byun woo seok thumbnail

Elementary Kids’ Idol Is IVE While Their Mothers Fall In Love With “Lovely Runner” Seon-jae

It is known that Korean mothers are crazy about Seon-jae in “Lovely Runner” as much as their children like IVE

Taking a look at YouTube content and Mom Cafe communities, there’s an interesting fact that most elementary school students are enthusiastic about hip-hop and several idol groups. Elementary school girls from grade 2 to grade 4 usually like girl groups with older sisters. Among them, IVE is overwhelmingly popular. Then, starting from grade 5, as the kids enter puberty, they naturally switch to male idols or become interested in real-life relationships. 

Universe Ticket

Children who put photos of their favorite idols, such as IVE, on their Kakaotalk often have their first fandom experience such as listening to music together, exchanging member photocards, doing dance covers and making fandom friends. In the meantime, mothers who used to like idol groups such as TVXQ or 2PM understand their children’s fandom activities well but they also express concerns over the kids losing concentration in studying.

On Mom Cafe, some novice mothers complained, “Is it okay for my daughter to eat only the pizza that IVE is advertising?”, “I’m having a cold war with my son who recently fell in love with hip-hop. Am I old-fashioned?”, etc., while senior mothers give advice such as, “We used to feel the same. It’s a natural thing. Just think the kid is cute”, “That’s okay because kids these days like idols in a healthy way”, etc.

byun woo seok

While elementary kids are into idols, their mothers also secretly fall in love with Seon-jae, the character played by actor Byun Woo-seok in tvN’s ongoing Mon-Tue drama “Lovely Runner”. In the drama, Seon-jae is a singer who has a lovely romance with his first love as she goes back to the past. Regardless of age, all the female viewers are melted whenever they see Seon-jae.

Online communities for mothers were full of comments related to Seon-jae, such as “I thought I’m already over 40 but I guess I’m not, right? I became a fan for the first time thanks to Seon-jae”, “He’s so good. He’s the light in my helpless light”, “He’s tall, handsome, has a small face and perfect dimple”, etc. As a result, Byun Woo-seok’s past dramas such as “20th Century Girl” and “Strong Girl Nam-soon” also became a hot topic again.

The rating of “Lovely Runner”, which has aired 8 episodes, was relatively low but it’s arousing many hot topics. After every broadcast, comments about the drama on SNS, Naver Talk and YouTube immediately poured out. Especially, the number of comments on YouTube increased by more than 90% compared to the previous week. 

Source: nate