Single's Inferno star Kim Go-eun gives update on relationship with fellow contestant Jo I-geon

In a vlog uploaded on her YouTube page on Friday (Mar 27), South Korean model and Single's Inferno 5 contestant Kim Go-eun provided an update on her relationship status with fellow contestant Jo I-geon.

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The "will they, won't they" relationship between Single's Inferno 5 contestants Kim Go-eun, 25, and Jo I-geon, 33, has a new status update – and it's not looking good for the shippers.

In the 32-minute-long video posted on Kim's YouTube page on Friday (Mar 27), the South Korean model and Miss Korea contestant responded to questions posed by fans, including whether she had undergone plastic surgery or trained to become a K-pop idol.

However, the highly-anticipated question was, of course, her relationship status with Jo.

The strong chemistry between Kim and Jo served as one of the highlights of Single's Inferno 5, with fans and even panellists rooting for the two.

Although Kim ended up selecting optician Woo Sung-min as the person to escape Inferno with, she and Jo reconnected during the filming of the reunion special of Single's Inferno 5 and were last seen setting up a date.

In Friday's video, however, Kim said that she and Jo are currently "not dating in real life".

"I know you're giving us a lot of support and have high expectations, but whenever I do media interviews or TV appearances, stories about I-geon inevitably come up," said Kim. "So, I've been answering that we're just staying in touch."

In response to fans requesting that she invite Jo to her channel, Kim added that she is unable to do that.

"Like I said, we're not a real-life couple. Since the reunion, we've been staying as close friends."

Since the release of her video, Kim has received a barrage of hate comments from fans expressing their confusion at her behaviour. 

The backlash was especially strong given that just a day earlier, on Thursday, Kim Go-eun and Jo I-geon appeared together in an episode of The TrueMan Show, hosted by comedian Lee Yong-jin, where they said that their relationship was going smoothly. 

Jo had even said that it was leaning more towards romance than friendship.

One netizen wrote: "I thought Mina Sue was the most complicated female cast [member] of Single's Inferno, now I'm convinced it's actually this girl."

Another said: "The problem is not about them not being a couple. It’s the ambiguity and the mixed signals from her. I-geon was straightforward with her. But she kept complicating simple things."

In response to the backlash, Kim posted a comment, saying that the feelings she talked about on The TrueMan Show "were truly [her] honest feelings at the time".

"However, since there has been a change in our relationship at the present moment and because I didn’t want misunderstandings to grow, I wanted to explain things as quickly and clearly as possible," wrote Kim.

"We stayed in touch and took enough time to get to know each other, but in the end, we decided to remain as friends who support each other. Just as not every situationship develops into a relationship, we simply went through a natural process as well. I hope that the sincerity of how I felt at the time will not be distorted."

As of writing, Jo I-geon has not publicly issued a statement. However, some fans believe a recent Instagram Story may reflect his feelings about the situation.

The post features a screenshot of the poem Roll The Dice by German-American poet Charles Bukowski, which can be summed up by its famous opening line: "If you're going to try, go all the way."

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