Ha Ji-won and Sung Si-kyung Ditch Korean Honorifics in Unexpected YouTube Moment

Singer Sung Si-kyung drew laughs with a playful warning for actress Ha Ji-won. He said her habit of casually touching people could lead men to get the wrong idea.

The moment came in a video posted on Nov. 5 to the YouTube channel "Class of '26, It's Ji-won" (26 Hakbeon Jiwoniyo). The name plays on the way Korean college students are identified by the year they enroll. According to its title, the video shows Ji-won "becoming Hae-rim" for a candid talk with Sung, who joined as a guest and chatted with Ha about a range of topics.

As soon as Sung arrived on set, Ha greeted him using formal speech. He said that hurt his feelings a little. In Korean, people often agree to drop formal speech once they become close, and the two had already done that.

"The last time we had drinks, we agreed to talk casually, like older sister and younger brother," Sung said. "But you used formal speech the second I walked in today, so I thought, 'Oh, this is going to be tough.'"

Ha burst out laughing and lightly hit Sung's arm. That gave him an opening for a teasing warning.

"Don't hit people on the shoulder so much. Guys fall for it," he said. "It's a dangerous habit." He added, "I don't think you do it on purpose, though."

"I'm learning a lot," Ha replied.

The two went back to casual speech, and the mood loosened up. "Are we one year apart?" Ha asked.

"I was born in April 1979," Sung said. "Let's keep it casual."

Ha was born in 1978 and is 48 this year. She debuted in 1996 on the KBS show "New Generation Report: Adults Don't Know" (Sinsedae Bogo: Eoreundeuleun Mollayo). Since then, she has starred in many dramas, including "Damo," "What Happened in Bali," "Secret Garden" and "Empress Ki."

This year, she has also connected with TV viewers and moviegoers through the drama "Climax" and the film "Portrait of a Family."