Letter #131: The Weki Meki Addendum, Vol. I: Yoojung, Pt.1: "Acting"

Good morning, Erin.

If there’s one thing I know you love more than anything else about our relationship, it’s that I’m prone to fawning over actresses I think are pretty. And I, whose only desire is to see you happy, could think of no better way to maximize the amount of happiness I bring you than to write an entire letter in which I squeal like a schoolgirl over my Weki Meki bias—the inimitable, adorable Yoojung. 

…well, not entirely that. But a good 40% of my notes are just “OMG SHE’S SO CUTE” with little hearts doodled around it, which I’m hoping will be good enough. 

Because when I heard #bestgirl had found time to do a little acting in between being the most lovable ball of energy in music history, you betcha I tracked it all down IMMEDIATELY—but you know I would never embark on such a precious adventure without taking you with me!

So, are you ready to run headlong into a potentially life-threatening amount of swoon?

Just look at that face—of course you are!

I. Single and Ready to Mingle

A short web series in which Yoojung accidentally fractures a boy’s arms and has to cover his shifts at the cafe he runs. And also she and her best pal, Doyeon (also from Weki Meki), move into the apartments above the cafe, which the fractured-arms boy also runs—and lives in. And also there’s another attractive, conveniently single young man who lives with them as well. And a third guy. And his sister.

1. I’m sure Yoojung’s character has a name, but I’m only ever going to call her “Yoojung.” Just FYI. 

2. So…acting is not really Yoojung’s thing. As in, she doesn’t have a natural affinity for it—at least, she doesn’t when it comes to playing a character who is much more, um, restrained than she is. (Not that I’ve seen her play a character more like herself.) She’s not having fun with her performance, in that sense, so her charisma never gets to come into play and bolster her performance. Here (as with the other roles I’ve seen her play), she is meant to be serious and unexciting, which is far too against type for someone of her limited inclination for acting. I see why she’s playing the parts she is—logistically, I mean, since she’s the popular figure meant to draw audience attention to the show—but, as a fan, I’m baffled why no one has yet thought to let her play a zany or ridiculous character. I think she’d do a great job. 

2A. …well, a good job, at any rate. She’s far too charming not to be, if she’s allowed to let loose a little bit.

2B. She’s still just about the cutest girl ever, though, so she’s got that aspect of all her roles down!

3. The whole show feels very much like Zoey 101 (in tone, at least), if you ever watched any of that show. Which I did. But only the few episodes in one of the later seasons when the main romance subplot genuinely kicked into gear. (Which…is how I started watching Phil of the Future. And iCarly. Hmm.)

4. The emotional crux of the show is that Yoojung hasn’t ever really been interested in boys (and, in fact, mostly feels intimidated by them)—apart from her favorite idol, for whom she harbors an all-consuming crush. Doyeon, on the other hand, is boy-crazy and absolutely dying to get a boyfriend. To that end, Doyeon tells Yoojung that she’d be better off trying to devote affection to real guys “instead of celebrities”—which is all well and good for Yoojung’s mental well-being, but I think it’s only fair to counterpoint that, while celebrities won’t ever love us back, they don’t ever feel put out that we love them. Which, for those of us whose real-world romances always seem doomed from the outset, counts for a lot. 

4A. And, of course, there’s the layer of irony to this sentiment being given by a literal idol, but…

5. Watching Yoojung act like she’s not much of a dancer is kind of fun. (Like, if you know she’s a great dancer, that is.)

6. Great line: “Your capitalism-driven smile is amazing.”

7. When the third guy’s sexy sister is introduced into the story, they immediately establish that she is going to be a romantic rival for Yoojung by having the sister wear black and Yoojung wear white. And you know I love when they color-code!

8. The show does a fairly tepid job trying to hide the fact that sweet, innocent Yoojung has a big butterfly tattoo on her inner wrist. (And another on the side of her hand.) Like, they don’t put makeup on it, which is how I would think to cover it up. No, they seem to have wet some beige crepe paper and just sort of laid it on her wrist. Which…I mean, I’m not a professional, but when you can still see the tattoo through the covering, I don’t know how good a covering is.

8A. Given this, there’s a bit later in the series where I can’t tell if the show just gave up trying to cover an ankle tattoo on Yoojung or if she’s just wearing odd-colored socks. 

