Who is actress Jung Yu-mi who was once rumoured to be marrying Gong Yoo?

First things first. This article is about the actress Jung Yu-mi, not another actress Jung Yu Mi who admitted in February this year to be dating boyband H.O.T's Kangta.

Yu-mi, on the other hand, was embroiled in (enviable) rumours in 2018 that she was to tie the knot with Korean heart-throb Gong Yoo. At that time, a netizen posted on an online community forum that the hunk had made a reservation at a hotel and would be marrying Yu-mi.

She's close to Gong Yoo

It's not hard to see why the two were linked. Both belong to the same management agency, had acted in two shows together (The Crucible in 2011 and 2016's Train to Busan) at the time of the rumours, and were said to be good friends.

Alas, wedding bells did not ring.

Their agency released a statement calling the news totally false. Someone from the agency even added: "The two aren't even like siblings; they're like brothers. Gong Yoo treats Jung Yu-mi like a younger brother."

Ironically, Yu-mi and Gong Yoo went on to star as husband and wife in last year's movie Kim Ji Young, Born 1982; and they co-star again in the upcoming film Wonderland.

She can really act

But the 37-year-old's claim to fame is more than rumours of being Gong Yoo's main squeeze.

She made a breakthrough in her first feature film Blossom Again, where she played an emotionally vulnerable teenager experiencing her first love. In the critically acclaimed film The Crucible, she was a human rights activist investigating sexual assaults on young deaf students.

Yu-mi has been nominated for countless acting awards since her debut in 2005, and has won more than a dozen, including honours from the prestigious Baeksang Arts Awards and the Grand Bell Awards.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_YpLyPKaGs[/embed]

She's not stuffy

Despite her long list of accolades, Yu-mi doesn't put up a serious image.

Like, she actually stuck her tongue out and made a funny face at the camera during the last few minutes of a virtual press conference this morning (Sept 24) for her new Netflix drama The School Nurse Files. No other Korean celebrity, male or female, that we've interviewed had come this close to letting their poised guard down.

This perhaps is why readers reportedly voted Yu-mi to play the lead role in The School Nurse Files when it was announced that the Korean fantasy novel would be adapted into a drama series.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNorHsOAhz4[/embed]

The six-episoder, which premieres on Netflix tomorrow, is a light-hearted fantasy series about school nurse Ahn Eun-young who has an unconventional ability to see otherwise invisible monsters that appear as colourful 'jellies'.

She discovers mysterious secrets in her new school that threaten the students, and armed with her BB gun and plastic rainbow toy sword, she and teacher Hong In-pyo (Nam Joo-hyuk) exorcise the evil.

She said of her character Eun-young: "As I was shooting the series and bringing the character to life, there were many things I enjoyed but there were also many challenges for me physically.

"When I tried to stand in her shoes and understand her, I felt empathy for her because she had to see all these things that are invisible to others. I don't think all of that was always happy for her. I felt her loneliness, but despite all that, she accepts her destiny and takes bold steps to meet it.

"My experiences are different from hers, but when I face challenges. I thought of Eun-young and how she fought through hers, and I felt she is a friend in my life who comforts me."

kwokkarpeng@asiaone.com