IT'S a little unusual to describe a star as someone who is shy and an introvert.
But that's exactly what Jung Soo-jung a.k.a. Krystal Jung is in reality, says her Crazy Love co-star Kim Jae-wook.
"For a casual onlooker, she may come across as someone who is chic and unapproachable.
"But that's because she is just shy and it takes time for her to warm up to other people," shares Kim during a virtual roundtable interview to promote the romantic comedy series, Crazy Love.
"When she finally opened up to me, she told me straight up that she's pretty introvert.
"This made us feel more comfortable on the set and I think we've both grown very close to each other," shares the 38-year-old actor, when asked on his first impression of Jung, who is also a member of the K-pop girl group f(x).
For Jung, 27, she views Kim as being perfectly innocent.
"There's more to him than meets the eye," she says without divulging more.
In the 16-episode Crazy Love, which is available on Disney+ Hotstar, Kim plays Noh Go-jin, an online Maths tutor of celebrity status.
For the uninitiated, in a competitive society like South Korea's, several things are more important than just getting a good education. Merely putting in the time and effort to study is not enough, and one needs to be studying the right things, at the right places and with the right people.
Go-jin is handsome, brilliant and has high self-esteem. In one of his tutorial videos, he says there are only two ways of going about learning mathematics: "Give up or take my course."
His brilliance extends beyond Maths, and into business. He is the head of GoTop, an education company that recruits star tutors in various academic subjects.
He may be very successful, but he is also a terrible boss as proven by the string of secretaries whom he employed and fired.
Their job, which involves preparing his food and drinks to exact standards, and having things thrown at them, tends to mean that they will last less than three months, and the current holder of the post has persevered longer than most.
Enters Lee Shin-a (played by Jung), who is about to celebrate a full year as Go-jin's exhausted and perpetually berated secretary.
The work is thankless — Go-jin only acknowledges Shin-a's presence when he's upset with her. But she endures, hoping it will help her draw closer to her own dream of becoming a successful instructor.
In the first episode, Crazy Love mostly confines itself to the office, with plenty of relatable workplace humour and office politics, making the show an easy watch, but then the scriptwriters up the ante.
An assassination attempt, teased in the opening scene, unleashes a range of possibilities as viewers discover that several characters around Go-jin have it in for him.
A terminal illness also changes the dynamic of the series before the action moves to Gangneung on South Korea's east coast.
A case of amnesia by the end of episode two changes the show's direction once again.
Meanwhile, a pair of attractive co-stars are waiting in the wings, either to present obstacles to whatever romantic feelings may develop between Go-jin and Shin-a, or perhaps to develop a secondary romance of their own.
"Go-jin actually has a very sensitive personality and he's abrasive and snappy, towards, not only Shin-a but also his previous secretaries.
"I initially find it very hard to perform scenes where Go-jin would snap at everyone. I just couldn't muster that kind of energy. I'm a person whose voice would only go lower when I get mad, but here is Go-jin who just yells away," recounts Kim with a smile.
Playing a math genius, Kim had to understand the mathematical questions his character was explaining to his students.
"That was something I was not quite used to. So it was a bit tricky," he confides.
For Jung, playing Shin-a has been extremely challenging.
"We are already into our four, five months of filming, but I'm just getting used to it all now.
"It didn't help that we shot all the tricky scenes early on, so I had a lot of trouble gathering the emotions and adapting to the set, but I know I've given my best," shares Jung.
Jung's Shin-a has a submissive attitude which changes only after a health scare.
"That's the point when Shin-a starts to explode emotionally and lets everything out. Frankly speaking, playing her drains me emotionally. After every single take, I'd be really exhausted."
However, both stars agree that filming during the pandemic can be a little daunting and confusing.
"On the set, all crew members have to wear masks. Even if we were spending a lot of time together, half the time we weren't sure to whom we were talking to!" recounts Jung with a laugh.
Kim adds: "The production had difficulty locking filming locations during the Covid-19 pandemic. Other than that, everything was okay."