How Jo Yoon-seo’s Role in ‘Lovephobia’ Redefines Love and Fear: Insights from the Final Episode

Jo Yoon-seo in Lovephobia / Photo: U+ Mobile TV, WeMade

[Sports Today reporter Song O-jung] Actor Jo Yoon-seo closed out the drama Lovephobia on a haunting note with her portrayal of Seol Jae-hee.

Jo played Seol Jae-hee, the co-CEO of the AI dating app It’s You, and emerged as a central force driving the series’ conflict. On the surface, Seol appears to be protagonist Yoon Bia’s (played by Yeon-woo) closest friend and business partner. Beneath that façade, however, she harbors revenge and obsession born of old wounds. Jo layered a chilling interior life beneath the character’s sly composure, steadily ratcheting up the show’s tension each week.

Seol Jae-hee’s twisted interiority, which unfolded slowly over the course of the series, became one of the show’s primary draws. In the finale, her spiral into catastrophe delivered a visceral shock to viewers. In the end, Jae-hee makes an irreversible choice, collapses in front of Bia and turns herself in as a suspect in a hit-and-run, leaving a bitter aftertaste. Jo’s emotionally dense performance—kneeling before Bia, pleading, then slipping into despair—was widely praised for bringing the character’s arc to a powerful close.

Jo Yoon-seo in Lovephobia / Photo: U+ Mobile TV, WeMade

After the finale, Jo told her agency NK M Film that Jae-hee was the character who feared love the most among the cast. She said she approached Jae-hee’s choices with a constant, sympathetic heaviness while performing them.

Jo singled out the scene in which she breaks down in front of Bia as the most memorable. “Kneeling and begging, then watching myself fall apart—that moment stayed with me,” she said. She added that those tears felt like the first time Jae-hee truly looked at herself and began to regret her actions. Jo closed with a tender farewell to the role, suggesting that Jae-hee might eventually learn to trust people and prepare herself for happiness.

Jo Yoon-seo in Lovephobia / Photo: U+ Mobile TV, WeMade

She also thanked her colleagues and the audience. “Thanks to great actors and crew, I was able to carry Jae-hee’s story through to the end,” Jo said. “I sincerely thank the viewers who loved Lovephobia and immersed themselves in Jae-hee’s arc.”

Outside television, Jo has been expanding onto the big screen and continuing to reinvent herself. In the recently released mystery-horror Samakdo, she plays PD Chae So-yeon, a producer investigating the reality behind a cult — a role that reveals a steely charisma distinct from Seol Jae-hee. Moving between drama and film, Jo keeps unveiling new facets of her craft, and audiences are eager to see what she does next.

[Sports Today reporter Song O-jung ent@stoo.com]
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