Earlier this week, Park Seo Joon and his drama co-star Park Min Young issued a denial to the rumors that they were in a relationship. Some of the so-called “evidence” linking the two came from netizens pointing out similarities in their social media posts and claiming that they traveled together or wore couple items.
In the interview, Park Seo Joon said, “The stories were about me, so it was impossible for me to avoid seeing them. Before I talk about them, I’d like to say that this interview is about the end of the drama, so I hope that we can focus on that.”
He continued, “People cut-and-pasted together a lot [to make the ‘evidence’]. Claims that we traveled together or owned similar items are ridiculous. I even thought about showing my airplane tickets as proof. But I didn’t do anything wrong, so do I have to go that far?”
“If we happened to travel to the same country, it was all for work, but people would look at the photos and say that I tried to make it obvious,” he said. “I don’t know what part of that was obvious.”
About the “couple items” claims, he said, “People who like clothes and fashion know the latest trends. I have lots of things in different colors. If Justin Bieber and I own similar items, are people going to say that we’re dating? People just randomly put stuff together, so I don’t think I need to explain myself every time.”
One particular claim that got a lot of attention online was about Park Seo Joon’s baseball uniform number. (The actor plays in a celebrity baseball team.) Netizens claimed that his old baseball uniform number referred to another actress who had been involved in relationship rumors with Park Seo Joon, and that his current uniform (#34) was a reference to Park Min Young’s birthday (March 4).
“When I first joined the team, I wanted to pick the number 27. But they didn’t have that one so I just got number 28 by default. There was no special meaning attached,” he explained. The number 34, on the other hand, was chosen because he admired New York Mets player Noah Syndergaard, who wears the same uniform number for his team.
“He goes around with long blonde hair, so he’s called the Thor of major league baseball,” Park Seo Joon said. “His average pitch is 98 miles per hour. I think those kinds of players are really cool. He’s a tough guy and even took first place in the Home Run Derby. I thought I’d like to have the same uniform number as him, but I didn’t know that people would be suspicious of it.”
He ended on a resigned note, saying, “I wondered, ‘Is there really a need to explain myself?’ People believe what they want to believe. I didn’t want to sound like I was just making excuses.”
“What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim?” aired its final episode on July 26.
This content was originally published here.