[K-drama Treasure Hunt] Secret hideouts
by Dramaddictally
Welcome to the K-drama treasure hunt, where we all go looking for K-drama treasure in the form of tiny drama details that we know and love. Sometimes these details take the shape of well-worn tropes (oppa Band-Aiding) or storytelling devices (Top Secret Deadly Allergy), but other times it’s just details we know we’ve seen in other dramas, but need help putting all the clues together.
Each week we’ll put you on the hunt for a piece of K-drama treasure, and you can report your findings in the comments.
There’s no umpire in this game, so if you find the detail we’re looking for, drop the drama title (or even better, drama title + episode number) in the comments, and we’ll all take your word for it. Or, we’ll go binge watch just to see it play out.
And remember, we’re here to map our way to the treasures not to the plot twists! We know how exciting as it can be to have all the hard-earned details stashed in your head, but let’s try to keep the spoilers out of the comments.
This week’s treasure:
Secret hideouts.
Your mission:
Locate and list all those super-classified lairs that our characters keep hidden from the outside world. These spaces are usually hard to forget, whether they be quirky, luxurious, or just a place to do all the plotting — or even a mix of all three, like the decked-out secret space in The Great Seducer, where our leading trio plans their mischief. Since these quarters tend to recur, we’ll take the episode number where the hideout makes its first appearance.
Reference drama:
The Great Seducer (a.k.a. Tempted) (Episode 1)
Have an idea for the next treasure hunt? Email your topic to hello @ dramabeans.com!
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Tags: Treasure Hunt
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1 welh
August 31, 2023 at 12:07 PM
The hidden bunker in the movie PARASITE.
It was an important symbol of the class distinction but also hidden secrets can be found in upper class families.
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PYC
September 1, 2023 at 8:07 AM
I could feel all the jaws on the cinema floor when the bunker secret bursted on the screen - what a cinematic moment!
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2 panshel
August 31, 2023 at 12:31 PM
Taxi Driver where our Rainbow Taxi team takes the elevator down to their secret hideout through a filing cabinet.
My Lovely Liar where Mok Sol-hee meets her VVIP clients in a secret room of their tarot café.
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3 sonai
August 31, 2023 at 12:53 PM
* HEALER‘s loft, so well hidden nobody could enter (unless, of course, or heroine after some serious snooping around). Also, the ahjumma hacker‘s „apartment“.
* The rooftop terrace in FIGHT MY WAY, where the friends entered through the cupboard on the top floor of their building.
* The roof in THE K2, where FL liked to sneak off too, and then later (of course) ML joined her.
* The scary, hidden room in the villa of the politician in LITTLE WOMEN (without giving too much away about it - but YIKES).
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Goyangi and the Camel Crickets
September 4, 2023 at 12:34 AM
Little Women had a small secret room and a large one!
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sonai
September 4, 2023 at 12:39 AM
True! But the small one will forever haunt me… 😭
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Goyangi and the Camel Crickets
September 4, 2023 at 12:57 AM
That was incredibly twisted and haunting, yes!
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4 Seon-ha
August 31, 2023 at 12:53 PM
Healer! From the first scene. 'Nuff said.
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Seon-ha
August 31, 2023 at 12:59 PM
Oh! Also Mad Dog episode 3.
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Seon-ha
August 31, 2023 at 2:15 PM
Oh! Psychopath Diary! Also "ongoing episodes."
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5 Jezz
August 31, 2023 at 1:01 PM
Sungkyunkwan Scandal (ep 18): Yoon-hee and Sun-joon walked into secret hideout
Mirror of the Witch (ep 2): guy found the secret hideout
The Game: Towards Zero (ep 1): gang's secret hideout
Abyss (ep 10): Cha Min's safest secret hideout
Radio Romance (ep 3): Geurim's secret hideout where she finds Su-ho looking at cityview
Black (eps 11-12): Scarface's secret hideout
Man to Man (ep 15): Seol-woo's abandoned secret hideout
Possessed (ep 14): secret hideout was restroom stall
The K2 (ep 11): Assemblyman Park headed to the secret hideout
Heartbeat (ep 13): Man-hwi's secret hideout
Mine (ep 9): Suk-chul's secret hideout
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Diana Hansen
August 31, 2023 at 2:38 PM
Nice list!
