While the point of a romantic K-drama is to see two people fall in love, sometimes the story is made better when the pairing starts as friends, and in this case, there are countless amazing friends-to-lovers K-dramas out there. A “friends-to-lovers” trope is a storyline wherein two people start as friends, often from as far back as childhood, but slowly develop romantic feelings for each other. Some of the best friends-to-lovers K-dramas are already popular in the mainstream.
These series have an ensemble cast that showcases various romantic relationships, so a friends-to-lovers relationship is present among other romances. These are also shows that have already been lauded for their wonderful representations of romance, and just so happen to use the friends-to-lovers trope. However, viewers can find a romantic friends-to-lovers K-drama that’s perfect for them. Another similar trope in K-dramas is “enemies-to-friends-to-lovers.” Either way, the K-drama world is bursting with amazing examples of these stories.
20 Come And Hug Me (2018)
Chae Do-jin & Han Jae-yi
This particular K-drama isn’t on the lighter side of romantic K-dramas because the pairing at the center finds their relationship strained by a darker past. The father of Chae Do-jin (Jang Ki-yong) is responsible for the deaths of Han Jae-yi’s (Jin Ki-joo) parents when the two were children. Because of that, their friendship became strained and they went their separate ways. Their paths cross again as adults.
Do-jin becomes a detective, trying find a way to balance the scales for the things his father did. Jae-yi becomes an actress. Though they inhabit very different worlds, they keep finding themselves drawn back to one another, rekindling their friendship, and then, more romantic feelings.
Come And Hug Me is a heavier K-drama with elements of a thriller alongside the romance, so fans will have to be prepared for a more emotional watch.
19 Twenty-Five Twenty-One (2022)
Multiple Pairings
The story of the K-drama is also told through one of their diaries as one of their daughters finds it.
The heart of this K-drama is two teenagers who are stars in the world of competitive fencing. They also happen to be rivals and have the same circle of friends. Among that circle of friends, romantic relationships also form.
To be perfectly frank, the friends-to-lovers element of this K-drama isn’t the biggest draw, but simply a bonus in how the story plays out. The bigger draw is the two fencing rivals realizing that they have more in common than they originally believed and finding ways to work together and get along. Watching the rivals have to inhabit the same space, share friendships, and gain an understanding of one another is the real draw.
The story of the K-drama is also told through one of their diaries as one of their daughters finds it. So, the audience gets to look back on the past while still seeing where this group of friends ends up in the future.
18 Dinner Mate (2020)
Woo Do-hee & Kim Hae-kyung
Dinner Mate isn’t just one of the best K-dramas to feature a friends-to-lovers relationship, but also one of the best K-dramas to center on food, and one of the most unique romance angles in the subgenre. The two main characters start the series as complete strangers.
The two wind up dining together when they’re both having a night out alone. They agree to become dinner partners, and nothing more. That means they meet up to try out new restaurants and new foods while keeping their personal lives separate. Of course, as is often the case when two characters make that kind of deal, they find themselves bonding over their love of a shared interest (in this case, food) and grow closer. The two slowly become friends, but it’s clear the chemistry is there for them to take the path from friends to romance.
17 Pinocchio (2014)
Choi In-ha & Choi Dal-o
Choi In-ha (Park Shin-hye) and Choi Dal-o (Lee Jong Suk) have known one another most of their lives and treated one another as closer than friends, more like family. They both want to get into broadcast journalism but find themselves facing some very different obstacles. As they do, they grow even closer, and their romantic feelings begin to surface.
In-ha is the daughter of a famous reporter, and she wants to follow in her family’s footsteps but finds herself having difficulty overcoming “Pinocchio Syndrome,” a condition in which she hiccups when she lies. Dal-po, on the other hand, is haunted by family tragedy – one in which In-ha’s mother played a role.
Their story blends a tale of career ambition with friendship and romance in the format of a thriller. It makes for an interesting blending of genres.
16 Bubble Gum (2015)
Park Ri-hwan &Kim Haeng-ah
…it’s like the comfort food of a K-drama romance
If K-drama fans want a lighter story, but one that features an incredibly slow-burn romance, Bubble Gum is a good choice. There are points in the series in which the pacing feels just a bit too slow, but overall, it’s a fun option for those who love the friends-to-lovers subgenre of romantic K-drama stories.
Here, Park Ri-hwan (Lee Dong-wook) and Kim Haeng-ah (Jung Ryeo-won) were childhood best friends. Ri-hwan’s family even took Haeng-ah in after her parents’ deaths. Unfortunately, Ri-hwan’s mother isn’t exactly Haeng-ah’s biggest fan and makes her feelings about the young woman known – loudly.
