So Cute, My Own 🐈 #IVE #LIZ #Shorts

What happened

The IVE channel posted a Short tagged with Liz, one of the group's members, under the title "너무 귀여운 나만의" (neomu gwiyeoun namanui, "so cute, my own") followed by a cat emoji. Its auto-captions carry a song that repeats 귀여워 (gwiyeowo, cute) and 멋있어 (meosisseo, cool).

Why Koreans care

The title lines up with the lyric in the captions. The captions run 너무 귀여운 (neomu gwiyeoun, so cute) and then 나만의 연인 그대 (namanui yeonin geudae, "my own lover, you"). The title uses the same words but puts a cat emoji where the captions have 연인 그대 (yeonin geudae, lover, "you"), so the cat sits in the slot the love song gives to its "you". 그대 (geudae, a lyrical word for "you") turns up mostly in songs and poems rather than everyday speech. The closing lines, 너무 멋있어서 가슴이 콩콩는 거 어떻해 (neomu meosisseoseo gaseumi kongkongneun geo eotteokhae), carry auto-caption spelling slips, but the sense is "you're so cool that my heart is thumping, what do I do". 콩콩 (kongkong) is a sound-word for light, quick thumps, and 어떡해 (eotteokhae) is "what do I do".

In the Korean comments

This covers the 15 Korean-language comments stored for this video, listed highest-liked first, out of 194 comments on the video at collection time. All 15 are affectionate and none criticizes her or the video, so what is worth reading is how they praise her. The most-liked comment (92 likes) reads, in translation, "Seriously so cute and pretty, just like a romance heroine, like a princess, like a kitty." Across the 15, five use a cat word, three say 공주 (gongju, princess), and two compare her to a 여주인공 (yeojuingong, female lead), one of a romance and one of a youth film. Two of the cat words are playful compounds: 최고냥이 (choegonyang-i, "best kitty") and 치즈냥이 (chijeunyang-i, "cheese kitty", the everyday nickname for an orange tabby). One comment reads, in translation: "This can't be put into words.. the 꿍싯꿍싯 (kkungsit-kkungsit) bit is so cute.. Liz must have been a princess in a past life.. then what does that make me, poop.. God, you play favorites way too much." The joke runs on 전생 (jeonsaeng, past life), a familiar Korean joke format in which someone's looks or luck are explained as credit earned in a previous life. One comment says her cat outfit suits her perfectly. Another names the outfit differently, saying in translation that even the 후투티 (hututi, hoopoe, a crested bird) outfit style suits her so well. One more says Liz is doing a 챌린지 (chaellinji, challenge).

What the words mean

One comment says her cat outfit is 찰떡 (chaltteok), literally "sticky rice cake". As slang it means a perfect fit, as if the two are stuck together. The register is casual, everyday praise. 미쵸따 (michyotta, excitedly praising something as insane)ㅏ (michyotta) is a stretched, cutesy respelling of 미쳤다 (michyeotda, literally "has gone mad"). It is used as excited praise, roughly "this is insane". The register is casual and exaggerated. Several comments soften words with childlike spellings: 고앵이 (goaeng-i) for 고양이 (goyangi, cat), and 귀여웡 (gwiyeowong) and 기여웡 (giyeowong) for 귀여워 (gwiyeowo, cute). They read as typos but are a usual way to make a word sound softer and more childlike. The register is affectionate and playful. Some comments call her 언니 (eonni, older sister), 웅니 (ungni, a cutesy respelling of eonni), 누나 (nuna, older sister) or 선배님 (seonbaenim, senior). Literally these are family and seniority words. Here they are affectionate or respectful ways to address an idol, not claims of kinship.