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6 Isa is always time travelling
August 31, 2023 at 1:02 PM
Six Flying Dragons: the cave where Jeong Do Jeo is planning the new Goryeo (Joseon). It is shown since the first episode.
In other episode there is a secret room too.
In Queen Seon Deok there is a secret room too.
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7 lapislazulii
August 31, 2023 at 1:08 PM
Seon-woo's "bat-cave" from Good Job
It's not really a lair but I guess the A3's 'brooding space' in Extraordinary You could count!
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lapislazulii
August 31, 2023 at 1:11 PM
OH and the like classroom? storage container? place in School 2017 that Student X uses as their hideaway, which later becomes a refuge away from the classroom for the main group of friends.
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lapislazulii
August 31, 2023 at 1:13 PM
Wait last one, my redacted memories of The Red Sleeve cleared up to remind me that the like court women’s cult group thing had a secret hideaway place in the palace too AND Jin-mu's Doing Evil Stuff space in Alchemy of Souls
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jerrykuvira
August 31, 2023 at 1:58 PM
How could I forget the Ancient order of Court Ladies sworn to protect themselves from the King.
They had this well-founded order of women that I thought they were going to do something noteworthy with it. The way that plotline and arc descended downhill didn't settle well at all.
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Isa is always time travelling
August 31, 2023 at 1:37 PM
True!! That's a perfect example of secret lair.
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Isa is always time travelling
August 31, 2023 at 1:39 PM
And there is a similar place in 25-21 (it's a little room in the highschool).
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8 bbstl 🧹
August 31, 2023 at 1:14 PM
Good Job where Jung Il Woo had a whole clandestine detective operation going behind a secret door. I think? I dropped the show 🤔
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9 Minnie🫘👩🏻🚀Pioneer and Teacher 👩🏻🏫🌱🏹
August 31, 2023 at 1:14 PM
Our Blooming Youth: The secret room underneath the library - a literal symbolization of Min Jay Yi's place in Yi Hwan's heart - safe and secret.
Strong woman do bong soon The secret room of Ahn Min Hyuk behind a wardrobe that opened into an elevator, going down to the secret lair (my favorite one of all, this room is uber cool)
Heartbeat the secret basement chamber of our resident vampire (drama, haven't forgiven you yet).
Taxi Driver The supercool garage hideout.
The Glory The apartment that Dong-Eun leases to skateout Yong-jin's house
Special mention: All the closets that the leads hide in....
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FormAnOrderlyQueue
August 31, 2023 at 7:21 PM
Oooooh, so with you on the SWDBS lair!
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Minnie🫘👩🏻🚀Pioneer and Teacher 👩🏻🏫🌱🏹
September 1, 2023 at 5:35 AM
I forgot one - it's the most interesting in terms of story progression. In Queen's Umbrella, Queen's third (or fourth, I forgot the chronological order) son has a hide out where he experiments with something (I won't mention because it will be a huge spoiler for those who have not watched it). It also has another hideout where the unfalppable Queen goes whenever she cannot take something anymore and breaks down - one of the most poignant scenes in the series happens there (I truly love that drama).
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10 jerrykuvira
August 31, 2023 at 1:54 PM
This will be so much fun. cracks fingers
So, I'll start with the luxurious...
Good Job : Eun Seon-woo had this luxurious hideout. I'm not referring to his intricate system that links his home to office to planning hideout aka batcave, I'm talking about this mother's mansion that's unaware to almost everyone. The one place he went to recover from his wounds with Se-ra (cough cough) after a brush with assassins.
Another hideout I love are the ones that come in the form of vacation houses. The most recent of this for me is Cho-won's family vacation house in See You In My 19th Life. It was a no-brainer and the first time I'm seeing a kdrama write an ordinary family that has the luxury of a vacation home, and an exotic one at that. As rich as chaebols but definitely not chaebols.
Also in SYIM19L, while this might sound off, Seo-ha's hideout is a swimming pool. It's sad to see but it was a place of pleasant memories for him.
