June 5, the phrase on the welcoming banner put up by the city hall was “Wasn’t it far?”

The reason this narrative is receiving such a heated response is because the sensibility in the video feels familiar yet has become rare. “Deokyeon’s daughter” means a daughter called by her mother’s name. The idea that giving your mother’s name to neighborhood adults is enough to be recognized, the sight of people first offering food to someone from the neighborhood who has returned after a long time, and the warmth contained in one blunt line of Gyeongsang-do dialect. These are sensibilities that have become increasingly difficult to encounter in an urbanized and individualized era. “Wasn’t it far?” is a Gyeongsang-do greeting meaning, “Wasn’t it far coming here?” but within it lies sincerity: “You must have had a hard time coming,” and “I missed you.” The fact that Geoje City Hall used this phrase on its official banner is a sign that RESCENE’s Geoje narrative has gone beyond simply being content material and has actually been embraced as part of the region’s sentiment.

K-POP idol content has mostly aimed for polished and urban images. RESCENE’s Geoje narrative is touching people’s hearts from the opposite direction. An idol in a tracksuit giving her mother’s name to a neighborhood shop auntie, and actually receiving side dishes in return. When the texture of unadorned everyday life is conveyed through the screen, people laugh, but also find themselves missing something. That complex and subtle emotion created 6.6 million views and brought a two-year-old song back onto the charts.