Summary

• K-drama love triangles bring suspense, intrigue, and anticipation.
• Some love triangles involve new characters who create drama before immediately disappearing from the storyline.
• Love triangles make viewers question which love interest is better suited for the main character.

The best K-drama love triangles always feature heart-pounding romance and twisty narratives that keep audiences coming back for more. Love triangles in K-dramas are one of the biggest tropes in the genre and sometimes the main source of conflict in the series. In some K-dramas, there is a new character who comes in, even if it's for one episode, to confess their love to one of the main characters, causing drama before they disappear again. And in others, the major conflict revolves around whom the main character is going to end up with.

Some of the best K-drama love triangles also bring into question which of the two love interests is better suited for the main character. This trope adds a level of suspense, intrigue, and anticipation as two characters fight for the love and attention of the protagonist. It's a tug-of-war of the heart that all comes to a head when the main character realizes their true feelings. For K-drama fans, there is no shortage of content featuring the juicy love triangle trope.

25 Nevertheless (2021)

Park Jae-Eon, Yoo Na-Bi, And Yang Do-Hyeuk

Inspired by a webtoon, Nevertheless takes on romantic relationships in art school. The main characters are all students exploring different art forms at a prestigious school in South Korea, and they all have different approaches to romance and relationships in general.

Yoo Na Bi is the young woman at the heart of the story. As the show kicks off, she has her heart broken and becomes less trusting of the men around her despite her previous belief in love. Park Jae-Eon, on the other hand, doesn’t believe in “catching feelings” and wants to just have fun. Na-Bi can’t help but feel a connection to Jae-Eon. At one point in the show, she tries to avoid that connection with the safer option, a situationship with Yang Do-Hyeuk.

Because everyone in this show is trying to have light relationships and stay away from deeper connections, it’s never completely clear who will end up with who or which way a relationship will evolve. Chemistry between Jae-Eon and Na-Bi is electric, but that doesn’t mean they can form a lasting relationship, after all.

24 Itaewon Class (2020)

Park Sae Ro-yi, Jo Yi-seo, And Oh Soo-ah

Itaewon Class is most often seen as a revenge drama before a romance. That’s certainly accurate as the crux of the show involves Park Sae Ro-yi is bent on revenge for the wrongs against both him and his father in his life. After spending time in prison for trying to exact revenge the first time, he emerges with a new scheme, and it’s while trying to enact that scheme that the love triangle blossoms.

Park Sae Ro-yi seeks help for his scheme from Jo Yi-seo, the one friend who seems to stand by him through everything. She’s a social media influencer now, but she also harbors feelings for her good friend. Unfortunately for her, he holds a torch for Oh Soo-ah, a woman who just happens to work for the man he’s trying to destroy.

It’s rare for K-drama love triangles to feature two women and a man. Typically, K-dramas see two men have feelings for the same woman instead. That helps this particular love triangle to stand out in a landscape that is full of love triangles.

23 All That We Loved (2023)

Go Yoo, Joon Hee, and So Yeon

All That We Loved takes the idea of a high school love triangle and infuses it with some more science fiction elements. The idea used in the series takes a slow forming friendship and begins to destroy it because of the love triangle.

In the series, Go Yoo and Joon Hee are polar opposites. The former is a basketball player and the latter is more interested in his textbooks. Despite how different they are, the two slowly build a friendship and Go Yoo even donates a kidney to Joo Hee. That is where the trouble begins as the donation of the kidney actually leads to some of Go Yoo’s memories to be shared with Joo Hee. The two become rivals as a result.

The two don’t just hate one another though. The shared memories also mean they both become interested in So Yeon, the most popular girl in school. Their friendship is shattered as they compete for her attention, making for a dramatic take on a love triangle.

22 Start-Up (2020)

Seo Dal Mi, Nam Do San, and Han Ji Pyeong

Relationships between coworkers tend to make for some of the messiest love triangles in K-dramas. That’s the case with Start-Up, which is part of the reason the show is so entertaining.

In the series, Seo Dal Mi becomes disillusioned with her corporate job and longs for adventure and to make her mark on the world. She thinks she can do that by ing the tech start-up Sandbox Company. She and the CEO, Nam Do San, form a connection and she starts to work for him. That connection, however, is interrupted by Han Ji Pyeong, one of the other employees at the company.

Han Ji Pyeong actually holds a debt to someone in Dal Mi’s life, making him feel like he has to protect her. That leads him to become a bit too involved in her life, but also for new feelings to emerge. For those who like their love triangles with plenty of longing looks and heartbreak, Start-Up is the perfect series.

21 Forecasting Love And Weather (2022)

Jin Ha Kyung, Lee Shi Woo, and Han Ki Joon

It might be more accurate to call the love triangle in Forecasting Love and Weather a love square since Chae Yoo Jin actually marries Han Ki Joon early in the series. The bulk of the emotional conflict, however, occurs between Han Ki Joon, his ex Jin Ha Kyung, and his new wife’s ex Lee Shi Woo, who also happens to enter a relationship with Ha Kyung.