9. I really like that Doyeon’s character just assumes every guy she meets is hitting on her. I know it’s supposed to derive from how she’s sort of fixated on dating, but…I mean, look at her. It’s a safe assumption to make. 

10. Relatedly, there’s a scene where—and don’t ask me to explain how—Doyeon accidentally uses her (eventual) romantic interest’s toothbrush to clean her feet, much to his chagrin when he finds her doing it. The irony of which struck me immediately, because I bet there are hundreds of guys (...and girls) who would LOVE for Doyeon to drag their toothbrushes across her feet. Not this guy, obviously, but…lots of people, I bet. 

10A. Not me. But people.

10B. …what? This wasn’t your first thought when I mentioned that she did this? Really? Do you not…use the internet?

11. The main guy and romantic interest for Yoojung decorates his pogo stick with sunflowers—which is her designated emoji for her Weki Meki social media posts. (See? I’m a Ki-ling! I know things!)

12. My favorite gag in the series comes at the start of Episode 6, just after the third guy’s sexy sister has joined the cast, when she’s in the yard and watering the flowers—in slow motion, in various sexy poses (like out of a music video). The shot then cuts over to the other characters’ POV as they watch her strike the poses for no particular reason in real time. Hilarious. 

12A. And, admittedly, kinda sexy. (The first part. Not the joke-y part.)

12B. Her brother tells the other that, because she’s spent so much time in the U.S., she’s just watering the flowers like they do in America. Which cracked me up. 

13. Semi-relatedly: the sexy sister is by far the best—and my favorite—character on the show. She’s got a clear goal and very specific personality (she’s ridiculous, which you know I love), making her easily the most defined member of the cast. That alone probably gives her the edge over Doyeon for the best performance overall.

14. Oh, speaking of: Doyeon’s pretty good in this. Not great, and not as good as she is in (the much better written) My Roommate is a Gumiho, but, even if she doesn’t have too much to do here, she’s clearly got some acting chops—and so it’s probably not surprising that she’s currently off in London studying acting. Which I guess means all those Engoo lessons from Mohae really paid off! 

15. More good stuff from the sexy sister: Yoojung is asked to pose for some couple-y promotional photos with her romantic interest but, because she’s too nervous to even pretend to be a couple with the boy she likes, turns down the offer…and so the sexy sister struts into the room and, striking a pose, says she’ll do it instead—because (and I quote) “I’m a super-hot model.” Like, in English. I absolutely lost it. She’s so much fun! It just sucks that she’s only in the last couple of episodes. 

16. This series does the same thing that bothered me about Be My Boyfriend: it places the title sequence after the preview for the next episode. Like…biznatch, the episodes are 15 minutes long! Your previews show me EVERYTHING that’s going to happen! I just want to be able to catch the theme song without having to run a gauntlet for spoilers!

16A. …not that this is anywhere near the same ballpark as Be My Boyfriend. It’s not bad, but pretty much everything that isn’t the sexy sister (and maybe Doyeon) needs work. So, I wouldn’t tell you not to watch it, but it’s definitely not good enough for me to recommend. 

17. …but Yoojung, so 10/10. 

II. Cast

A short web series in which Yoojung lands her dream job: a cast member at an amusement park. She does her best to get by, surrounded by a wacky group of go-getters—including her school-friend-turned-rival. 

1. I’m sure Yoojung’s character has a name, but I’m only ever going to call her “Yoojung.” Just FYI.

2. This series starts with Yoojung trying to look like she’s a real live actual adult for a job interview, and it’s just adorable. No one believes that, sweetie. But you keep trying!

3. This show’s solution for hiding Yoojung’s wrist tattoo is to give her a massive watch to wear. Which certainly isn’t perfect, but certainly is markedly more successful than wet crepe paper.

4. Believe it or not, I actually recognized one of the actresses in this series: it’s #bestgirl from What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim?, the unnamed office girl! And, believe it or not, she’s #bestgirl in this, too! 

4A. Full disclosure: I have virtually no memory of the details of this series, and my notes are written as though I would remember everything—so I don’t know exactly why she’s #bestgirl…but, given my history, I think we can assume it’s because she’s ridiculous and/or mean and/or the only person with actual emotional investment in what’s going on around her. 

