Who else agrees with me that love triangles play a crucial and entertaining role in K-dramas? Although we all have our individual preferences for different genres of K-dramas, romance K-drama buffs will certainly acknowledge this fact.

We all know how captivating, suspense-filled, exciting, and annoying love triangles can be in K-dramas. I mean, even though the love triangle contributes to a progressive storyline in K-dramas, it is annoying because of the second lead syndrome we mostly experience.

This is because personally, in most love triangle-based K-dramas like Itaewon Class, The Heirs, Strong Girl Do Bong Soon, and more that I have binge-watched, it was very difficult for me to give my total support to the main leads because even the second leads always had a grip on me.

So if you’re anything like me, an ardent lover of romantic K-dramas, then you must have come across some or many K-dramas with love triangles, but why am I here in your face? Although there are many K-dramas with love triangles, let me tell you about 10 of the most gripping K-drama love triangles in my opinion.

PS: This is a Sageuk-free list.

Boys Over Flowers (2009)

Synopsis: A poor girl gets transferred to an elite school meets with a group of bullies and ends up getting tangled in a love triangle

The love triangle in this old K-drama will remain ever-relevant. It played a crucial role in spreading the Hallyu wave across the world and that’s why it’s the first on my list. Although there were quite a few notable love triangles in the series, the main dispute between Hallyu's sweetheart “Lee Min Ho” and “Kim Hyung Joong” is something I’m sure we still can’t get over.

The Heirs (2013)

Synopsis: A girl with a humble background gets caught up between two friends-turned-enemies when each of them wants her for himself.

Should we just name the actor “Lee Min Ho” the king of love triangles? I mean, he appeared here again! And this time he was in a rivalry with actor Kim Woo Bin. If I am going to be truthful, I experienced second lead syndrome here. One minute I want Lee Min Ho to win and the other minute, I’m rooting for Kim Woo Bin. The Love triangle in this series kept me on my toes. What about you?

Oh My Ghost (2015)

Synopsis: The life of a demure assistant chef turns around when she is possessed by a female virgin ghost who is determined to satiate her libido.

This K-series is not one of the more popular love triangle K-dramas out there. However, it made it to my list because of the extraordinary storyline. I mean, of course, we are used to many love triangle K-dramas, right? But those love triangles are between humans and not ghosts! while this one involved a human and a ghost.

This K-drama had two women, “Park Bo Young” the human, and “Kim Seul-gi”, who played the role of a ghost. Even though they were using the same body, they fell in love with the head chef individually.

Strong Girl Do Bong Soon (2017)

Synopsis: A lady with extraordinary strength gets hired by the CEO of a gaming company. She has to choose between the affection of her boss and her best friend who's a detective.

By now you should know how big of a crush I have on actor Park Hyung Sik, so obviously it wasn’t too difficult to choose him over actor Ji Soo. In fact, I almost got jealous of the chemistry between actress Park Bo-young and actor Park Hyung Sik in this series. But if delusions were horses…

*literally zips my mouth.*

Extraordinary You (2019)

Synopsis: A high-school girl finds that she is merely a character from a comic book whose destiny is decided by the writer and she wants to change the plot to suit her desires.

I knew there was trouble in paradise when the female lead (Kim Hye-Joon) in the series decided to change the plot of the book. Stick with who the writer gave you to. She refused! And because of that, she gave me a hard time in choosing between two handsome actors; “Rowoon” and “Lee Jae-wook”

Itaewon Class (2020)

Synopsis: A young man (Park Seo Joon) sets out to avenge and overthrow the owner of a pub who has wronged him by setting up his own business, a young girl helps him with his dream and ends up liking him although he likes someone else.

This is another distinct K-drama for me because, unlike most K-dramas where we are used to women being the love interest and men being the rivals, this was different. Women were the ones fighting for a man's heart in this drama. While Kwon Nara chose to save her own head and have Park Seo Joon fight for both himself and her, Kim Da Mi chose to stay by his side, fight for him and with him. The type of dream Oppa I want (Squeals in delight!)

True Beauty (2021)

Synopsis: A high-school girl covers her face with make-up to avoid being bullied; she soon transfers to a school where she gets caught up between two friends.

Why must love triangles mostly involve friends? It is always annoying, or am I the only one who feels like that? Well, I could not make my choice for Moon Ga-young between Cha Eun Woo and Hwang In Yeop until the end because it was tough.

There are many K-dramas based on love triangles, but I prefer these over others. So this is your sign to tell me your favorite love triangle K-dramas in the comment section and what you love most about them.

I’ll be waiting to read your comments!