Exclusive Interview
Inside Min Ho’s Best ‘XO, Kitty’ Moments: Sang Heon Lee Shares Mooncovey Secrets (VIDEO)
What To Know
- Sang Heon Lee, who plays Min Ho in XO, Kitty, reflects on his character’s evolution from Kitty’s adversary to her boyfriend.
- In an interview with Swooon, he breaks down their memorable “meet-hate” airport scene to their ending up together on a plane in Season 3.
- Lee shares behind-the-scenes insights about filming key Mooncovey moments.
When he signed on to play Min Ho in XO, Kitty, Sang Heon Lee didn’t know that his character would eventually become Kitty’s (Anna Cathcart) boyfriend. Neither did most viewers, based on Kitty and Min Ho’s first scene together in Season 1, which is less a meet-cute and more of a meet-hate.
“I just naturally thought, ‘What a rude guy,’ Like, he is so sassy. That’s all I thought,” Lee told Swooon, thinking back to when Min Ho whacked Kitty with his bag in the Los Angeles airport. When Kitty notices he has a KISS luggage tag and informs him that they’ll be attending the same boarding school, Min Ho dismisses her and pretends not to know English.
It’s not quite as sweet as other rom-com airport scenes. (Lee’s favorite is from Love Actually.) But Min Ho and Kitty’s meet-hate — which Lee says they filmed “like 17 times” in the early hours of the morning — is still memorable in its own right. Not only is Min Ho the first KISS student that Kitty interacts with, but as Lee points out, XO, Kitty references where the characters’ relationship started by having them end on a plane in Season 3’s finale as boyfriend and girlfriend.
But before that, Min Ho and Kitty spend a large portion of Season 1 hating each other. Min Ho is firmly “anti-Kitty” before he starts to develop feelings for her in Episode 5. They join forces to host a Chuseok meal for their fellow students and begin to realize there’s more to each other than meets the eye. (Though, there’s still plenty of squabbling between the two.) It’s also the first time Min Ho calls Kitty by her last name, a habit that Lee’s adopted, calling his costar “Cathcart.”
Netflix
“That’s interesting that was the first moment [he called Kitty by her last name],” Lee reflected. “That Chuseok scene for me was quite cute. That was their first little bickering moment. People sort of miss, or at least that’s what Dae [Choi Min-yeong] said in his scene… I think that was Season 2, he was just leaning on a mop, saying, ‘I actually miss you guys bickering.’ Yeah, that’s the bickering that everyone’s missing.”
Min Ho and Kitty’s dynamic shifts after the Season 1 finale. Min Ho follows Kitty onto her plane to LA, sitting next to her so she could have a friend after being kicked out of KISS. When she reveals that she broke up with Dae officially, Min Ho musters up the courage to say that he’s “a little bit or a lot” in love with Kitty. Unfortunately for him, Kitty’s just realized she’s in love with Yuri (Gia Kim). “It didn’t really go down well, and then he somehow walks towards first class, which I think is kind of smart for him. Like, he bought an extra ticket, just in case things go wrong. I wish I could do that,” Lee quipped.
From there, Min Ho and Kitty become closer as friends in Season 2, but he’s “lying the whole time” when he says he’s moved on from Kitty. He even begins a relationship with Stella (Audrey Huynh) before her villainous intentions are revealed. “I can’t remember what the exact phrase is. I remember in Korean, but it’s basically that message you have to meet someone to forget someone,” Lee said. “It’s not the best solution, to be honest, but that’s what Min Ho did again… [He] ends up confessing once more, saying, ‘You broke my heart. Why do you think I’m doing this?'”
Netflix
Kitty realizes she has feelings for Min Ho by the end of Season 2, though they don’t officially get together — and share a cinematic first kiss on the beach — in the Season 3 premiere. Lee felt pressure to make it perfect for the Mooncovey fans. They were in a public space, so they could hear karaoke from the surrounding buildings and spectators cheering them on. “And then me and Anna, we were just locking in,” Lee recalled. “Like, ‘OK, it’s just you and me. There’s nobody else around.’ That’s also sort of romantic, isn’t it?”
After a misunderstanding and mid-season breakup, Min Ho decides being with Kitty is worth it. It’s a conversation with Dae in the Season 3 finale that prompts Min Ho to return after Kitty, who’s headed to the Seoul airport. “He was talking about [chasing after] dreams. It could be work, career, whatever, but then at that moment, he probably thought of Kitty,” Lee said. “It reminded him, ‘I don’t want to be regretting this later on…. and then that’s what he did. I’m happy for him, really.”
Check out more of Lee’s Mooncovey insights in the video at the top of the page, and don’t forget to let us know what your favorite Min Ho moment is in the comments below!
XO, Kitty, Seasons 1-3, Streaming Now, Netflix