Despite that, they maintain a friendship into an adulthood that involves Haeng-ah never being able to find a good relationship. Ri-hwan has continued to look out for his friend through all of those failed relationships, slowly realizing that he has more than friendly feelings for her, but he’s also afraid of taking that next step.
Much of the storyline here is predictable, but it’s like the comfort food of a K-drama romance.
15 Our Beloved Summer (2022)
Choi Ung & Kook Yeon-soo
Studio N’s first original series, Our Beloved Summer covers a decade in the lives of its characters, and it not only offers up one of the best friends-to-lovers tropes in K-dramas but also one of the best love triangles as well. This is a coming-of-age story about Choi Ung, a talented illustrator who did terribly in school, and his ex-girlfriend Kook Yeon-soo, who was perfect in school and is now a successful employee in public relations.
Their mutual friend and producer Kim Ji-ung faces the fact he has always had feelings for Yeon-soo.
The breakup between them was so bad that they swore they never wanted to see each other again. However, 10 years later, there is a documentary about their relationship and they have to face up to what they went through in their past. Meanwhile, their mutual friend and producer Kim Ji-ung faces the fact he has always had feelings for Yeon-soo. Our Beloved Summer won awards at both the Seoul International Drama Awards and the SBS Drama Awards.
14 Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo (2016)
Prince Wang So & Hae Soo
Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo is a friends-to-lovers K-drama that is also a time-travel tale. The story follows Hae Soo, a young woman who ends up sent back in time to the Goryeo Dynasty, where she ends up in someone else’s body and has to figure out how to get back.
However, before she can figure this out, she meets Prince Wang So, and the two of them fall in love. Alas, this leads to heartbreak, love again, and more heartbreak, while a long triangle begins with the prince’s brother, Wang Wook. This is not a happy ending K-drama either, as it is tragic and the friends-to-lovers trope only allows the drama to leave viewers devastated by the end.
Moon Lovers
received the K-Culture Pride Award at the Korea Brand Awards, which was created to help the exchange of cultural content between China and Korea.
With 20 episodes and two specials, this was also a critically acclaimed K-drama release. Moon Lovers received the K-Culture Pride Award at the Korea Brand Awards, which was created to help the exchange of cultural content between China and Korea. It was also nominated for a dozen prizes at SBS Drama Awards, winning seven.
13 When The Weather Is Fine (2020)
Mok Hae-won & Kim Jin-ho
When the Weather is Fine follows a woman named Mok Hae-won, a cellist who quits her job in Seoul and moves back to Bookhyun Village, a place she lived when she was in high school. She runs into a former classmate and friend named Im Eun-seob, now a young man who owns a bookstore.
They soon become closer friends as they find comfort in each other as they shelter from the snow and realize that they might be all they need to recover from the pain of their past. The K-drama is perfectly set up to turn these former childhood friends into lovers by the end of the series.
There are 16 episodes for fans of K-dramas to enjoy, and it was a big success when it arrived on television. The song “All Day Long” from the series ended up hitting the Korean music charts in 2020, while the series pulled in high ratings when it aired on JTBC and then replayed 48 hours later, streaming internationally.
12 More Than Friends (2020)
Woo Yeon & Lee Soo
Like many of the best friends-to-lovers K-dramas, More Than Friends is also about a love triangle. In this series, Kyung Woo Yeon fell hard for Lee Soo, and he loved her too. However, neither knew how the other felt, and they ended up not getting together.
10 years later, they are now adults, and On Joon-soo, the CEO of a publishing house, has fallen in love with Woo-yeon. The problem is that Woo-yen still has feelings for Lee Soo, and the two have a chance to finally move on with their feelings.
There are 16 episodes in this K-drama and it originally aired on JTBC in 2020. The series is a slow-burn and it takes the idea of two people who missed out on love finding it again but does so in a slow and sometimes awkward manner. Despite that, the later episodes of the series really show why this is a perfect watch for anyone looking for a friends-to-lovers story, although it might take some patience. It is well worth it.
11 One Spring Night (2019)
Yoo Ji-ho & Lee Jeong-in
One Spring Night is a friends-to-lovers K-drama romance that also has one of the best love-at-first-sight storylines. The two characters here, Yoo Ji-ho and Lee Jeong-in have feelings for each other, but are determined to remain only friends thanks to social pressure from those around them. However, when they finally decide to pull the trigger on their relationship, it is a beautiful and emotional moment. The series is also a big one when it comes to people finding love despite worrying as they have single-parent households.
