Love to Hate You | Korean Drama | Netflix Series

Love to Hate You is a Korean drama series that premiered on Netflix, on February 10, 2023. It’s a romance/comedy that has the typical love triangles viewers expect in romantic K-dramas.

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Is it love or hate? Is it professional or personal?

• A woman believes that all men are cheating two-timing dirtbags, so she only dates men who meet the criteria. She gets them to fall for her and then she dumps them! Sweet revenge! Also, she doesn’t get along with her father. The way he treats her mother is the reason why she never wants to get married.

• A man believes women never get into relationships unless there are some “benefits” for them; mainly financial benefits. He had a bad experience with both his mother and his first love. The psychological damage has lasted for years.

What happens when that man and that woman meet each other?

Love to Hate You is ten (10) episodes with a totally predictable ending. But you’ll probably enjoy watching it because the main couple is so adoreably cute!

The Main Couple: The Lawyer and the Actor

Yeo Mi-ran (played by Kim Ok-vin) is a lawyer at an entertainment law firm. The firm’s client is Nam Kang-ho (played by Teo Yoo), Korea’s top actor. Their relationship begins as purely professional. Wait! Let’s back up! Nam Kang-ho didn’t realize that Mi-ran overheard him expressing his unflattering views of women. She concludes that she should get next to him so that she can destroy him! So the interactions between them begin as a “one-sided personal hate relationship”, facilitated by their professional lawyer/client relationship. Mi-ran’s plan is to seduce him, develop a hot romance, and then crush him!

Before the Romance, There’s the “Bromance”

Before Yeo Mi-ran even meets Nam Kang-ho, there is already a loyal friendship that exists. Do Won-jun (played by Kim Ji-hoon) runs the management company that guides Nam Kang-ho’s acting career; and he is also his BFFL, best friend for life!

Do Won-jun knows that Nam Kang-ho’s first love betrayed him and that he has suffered mentally and physically. Even though his fans think of him as a god of romance and the greatest kisser, it’s not for real. Before Nam Kang-ho goes in front of the camera to film a kissing scene with a woman, he has to take medicine to calm his nerves. His first love really messed him up!

A Fake Girlfriend? Why?

To prevent Nam Kang-ho from getting hurt again in another devastating relationship, Do Won-jun constantly takes extreme protective measures. One of those measures is making his lawyer, Yeo Mi-ran sign a contract to pretend to be Nam Kang-ho’s girlfriend in order to eradicate rumors that he was gay. The person who provided those stories about his sexual preference to the media knew they were not true; and had malicious intent. Nevertheless, the public was accepting those falsehoods as facts.

Do Won-jun’s plan was to stop the gay rumor mill from crushing Nam Kang-ho. By contrast, Yeo Mi-ran was happy to sign the “fake girlfriend contract” because Do Won-jun’s plan just makes carrying out her plan to crush Nam Kang-ho so much easier.  Muahahaha …!

Did the Plans Work?

The plans worked! Just not in the way they were intended to work. Ultimately, Yeo Mi-ran and Nam Kang-ho privately work their way through the misunderstandings they have about each other. But working their way through misunderstandings, rumors, etc. circulated to the public turns out to be much more complicated.

There was one major takeaway from this fictional series that has a valuable real-life application: Never let public opinion stop you from being with the one you truly love.