Young-soo and Jung-sook, who left ENA and SBS Plus’s "I Am Solo" Season 27 as a matched couple, ultimately didn’t keep dating off camera.
In the finale, Young-soo made a late push, saying he hadn’t had enough time to get to know Jung-sook on the show but would choose her anyway. Jung-sook, who said she came to find a lifelong partner, chose him back. Even as he hugged her, Young-soo acknowledged one looming hurdle: they’d be long distance.
After the episode aired, fans went into detective mode online. Around Young-soo’s May 24 birthday, Jung-sook posted herself in birthday glasses the next day, sparking “they’re together” chatter. A four-leaf-clover photo on her Instagram appeared to show the same sneakers he wore on air, and eyewitness accounts claimed Young-soo was spotted near Jung-sook’s workplace in Pohang ― sending speculation into overdrive.
However, in a live YouTube stream on the show’s channel filmed right after the finale, the pair set the record straight.
“We couldn’t make long distance work,” Young-soo admitted. Jung-sook added, “I thought we could at first, but in practice it wasn’t easy.” The moment landed with extra irony: on the show, Jung-sook once vented about “that darn long distance” when male contestants hesitated to date across cities. She currently lives in Pohang.
The other finale duo, Sang-cheol and Ok-soon, also confirmed they aren’t dating in real life. “We got a lot of support, but we weren’t trying to raise expectations,” Ok-soon said, while Sang-cheol agreed, “We’re not a real-life couple.”
(SBS Entertainment News | Kang Kyung-youn)