10 unforgettable romantic gestures in K-dramas that raised the bar for love

Tatler Asia

2 days ago

2. Ri Jeong-hyeok risks it all: 'Crash Landing on You' (2019)
When South Korean CEO Yoon Se-ri (Son Ye-jin) accidentally paraglides into North Korean territory, she's found by Captain Ri Jeong-hyeok (Hyun Bin), a principled captain with a soft centre. Despite the enormous political danger, he protects, shelters and eventually sneaks her back to Seoul. But when an unscrupulous villain pursues her to the South, Ri Jeong-hyeok risks it all. He goes spelunking through the border, squeezing himself through tiny crevices to reach and protect her.
Love under authoritarian regimes has never been this stylish—or this emotionally wrecking. 3. Do Min-joon stops time: 'My Love from the Star' (2013)
What's more romantic than flowers or fireworks? Halting the entire space-time continuum to kiss your favourite person. Do Min-joon (Kim Soo-hyun) is a centuries-old alien who crash-landed on Earth during the Joseon Dynasty and has spent the last 400 years keeping his identity and emotions hidden. He meets Cheon Song-yi (Jun Ji-hyun), a self-absorbed Hallyu superstar with a heart as big as her ego.
Despite his best efforts to remain distant, Do Min-joon finds himself hopelessly smitten. In the last episode, he pulls out one of his secret alien powers: time-stopping. The series' iconic scenes happen after the duo trades tearful goodbyes. Song-yi, now back to being a celebrity, stops when the world around her literally freezes. Min-joon steps out amid the frozen photographers and reporters, proceeding to kiss her like it's the last moment in eternity. It's quiet, surreal and impossibly tender. 4. Lee Gon crosses parallel worlds: 'The King: Eternal Monarch' (2020)
Love knows no bounds, but Lee Gon (Lee Min-ho) takes that idea and gallops with it (literally, on a white horse, through a portal between universes). As the refined, lonely emperor of a reimagined Kingdom of Corea, Lee Gon's life is all protocol and political chess—until he stumbles upon a photograph of a woman from a parallel world and becomes obsessed with finding her.
Enter Jung Tae-eul (Kim Go-eun), a no-nonsense detective from our version of South Korea, who doesn't have time for fairy tales, let alone monarchs claiming interdimensional destiny. But Lee Gon isn't your average emperor. He risks collapsing the fabric of space-time to spend fleeting moments with her—slipping through universes, defying logic and dodging villains with distorted identities.
Whether it's a surprise appearance in her world just to say hello, or rewriting the rules of time to give their love a fighting chance, Lee Gon proves that no universe is too far, no dimension too dangerous, for a man with a horse, a half-flute and a heart full of devotion. 5. Han Ji-pyeong uplifts a girl through letters: 'Start-Up' (2020)
It begins with a lie, but oh, what a tender one. When young Seo Dal-mi (Bae Suzy) is reeling from her parents' divorce and the loss of her sister, a mysterious pen pal named 'Nam Do-san' starts writing her letters—thoughtful, encouraging, full of hope. What she doesn't know is that the words aren't from a genius boy in suspenders, but from Han Ji-pyeong (Kim Seon-ho), a prickly orphan-turned-teen investor, coaxed into helping by her grandmother.
What starts as a reluctant favour becomes an emotional lifeline. Ji-pyeong pours his heart, fears and best career advice into those letters, unknowingly becoming her first love, guiding light and invisible mentor. Fast forward years later, and Dal-mi is chasing her tech startup dreams, still believing in a man who doesn't exist. Ji-pyeong is right there, successful and brooding, watching her from the sidelines like a K-drama Cyrano with better suits.
He has every chance to confess, but he doesn't. Because his love isn't loud. It's quiet, patient and gut-wrenchingly selfless. In a drama filled with unicorn startups and love triangles, Ji-pyeong proves that grand romantic gestures aren't just about shouting or chasing, but also about writing, waiting and walking away. 6. Hong Dae-young time travels for his family: '18 Again' (2020)
Middle-aged Hong Dae-young (Yoon Sang-hyun) is on the brink of divorce and struggling to connect with his children. By some supernatural twist, he wakes up in his 18-year-old body (Lee Do-hyun). Instead of using the moment to start over, he returns to high school to secretly protect his family, understand his wife and re-fall in love. Only this time, he does it with more empathy. 18 Again is time-travelling therapy, essentially. 7. Ha Ram fights heaven and hell: 'Lovers of the Red Sky' (2021)
