The new Korean short-form BL drama Dive Into My Bad Rival has arrived with a story built around competitive swimming, rivalry, ambition and an unexpected romance. The series follows Yoon Ji-su, a talented swimmer who is desperate to secure a scholarship. His opportunity comes through Kang Han, a gifted but unpredictable swimming prodigy whose demanding personality initially makes their relationship anything but easy.
As Ji-su becomes Kang Han’s pacemaker, their competitive relationship gradually develops into something much more complicated. What begins as an arrangement connected to swimming and a scholarship slowly turns into an intense emotional bond.
The Korean title of the series is 수영부 또라이에게 찍혀버렸다!, while international platforms use the title Dive Into My Bad Rival. The drama stars Lee Si-an as Kang Han and Baek Si-hun as Yoon Ji-su, with An So-hoe credited as director and creator. The series is a Korean vertical short-form production from FLIMFLIM/KT Studiogenie.
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For viewers wondering where this campus-and-swimming story was actually filmed, there is one location that can be confirmed through an official source: Seoul Institute of the Arts in Ansan, South Korea. The university itself published a detailed filming notice identifying several campus spaces used by the production.
Dive Into My Bad Rival Release Date
Dive Into My Bad Rival premiered on August 28, 2026.
The series was released as a vertical short-form drama and became available through platforms including Lezhin Snack and Shortime, with iQIYI also listed among its distribution platforms. Available listings identify August 28, 2026, as the original release date.
The drama has 51 short episodes, with the individual installments designed for the vertical-drama format. The story centers on the swimming team relationship between Kang Han and Ji-su.
The series was directed by An So-hoe, who is also credited as its creator.
Where Was Dive Into My Bad Rival Filmed?
Based on currently available production information, Dive Into My Bad Rival was filmed in South Korea, with Seoul Institute of the Arts in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, being the clearest officially confirmed shooting location.
The university published a notice on June 12, 2026, specifically concerning filming for the drama 수영부 또라이에게 찍혀버렸다!. The notice was connected to an industry-academic cooperation project involving the drama’s production.
The announcement is particularly useful because it doesn’t simply name the university—it identifies specific campus areas and filming dates.
Seoul Institute of the Arts, Ansan
The Main Confirmed Filming Location
The Seoul Institute of the Arts is the most important publicly confirmed filming location for Dive Into My Bad Rival.
The university is located in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, southwest of Seoul. Its campus offers a mixture of academic buildings, corridors, terraces, staircases and outdoor spaces, making it a natural choice for a youth drama.
The official university notice states that filming was organized as part of a 2026 industry-academic cooperation project for the production of 수영부 또라이에게 찍혀버렸다!.
This is particularly fitting for the series because the story has a strong school and youth setting. Ji-su and Kang Han’s relationship develops around their swimming-team environment, making a real educational campus an effective backdrop.
Madong Building
One of the specific areas identified in the official filming notice was Madong 214.
The production scheduled its first campus filming session for June 17, 2026, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The notice lists Madong 214 as the filming location and Madong 302 as the designated waiting room. This means that at least some scenes were shot inside the university’s Madong building.
Because Dive Into My Bad Rival is a youth-oriented drama, interior campus spaces such as classrooms, offices and corridors can easily be transformed into fictional locations associated with the characters’ school and athletic lives. Rather than constructing every educational environment inside a studio, filming at an operating university gives the production a more authentic atmosphere.
Jiwondong Building
The second major filming session took place on June 19, 2026, and the university’s notice identifies several areas of the Jiwondong Building.
The scheduled filming time was extensive, running from 7 a.m. until 11 p.m..
The notice lists Jiwondong 211 among the filming spaces, with Jiwondong 209 designated as a waiting room. This suggests that the production used multiple sections of the building rather than relying on a single room. For a short-form series with 51 episodes, having access to multiple campus environments can help the filmmakers create visual variety while keeping the production schedule efficient.
Jiwondong Second-Floor Terrace
Another confirmed location was the second-floor terrace of the Jiwondong Building.
The terrace was included in the June 19 filming schedule. Outdoor terraces can be particularly useful in youth dramas because they provide a visual break from classrooms and corridors.
For Dive Into My Bad Rival, such a location can work naturally for conversations between Ji-su and Kang Han, moments between teammates or scenes where characters need a quieter place away from the main school environment. The terrace also provides natural light and a more open visual composition, which contrasts nicely with the tighter framing typically associated with vertical dramas.
