Doctors.

Search: WWW with exception of Scarlett and GaYoung' romance.
Can't believe how much I fast forwarding OTP loveline and finished the whole drama 16hrs drama in one go 😅 (this is bizarre as I rarely FF while watching my Kdrama).

Snowdrop, The K2, Soundtrack#1
These dramas are not my favorite, i don't think i enjoyed any of them. The romance in these dramas didn't work out to me. Soundtrack#1 in particular is very disappointing because it's a romance drama, using the friends to lovers trope that i really like, but there is nothing special or memorable about the romance.

While I don't know that I would have removed all of the romantic elements, I definitely found the love lines in Reply 1988 to be the most frustrating, least rewarding aspect of the show. It was much more compelling when it stuck to friendship and family dynamics.

The 2 shows that come to mind are Why Her? and A Korean Odyssey. In Why Her? the romance made absolutely no sense and the couple was completely mismatched. In A Korean Odyssey there was exactly zero chemistry between the leads and the female lead’s performance was so wooden that it contributed to me dropping the show.

Why her.
Forecasting love and weather I wasn’t interested in either the main couple or their ex’s but the ex’s relationship woes just made me annoyed every time they were shown. I think they could have done well focused on the working relationships in the office, the team approach the rivalry between the different teams in the headquarters and the regional areas and the trials of when things mess up with all the complaints. They could have had the minor cast of the sister and the upstairs neighbour, the man who had problems settling in with his daughter and wife and the woman who was supporting her husband to study and he was taking liberties as the love interests and that would have been much better.

I'll let @nigirisushi say Café Minamdang.

Recently, Why Her and Eve.
But Itaewon Class and Hotel del Luna take the cake.
P.S. Vincenzo is one of my all-time favorite romances.

Dream High

I'd name a few.
Why Her takes first place of course - the freshest memory.
Next will be Forecasting Love and Weather. Just the main lead's romance, not the other romances.
The romance aspect of Alchemy of Souls between Jang Uk and Mudeok.

I really don't agree about Vincenzo (I thought that the romance was just right--subtle but satisfying--and made both characters richer and more likeable) and I am definitely not someone who complains when any romance line is added to a show. But I can think of a couple of shows where the romance left me cold and probably shouldn't have been there because the show was otherwise very good:

From a Distance, Spring is Green: The FL was a very flat character and the ML's hair and lip color were too distracting. I wouldn't have minded a central romance to beef up the story, but it shouldn't have been between these two.

Itaewon Class: This is what happens when the writers are forced to add a romantic element and you can tell they really don't want to. Poorly built up and executed, even though the actors had chemistry.

Korean Odyssey & Hotel del Luna: Both of these needed a romantic story to anchor the show, but it was poorly executed. FL in the first was terrible and in the second the ML never sparked with the FL. Wasted (and boring) opportunities that weighed down the action in both cases.

It's hard to make the difference in a show that didn't need a romance and the ones that had a bad romance because of the lack of chemistry between the leads or the bad writing.

SIG is not very lucky but in Task 38 there was a romance but they kinda forgot about it (Soo-Young was pretty bad in this role), but they could do a romance with another female character, because all of them were badass except the FL. And there is Café Minamdang...

K2 : the FL character was badly written and useless and so the romance.

Itaewoon Class : it could work without it and the story would have been better.

Why Her : it could have been better with another actor, but without it it could have been perfect.

Again My Life : I dropped it but it felt forced.

Alice : It was weird.

Sisyphus: The Myth : This drama wasn't good but the romance didn't help.

My Name : It looked like a last addition to please the public than a real part of the story.

Extraordinary attorney woo. Everything but the romance.
Goblin (no to the underage romance, he could have been her guardian and still the drama would have worked).

Unpopular opinion probably but Season 2 of Hospital Playlist. It felt like the show went from a story about 5 friends to just a series of love stories.

Maybe they wanted to pair everyone up before ending the show but it just wasn't narratively interesting. There was also a lot of what felt like manufactured relationship conflict such as between Jun-wan and Ik-sun.

39 "had" to have the 3 FLs having a romance but all were failures: no chemistry, a broken affair and one that did not get out of dry dock.

But the worse genre is the arrogant chaebol who manipulates, stalks, harasses, grooms, invades boundaries and "won't take no for an answer" pest who finally gaslights a young woman into falling in love with him.

Café Minamdang
Love with Flaws (the main couple)
Goblin (the main couple)
Human Disqualification (It wasn't that bad but it would have better without it)

I wanted MORE romance from Vincenzo. Given how the OTP's relationship unfolded, I kept thinking that there's no way those two wouldn't develop romantic feelings for each other, and was getting frustrated by why they just wouldn't address their feelings out in the open. Interestingly enough, the drama was originally written as a full blown romantic comedy.

The only kdrama whose romance made me go "???" was My Name. The sex scene at the end just came out of the left field. I spent the entire show up to that scene thinking the FL and the mafia leader had sexual tension, and didn't see much romantic buildup between the FL and policeman.