Something in the Rain
and
One Spring Night
have the same writer and director in Kim Eun and Ahn Pan Seok, and Jung Hae plays the male lead in both K-dramas.
There are 32 episodes in this K-drama, making it one of the biggest when it comes to this specific romantic trope. Something in the Rain and One Spring Night have the same writer and director in Kim Eun and Ahn Pan Seok, and Jung Hae plays the male lead in both K-dramas. However, One Spring Night is considered the superior release of the two, and much of that goes to the love story between the leads, and their struggles to make it work despite everything in their worlds working against it.
10 Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo (2016)
Kim Bok-joo & Joon Hyung
Although the title may make it seem that this K-drama is more about sports than it is romance, Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo has just as much love as it does weightlifting. The series follows Kim Bok-joo, a young woman attending a sports university to follow her dream of becoming a professional weightlifter.
While there, she develops a crush on her best friend’s brother, and while her best friend, Joon Hyung, helps her win over his brother at first, he soon realizes that he may have feelings for Kim Bok-joo instead. All in all, this is a classic friends-to-lovers trope with a K-drama love triangle mixed between them.
There are 16 episodes in the series and it won two awards at the MC Drama Awards.
The series was not successful upon its release, with low ratings across the board. However, it has since become a cult classic and has received mostly positive reviews and praise for its story and acting. There are 16 episodes in the series and it won two awards at the MC Drama Awards, including one for actress Lee Sung-kyung and a Best New Actor Award for Nam Joo-hyuk.
9 My First First Love (2019)
Yun Tae-o & Han Song-i
With more than one romance to portray in this K-drama, it is no surprise that a friends-to-lovers relationship comes into play. My First First Love follows a group of five young people as they all begin living together in the house of Yun Tae-o.
The friends must navigate this new living situation, along with experiencing their first love. Tae-o is particularly affected when his childhood best friend, Han Song-i, comes to stay with him after losing her father and being evicted from her home.
This is a romance that is both touching and serious. The series is a reboot of a 2015 OnStyle drama called My First Time, with both shows produced by the same production company. The series has two total seasons, with both released on Netflix (one in April 2019 and the second released three months later). Each season has eight episodes for fans of friend-to-lovers K-dramas to enjoy.
8 Happiness (2021)
Yoon Sae-bom & Jung Yi-hyun
Unlike other romantic K-dramas, Happiness does not just focus on love and relationships. Happiness is an apocalyptic thriller that takes place in the future, when a virus called “mad person disease” starts turning humans into zombies.
The story centers on Yoon Sae-bom, a young woman who, in order to live in her new apartment, must be married. Therefore, she calls up her high school friend Jung Yi-hyun, and the two pretend to be married. Set against an intense sci-fi landscape, Happiness’s friends-to-lovers, fake-dating romance is heartwarming.
The quirky apocalyptic thriller has a total of 12 episodes and aired on Netflix in America in 2012. The series earned positive reviews from critics and went on to pick up some award recognition as well. Han Hyo-joo and Bae Hae-sun both received acting nominations from the Blue Dragon Series Awards.
7 She Was Pretty (2015)
Kim Hye-jin & Ji Sung-joon
A K-drama with a comedic twisting of fate is She Was Pretty. The show follows Kim Hye-jin, a very pretty young woman who is close friends with an unattractive young man named Ji Sung-joon. When Hye-jin’s family goes bankrupt, the two are separated and do not meet again for many years.
However, when they do reunite, their fortunes have changed. Hye-jin has lost her beauty and Sung-joon has gained new looks and confidence. This K-drama is full of hijinks and silliness, but it all eventually amounts to a romance that is sweet and goes beyond the characters’ physical looks.
The series was a monster hit, with a massive 18.4% rating internationally. There are 16 episodes in the series, and it aired in 2015 on MBC. It was a massive success, with 18 nominations at the MBC Drama Awards. It won 10 awards there, including actor awards for Hwang Jung-eum and Park Seo-joon.
6 The Time We Were Not In Love (2015)
Oh Ha-na & Choi Won
Although it is known by several different names, including The Time I Loved You, The Time We Were Not In Love is a strong choice for those seeking a friends-to-lovers romance. This K-drama, which is based on a Taiwanese drama (In Time With You by Mag Hsu), follows two adults who have been best friends since high school. Despite sharing countless big moments together, they have never fallen in love.
This is a series that is very straightforward in its romance, without any side genres or complex plotlines, making it a perfect starting point for the friends-to-lovers trope.
