Ji Suk-jin Tells Lee Kwang-soo to Marry After 9 Years: Kwang-soo's Comeback Stops the Room

Lee Kwang-soo has been in a public relationship with actor Lee Sun-bin for nine years, and Ji Suk-jin apparently decided a Chuseok gathering was the right moment to say something about it. The broader pattern will be familiar to anyone who has watched Korean variety television long enough: the eldest member of any group is expected to dispense life advice at holiday reunions, whether or not anyone asked.

A preview clip released on the YouTube channel DDundDun on the 19th shows the two men, along with Yu Jae-seok, Yang Se-chan, and Nam Chang-hee, gathered for what the channel is billing as a Chuseok family special. The full episode is scheduled to go up on the 25th.

The exchange

Ji Suk-jin, the senior member of the group, opened by targeting Nam Chang-hee, who recently married, telling him he was old enough now and should get moving on having children. He then turned to Kwang-soo and Yang Se-chan, both unmarried, and advised them to hurry up and start families.

Kwang-soo let him finish, then looked at Ji Suk-jin and said, simply, that he was starting to sound like a grandfather. The room broke. Yu Jae-seok, watching from the side, laughed hard enough to cry, and then had to ask everyone to please not fight at the holiday table.

The line landed because it was accurate without being mean: Ji Suk-jin's brand of well-intentioned nagging, a staple of Korean family gatherings, got reflected back at him with enough affection to defuse it and enough precision to make the point. It is the kind of exchange Running Man has always been good at producing, and the fact that the group has known each other long enough for Kwang-soo to say it without consequence is part of what made it work.

Nine years and counting

Kwang-soo and Lee Sun-bin first met through Running Man in 2016. They confirmed their relationship in late 2018 and have maintained one of the more visible long-term celebrity couples in Korean entertainment since. Lee Sun-bin is currently traveling in China, where she shared a series of photos on social media showing her in a white sleeveless top and jeans; fans in the comments noted that Kwang-soo had good reason to hold on.

Ji Suk-jin's unsolicited advice, then, lands in a relationship that has already outlasted most of its contemporaries. Whether it accelerates any decisions is, presumably, between the two of them.