4B. “...and/or you thought she was prett—”

THERE’S NO TIME, ERIN!

5. Now, in fairness to me, I do have multiple notes wondering if anything was ever going to actually happen (story-wise) on this show, so there may not be many details for me to have forgotten in the first place. 

6. When she receives her assignment at the amusement park, Yoojung has been sent to work at the log flume ride. There’s an in-universe logistical reason given, but we all know it’s really because the log flume has the uniform that will make her look the cutest: a bright checkered shirt and overalls, both oversized to accentuate how tiny she is. 

6A. Well, that and how they play pop music at the ride, which means they could sneak in a scene of her doing the dance to I.O.I’s “Very Very Very.” Which, why wouldn’t ya. 

7. If the show thought I wouldn’t take the time to analyze the background behind the flippy-upside-down ride and confirm that the setting for this series is in fact the exact same amusement park Weki Meki visited for their guerilla concert in Mohae…then, the show thought wrong! 

8. “I realized that I need money to have the advantages that people with money have,” one of the characters says, in what is either a sign that the translation for the series wasn’t great or that the writing for the series wasn’t great. And I really can’t tell you which I think is more likely. 

9. Oo—similarly: Yoojung’s convinced that her school-friend-turned-rival’s main issue with her is that she’s jealous Yoojung “became a social butterfly.” Which is…wonderfully imprecise. As a translation, I mean. I don’t know exactly what Yoojung says, of course, but given the way in which she keeps using the phrase, I think she’s talking about being more sociable (or maybe even more popular) than she used to be rather than having easy, shallow relationships with a variety of people—which is what a social butterfly is. So, I chuckled every time it popped up in the subtitles. 

10. Every episode starts with a snippet of a scene from the dramatic peak of the episode. Every episode is about 10 minutes long. So…not much of a tease. 

11. There’s some puke on the ground in Episode 5—and it isn’t censored! I was shocked!

12. Someone takes a video of Yoojung trying to deal with a bullying customer and uploads it to not-YouTube or not-Twitter or whatever, and the online public rallies to praise her kindness in the face of the unreasonable customer—for about 10 minutes, at which point the internet somehow dug up an unflattering video of her from high school to then pillory her over. 

13. Relatedly: thi one time I was at Disney World, I was getting food from one of the little, like, walk-up concession areas off to the side of the main walkway area, and, as I’m waiting to get the burger (I assume) I had ordered for lunch, I see this 18- or 19-year-old girl working behind the counter complaining about this annoying customer she’d had to deal with earlier in the day. “I’m telling you, that woman just”—the girl halts for a moment, noticing that I’m listening to her conversation—“...sucked the magic right out of me.” And I burst out laughing. 

13A. Later that day, I was on the in-house production of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? (Which was one of the “rides” at MGM Studios, back in the day.) But I can tell that story another time.

13B. …but I’ll give you 10 Daryl points if you can correctly guess how far I made it. 

14. Yoojung’s school-friend-turned-rival situation almost certainly turned out to be some kind of misunderstanding which eventually led to the school-friend-turned-rival turning into the school-friend-turned-rival-turned-friend-again. Because I remember that, after the turned-friend-again part, we get a plot thread where the school-friend-turned-rival-turned-friend-again’s tragic backstory comes to the forefront, allowing Yoojung to solidify their turned-friend-again bond by helping resolve the issues that have been haunting her ever since their friendship fell apart. And, if I’m not mistaken, this section of the story contains maybe the only truly good piece of writing in the whole series: back in high school, the school-friend-turned-rival went to put her mother’s phone number into her teacher’s phone (so he could call her for a parent-teacher conference or something)—and saw that he actually already had the number saved, which let us know that he was the one her mother had been having an affair with. Which was a much cooler moment if you were watching the show. Promise. 

15. Relatedly: the actress playing the school-friend-turned-rival-turned-friend-again’s mom tries to do some actual acting when she’s introduced into the story. So, credit to her for trying.

16. Relatedly: this show is full of people who are not actors not being able to act (with the exception of #bestgirl from Secretary Kim and the aforementioned school-friend-turned-rival-turned-friend-again’s mom), and there’s actually a moment of self-awareness in the script that addresses this directly: someone tells one of the boys that he is handsome and, therefore, able to act.

