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'Lovely Runner' star Byeon Woo-seok to tour Asia

Actor Byeon Woo-seok, who played the male lead in tvN's drama, ″Lovely Runner,″ will host an Asian fan meet-and-greet tour, titled ″Summer Letter.″ [JOONGANG ILBO]


Lead actor of "Lovely Runner," Byeon Woo-seok, will tour Asia to meet fans upon the massive success of the tvN drama series.

Byeon will kick off the tour, titled "Summer Letter," on June 8 in Taipei, traveling to cities such as Bangkok, Seoul and Hong Kong. The Seoul event of the tour will take place at Jangchung Arena in Jung District, central Seoul on July 6 and 7.

Byeon's popularity saw an exponential growth with "Lovely Runner." A Taiwanese fan even paid for Byeon's advertisement billboard in New York City's Times Square, which is hosted by social media promotion company TSX Entertainment.

The 8,000 tickets to the Seoul event sold out in mere seconds when sales began on Monday at 8 p.m. The server was severely lagging as more than 700,000 fans tried to vie for a ticket to the event.

Scalpers are circulating on social media and online communities, according to local media reports. The most expensive seat for the event was 77,000 won ($56), but some tickets are now more than 45 times higher than the original price, being sold at 3.5 million won.

A fan-made montage of Byeon was also displayed in an advertisement space on New York Times Square. [SCREEN CAPTURE]


Byeon attended a "Lovely Runner" group viewing event for the final episode of “Lovely Runner” on Tuesday with actor Kim Hye-yoon, who played the female lead, at CGV Yongsan I-Park Mall in central Seoul. The event was also mired by scalpers.

The final episode of “Lovely Runner” had a national viewership rating of 5.8 percent based on Nielsen Korea, up from 3 percent on its first episode.

Byeon debuted in 2016 with tvN drama "Dear My Friends." He has featured in the film "20th Century Girl" (2022) and JTBC drama "Strong Girl Nam-soon" (2023), but has been seeing a new career high with "Lovely Runner."

To find out more about them, visit Celeb Confirmed!

BY KIM MIN-YOUNG [kim.minyoung5@joongang.co.kr]