The three main characters of the triangle all work for the Korean weather service while Yoo Jin is a journalist who reports on the weather and their lives intertwine because of the complicated relationships between them. Ha Kyung and Shi Woo spend one night together after she is cheated on by Ki Joon, only for her to end up as Shi Woo’s supervisor when he transfers to her office. They decide to keep their relationship a secret.

Ki Joon, despite being married, cannot let Ha Kyung go for much of the series, leading him into conflict with both Ha Kyung and Shi Woo repeatedly. It nearly ruins his marriage as he worries he’s not good enough for Yoo Jin and becomes obsessed with Ha Kyung’s new relationship. There’s never a worry by the audience that Ha Kyung and Ki Joon will end up together again, but the drama helps fuel the rest of the story as other of their workplace gradually become aware of the conflicts, making for a compelling narrative.

20 Black (2017)

Kang Ha-ram, Han Moo-gang & Oh Man-soo

One of the best supernatural-fantasy K-dramas, Black is a peculiar type of love triangle, but definitively one of the most memorable since it involves a grim reaper. In the series, protagonist Kang Ha-ram (Go Ara) has the ability to see someone's death. She becomes the lackey to a grim reaper named Han Moo-gang (Song Seung-heon), who possesses a body to get back his rogue assistant. Along the way, she starts to make him feel human emotions, which are forbidden, and she starts to feel an attraction toward him.

There was so much interest in this series that it actually got a Malaysian remake as well.

Of course, it wouldn't be a love triangle without a third party. Also intermixed is a young CEO named Oh Man-soo (Kim Dong-jun), who trusts her abilities and helps her. He develops feelings of his own but sees she might be in love with someone else. There was so much interest in this series that it actually got a Malaysian remake as well.

Black is not currently available to stream.

19 Jinxed At First (2022)

Gong Soo-kwang, Lee Seul-bi & Seon Min-joon

One of the shows that features the best K-drama love triangles is also based on a popular K-drama webtoon, Jinxed at First. The poor and unlucky Gong Soo-kwang (Na In-Woo) is haunted by dreams of the mysterious Lee Seul-bi (Girls Generation member Seohyun), but these dreams always precede an unlucky event.

Seul-bi, a woman who can see the future by touching someone, and her mother are let out of their secret room in the Sam Jung family home by Seon Min-joon (Ki Do-hoon), and Seul-bi seeks Soo-kwang out, resulting in a light enemies-to-lovers romance. The only catch is that Seon Min-joon falls for her too, leading to a complicated love triangle that changes all of their lives. The series might not have won any prestigious awards, but the character arcs of everyone are compelling to watch unfold.

Jinxed At First is available to stream on Rakuten Viki.

18 Boys Over Flowers (2009)

Geum Jan-di, Gu Jun-pyo & Yoon Ji-hoo

Boys Over Flowers makes viewers' hearts leap over one of the best K-drama love triangles. Based on a Japanese manga, it follows a young woman named Geum Jan-di who gets mixed into the wealthy lives of a group of young men at school, namely Gu Jun-pyo. Feelings and interactions blossom between Jan-di and Jun-pyo, but Jun-pyo's friend, Yoon Ji-hoo, also becomes smitten with Jan-di. However, out of all of them, there's one that she has an undeniable connection with.

Boys Over Flowers is critically acclaimed and has garnered accolades at the Baeksang Arts Awards, Asian Television Awards, and KBS Drama Awards. The series is also known for helping to bring interest in K-dramas around the world. It was one of the first K-dramas to see an international demand through streaming.

17 Record Of Youth (2020)

Ahn Jeong-ha, Sa Hye-jun & Won Hae-hyo

Record of Youth is a Netflix K-drama with one of the best K-drama love triangles. In the series, a talented makeup artist named Ahn Jeong-ha has a crush on a lesser-known male model named Sa Hye-jun. She gets the opportunity to do his makeup for a show and sparks a friendship, which soon turns into a relationship, but there's one problem. The model-turned-actor also has a childhood friend named Won Hae-hyo who's also at the top of his career as a model-actor. Hae-hyo also becomes smitten with Jeong-ha.

Both seem to be a good match for Jeong-ha, making her final decision all the more heart-pounding. Love triangles always work better in K-dramas when both sides of the love triangle are equally viable. If they aren't, the audience is only going to root for one character and the love triangle isn't nearly as compelling.

16 She Was Pretty (2015)

Kim Hye-jin, Ji Sung-joon & Min Ha-ri & Kim Shin-hyuk

She Was Pretty is a K-drama that will have viewers simultaneously laughing and having their hearts break from the romance of one of the best K-drama love triangles. It all started when Kim Hye-jin backed out of meeting her childhood friend Ji Sung-joon due to him becoming gorgeous and her feeling inadequate. She instead forces her best friend, Min Ha-ri, to take her place.

She Was Pretty is available to stream on Rakuten Viki.

When Hye-jin is given a new job by accident at a fashion magazine, she then discovers Sung-joon is the new editor of the magazine, hence her new boss, making this one of the best K-dramas about falling in love with the boss as well. However, two love triangles occur. The incredibly charming Kim Shin-Hyuk starts to fall in love with Hye-jin just as her boss starts to who she is. All the while, Ha-ri, who pretended to be her at the first meeting, starts to fall for Sung-joon too. Mistaken identity plays a great role in this story.