17. For totally plot-contrived reasons, a box falls on Yoojung’s head and knocks her out for a few hours. And, to the show’s credit, this results in her having a concussion and neck injury. Usually, when characters are knocked out in a show or movie, they just sort of shake it off and go on with the action of the story. In reality, falling unconscious after a bonk on the head is…well, it’s bad. 

18. But, yeah, I have no idea what this show was about or what the point was supposed to be—and not just because I watched it so long ago that I don’t remember it. There were certainly things about it to enjoy, and it probably only needed another pass at the script to slim it down and tighten up what was already there (regardless of whether it had a point to it). Overall, though, I think it’s a miss. 

19. …but Yoojung, so 10/10.

III. A Bicycle Runs on Two Wheels

A short film—well, it’s technically a one-off “special” for disability awareness, but I consider it a movie, so…a short film in which Yoojung is a high school student asked to help one of her classmates, an autistic boy who is fixated on bicycles. 

1. I’m sure Yoojung’s character has a name, but I’m only ever going to call her “Yoojung.” 

1A. …just FYI.

2. For what is essentially a pumped-up PSA, this is actually pretty good. Or…maybe watchable is a better description than good, but I enjoyed it well enough. It’s got a decent story that neither sugarcoats nor over-dramatizes the reality of having an autistic student in a regular school. It never comes off as trying to be anything fancier than it is, which counts more than you’d think, especially with how often it can veer into the cheesy or how obvious the informational sections of the script are. Yoojung does probably her best acting that I’ve seen, and she’s as adorable as ever, which I know is the biggest selling point for you. So…I dunno, I guess I recommend it? Like, if you feel like watching a PSA about respecting people with disabilities. It’s on YouTube. 

3. Now, having said all that, I will freely admit there is an early subplot where Yoojung is briefly struck blind, and it’s a really awkward way to open her up to sympathizing with the autistic boy (because she now knows what it’s like to be disabled!). I understand why they decided to do it, but it’s a jarring narrative detour and, as such, not the most efficient use of the 45-minute runtime. Which is probably the only real criticism I can levy at it. 

3A. …well, there’s also this thing where the subtitles are weird, but I don’t think that quite rises to the level of being a criticism.

3B. They are weird though. Like, from memory, the translations are fine and sound natural. But it’s everything else that’s so strange. You know how shows can have those audio tracks for the blind or people who have trouble seeing? The ones that narrate the actions and visuals on screen? Well, the subtitles for this movie are the written form of that—so you get all the dialogue, but you also get all the descriptions of who’s in the room and where they’re sitting and what they do. So, you’re getting the audio description in subtitles, not in an actual audio track. That is, you’re getting the stuff for those with difficulty seeing in a way that can only be helpful if you can see it. 

3C. In a PSA about respect for people with disabilities. 

4. Oh—I recognized the actress playing the special ed teacher: she’s the heavyset diver lady from Welcome to Samdal-ri. (Y’know, one of the women who works with the main girl’s mom.)

IV. Sound Candy

A full-length short web series(?) in which Yoojung returns to her home town after failing to make it in Seoul. By coincidence, things start to turn around when she stumbles across a magic jar of jelly beans and a suspiciously-high number of attractive K-pop boys who keep falling in love with her.

1. I’m sure Yoojung’s character has a name, but I’m only ever going to call her “Yoojung.” Just FYI. 

2. No sense burying the lede on this one: “YOU KNOW I HAVE NO CHINGU” GIRL IS IN THIS!!!

2A. Or, put another way: “YOU KNOW I HAVE NO CHINGU” GIRL IS IN THIS??? H-How?!?!?!

2B. I’m just saying: this is a project that’s below her weight class. It came out in 2023, which is after she’d landed all the gigs that significantly raised her profile. And Lord knows she’s the only one with real acting chops, so…why is she in this?

2C. To hang out with all the hot idol boys who are in it, obviously, but I’m more curious about how she got involved. Like, does she know someone on the production staff? Is this a holdover from before she became a TikTok meme? Did she just throw open a door at the studio and demand to be written into the script? Seriously—I want to know. 

3. This is a total shojo manga storyline, and I loved every delicious, trope-y moment of it. I mean, like I said above, poor ol’ Yoojung limps back home to work at her family’s B&B after failing to achieve her dreams in the big city, and then suddenly there are three hot boys who have fallen desperately in love with her: her childhood friend, her favorite pop star, and the leader of a pre-debut idol group. I literally clapped when I realized this was what the story was going to be. 