In the lush, painterly world of Joseon-era fantasy, love isn't just a feeling—it's a war between gods, demons and fate itself. Ha Ram (Ahn Hyo-seop), once a kind scholar, is blinded during a fateful ritual and becomes host to the Demon King, a furious celestial being with a grudge against, well, everything. By day, Ha Ram is a calm government official. By night, he's a vessel of darkness. And through it all, he's hopelessly, devastatingly in love with Cheon Gi (Kim Yoo-jung), a once-blind artist blessed with divine talent.
Ha Ram doesn't just risk his life for Cheon Gi; he risks his soul. He hides his torment behind a stoic facade, battling the demon within while protecting her from priests, prophecies and his cursed fate. And when words fail, he lets his actions scream devotion: shielding her from assassins, fighting off divine wrath and surrendering himself to eternal darkness if it means she gets to paint the skies free.
With his romantic gestures, he repeatedly reinforces that love isn't about happy endings. It's about choosing each other, even when the heavens say no. 8. Kim Shin waits for an eternity: 'Goblin' (2016)
Kim Shin (Gong Yoo) has been alive for 900 years—not out of choice, but as punishment. As a cursed goblin, he roams around Earth, waiting for the only one who can pull the 'sword' from his chest and grant him peace. Enter Ji Eun-tak (Kim Go-eun), a quirky, unlucky teen who sees ghosts and can summon him by blowing out a birthday candle. Trust us, it's better that it sounds.
Of course, they fall in love. And Kim Shin, once ready to die, has found someone to live for.
When the time comes for him to sacrifice himself, he does it to save her, vanishing into ash. But death, it turns out, isn't the end—just a detour. Kim Shin ends up in a foggy spiritual afterworld, caught between realms, with nothing but memory and yearning to keep him company. He waits for years for a glimpse of her in the real world and a sign that their love wasn't a cosmic glitch.
And when Eun-tak finally begins to remember, it all comes flooding back—him writing her name in the snow, standing alone in a field of buckwheat flowers, hoping against time itself. 9. Ha Eun-gyeol changes the past: 'Twinkling Watermelon' (2023)
Ha Eun-gyeol (Ryeo Un) is your typical model student by day, rock band guitarist by night. He's also the only hearing member of a deaf family. When a mysterious music shop throws him back to 1995, he meets his teenage dad, Ha Yi-chan (Choi Hyun-wook), who's awkward, loud and not the man Eun-gyeol idolises. Worse, his parents don't even like each other (yet).
Suddenly, the time-travel mishap becomes a family intervention. To ensure his future existence and protect the love story that raised him, Eun-gyeol forms a band with his unsuspecting dad, becomes his best friend and covertly nudges his parents toward destiny. But it's not all meet-cutes and music montages. He must reckon with generational trauma, disability and the weight of secrets that could shatter timelines.
Through hidden identities, messy emotions and spine-tingling musical performances, Eun-gyeol fights not just for love, but for the right of his family's story to be heard—literally and metaphorically. It's Back to the Future , but with sign language, stolen glances and tearful guitar solos. Who needs a flux capacitor when you have filial piety and a killer set list? 10. Lee Jun-ho waits with patience: 'Extraordinary Attorney Woo' (2022)
In a K-drama landscape overflowing with grand romantic gestures and whirlwind romances, Lee Jun-ho (Kang Tae-oh) chooses the revolutionary path: quiet, unwavering presence. Working at the same law firm as Woo Young-woo (Park Eun-bin)—a brilliant rookie attorney on the autism spectrum—he doesn't charge into her world with assumptions. Instead, he waits at the edges, learning her rhythm, her boundaries, her extraordinary mind.
Jun-ho's love doesn't come in sweeping romantic gestures or tragic monologues. It arrives in the form of holding the elevator door, listening to her talk about whales, picking trash with her on Saturdays or simply walking alongside her in silence. Jun-ho listens first—and listens well. He asks, then adapts. He's patient when others rush, tender when others retreat and persistent without pushing.
It may sound boring when you have someone crossing universes or killing demons for you, but the radical, everyday act of truly seeing someone and staying is highly underrated.
See more: 5 things we loved about Netflix's K-drama 'Extraordinary Attorney Woo'