Lovely Runner (2024)

This is the 2024 tvN 16-episode time-slip romance drama [Lovely Runner], starring Byeon Woo-seok and Kim Hye-yoon, based on the web novel (Tomorrow's Best) by Kim Bbang. The main plot revolves around Im Sol (Kim Hye-yoon), a fan devastated by the death of idol star Ryu Sun-jae (Byeon Woo-seok), who gave her the strength to live. She travels back in time through Ryu Sun-jae's own watch, which she won at an auction, and struggles to save him. As the drama gained immense popularity throughout its broadcast, Byeon Woo-seok and Kim Hye-yoon quickly solidified their positions as leading actors. In particular, actress Kim Hye-yoon, who played Im Sol, received rave reviews for becoming the character herself, delivering an outstanding performance that could be said to have carried 60-70% of the drama on her own. What's particularly noteworthy is that despite achieving relatively low viewership ratings of around 5%, it generated significant buzz on social media and OTT platforms, creating a unique phenomenon. It can be considered a landmark drama as it set a precedent that content success can no longer be solely judged by live broadcast ratings.