4. That said: what an absolute slog. There are bright spots for sure (which we’ll get into), but overall…woof. (Which we’ll also get into.)

5. I also know the dude playing Yoojung’s smitten childhood friend: he was the pop star doing community service at the prosecutors’ office in Miss Night and Day. And he is far, far too good looking. Easily the handsomest of the three suitors. 

5A. …but he’s not the male lead, so f*** him, I guess.

6. Not content with just having one character with a temporary disability under her belt, here Yoojung plays a girl with some kind of serious auditory issue that is really only relevant to the plot when it needs to be. And then goes away in the end. Because of magic jelly beans that can make you hear the past for, like, 10 seconds. Or maybe they can make you vividly relive a past memory? I dunno. Like, we see flashbacks to the things they hear when they eat the jelly beans, which I assumed were just a visual way of relaying to the audience what memories they were hearing in their heads, but Yoojung’s grandmother seems totally blissed out when she takes them, so…who knows. Point is, Yoojung takes enough of them that her auditory issues are healed by magic. 

7. A good 30% of this show is just Yoojung and “No Chingu” Girl basically having a cute-off, where the winner is me. 

7A. I mean, that’s how I interpreted things. Maybe they were having serious, plot-relevant conversations. Who knows. 

8. Actually, “No Chingu” Girl is kind of spectacular in this. She’s always an absolute riot in everything, and she’s so good at being funny (she’s even part of SNL Korea, now!)—but I don’t know how much of her being a total cut-up in this series was planned. I mean, she’s supposed to be a comic character, but I’m pretty sure most of her performance is just improv, and she gets more and more brazen and ridiculous with it as the show goes on. Like she seems less and less concerned with the show itself and is instead focused on screwing with the bouquet of idol boys she has around her for most of the show. And it’s pretty great. 

9. Relatedly: I will never, ever get tired of hearing her gasp in surprise. It’s so funny!

10. The leader of the pre-debut idol group is 100% my favorite of the three guys after Yoojung. He’s got the most going on, as far as characters go, and he’s pretty well realized outside of the romance subplot—but he’s also got the most well realized of the romance subplots, as well: he and Yoojung clash immediately, keep getting thrown together, and then can’t stop complaining about (which gives way to thinking about) each other. And that’s so my jam. They’ve got real chemistry, and he probably gives the best performance of the three suitors, which certainly helps. 

10A. Even better, in the early part of the show, when he and Yoojung overtly don’t like each other, she makes breakfast for his group (because they’re staying at her B&B) and, though everyone else thinks it tastes, uh, less than stellar, he absolutely vacuums it up. Because he secretly likes her. And it’s adorable. 

10B. …but he’s not the male lead, so f*** him, I guess.

11. The magic jar of jelly beans sure does seem to stay full, given how frequently people are seen eating from it. Presumably because part of the magic is complimentary refills. 

12. One of the boys in the pre-debut idol group says his “hometown is California,” and I’m just going to assume this is one of the less impressive translations in the series rather than an example of him not knowing how states work. 

13. Yoojung x leader boy jelly bean scene #1: Yoojung’s painful auditory issues are set off by fireworks, and leader boy rushes over to feed her one of the magic jelly beans so that the pleasant sounds of her past memories will drown out the injurious noise. It is sweet and romantic.

14. Yoojung x leader boy jelly bean scene #2: leader boy passes out from exhaustion, and Yoojung rushes over to shove a magic jelly bean in his mouth so he can presumably choke to death, because he is unconscious, Yoojung, how did you expect him to eat it? It is stupid and potentially criminal. 

14A. And, no, I have no idea what she thought making him hear sounds from his past was going to do in that situation. 

15. At one point, the pre-debut idol group puts on a short performance for the elderly members of the town, and…well, the script says it goes well and everyone has a good time, but those old folks seemed boooooooored. 

16. Jumping back for a moment—or, well, let me preface it this way: like most web series, the writers here clearly want to hit certain story beats but aren’t really sure how to get to them naturally. That’s how we get something like Yoojung not speaking up about being unable to deal with the noise from fireworks at any point during the lengthy fireworks setup process when she heads to the beach with the pre-debut idol group. Because we need her auditory issues to go off so we can have leader boy rush over to save her and make her heart go all pitter-patter. 