For other shows mentioned such as Itaewon Class and Goblin, I didn't have an issue with the romance itself. I liked both romances in theory, but felt the actors didn't pull it off with their chemistry.

Hello Monster.
Yu Mi's Cells 2.
Search WWW.
Pinocchio.

I agree about Vincenzo. The show could do away with it.
Same with Alchemy of Souls imho. I KNOW i have mentioned it somewhere, I prefer the leads as master and pupil then bff at best.

Cafe Minamdang is another but only because the FL annoys me. Its either the character or portrayal, maybe both that irks me the most.

I remember you (even though I love Jang Nara and SIG).

I like Vincenzo's romance since they didn't overdo it for the most part.

Then again, I love romance and shipping and love how kdramas have it sprinkled everywhere, but sometimes, it feels like they dump a full cup of sprinkles on the ice cream cone of a drama while screaming "SHIP IT!" I do wish more kdramas would feel free to make the romance more of a background thing or a sub-subplot, sort of like Queen of Mystery or Psychopath Diary where it isn't in your face. And it helps if the couple have a shared goal that has to do with the plot and can contribute to the plot progression.

I think the only drama where I found the main romance really annoying was Search:WWW. It was Tami's side story and the guy seemed to float on the outskirts, so everytime he showed up, it ate away at the momentum. It was like watching a long PPL trying to sell Jang Ki-yong (and I don't dislike JKY, just thought his character could be cut out).

I think some of this is the kdrama mindset of traditionally having a ML and a FL headline the show and coupling them up. And them also feeling like they have to give equal importance. Rookie Historian could have totally done without the romance and still worked, but I liked how the drama didn't try to give importance to Cha Eun-woo and the romance even though the first episode seemed to go that way. Eventually, the story stuck with Shin Se-kyung as the main character and Cha Eun-woo as a supporting character who happened to be her supportive love interest.

I'll be on the hill with you because the romance in Vincenzo wasn't needed. I would have accepted a noona romance/more overt puppy love between Cha-Young and Joon-Woo at the beginning that goes horribly wrong once Cha-Young realizes who he really is. It would've been a better reason to keep him updated on the case since he was "an intern" at the same company they were trying to bring down.

Goblin could've either done without the lead romance (i.e., actually be her guardian) or had a romance that began at a legal age.

I Remember You/Hello Monster didn't need a romance to solve the case, and it actually got in the way. The family storyline was compelling enough on its own.

Backstreet Rookie is another unnecessary and underage romance. A mentor or oppa-like relationship was enough for the story.

Even if Mouse hadn't jumped off the rails, the forced "romance" wasn't needed at all. Halmoni could have just had Ba-Reum promise to look after Bong-Yi in the future instead of hinting at (yet another underage) romance.

I go back and forth with Tale of the Nine Tailed beacause I think I like the original loveline in the past, and maybe I would've liked it with another actress. But the more I think about it, I think I would've enjoyed the drama better if it was just about the brothers.

Currently airing, neither Cafe Minamdang nor Alchemy of Souls need a romance between the main leads. Both romances are distracting from the main plot.

I kind of love that the central romance in Alchemy is so polarizing here. I'm totally on board that ship, but the discussion forces me to try to see things from other points of view, which is not one of my strengths.

I didn't like the resumed romance in Our Beloved Summer, but that's because I didn't like Kim Da-mi's character very much. The story would have had a very different focus if they didn't get involved again as adults, and that's a direction I would have preferred to explore.

_K2 (it would be better if the loveline was with the second female lead)
_Fix you (an underrated great drama)
_Sisyphus
_Why her (dropped it because of romance)

*ehehehehehe* *evil giggle*

Okay, so,
1. I Will Find you When the Weather is Nice...
I have written all about why at very least the romance in this was rushed and lacking proper narrative payoff and executed terribly hither: https://www.dramabeans.com/members/sicarius/activity/1034649/
But I also think that there is a strong case to be made for it not being there entirely. In-fact there are a lot of versions of that show which would've been better for me than the actual thing. What that essay covers, no fulfilment of the romance, but a slow burn anyway, or just take it out entirely.
For more details as to why, the essay goes into some of them so I'm not gonna make this longer than necc.

2. Our Beloved Summer. Well not so much NO romance, but rather OBS is one of those few shows where I think the OTP should've not been end game, and that them getting together at the end was both handled weakly, and wasn't actually consistent characterwise.
It’s easy for me to ship, and I’m naturally more inclined to the “well if they can work it out and communicate then they SHOULD” as a narrative trajectory.
However, I felt like OBS never properly developed their issues as a couple, or had them grow enough to justify them not breaking up again later for all the same reasons they broke up in the first place. And not because it was trying to make some statement about the reality of such relationships either. No, it just didn’t develop its characters properly.
There wasn't enough addressing of those issues, and what there was, wasn't well executed in gratifying ways, for that to seem both plausible, believable, or be satisfying narratively, so that the ending wasn't actually the best version of the story that could've been told.

