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South Korean actor Song Joong-ki, 32, and actress Song Hye-kyo, 35, who co-starred in mega-hit television series, announced on Wednesday that they will tie the knot. The wedding is scheduled to take place on Oct 31, according to South Korean news portal Naver.
"Marriage is not something just between two people. It involves family and meeting with family members, and is a step that's to be taken with care," the pair said through their management companies.
Descendants of the Sun
centers on the relationship between a captain of South Korean Special Forces unit, played by Song Joong-ki, and a surgeon, played by Song Hye-kyo.
The 16-episode series owes its success not just to the good looks of its cast, but to its fast-paced plot and its annotation of "heavier" topics, including war, peacekeeping and meaning of life.
The Song duo, as the leading actor and actress are known, created sparkling chemistry on-screen, a chemistry so intense and real that voices calling for the duo to be together in real life kept sprouting among fans of the series.
The Song duo denied all such rumors in the past even as tabloids speculated that their on-screen romance was truly carried on off-screen.
They were photographed dinning together in the US in March last year, and visiting Bali in Indonesia last month, but representatives of both actors denied all romantic connections between the two prior to the official announcement of their marriage.
Descendants of the Sun
, which aired from February 24 to April 14, 2016, was a major hit in South Korea where it drew a peak audience viewership of 38.8 percent.
As the trend goes,
Descendants of the Sun
also rode the waves of hallyu, a term that describes the spread of South Korean culture abroad, and made its way to China.
The drama has been viewed more than 4.61 billion times on IQiyi, one of China's major video streaming websites, thus brought huge popularity to the Song duo in China.
This is a first for actor Song Joong-ki, who was not so well-known abroad prior to
Descendants
, but not something new to actress Song Hye-kyo, who has previously made her name heard for starring in megahits
Autumn in My Heart
(2000) and
Full House
(2004).