17. Relatedly: the timing from one scene to the next frequently feels awkward—because a lot of scenes we see in succession are actually happening simultaneously (or at least in very close proximity to each other). So, we’ll end one scene with Yoojung leaving her room to visit the house next door, then start the next scene with “No Chingu” Girl talking to the childhood friend in the house next door for several minutes before Yoojung knocks on the door—because they started their conversation well before Yoojung left her room, but it’s situated in the script as though it is happening after she leaves and, as such, Yoojung has just made the longest 30-second walk in history. 

18. I died every time the leader of the pre-debut idol group tried to write a song on his keyboard—because the setting he had it on always made it sound like he was trying to compose the lamest ‘80s soft-rock ballad in history, like he was always an inch away from bursting into a cover of “That’s What Friends are For.”

19. Pretty much the first thing “No Chingu” Girl did in the series was talk in an excessive amount of English, and it was the best thing ever. 

20. Actually, speaking of “No Chingu” Girl, did you know that she’s a rad k-pop dancer? I saw it on her instagram. 

20A. …but did I like it more than Yoojung’s quick cutoff shorts dance cover of Kiss of Life’s “Sticky”? I leave that to you to decide, Erin. 

21. Yoojung’s grandmother wants the childhood friend to end up with Yoojung, and she tells him as much, hoping to encourage him to confess his feelings to her. In fact, she specifically tells him that she thinks they are meant to be, just as she and her husband were meant to be. To emphasize this point, the flashback versions of the grandmother and her husband are played by Yoojung and the childhood friend. Which is extra interesting because, as I have intimated, these two do not end up together. So, I’m not sure why they needed to do that whole flashback thing with the grandparents being played by Yoojung and the childhood friend—but I’m doubly not sure why we needed this whole thing when, upon hearing that Yoojung rejected the childhood friend, the grandmother’s response is to tell him obviously they weren’t meant to be.

22. Also, it’s eventually pretty clear that the grandmother spent the whole series quietly wishing she would just die already so she could be with her husband in heaven. Which is…probably darker than the show means it to be.

22A. She does die, by the way. So…hooray? I mean, she seems pretty happy about it. And that’s…nice.

23. Relatedly, despite being a pillar of the community and much beloved by Yoojung’s best friend, “No Chingu” Girl, the only people at the grandmother’s funeral are Yoojung and the three boys who want to date her. It’s f***ing weird. 

24. But speaking of the boys who are in love with Yoojung…it’s probably time to get around to mentioning that, yes, Yoojung’s favorite pop star wins her heart at the end. And it sucks. Because he suuuuucks. He’s dull, he’s not in it very much, and he has ZERO chemistry with Yoojung. Worse (as far as the ending is concerned, I mean), his time on screen is mostly spent with both the childhood friend and, separately, the leader of the pre-debut idol group, and, as such, the little story/character development he actually has is concerned with A) forming a genuine comradery with the childhood friend, despite the antipathy he receives for being a romantic rival; and B) repairing his shattered friendship with the leader boy, who hated his guys even before they became romantic rivals. His story has NOTHING TO DO WITH YOOJUNG—except that the writer thinks he’s the male lead. And it drove me up the f***ing wall to watch him sort of wander around in the background, distracting Yoojung from the two other, much more satisfying romance options (especially leader boy). Ugh, he sucks, and most of my notes about him are just wishes that he’d GO AWAY. But he never does. I was never going to recommend this series anyway, but he’s enough to make me actively dissuade any interest you might have. 

24A. Plus, the whole thing ends with Yoojung and this jerkwad having a real, actual, legit kiss, and seeing that irreparably broke my heart. I am literally worse for having seen this show. 

25. …but “No Chingu” Girl, so 10/10.

And that’s the Yoojung letter.

Admit it: you thought I was actually going to spend the whole letter squeeeee-ing about Yoojung and how tiny and adorable she is. But no—no pages upon pages of unfiltered gushing. 

No, I’m saving that for my letter going through all of your song covers! 

…kidding.

Or…am I? I mean, I do like your song covers. And your half-birthday is coming up. 

So.

More soon.

…gushing or otherwise. 

—Daryl