Jiwondong Corridors and Staircases
The production also filmed in the second-floor corridors and staircases of Jiwondong.
These spaces were explicitly listed in the university’s filming notice. Corridors are particularly valuable for a series like this because they can represent everyday student life without requiring extensive set decoration.
The filmmakers can follow characters walking between locations, create chance encounters between rivals and build tension through relatively simple movement-based scenes. For a story centered on two swimmers whose relationship develops gradually, these transitional spaces can also help show the characters interacting outside their formal training environment.
Underground Passage and Locker Area
Perhaps the most interesting part of the university’s filming notice is its reference to the underground passage beneath the Ga-Dong to Ra-Dong area, as well as the locker area in front of Ga-Dong.
These spaces were included in the June 19 filming schedule. An underground passage can provide a very different atmosphere from a conventional classroom or terrace. The locker area is even more relevant to Dive Into My Bad Rival because the story revolves around a swimming team.
While the university notice does not specify exactly which scenes were filmed in these spaces, the presence of a locker area provides a natural setting for an athletics-focused drama. It is important, however, not to claim that a specific scene was filmed there unless the production itself confirms it.
Why Seoul Institute of the Arts Was a Good Choice
The choice of Seoul Institute of the Arts makes considerable sense for the story.
Dive Into My Bad Rival is fundamentally a youth sports romance. The characters are surrounded by academic and athletic environments, and much of their relationship develops through their shared swimming world.
A real university provides:
- Authentic classrooms
- Long corridors
- Staircases
- Outdoor terraces
- Locker areas
- Underground passages
- Everyday student surroundings
These elements can make the fictional school environment feel much more convincing. The production also benefited from filming multiple spaces during scheduled campus sessions instead of relying exclusively on constructed sets.
Filming Dates and Production Schedule
The official university notice provides two particularly useful dates.
The first filming session was scheduled for June 17, 2026, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The second was scheduled for June 19, 2026, from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.
The university also stated that the production would have its own personnel responsible for on-site control and safety. This is significant because the filming took place before the university’s first-semester classes had ended. The notice explained that academic operations and classes were to remain the priority during production.
Therefore, the drama was not simply using an abandoned campus or a private studio designed to resemble one. At least these scenes were filmed within an active educational environment.
Was Dive Into My Bad Rival Filmed in Seoul?
There is currently no strong public evidence confirming that the entire production was filmed in Seoul itself. The strongest officially documented location is the Seoul Institute of the Arts in Ansan, which is in Gyeonggi Province, not central Seoul.
This distinction matters because Korean productions frequently use locations around the wider Seoul metropolitan area, and entertainment databases may broadly describe such productions as being filmed in “Seoul” even when specific scenes were shot in neighboring cities.
For this series, it is safer to describe the confirmed filming area as Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, rather than claiming that every scene was filmed in Seoul.
What Happened After Filming?
After the June 2026 campus shoots, the completed footage went through editing and post-production before the drama’s August 28 premiere.
The short-form format requires a different editing approach from a conventional 60-minute television drama. With 51 episodes, scenes need to move quickly while still maintaining continuity between installments. The production also had to prepare the series for vertical viewing, which places greater importance on close-ups, character framing and compositions designed for smartphone screens.
By August 28, the series was ready for release across its short-form distribution platforms. Current listings confirm its premiere on that date, while production information identifies An So-hoe as director and creator. The filming story behind Dive Into My Bad Rival is especially interesting because the production used a real university campus to create its youthful setting.
The most firmly documented location is Seoul Institute of the Arts in Ansan, South Korea, where filming took place in June 2026. The official university announcement identifies Madong 214, Jiwondong 211, the Jiwondong second-floor terrace, corridors and staircases, an underground passage, and a locker area among the spaces used by the production.
The campus location also fits the story perfectly. With Ji-su and Kang Han connected through swimming, the production needed an environment that could convincingly represent the characters’ youth and school life.
While additional filming locations may eventually be revealed by the production company, cast interviews or location databases, Seoul Institute of the Arts remains the key publicly confirmed shooting location at present.
With its August 28, 2026 release and 51-episode vertical format, Dive Into My Bad Rival adds another distinctive Korean short-form romance to the growing BL drama landscape.
