Noh Yoon-seo Drops 3 Hawaii Photo Sets Before Netflix Drama Donggung

Actress Noh Yoon-seo has been sharing glimpses of a January Hawaii trip across several Instagram posts, and the response from fans has been immediate and enthusiastic. The photos show a noticeably looser, more playful side of her than the careful, restrained characters she typically plays on screen.

In one set of photos captioned simply "Hawaiiiii," she poses along a quiet sun-drenched road in a black crop top and denim jeans, sunglasses pushed up onto her head and eyes gently closed against the warm light. A separate series captures her at a resort pool at night, wearing a black halter-neck swimsuit with a dotted pattern and a backless cut, smiling into the camera beneath the glow of the pool lighting. An earlier batch, captioned "1월의 하와이" (January in Hawaii), features her in a brown halterneck bikini paired with leopard-print bottoms, long black hair loose, beaded bracelets stacked at her wrist, with palm trees and open sky behind her.

Fan comments poured in across the posts. "Pure sunshine energy," wrote one follower. Others left messages like "You're so beautiful," "Always cheering you on," and the affectionate Korean compliment "Noh Yoon-seo is a nation." A final photo dump, captioned "Photo dump 마지막" (last photo dump), included her walking the beach in a pastel striped bikini over denim and adding emoji decorations to the pictures.

A trip with a close friend

The Hawaii trip wasn't a solo getaway. Dancer Lee Jung joined her, and the two documented their time together with the ease of people who have nothing to prove to each other. They held food up to the camera with exaggerated expressions and playfully edited each other into photos. Lee Jung has previously described Noh Yoon-seo as her closest friend, once mentioning on a broadcast that the two share each other's door codes. The friendship predates both of their public careers.

What's next

Noh Yoon-seo made her debut in 2022 in tvN's Our Blues and went on to appear in Crash Course in Romance and the film 20th Century Girl. Right now she has two projects in active rotation: the Netflix original series Donggung, a historical fantasy thriller set in the royal palace that also stars Nam Joo-hyuk and Jo Seung-woo, and the tvN variety show Sanjijikson Sisters Season 3. She has also confirmed her next drama, a new tvN series titled The Reason I Decided to Die, where she will star opposite Lee Chae-min.

For anyone only familiar with her through the composed, often melancholy roles she tends to play, the Hawaii posts are a useful reminder that there's a lot of room between her characters and herself.