The media conference for 'Watsons RACE START! in Singapore Running Man Fan Meeting' was held at W Singapore on Friday, October 18. The Singapore leg of the Running Man Fan Meeting Asia Tour features 5 of the 7 hosts, including Ha Donghoon, better known by his stage name Haha, Kim Jongkook, Jee Seokjin, Kang Gary and Song Jihyo. The resident cast members of the popular urban action variety series showed us why they are so well-loved by the public during the short hour long media conference with their humor, their humbleness and their friendliness.

As the solo female cast in Running Man, "Ace" Jihyo mentioned, "It definitely is different being the only female member in the cast but I don't think they treat me as just a female. It's just that I'm a part of the Running Man family." Jongkook jokingly added "She's not a woman. Sometimes she is stronger than us." The other members seemed to agree, proving that Jihyo is truly a formidable force and the "Ace" of Running Man despite being a lady.

"It's really hard. (But) it's really happy (for me) to be in Running Man", said Running Man's "Sparta", Kim Jongkook, when asked how it was like to be in the show. Gary said "I'm honored to work and meet so many awesome people on the show, so I have a lot of fun and I get a lot of good energy from all of them." Both of them concluded that they are glad to be a part of Running Man.

In a recent Running Man episode, Gary stumped everyone as he planted a kiss on Jihyo's cheek. "It's very simple. I think in that particular moment I was a little crazy", explained Gary when questioned about his move on Jihyo. The said are known affectionately by fans as the "Monday Couple", and thus Jihyo was not sparred as well as she was asked how she felt about the kiss. It took a moment before the female lead shyly answered "I guess it was good...", much to Gary's delight. This caused the other cast members to burst into a series of "Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!" teasing the two and Gary himself even joined in the fun and stood up to applaud together with the rest of his cast members. This livened up the media conference but most importantly, proved that the "Monday Couple" is real.

On the lack of name tag ripping games on the show lately, Gary said, "Recently we have been trying a lot of new things in our show and we want to improve our name tag game in a more fun and engaging manner."

Haha said, "We meet up with our production team quite often to discuss what kind of new initiative we can take on in the show. We're definitely looking into new ideas so I hope you guys can look out for more exciting stuff in the future." The Running Man team showed that they are always welcome to new challenges.

Seokjin also expressed his hopes to film an episode of Running Man in the country, "I noticed the Singapore Flyer. I hope one day we will get to film Running Man here with the background of Singapore Flyer."  

At the end of the media conference, the cast members got down to thanking the fans for their warm welcome and support. In return for the love received, Gary said, "We'll definitely do better (in filming for Running Man) and we definitely appreciate your continuous support." Jihyo revealed that the cast put in a lot of effort into the fan meeting held the next day and hoped that fans will enjoy it, and Seokjin told fans to look out for the lovely "Monday Couple's" performance.

Don't forget to catch new episodes of Running Man every Friday at 11.45pm on ONE (StarHub TV channels 124, 820, 823 and 876 or SingTel mio TV channels 513 and 604)!

Special thanks to ONE for inviting KpopStarz.com to cover 'Watsons RACE START! in Singapore Running Man Fan Meeting' Press Conference.

Writer: Eileen C. | Photo Credits: ONE and Leonard Lim