There's one unpopular hideout - The rooftop. Almost every kdrama uses this for their characters.
Kiss Sixth Sense - There's this building, the building that was used to advertise the 2022 MOPIX car. It was Pil-yu and Ye-sool's hideout. It later became Ye-sool and Cha Min-ho's but Cha Min-ho immediately shot down the idea immediately he learnt it was formerly her and Pil-yu's spot, as expected. What was Ye-sool thinking when she gave him that information 😂😂.
To the quirky...
there's no much ringing in my head here
Please Send Me a Fan Letter - Bang Jong-seok(Yoon Park) finds Choi Kang-hee(Sooyoung) taking puffs in an abandoned classroom in secondary school. It became an hideout for them both. I think they visited the school and abandoned classroom once again.
Mishil's hideout in Queen Seondeok where she houses her glasses filled with drinks for instrumental inspirations whenever she's in a crazy bind. Just know she comes out of her thinking room/hideout with solutions. The glass cups and her playing tones with them are freaking aesthetic to watch.
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Isa is always time travelling
August 31, 2023 at 3:50 PM
Mishil playing music with glass cups is iconic and unforgettable.
Btw, there is a theme in the OST called Crystal Glasses.
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11 Gum Shoe
August 31, 2023 at 3:53 PM
COFFEE PRINCE- The Lego Room where Han Gyul his secret place for the first time with Eun Chan after they became friends.
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lapislazulii
August 31, 2023 at 4:35 PM
Omg this revived a memory, I completely forgot he had a lego room!! I need to go re-watch Coffee Prince again!
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12 Unaspirated
August 31, 2023 at 8:31 PM
The leads in The King’s Affection have a secret section of the palace that they met in as kids and then use again as adults. It’s got one of those palace ponds that goes down for miles!
I think you could consider the entire abandoned amusement park a secret hideout in The Sound of Magic, but especially the part where the ML actually lives.
In that same vein, I’m going to call the house where our characters spend a majority of the show in Bulgasal a secret hideout, and honestly that house becomes it’s own character at some point.
Our resident alien ML has a secret library lair in My Love from the Star that looks pretty amazing (but that could use some extra security considering how many people stumble into it).
The Counters have a whole training facility under their noodle shop in The Uncanny Counter, which gets upgraded to a less secret but more intense hideout/headquarters in season 2.
And finally, these have already been mentioned, but I have to second the hideouts from Strong Woman Do Bong-soon and Our Blooming Youth, which were both amazing and both played a big part in the stories. I’ve only watched these two Park Hyung-sik dramas so far, but he has a pretty good track record for amazing hideouts!
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Minnie🫘👩🏻🚀Pioneer and Teacher 👩🏻🏫🌱🏹
September 1, 2023 at 5:28 AM
None of Park Hyung Sik's other dramas has a hideout, though 'What Happens in My Family' has this room on the terrace for our OTP to hang out; it's not a lair in the strict sense. Of course, in Hwarang, he spends the entire series hiding in plain sight. In Happiness, they are holed out in an apartment as a part of a secret experiment, and the govt uses a defunct university campus as a hideout for some awfully illegal shenanigans. In Soundtrack, he hides his love for his best friend. Hiding' seems to be a metaphorically recurring theme in his dramas, lol!
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Unaspirated
September 1, 2023 at 6:03 AM
Oh, I forgot the drama I’m literally watching right now! In The Secret Romantic Guesthouse some of the scholars are doing some distinctly disloyal (to the current king) activities, and they have a secret room behind (what I think is) a bookstore to copy their materials/do general revolutionary things.
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13 Midnight
August 31, 2023 at 9:43 PM
The abandoned restaurant in The Naked Fireman.
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14 technicat
August 31, 2023 at 11:22 PM
In Queen of Mystery, she had her secret mystery research office (secret from her in-laws). And then later the scooby gang had their secret meeting location. Btw, I just rewatched a bit to refresh my memory, and that show is a delight. Season one, anyway.