But, when the time finally becomes right, feelings develop. This is a series that is very straightforward in its romance, without any side genres or complex plotlines, making it a perfect starting point for the friends-to-lovers trope. The 2015 series has 16 episodes and saw some awards success at the end of the year. It earned six nominations at the SBS Drama Awards. It only won one of the awards, with Yoon Kyun-sang winning the New Star Award, but both Lee Jin -wook and Ha Ji-won received nominations for their starring roles.
5 The Reply Series (2012-2015)
Various Characters
When it comes to the Reply K-drama series, there is not just one opportunity for a friends-to-lovers romance, but three. The Reply series is an anthology TV show with three seasons. Each season follows a new cast of characters who are portrayed in the present and in the past.
In the past, audiences see how they became friends, along with the cultural happenings at that time, while their present offers clues about their fates as adults. Ultimately, the Reply series has strong themes of friendship, family, and romance. Inevitably, each friend group has at least one couple that goes from friends to lovers.
Reply 1997 came out in 2012, Reply 1994 came out in 2013, and Reply 1988 came out in 2015. As the titles show, each season takes place in a different time frame. They were all critically acclaimed, with wins at different awards ceremonies, including the K-Drama Star Awards, tvN10 Awards, and Baeksang Arts Awards.
4 Soundtrack #1 (2022)
Han Seon-woo & Han So-hee
Another K-drama that is very straightforward about its friends-to-lovers romance is Soundtrack #1. This series follows Han Seon-woo and Han So-hee, who have been best friends for approximately 20 years.
However, when they stay in the same house together for two weeks, they begin to learn more about each other, and as a result, fall in love. In many ways, this is a more intimate K-drama, with a relationship that is truly the definition of friends-to-lovers.
Notably, this series also has an emphasis on music, which only serves to increase the romantic ambiance. The K-drama is also a rare one that doesn’t have Netflix as its home, as it was released on Disney+ in 2022 in different territories. It also has a sequel called Soundtrack #2, although that is a standalone movie that doesn’t really connect to the first one other than existing in the same universe. The first season only has four episodes and it received mostly positive reviews for its love story.
3 Fight For My Way (2017)
Ko Dong-man & Choi Ae-ra
Fight for My Way is a workplace romantic drama that follows a friend group called The Crazy Fantastic Four. These individuals have been friends since childhood, and though they have big dreams and ambitions, their reluctance to grow up makes it difficult for them to succeed.
This is especially true of Ko Dong-man and Choi Ae-ra, who develop feelings for each other but must overcome the immature dynamics of their youth. Fight for My Way is not only great in the romance department, but it also has important themes that many audiences will be able to relate to.
The series picked up 15 nominations at the KBS Drama Awards, winning eight of them, including six different Best Actor Awards.
When it aired originally, the show was one of the most-watched at the time and was number one on the charts for three straight weeks. The critical reviews were also positive, with praise going to its plot and acting. The series picked up 15 nominations at the KBS Drama Awards, winning eight of them, including six different Best Actor Awards.
2 Romance Is A Bonus Book (2019)
Cha Eun-ho & Kang Dan-i
This heartwarming romance is not just about friends becoming lovers, but also about second chances and making up for lost time.Romance is a Bonus Book follows Cha Eun-ho and Kang Dan-i, who became friends in childhood after Dan-i saved Eun-ho from an accident. The two bonded over their love of books but went their separate ways when Dan-i began dating a selfish man. Years later, Dan-i is divorced and Eun-ho owns a publishing company.
Eun-ho helps Dan-i out during her hard times, and the two form a new, romantic spark.Romance is a Bonus Book has a great story and a romance that will melt your heart. The series has 16 episodes and they focus on the challenges in their personal and professional lives as they realize how much they really care about each other. The series picked up a pair of awards nominations at the end of the year, with one for Wi Ha-joon for Best New Actor at the Baeksang Arts Awards.
1 Something In The Rain (2018)
Jin-ah & Joon-hee
One other friends-to-lovers K-drama to watch is a classic of the genre. Something in the Rain is one of the best K-dramas regardless of subgenre, which follows Jin-ah and Joon-hee, two acquaintances from childhood who reconnect and slowly become friends, and later, lovers. What sets this series apart from other friends-to-lovers K-dramas is the care with which their relationship is handled. Their romance takes time and effort to work, and this type of slow-burn relationship is great to watch.
Furthermore, the couple must face hard situations as well, which makes the series more realistic. All in all, it is a great K-drama, and a perfect contender for a good friends-to-lovers romance. The series streamed on Netflix in 2018 and hit Disney+ in Japan in 2022. With 16 episodes, the series won the Excellence Award for Korean Drama Award at the 13th Seoul International Drama Awards, while Son Ye-jon won Outstanding Korean Actress at the same ceremony that year.