3. The Crowned Clown: Okay so hmm, this is a tricky one. I have always thought that Jingoo as the Crazy King had more chemistry with The Queen, than he ever did with her as the Clown. How this works, I still don't know, since, he is the same actor, but nonetheless, I still stand by that statement. Now this wasn't exactly "romantic" chemistry, given that he was addicted to drugs, and therefore prone to violence, and also incredibly, incredibly messed up, so I'm not saying, make that romantic, but I like the idea of the King and the Queen still being in love with each other despite this massive dysfunction roadblock in their way, and when the alternative is basically adultery and a romance that happened at the expense of the King's entire character, was also completely unbelievable by the time we got to the back third, and made me want to claw my skin off... it'd be better to have removed any direct romance in this show at all.
The Clown can be in love with the Queen but she should never reciprocate to him as the Clown, and, if you want a teaser of the tragic direction I would've taken this show, when she finds out that he isn't her husband, and goes to kill herself, she...

And now to be slightly divergent of topic, once again.
In terms of Shows that SHOULD’VE or at least could’ve had central romances and that I think would’ve benefitted from doing so:

1. Kill It.
Was it necessary? No… technically, I have to, alas, say no?
But if the leads are gonna keep staring at each other like that then what’s the frakking point.
Just make out against a wall somewhere already, for crying out loud.
Ergo; it was necessary.

2. Jirisan
Hear me out. This show was a goshdarn awful mess to the point where I call it an “anti-show”, in that it basically had negative storytelling; id est, if storytelling where an integer, Jirisan would have a negative integer value of storytelling.
Because of this, it also has zero emotional stakes, and whilst a romance in Jirisan wouldn’t necessarily be guaranteed to work, and the chemistry between the entire cast was weird af anyway, an easy way to establish emotional stakes, if you’re not competent in doing anything else, is to add a romance. At least that would’ve made it just ever so slightly more crackier on the tolerable end of the scale, and would’ve justified a. the OST*, and b. the relationship between the leads which was so frakking bland despite all attempts at trying to convince us otherwise!
Like it got to the point where @eazal and I had to watch it as a rom com anyway, just to get through to the bitter end. (It wasn’t a rom com, but it would’ve been funnier if had been.)

*speaking of OSTs, romantically lyrical OSTs should be BANNED from Shows that have no romance (The Veil, Jirisan, so far Adamas?). WHY, WHY ARE YOU THERE. If you’re not there for a reason, LEAVE.

Hello Monster instantly comes to mind. I saw no point in the romance and I felt it was checked of some list. I loved, LOVED the show but the romance didn't make sense to me.

Hwayugi has to be mentioned. I salute Lee Seung-gi, he did what he could. But the writing for the FL and the actress, they were not contributing.

I liked how the romance was handled in Vincenzo. The tension was there and they chose to look past it until the dust settled. That was professional, I liked that.

I Remember You

Café Minamdang !
And Memories of the Alhambra.

What the romantic competition in ITAEWON CLASS produced however was one of the most vituperative shipping wars I have seen. I think it was even more so than the Bo-young/Dr. Ye/Min-ho shipping war in A POEM A DAY.
APAD’s shipping war was the more traditional with what guy will get the girl with it flipped in IC with the shipping war being what girl will get the guy.
I really enjoyed Park Seo-joon’s portrayal of Sae-ro-yi in IC and looking back I think the most emotional scene for me in the drama was between Sae-ro-yi and his dad beautifully played by Son Hyun-joo.
In many ways the romantic elements were a distraction. At the end of it all I felt sorry for Kwon Nara and the way her character was written.
I am convinced the director brought Park Bo-gum in for a cameo (with her character) as a make up to her. I don’t think he did for the ratings because the ratings were fine for its entire run (Nielsen average of 11.8%).

Vincenzo, Cafe Minamdang, Memories of Alhambra, K2, Itaewon Class, Attorney Woo, Search WWW, Hotel Del Luna, Flower of Evil, Fight for My Way, Snowdrop, Why Her, and I've a feeling Big Mouth is getting on this list too.

Basically, almost every kdrama nonromance adding romance for the sake of increasing rating. Like they bssically just put there so thry will create shipper and creating buzz. I really want for once the romance is integral of the plot and feels like geniune writing.

I need to categorize this list : a) dramas which I dropped because of the romance (story is otherwise interesting) : Why Her, Alice, Lost (Human Disqualification).

Category B: Dramas that was/is still watchable but could have been much better without the romance : K2, Alchemy of Souls , My Name

Smart Prison Living. It was not a big part of the show, but the Je-hyuk/Ji-ho couple just didn't work for me. It's the only thing I felt super meh about re: this otherwise extraordinary show.

Itaewon Class - dropped because of the romance
Extraordinary Attorney Woo - too much going on, would have preferred more emphasis on the cases and how YW navigates office politics
Hwayugi - zero chemistry
Prison Playbook - I don't remember the romance having any huge significance to the story but I could be wrong on this one

simple : K2