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Girl in a jacket

Meet the girl behind the viral question “Do you like Messi?”

When Lee Sung-kyung had to put on a few kilograms for her role as a weightlifting trainee in the drama Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo, she admitted that she was “a little depressed” to find patches of dry skin and stretch marks on her body.

Screen Shot 2017-01-16 at 7.16.14 PM

Yet, the toll of the extra weight was forgotten once she began filming the drama, said Lee in an interview with K-pop Herald.

“I found happiness in the innocence of the show. I felt like all of my complicated thoughts were filtered clean, and I was left only with the nicest feelings,” she added.

Lee plays as a university student named Bok-joo, whose daily routine consists of little more than eating and lifting weights until she falls in love for the first time. Unexpectedly, her object of affection is the lean-bodied swimmer Joon-hyung, played by Nam Joo-hyuk, who has a track record of dating only the skinniest, “most attractive” girls. But he, too, soon falls for the lovable, round-faced Bok-joo.

A youthful series about campus romance between two athletes in training — the series gained a lot of followers among viewers who are fond of puppy love. The sincerity of the dialogues penned by Yang Hee-seung and Kim Soo-jin also helped the team behind the drama to reach out to audience.

“(Writer Yang) did such a great job in capturing youth,” said Lee. “She herself is very gentle. That sensitivity shows through.”

In the Philippines, the memorable scene of Bok-joo using the pick-up line “Do you like Messi?” to her crush became viral with Filipinos using variations of it for their own confessions and #hugot.

Watch and relive the love story of Kim Bok Joo and Jung Joonhyung on Viu Philippines for free: inq.news/WFKBJ-Pop

By Clarisse Inao

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