Lovely Runner’s Kim Hye-yoon picks co-star Byeon Woo-seok’s portrayal of K-pop idol as her preferred choice from ongoing drama

Lovely Runner fame Kim Hye-yoon spoke about Byeon Woo-seok's portrayal of a school boy-turned-K-pop star in their ongoing tvN drama. During an interview with Cosmopolitan on May 9, 2024, she was asked which cinematic persona of her co-star she prefers the most. In response, the actress expressed admiration for Byeon Woo-seok's transformation into Ryu Sun-jae, a sucessful idol.

As quoted by the publication (Google translation), she mentioned:

"Although 19-year-old Sun-jae was excited to wear a school uniform, she felt the greatest excitement when she was styled as top star Ryu Sun-jae."

For the unversed, Kim Hye-yoon plays the character of Im Sol in the popular drama Lovely Runner. She also happens to be the love interest of Ryu Sun-jae.

Running high on the success of her latest drama, the actress sat down to talk about her childhood, education, journey of landing a lead role in the popular series, and working alongside Byeon Woo-seok. The actress has starred in other K-dramas including Snowdrop (2021) and Sky Castle (2016).

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Kim Hye-yoon prefers Byeon Woo-seok's idol appearance in Lovely Runner

Lovely Runner (Korea: Seonjae Jumps Up) is the story of Im Sol (Kim Hye-yoon), who used to be an aspiring film director. However, she gets into a tragic accident that leaves her paralyzed from the waist down.

Meanwhile, Byeon Woo-seok portrays Ryu Sun-jae, a popular K-pop idol from the fictional band called Eclipse. He has been in love with Im Sol since high school. In this time-slip romance drama, Im Sol goes back to the past to change her and Sun-jae's destiny.

Byeon Woo-seok has enthralled audiences all over the world with his performance. Talking about his character, Kim Hye-yoon told Cosmopolitan that her co-star, who plays a 19-year-old student, looks cute in his high school uniform. But he shone brighter when he dressed like the 28-year-old K-pop superstar.

Kim Hye-yoon also mentioned how the director of Lovely Runner, Yoon Jong-ho, wrote the script keeping her in mind as Im Sol. Earlier, the director had shared that he wouldn't have filmed the tvN drama at all if Kim Hye-yoon had refused to play the part.

The main leads of the popular tvN drama have touched millions of people with their acting skills, onscreen chemistry, heartfelt musical numbers, sad undertones in the story, and very straightforward storyline.

Furthermore, the most well-liked South Korean K-dramas of 2024, Lovely Runner and Queen of Tears have been in close competition ever since their releases. In the first week since it aired on April 8, 2024, Lovely Runner even outperformed Kim Soo-hyun and Kim Ji-won's Netflix drama Queen of Tears in the topicality statistics disclosed by Good Data Corporation. The show scored 42,393 points.

For the uninitiated, topicality refers to the amount of conversation and engagement that a TV show—or movie, depending on the situation—is creating at any particular moment on social media. Both Byeon Woo-seok and Kim Hye-yoon even topped the popular celebrities chart by Good Data Corporation on FUNDex on May 8, 2024.

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Lovely Runner episode 11 aired on tvN on May 13, 2024. In the latest episode, Ryu Sun-jae chose to stop wasting time by hiding his love for Im Sol and requested her to stay with him despite what the future may hold.

The protagonists' family members initially misunderstood their relationship, but Sol and Sun-jae swiftly dispelled their doubts by displaying their affection. Another important highlight was the arrest of the criminal taxi driver, Kim Young-soo. However, the episode ended with the taxi driver escaping the police.