City Hunter | Yeouido Hangang Park Mulbit Plaza — Coffee on the Shallow Water

The fountain at Mulbit Plaza is only fifteen centimetres deep. Seoul pumps groundwater from Yeouinaru Station into a rectangle forty metres by one hundred ninety-six and lets children walk through it. In 2011 the city still called the space a water-light square. The production parked Lee Min-ho and Park Min-young on a bench beside that sheet of water and let them drink coffee as if the river behind them were not the whole point.

Seoul's own Hangang office later named the scene. Yoon-sung and Na-na's date was shot here, not at Banpo, not on a studio terrace. The National Assembly dome sits west. Mapo Bridge sits north. Office towers on Yeouido throw their glass back at the water in the late afternoon.

The plaza still runs on a schedule. Off-season the jets fire at noon and again from five to eight. In July they run on the hour until nine. Monday the pumps rest. You can sit where they sat without a ticket. The coffee will be from a cart now. The river does not care.