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

fThe 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.

The story of the K-drama is also told through one of their diaries as one of their daughters finds it.

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

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.

...it’s like the comfort food of a K-drama romance

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.

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.

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.