When fans learned that Kara's Goo Hara and model-turned actor Lee Soo Hyuk were seen walking around together in Tokyo, they immediately assumed that the two celebrities were dating.
After they were spotted shopping for clothes on Cat Street, the fan reaction was so intense that it prompted her management agency, DSP Media, to issue a statement saying that the two were just close friends.
"They have been friends for a long time," said an agency representative. "Lee Soo Hyuk was visiting Japan and Hara was giving him a tour around Harajuku."
His agency, Sidus, also denied the dating rumors saying, "The two are like brother and sister. Lee Soo Hyuk went to Japan for personal reasons and when he heard Goo Hara was there, he met up with her."
It's not the first time that Goo Hara was involved in a dating scandal and the last time the scandal had no foundation in reality. Two years ago, a photo of Goo Hara and 2PM's Chansung caused speculation that they were dating but it turned out to be a photo for a TV program. Around that time Goo Hara was dating Beast's Yong Jun Hyung and the two only broke up this past March.
Goo Hara and Lee Soo Hyuk have a mutual friend, Kim Young Gwang, another model turned actor who played Goo Hara's love interest in the upcoming drama "Secret Love." That's how they met.
Lee Soo Hyuk plays Kim Soo Hyun a prosecution office investigator in the moody melodrama "Shark," but he can also be seen as a basketball player in the new 2NE1 music video "Falling in Love." He previously appeared in "Tree With Deep Roots" and "White Christmas." Lee Soo Hyuk was voted one of the "13 Top Breakout New Male Faces" during the 2013 Fall/Winter London and Paris fashion weeks. He previously had a relationship with model-actress Kim Min Hee but they broke up after dating for two years. Kim Min Hee now dates actor Jo In Sung.
Goo Hara is currently in Japan to promote Kara's new Japanese single "Thank You Summer Love."
"Secret Love" will not be Goo Hara's first drama role. She previously played the president's daughter in "City Hunter." She stars in one of the episodes of "Secret Love" and the other four members of Kara each star in their own episodes.
