I'm confused by the prompt: A drama where the OTP ends up together but a second lead wins? 🤔

I think I must avoid this discussion because I prefer not to know spoilers about love triangles 😅, but I can give some ideas. Of course, spoilers ahead:

_ Queen Seon Deok. (Even though there is tragedy too).
_ Love Alarm 2.
_ King of Baking. (Fortunately, FL and SML ended up together, because I didn't like her at all).
_ Yumi's cells. Kind of.

I think Reply 1988 would be the most obvious example. Though it's slightly hard to define first lead or second lead in the show but if we go purely by star billing, the not-ML gets the girl.

This happened in the past, eg Bae Yong-joon was supposedly the 2ML but winning the girl over 1ML Kim Seung-woo in Hotelier (2001) plus a few other examples. That was however in the era of live production when the broadcaster would be able to change the script according to audience reaction.

With everything now fully produced before airing, the chance of changing the course is null unless it’s a deliberate script for ML swing.

OK, we all know that these recommendations have to be major spoilers now, yes?

They say this is true about Start Up, but that has a lot to do with how they decided to focus the audience's attention in the first few episodes--and the fact that Kim Seon-ho and, especially, Nam Da-reum, are scene stealers. But this is the best match I know of.

Another example that's not really a good example is Check Out the Event. I don't even know I'd recommend this short drama, but the long of the short of it is, you think the FL is going to heal and pick the new, sweet, ML (at least he has more screentime than her ex), but she doesn't pick him. She goes back to the jerkwad.

Love Alarm. Heck, this show is rather hated online in big part because of the SML winning (even though he was by far the better person, and the right person for her). The show is by no means perfect, but I stand by my point that the show is far better than the online reception makes it seem like. Set your expectations right, keep an open mind, and you might actually really enjoy it.

The only other example I know of is Reply 1988, but I'm not sure if that counts because I don't think that show has a clearly defined male lead.

As other beanies have noted, SPOILER AHEAD!

Chief Kim
Fugitive
Dream High

The King Loves.

Also, this thread shows that some people don't know who the male leads are (Jung Ga-ram is the ML in Love Alarm, Nam Joo-hyuk is the ML in Start-Up).

I was all excited clicking on this thinking we were all going to get to list our least favorite SMLs! If that doesn't cure you of SLS, I don't know what can! 😂

But now that I understand the request better, I'm a bit more confused. I sort of thought part of the definition of the SML was that he wasn't part of the OTP? This is why dramaland love triangles can be a bit tiresome - there generally isn't any actual suspense. Maybe DNA Lover (which I'm following through recaps) will prove me wrong, but the poor SML isn't even in the poster... Regardless I'm excited to draw on the Beanies' collective knowledge to have to revise my definition!

I just generally dislike Second Male Leads, find that even if they are perfect, they are annoying in their perfection, and never root for them to win. So I am happy that the only one of the shows mentioned that I've seen is Reply 1988, which I regarded more as a kind of group coming of age drama, and never bought into the romance in the first place. I will go out of my way to avoid Love Alarm.

But, at the risk of going off topic (and this would be the first time for me to do so) what about Second FEMALE leads? Has there ever been one of those who was successful? Because almost every show, the Second Female Lead is stunningly beautiful, more talented than the FL, and a better choice for the ML and his flaws.

Look no further than the ongoing show, Love Next Door (although I have to admit, I dropped that one a few episodes ago, partly because I thought the male lead deserved neither woman, so I don't know if something developed with the 2FL to make her less desirable.)

True Beauty!! Apparently for all intents and purposes Hwang In-youp stole the show. Also it is always a good time to share this little snippet.

https://youtu.be/e_vX5L1wV9E?si=9iI5dN9JQnv9zt6k

If you're open to other modalities of Korean romance stories, there is a whole SLEW of Korean comics and webnovels where the second male lead turns into the male lead and wins the female lead, although she is not the same female lead who rejected him in the original story. The premise often seems to be a Korean girl who preferred the 2ML and had SLS getting transmigrated into the body of a side character in the story, and then the original 2ML, now the ML of this new story, falls for her. Warning, though, usually the original FL turns out to be a "white lotus," meaning she is not as good as the original story made her seem.

Some specific titles:
Happily Ever Afterwards
For My Derelict Favorite
Long After the Ending
Miss Not-so-Sidekick
Not Another Reincarnation Story

While they had a separate love line, Lee Dong-wook and Yoo In-na were so popular as the secondary couple in Goblin that they got their own show as the OTP in Reach of Sincerity (also known as Touch Your Heart).

Talking of secondary couples, the 2nd leads in Descendants of the Sun (Kim Ji-won and Jim Goo), Crash Landing On You (Seo Ji-hye and Kim Jung-hyun) and Business Proposal (Kim Min-kyu and Seol In-ah) had their own fanbase.

The love triangle of the secondary leads (Lee Soo-hyuk, Shin Do-hyun and Kang Tae-oh) in Doom At Your Service is one of my favorites.

I also liked Kang Tae-oh with Choi Ri as the secondary couple in My First First Love and Kim Seon-ho with Go Won-hee in Strongest Deliveryman.

The Last Empress. 2nd ML kinda won, he swooped in and stole the show...honestly, I'm not sure why writernim initially made the Emperor as 2nd ML in a drama with an Empress as 1st FL 😂.

My Love Patzzi? Seriously, I don't remember exactly what happened at the end, just being kind of confused, which was just exacerbated by the dramabeans debate. Also Empress Ki, which I didn't finish, but I know historically how things ended.

Fortunately, I wasn't on any discussion sites when I watched Start Up and Love Alarm, so I didn't know people were mad that the supposed second lead was promoted to true love in those shows. I thought it was great! Especially the weirdness of Start Up, where each ML pretended to be the other to woo the FL--years apart though.

I just approve of dramas where people do not wind up with their first love.

The King in Love the 2ML gets the FL - Yoon-ah.

Chuno
The Producers
Queen of Reversals

I'm still not sure if I'm getting this right, but anyways I take any opportunity to bemoan the fact that the writers of Let's Eat and Flower Boys Next Door broke my heart with the bait and switch: the sweet and handsome guy who's always been secretly in love with us that we meet first gets left behind in the dust when the real ML shows up later on. In both dramas I found the original sweet guy more attractive than the ML. So do these two dramas qualify for this prompt?

I'm afraid I'm super useless here because on a rare occasion I do get SLS in full force, I usually do not ship the poor guy with FL because clearly the girl has a serious lack of taste to prefer ML over him, meaning my fave deserves better^^ The only problem with this kind of situation is that dramas rarely let rejected SMLs to move on and find happiness elsewhere and sometimes even kill them to ensure they never will... None of this seems even remotely fun to me.

Depending on your perspective, one could argue that Rowoon's character in Extraordinary You qualifies. For plot purposes, he's such a minor character initially that he doesn't even have a name (or a face) for a while and the heroine is already has a long term (jerk of a) boyfriend.

Cheese in the Trap.

I'm glad our FL *unequivocally* chose to end up with a magnificent polished yet comforting piano.