Korean high school romance series to add to your watchlist
Korean dramas are well known for their romantic storylines that revolve around teen love and drama. These Korean high school dramas will undoubtedly pique your interest if you want a new series to watch.
Korean high school romance series never seem to lose their appeal to fans of all ages. It explores many beautiful and nostalgic adolescent emotions and the trials and tribulations of growing up. Below are the best Kdrama high school romance series you can enjoy watching.
Best Korean high school romance series
Korean high school romance series are popular entertainment mediums for binge-watching with your partner, especially on a long weekend. Which is the best high school romance Kdrama? Check out the TV series below:
1. True Beauty
- IMDb rating: 8.0/10
- Aired: 1 season, 16 episodes
True Beauty is another great Korean high school romance series with a thrilling storyline. It follows the story of a young girl bullied by others for being ugly. Luckily, she learns to use makeup, transforming into a beautiful girl.
2. Reply 1997
- IMDb rating: 8.0/10
- Aired: 1 season, 16 episodes
Reply 1997 is a 2012 South Korean television series that follows the lives of six friends in Busan as the timeline shifts between their past, as 18-year-old high schoolers, in 1997 and their present, as 33-year-olds, at their high school reunion dinner in 2012.
The series is one of the highest-rated Korean dramas in cable television history, with audiences and critics praising it for being well-researched, refreshing, authentic, and full of humour and heart.
3. Boys Over Flowers
- IMDb rating: 7.8/10
- Aired: 1 season, 25 episodes
The story follows a working-class girl who becomes entangled in the lives of a group of wealthy young men at her elite high school. This is a classic series that has attracted a large number of K-drama fans.
4. Extraordinary You
- IMDb rating: 7.8/10
- Aired: 1 season, 32 episodes
Extraordinary You follow high school student Eun Dan-oh, who attends a prestigious academy. She discovers that the world she lives in is a comic-book fantasy world. She and everyone else are characters in the Secret comic book, all under the authority of their all-powerful and all-knowing Writer.
Dan-oh is just an extra, and the Writer gave her a lame setup: she is engaged to her long-time crush, who despises her, and she has a heart disease and will die soon. This is the Korean drama to watch if you want to binge in two days or even one if you have 16 hours to spare.
5. Who Are You: School 2015
- IMDb rating: 7.7/10
- Aired: 1 season, 16 episodes
Who Are You: School 2015 is one of the best romantic high school Korean drama series on Netflix. The plot revolves around identical twins Ko Eun-byeol and Lee Eun-bi, who separate after one is adopted at the age of five.
Eun-bi is a resident of the Love House, an orphanage in Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province, where the younger residents regard her as a mother figure. She conceals being bullied at school by a gang of mean girls led by Kang So-young, while teachers remain silent.
6. Moments of 18 (At Eighteen)
- IMDb rating: 7.6/10
- Aired: 1 season, 16 episodes
At Eighteen tells the story of Choi Joon-woo, an eighteen-year-old whose teenage life has been shaped by his low-income family life and the conflicts he faces at school.
Forced to transfer for a violation he did not commit, he enrols at Cheonbong High School and becomes a nobody: a loner quietly completing 11th grade. Little did he know that his eighteen-year-old life would be full of twists, turns, and surprises.
7. Dream High
- IMDb rating: 7.6/10
- Aired: 1 season, 33 episodes
The series is about six students at Kirin High School who all want to be K-pop idols, among other things. Throughout their school years, they learn how to improve their singing, songwriting, and dancing abilities while also growing personally.
They begin to develop feelings for one another as well. They each have their strengths and weaknesses but must work together to achieve their goals.
8. School 2017
- IMDb rating: 7.4/10
- Aired: 1 season, 16 episodes
The plot revolves around a group of high school students attempting to overcome the stress of being ranked based on their exam grades while also dealing with the difficulties of being a teenager in a high-pressure, corrupt system.
Ra Eun-ho, a cheerful and kind-hearted 18-year-old who aspires to be a webtoon artist, is caught up in the search for a mysterious troublemaker in the school known as Student X.
Her dream of attending university to study art is jeopardised when she is accused of being Student X, and she faces expulsion.
9. My ID Is Gangnam Beauty
- IMDb rating: 7.4/10
- Aired: 1 season, 16 episodes
The series follows the life of a college student who underwent cosmetic surgery to avoid ridicule from her bullies. Still, her decision backfires as her peers mock her artificial appearance.
The title of the TV show alludes to the Korean term gangnammiin, a derogatory term in South Korea for people who are attractive but appear to have undergone several plastic surgeries to achieve a pretty face, a hot body, or both.
10. Adolescence Medley
- IMDb rating: 7.3/10
- Aired: 1 season, 4 episodes
This is a teen drama about high school students in a small village. The plot revolves around a boy who frequently transfers schools. He picks a fight with a senior and asks a girl in the class out, thinking he will transfer soon. But he has to stay until graduation and deal with the consequences of his mistakes.
11. Cheer Up
- IMDb rating: 6.9/10
- Aired: 1 season, 16 episodes
Cheer Up is a South Korean television series that debuted on SBS TV on 3 October 2022 and continues to air every Monday and Tuesday.
The plot revolves around Kang Yeon Doo, a passionate girl who is the head of her school's street dance club, and Kim Yeol, the president of a club comprised of the school's top students.
The two clubs are forced to join forces to form a cheerleading squad. The members initially clash, but as they learn more about each other, they become closer, with some even developing strong feelings for each other.
12. The School Nurse Files
- IMDb rating: 6.4/10
- Aired: 1 season, 6 episodes
The School Nurse Files is a South Korean streaming television series starring Jung Yu-mi and Nam Joo-hyuk. The plot revolves around Ahn Eun-young, a school nurse able to see human desires, feelings, and spirits manifested as jellies.
Some of these jellies can transform into dangerous, monstrous creatures. Ahn is assigned to a new high school where strange incidents are occurring. She works with another teacher, Hong In-pyo, who has a special energy field around him that protects him from jellies to solve these mysterious cases.
13. Ma Boy
- IMDb rating: 6.1/10
- Aired: 1 season, 3 episodes
Ma Boy is a short K-drama with only three episodes. In the show, a recovering cancer patient named Jan Geu-Rim gets accepted to an art school, bringing her one step closer to realising her dream of becoming a singer. As a bonus, her favourite K-pop idol attends the same school.
Her school life becomes more complicated when she meets her roommate Irene, who has a huge secret: she's actually a boy saving up for his debut as a dancer by modelling as a girl. The series is a lighthearted K-drama with endearing characters and a sweet romance.
Korean dramas are known for their high production values and intense and interesting storylines. Korean high school romance series, in particular, are loved by people of all ages. While most of them are in Korean language, others have English subtitles.
READ ALSO: 15 TV shows that fell off after having a spectacular start
Legit.ng recently published an article about 15 TV shows that fizzled after a promising start. Several TV shows had a strong start and left viewers wanting more, but they gradually faded as time passed.
Even though many fans wanted these shows in history to pick up where they left off, some ruined their reputation. Find some of those TV shows that fizzled after a promising start.
Source: Legit.ng