Jooyeon Confesses Male Idols From Every Group Liked Her

Lee Joo-yeon, the actress and former After School idol known for her striking beauty, sent the studio into stunned silence on the April 18 episode of MBC's Jeon Jae-jeok Chamgyeon Sijeom (All Perspectives). Speaking with an ease that comes from years in the industry, she dropped a revelation that no fan saw coming: during her idol era, at least one member from every male idol group had feelings for her.

"I probably shouldn't say this, but there was at least one person in each of the boy groups who liked me," she said with a laugh, clearly bracing for the reaction. The comment sent co-hosts scrambling to process the claim before the laughter broke through. It was the kind of moment that trends for days — and it did.

From Glasses to Ulzzang: A Transformation Story

Before she was a sought-after idol, before the magazine covers and the dance stages, Lee Joo-yeon was just a middle schooler with thick glasses who, by her own account, barely registered on anyone's radar. "I was completely ordinary in middle school," she told the panel. "My eyesight was so bad that I wore these thick reading-glass-type frames. Nobody paid attention to me."

Everything changed in high school when she switched to circle lenses — the large, pigmented contact lenses that were a staple of early 2000s Korean internet beauty culture. The transformation, she said, was immediate and almost surreal. "The moment I put them in, it was like — poof. Suddenly I was pretty. I started getting stares and attention I'd never received before."

That attention translated into internet fame. Long before K-pop routinely produced global celebrities, Korea had its own parallel star system built around ulzzangs — literally 'best face' — young people who achieved popularity purely through looks shared on early social media platforms. Lee Joo-yeon became one of Korea's Top 5 Ulzzangs, her photos circulating widely on 'Haduri' cam, a web-based photo platform that defined the aesthetic of an era.

"Looking back, I wish I'd enjoyed that time more," she admitted. "Now I'd love for people to notice me, but they don't really look my way anymore." The self-deprecating honesty landed perfectly, earning another wave of laughter from the studio.

The Stylists Who Passed Along Numbers

With fame, of course, came attention from colleagues — specifically from the male idols who occupied the same industry spaces as After School. Lee Joo-yeon did not name names, but the mechanics she described painted a vivid picture of how celebrity crushes actually operated behind the scenes in K-pop's golden era.

"The stylists would pass along the contact information," she said, when pressed by host Jeon Hyun-moo and panelist Hong Hyun-hee about how the approaches actually happened. The detail — that industry stylists served as informal go-betweens — felt genuinely surprising even for long-time fans of the genre. It suggested a level of behind-the-scenes romantic maneuvering that rarely makes it to air.

She added, quickly, that the experience was far from unique: "It wasn't just me — the other members all had similar situations." The clarification landed with the weight of a genuine bombshell. After School, a group known for its graduation system and powerful stage presence, was apparently catching attention from across the entire male idol spectrum simultaneously.

After School debuted in January 2009 under Pledis Entertainment with the single "Ah!" and quickly established themselves as one of the defining girl groups of the second generation. Their choreography — which prominently featured marching-band formations and powerful stage performances — set them apart from softer contemporaries. Lee Joo-yeon, the group's visual center, debuted alongside the original lineup and graduated in December 2014 after a six-year run.

The Path From Ulzzang to Idol Stage

The route from internet beauty to K-pop idol, as Lee Joo-yeon described it, was less a calculated career move than a sequence of coincidences. "All the agencies had people stationed outside my school," she recalled. "I started doing magazine modeling, and then at some point I looked up and I was dancing." She laughed. "I figured — I guess this is fate."

That casual framing — that her entire idol career began essentially because she put in contact lenses and walked past talent scouts — has an almost mythic quality to it, and fans responding to her appearance on social media latched onto it immediately. The idea that one of the most visually iconic idols of her generation was, at the core, just a short-sighted middle schooler who got lucky with a lens choice is exactly the kind of human story variety television does best.

Since graduating from After School, she has built a genuine acting career, appearing in dramas and films including Kiss Six Sense on Disney+ and various stage productions. Her return to high-profile variety appearances in 2026 has reminded audiences why she was such a compelling presence in the first place — she speaks without filters and laughs at herself with zero effort.

Comedian Yang Sang-guk Goes Viral Alongside Her

Lee Joo-yeon was not the episode's only viral moment. Comedian Yang Sang-guk, who has experienced a remarkable surge in mainstream popularity over the past year, appeared alongside her and delivered his own quietly hilarious segment.

When host Jeon Hyun-moo noted that Yang Sang-guk had actually topped the real-time search rankings on a day when BTS held their Gwanghwamun concert — because a simultaneously airing episode of MBC's Hangout with Yoo featured Yang Sang-guk's hometown — the comedian's response was a masterclass in mock humility. "I wouldn't say I 'beat' them," he demurred. "BTS just came down a little. I only searched for myself once, so it wasn't me."

Yang Sang-guk has become a reliable source of self-aware comedy in Korean entertainment circles, leaning into his 'accidental celebrity' persona with considerable skill. His 185cm frame and what he describes as his 'real-life handsome' appearance — a claim the show's hosts seemed genuinely surprised to verify in person — adds another layer to the joke.

The pairing of Lee Joo-yeon and Yang Sang-guk gave the episode an energy that felt distinctly unscripted. Audience reactions on social media reflected that: clips of Lee Joo-yeon's idol revelation were among the most widely shared variety moments of the week.

Why Second-Gen Idol Stories Still Captivate

There is something specific about stories from the second generation of K-pop — roughly 2003 to 2012 — that continues to fascinate audiences in 2026. Partly it is nostalgia; this was the era that many current fans grew up watching. But it is also because so much of what actually happened in those years remains undocumented. The industry was less transparent, social media had not yet made every moment observable, and idols operated under strict management protocols that discouraged candid self-expression.

Stories like Lee Joo-yeon's — offered now, years after the fact, with enough distance to be funny rather than fraught — fill in a picture that fans have always wanted but rarely received. Who liked whom, how connections actually formed, what life was like offstage: these are questions that will never have a fully official answer, which makes any glimpse through the curtain genuinely compelling.

Lee Joo-yeon seems to understand this. Her appearance on All Perspectives was not an accident of booking — she arrived prepared to be candid, and the reception proved that audience appetite for that candor remains as strong as ever. Whether she chooses to elaborate on those idol-era stories in future appearances remains to be seen. But she has, without question, given fans something to talk about.