This is so lovely! What beautiful writing. I've never thought of this show as 'real' in any way, and this is such an interesting perspective on it. Thanks!

YOU’RE BEAUTIFUL was totally outrageous and absurd... and I loved it for it (see my avatar). Aah the “fake kiss” scene. As a newcomer to dramaland, I too felt that scene deeply, but more because I was busy raging at Fate for causing a misunderstanding and making Pig Rabbit couple suffer. Naive me. OTPs are meant to be together.

If only real life were so simple.

But there is the other side of the coin: The drama was full of people with one-sided crushes. I didn’t for a moment think she’d end up with anyone but Tae-Kyung, but Jeremy unexpectedly broke my heart. 💔

I really liked your post. 😊That feeling of “electricity” and giddy confusion before a college crush... it didn’t scar me but it did make me wonder later why on earth I just didn’t say something to the guy. Maybe that’s why I was so impressed (at first) by second-lead females who had no trouble claiming the guy in front of everyone.

Such a lovely write-up, thank you! I didn't really like You're Beautiful, but the same scene made me cry, too. Like you I had a really bad experience with a one-sided crush for a few years. But my problem was that I could never tell, if he was also into me. His behaviour was just really confusing. After a few years wondering and hoping my sister suddenly told me, that he got engaged and my whole world fall apart. He got married a few months later and has two kids by now. A few years later I met my boyfriend and I'm genuinely happy, that I didn't marry the other guy (where I grew up you would either marry or don't start a relationship at all), but for a very long time it was still weird when I saw my old crush.
But luckily for me, my old feelings are less and less present now. I still feel empathy for a person with a one-sided crush, but it doesn't hurt anymore.
Thanks for this post, it made me realise that I processed my feelings, even though I always thought it was impossible.

"I still feel a cramp or two in my stomach whenever his name pops out in a conversation" why do I relate to this soooooo much??? What I feel is more like a pang though, not painful, more like wishful regret.....

@turka Thank you for the write up 😊

I can TOTALLY empathize, friend!!
Throughout grade school—grades 3 through 12—I had a one-sided crush on the same guy.
We attended the same school throughout grades 3 to 9, and something actually almost—ALMOST— came out of it in the latter half of our Grade 9 year if it hadn’t been for drama between “friends” i.e. the popular girl who is a people pleaser and actually entitled herself and thought that everyone did, and should, like her but really no one did.
I’d thought I’d finally found my way out when it was time for everyone to move onto different schools for grades 10 to 12, because “out of sight, out of mind”, right?? NOPE. We ended up choosing and going going to the same school again for the remainder of our grade-school years (10 to 12), and because of that, it actually took me about 2 or so years of my university years to REALLY clear my head and to have him completely out of my heart, despite not even seeing or being in any contact with the guy since high school grad.
Through this experience—and real life makjang family drama with my dad (long story short, he left us, I grew up in a single parent household)— I’ve realized that I’ve become very guarded of my heart and the first gut reaction I have of any male that approaches me is to automatically put them into my friend zone for new male friends or “brother” zone for male friends that I’ve known for years.....
The hardest part in all of this is that I’ve dreamt about starting my own family one day—which I’m surprised at, despite all the drama and crap I’ve been through emotionally with the family and with my long-running one-sided crush all those years ago— but I’m now in my late-20s without anyone in my life as a boyfriend, or even a potential to be one, in my circle of guy friends... All because of the, what I like to call, the Berlin Wall I’ve put up in my heart.

Talk about being my own worst critic and hindrance 🤷🏻‍♀️

Thanks @turka! You’re Beautiful was prob my third Kdrama. I found the guyliner, the clothes, the tropes, the plot ridiculous. I saw a lot of “quirky” stuff in kdramas that are foreign to my culture like piggy backs, wrist grab, cracking eggs on someone’s head, hitting someone in jest, etc. But I loved it and continued to get addicted. I find myself identifying with the lead female characters. I see my insecurities in them and their triumph became mine too.

damn... that really sounded like a very very painful one-sided crush...
*sending lots of Beanie hugs*
And thanks for the relatable writing! I also get a real physical pinch in my heart whenever my fav characters get their hearts broken (real or fake).

Aww this was so relatable to read as I pretty much have experienced a lot of one sided crushes, and I found You're Beautiful to be so endearing just because of how it showed falling in love for the first time in such an innocent endearingly relatable way...it is in my top 5 kdramas

Oh man. This. Thank you for this. This hit all the right notes for me. So many hugs to you <3

i'm sorry about that painful experience! i have trouble with men and relationships (i mean, as a qu**r person that has been kinda forced into a heterosexuality box due to the nature of my family men are my only option) but my anxiety and ocd make liking people exhausting and sickening. i can't eat, can't sleep, can't think. but at the same time, love sounds like the nicest thing ever. i want a family and kids and like dogs and cats and to be happy

sometimes that feeling of dread is the worst. if you hear someone's name and your heart skips a beat, even if you're over it! but i don't know what a true crush or love feels like loool so whenever i see people in dramas with these huge crushes im always like 'que?!??! can't u move on' (bc i am a romantic and crazy but wow i can get over someone lightning fast)

i can relate to you and your write-up even though i haven't experienced this level or the length just because of that emptiness? feeling? hard to explain, but i get it. interesintg post!!!!

holy crap yeah.

one side of the coin is you´re a total gonner and it just doesnt change... other side is tho... not everything is as it seems.
In my case, I always fear someone hates me when actually I am overthinking. and my crush... has lasted 20 years but I wasn´t aware I had it. and it was way more complicated than this drama. Thing is, a happy end doesnt necessarily have to be a romantic relationship. It can be something else - finding yourself or a friend to trust, allowing yourself to feel, having courage to express something... just being... I think it is all of this in my case. Courage, self expression, daring to feel, confidence, trust, patience, and a very very strong will to not give up... maybe things can never be as a perfect dream but there is another level of connection, a different kind of attraction... just individuals who are adrift but tied by something... in this cosmos, so it wont swallow us. play whatever role you get sincerely and it will be ok. I am being a "friend" perhaps but there is something I cant put my finger on...
a light can best be seen in the dark. like in the drama...
I know how you feel, trust me. it is even harder when it is not QUITE one sided but you still know it is impossible. but... not everything is as it seems... my oppa says "Anything can happen!" and "Law of attraction" you attract what you are thinking of.

I also found myself in this situation very recently when watching an episode of Let Me Hear Your Song and I suddenly found myself in tears. When I was at university, I had been besotted with an upperclassman who became a very close friend and who knew about my very strong infatuation. He didn't feel the same way (he told me and he was right that I only liked the idea of him) but he never outright rejected me either so for a very long time I nursed that hope that someday he would change his mind. Hope can lead to expectations and that brings pain. You keep telling yourself it was wrong but you can't help it anyway. I only got over the heartache after I moved away and then I found my real first love and everything before that became all memories of youthful follies. We are still friends and now have families. When our little children met they got on well. When I see him, I don't remember those feelings at all but occasionally when I watch Korean dramas and I see my older self, I would remember what I felt and I couldn't help but cry.

I'll rival your seven years with...ten, eleven? Long enough ago that it's not easy to calculate how many years, lol. I think my story may be a lot more dramatic than yours though, and not totally one-sided, but my feelings were ultimately for someone I could never be with and who was never going to try and be with me, so I definitely understand what you went through. It's hard being in love, like, etc.

Very relatable writing. How did you get over your crush in the end?