8 Years Later, Jung Hae-in Finally Explains the 'Pretty Noona' Drunk Kiss Scene

Eight years after Something in the Rain turned him into one of K-drama's most beloved leading men, Jung Hae-in finally told the story fans have been curious about: yes, he was actually a little drunk during that scene.

Appearing as a guest on KBS 2TV's Oktak-bang's Problem Children (Episode 323, aired on the 7th) alongside his new Netflix co-star Ha Young, Jung Hae-in opened up about the behind-the-scenes reality of the 2018 melodrama that made his name. MC Hong Jin-kyung had noticed that a clip of him looking genuinely tipsy and laughing in the drunk kiss scene with Son Ye-jin had been circulating online for years, and asked point-blank whether he had been actually intoxicated during filming.

"I really did drink before we shot it," Jung Hae-in confirmed. "I had a few glasses, felt the buzz coming on, and told the director, 'I'm ready, let's go.'" The admission drew an immediate reaction from the panel, and it's easy to see why: the scene is one of the most-discussed moments from the drama, and it turns out the warmth and looseness fans picked up on was completely real.

Something in the Rain cast Jung Hae-in opposite Son Ye-jin, who is six years his senior, in a tender romance that earned him the affectionate public title of gukmin yeonhaman, roughly "the nation's younger boyfriend." The drunk kiss scene, in particular, became one of those drama moments that gets clipped and reshared long after the finale.

The conversation on Oktak-bang went further than just that one scene. Jung Hae-in also shared the unlikely story of how he became an actor at all. He had originally planned to study science and engineering, but a street casting changed everything. "I was a quiet, introverted person," he said, "but when I started acting, I found I could express things I never normally could. Watching myself perform in front of people felt strange and cathartic at the same time."

He debuted at 26, later than most actors who come up through dedicated performing arts training, and was candid about how much harder that made the early years. "I never went to an acting academy in middle or high school, so it was incredibly difficult," he said. "That's exactly why I worked harder."

One person who made a defining difference in those early years was veteran actress Kim Hae-sook. Jung Hae-in played her son in the 2016 drama Yeah, That's How It Is, and he described the mentorship she offered as something he still carries with him. She invited him to her home, cooked for him, and ran one-on-one script readings with him. "She was very strict and demanding," he said, "and there was a moment during practice when she told me I wasn't keeping up and asked me to leave. But I stayed. I couldn't just go."

The line she said to him eventually is the one he remembers most clearly: "You have to do well for me to survive too. Acting isn't something you do well alone. Let's do well together." It's a reminder that behind a lot of breakout performances, there's usually someone in the background who refused to give up on the actor first.