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technicat
August 31, 2023 at 11:46 PM
Queen of Seven days there's a resistance hideout, with maps and diagrams suitable for a ted talk. Which reminds me, there's no hideout in Forest of Secrets, but love the whiteboard Forest of Suspects.
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technicat
September 1, 2023 at 9:28 AM
The lair in Lookout.
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15 darwi
September 1, 2023 at 1:06 AM
Healer, Taxi driver, Good job and others have already been cited... so I'll go for the small attic where Joo Ki Beum of Devilish Joy keeps her memorandia of happier times. This is her secret refuge, and a great snuggle place.
There are some occupationnal hideouts, when it's quite the characters's jobs to be secret : Kill it, Man to Man, Terrius behind me, Mad dog, 38 task force, My holo love, Flowers of evil, Hello monster, Arang and the Magistrate and one where it's really life of death importance to keep the secret : Chicago typewriter.
There are some hideouts that the characters have due to their physical nature or condition : A Korean odyssey, Where stars land, Doctor John.
And there is a house that is secret because it's location/access is moving : Myeol Mang appartement in Doom at your service.
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16 Cay_sbtgoG
September 1, 2023 at 5:50 AM
There are two that I remember distinctively;
1. The queen's secreet hideout in Under The Queen's Umbrella where she frequently visits whenever she breaks down.
2. Crown Prince Shin' secret attic in Princess Hours where he hides from his attendants occasionally.
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17 tabong is ironing the crosswalk
September 1, 2023 at 12:02 PM
1. The church in The Fiery Priest.
They planned how to fight corruption under the holy light.
2. The secret library/office in Mr. Temporary. The rich kids used it to plan who to bully next (and control the whole school).
I think every "rich kids group" has a place like that, but my memory is really bad. If I'm not wrong F4 had a place like that.
3. The soundproof room in The Penthouse. The crazy dad used it to beat up his kids everytime the mom wasn't home.
Bonus: I think every team from an OCN drama had a place like that too. Like Squad 38, Bad Guys, Black, etc. I miss OCN...
BUT don't believe me too much, beanies. Maybe I'm confusing everything. 😂
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18 Babylilo
September 1, 2023 at 9:00 PM
Seven Day Queen - the hidden room in the pawnshop where Yeok and his team do their plotting.
Kang Pil-Joo's secret office in Money Flower.
Hyde, Jekyll, Me - the secret surveillance room where Seo-jin and his alter-ego Robin exchange messages.
Sungkyunkwan Scandal - the secret basement room in the book shop where transcribers copy cheat sheets for the state exams.
Police Unit 38 - one of the least glamorous lairs in Kdrama: a meat butchering facility.
Chicago Typewriter - secret hideout of the resistance fighters in the Carpe Diem nightclub (1930s timeline).
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19 Goyangi and the Camel Crickets
September 4, 2023 at 12:54 AM
Still 17 had that Harry Potter room under the stairs.
In Oh Hae Young - her apartment wasn't exactly hidden, but visitors did not know there was a connecting door to enter the other apartment.
Extraordinary Attorney Woo had an entire ocean that was only visible to Woo Young Woo, where she did her best thinking.
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Minnie🫘👩🏻🚀Pioneer and Teacher 👩🏻🏫🌱🏹
September 5, 2023 at 3:24 PM
The whales!! Bang on! EAW became more special just for this. Her last dialouge with her Mom about her being a narwhal in a pod of belugas is my most favorite K-drama dialouge ever. There is actually a precendence for it:
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-march-3-2022-1.6371194/a-pod-of-beluga-whales-adopted-a-stray-narwhal-could-mating-produce-a-baby-narluga-1.6371739#:~:text=While%20it's%20not%20unusual%20for,to%20study%20the%20unusual%20group.
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Reply1988 -❣️Mother Bean❣️
September 5, 2023 at 10:52 PM
Thanks for sharing that link to an interesting whale story.
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Goyangi and the Camel Crickets
September 6, 2023 at 8:32 PM
That is a neat story!
I love the whales in EAW.
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20 Tizzy
September 5, 2023 at 3:48 PM
Was it in Tale of Nokdu where Kim So Hyun worked in a cave to make now and arrows?
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