Singer Im Young-woong. [Mulgogimusic]
Singer Im Young-woong. [Mulgogimusic]

Singer Im Young-woong has been confiding personal worries — including matters of the heart — to fellow singer Jo Jjaejeu, it has emerged.

Jo Jjaejeu appeared Monday on KBS2's "Mal Ja Show," where she revealed her wide-ranging celebrity connections and her reputation as an empathetic confidante.

Host Jeong Beom-gyun introduced Jo Jjaejeu as someone her circle calls an "empathy fairy." She said she had built close friendships with actors Ju Ji-hoon, Nam Joo-hyuk, Ji Chang-wook and Lee Dong-hwi — all regulars at a bar she once ran — as well as rapper Swings and Im Young-woong.

"I asked why they kept coming to a bar run by a woman, and they said it was because I empathize well," Jo Jjaejeu said. "So I thought, maybe I really am an empathy fairy."

She said her friendship with Im in particular spans everything from music to romance. "Young-woong tends to share a lot of his worries with me," she said, and went on to reveal a recent conversation between the two.

"Not long ago he told me he wanted to put out a hit song," she said. "He said he wanted to release something that everyone in the country would know and sing along to, and that he wanted to grow more as a musician."

When Jeong asked whether Im only worried about music, Jo Jjaejeu said he also tries to seek relationship advice.

"I told him to come back and talk once he actually has a girlfriend," she said. "As far as I know, he doesn't have one — but he keeps trying to ask for relationship advice." She added, drawing laughs, that Im "seems like he wants to get married."


choigo@heraldcorp.com