One of the most powerful happy pills and heart-winning aspects of South Korean Series are the Kdrama bromances that give rise to explosively affectionate bonds that one can’t have enough of. Sometimes even the prominent romantic anchors of the respective series in question fail to win over the audience, when disorderly emotional bonds fuelled with powers of friendship and care for each other between men take the lead.

Heteronormative romances often assume a cliched narrative that heavily rely on stereotypical elements like love triangles and toxic exchanges between the counterparts of the leading pair. While many newer K-drama titles are trying to change up this scene, others are still stuck in the cringeworthy banes of the same cycle. However, bromance in K-dramas are known for lightening up the mood and revealing a balanced relationship shared between two or more men who find comfort in each other’s company, and often concoct a dysfunctional, out-of-the-box partnership that ends up becoming the main highlight of the show. Listed below are some quintessential examples of these friendships that made us smile way too hard!

Kdrama Bromances That Ruled Over Our Hearts

Bloodhounds

Woo Do-hwan and Lee Sang-yi have officially raised the bar for on and off screen bromances. Their characters start off as boxing rivals, but upon their first meeting outside the ring, they hit it off the park with their loving chemistry as besties. With the former’s Character, Kim Gun-woo, a more reserved and introverted person meeting up with Hong Woo-jin embodying the latter’s feistier Golden Retriever energy, their starkly opposing personalities makes sparks fly as the two forge a life-long bond of friendship and brotherhood. Stretching their luck, and pushing for the Do or Die attitude, the two stick it out till the end regardless of who may or may not have been with them during the finale.

The best part of their bromance is that neither of them drags the other down to worse ways of life, rather if Woo-jin has been conditioned by former criminal inclinations in his life, then Gun-woo just has to give him the look for him to stop him from descending down the same path of destruction, it’s almost as if they can read each other’s minds.

Business Proposal

Ahn Hyo-seop’s Kang Tae-moo may have shared a swoon worthy chemistry with Kim Sejeong’s Shin Ha-ri in the 2022 rom-com series, but his bromantic energy exchange with Kim Min-kyu’s Cha Sung-hoon is one of the most memorable antics that even had Chairman Kang questioning them if they were dating each other. Although otherwise a bit reserved and composed, Min-kyu’s character almost made it his life’s agenda to pull his boss’ let, even if so unintentionally, after all, he just couldn’t unsee the similarities shared by Tae-moo and an archaeopteryx.

Despite having their own romances to deal with, Hyo-seop’s character got sulky on finding out that Min-kyu’s Sung-hoon had fallen for Ms Jin and not told him anything about it. Their friendship’s vibe proves that their social roles and the gap between a boss and his secretary doesn’t always have to deal out a toxic reminder of social hierarchy.

Goblin or Guardian: The Lonely and Great God

Gong Yoo and Lee Dong-wook’s bromance in the 2016 fantasy K-drama series took off the runway for the rather newer additions on this list to be such a hit. Even then, none of them will ever come close to achieving the chaotic hilarity that the immortal goblin and the grim reaper duo achieved every time they were on screen together. Staying consistent with their priceless frenemy dynamic, both actors varied their portrayals to the best of their abilities and it equally reflected in the way they often plays off each other’s energies on TV.

From Gong Yoo passing off-handed comments about Dong-wook’s hat to him actually donning every piece of clothing in his wardrobe and showing it off to the latter while seeking approval for the most date-appropriate outfit, the two came a long way (quite literally, considering their long history in the show). Them living as housemates and walking down the street with their charming main character energy only for their parade to be rained down on by incoming traffic, them learning to work a smartphone, video-calling each other and heading to the “play store” will never not make the audience laugh out loud.

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Descendants of the Sun

Tale of the Nine Tailed 1938

Also nicknamed as the “best brothers in K-drama history” upon the premiere of Season 2, Lee Dong-wook’s Lee Yeon and Kim Bum’s Lee Rang make for the most heartwarmingly ambiguous siblings owing to their supernatural contexts. Being the nine-tailed foxes they are, these ‘gumihos’ have always had a questionable relationship. In Season 1, we almost saw the tear each other apart, only for the Rang to express how much his elder brother’s absence had changed him for the worse.

The second instalment finally granted them a welcoming opportunity to start anew and forge a brotherly bond they never previously got the chance to solidify. From their childish antics, to both of them shedding tears for the other, their relationship has come far and undergone one of the best developments for Korean Drama Bromances.

The King Eternal Monarch

True Beauty

As soon as K-dramas even hint of the enemies to lovers trope, millions of viewers line up to watch the overused storyline unfold yet again on their screens. In Truth Beauty, we see a bit more complicated twist to that stock archetype, not for lovers, but for best friends. Hwang In-youp’s Han Seo-jun and Cha Eun-woo’s Lee Su-ho weer always best friends, until a fatal tragedy draws up grudging lines of hostility between them.

Eventually that void is again filled up, mostly by an unforeseen accident that compels them to be holed up in the same hospital ward, and they go back to being the bets friends they were, and further help each other heal from the scars of their shared horrific past.

The series tries hard for a love triangle situation to flourish between these two boys and Moon Ga-young’s character Lim Joo-kyung. Viewers were even pushed to pick their respective sides of the romantic rivalry, but none of those options hit as close to home as the one that had Seo-jun and Su-ho on the same team rooting for each other.

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He is Psychometric

Although quite an underrated K-drama gem that was forgotten early on, this thriller series pulled up with one major twist after the other and had the audience writhing in emotional pain for the leading characters. Giving out one of the saddest endings ever, the series initially commenced with the image of Kim Kwon’s Kang Sung-mo playing in as Lee Ahn’s (GOT7 Jinyoung) adoptive brother, who were shared a consoling bond as good as real siblings.

Despite their initial fall-outs owing to their shared traumatic past that led both of them to lose their respective families, they eventually find a family in each other, and their relationship makes for the most compelling and twisted themes addressed by the show. As mentioned earlier, their unfavourable ending tests their bond severely, but the initial chapters of the series had the viewers rooting for the two brothers to make it out alive happily and together in the end, while the romantic tracks of the show were pushed aside from the audience’s purview because when they had no one, they had each other.

Racket Boys

Making for the youngest bromance hit in this list, Racket Boy explores the budding friendship of primarily four young boys in middle school who redefine the meaning of a family upon joining their countryside school’s lowkey badminton team, which eventually reaches unprecedented heights due to their shared hard work an efforts. Although Yoon Hae-kang is reluctant to join the team initially, it’s ultimately his gradually developing bond with his teammates that makes him stay for the long run, which ends with each of them holding on to the other as the emotional anchor in their lives.

Charting out their coming-of-age sagas, the boys even have their own slogan to live by, inspired by BTS (Bangtan Sonyeondan) – “Racket Sonyeondan”, which translates to the English title of the series. It’s hard not to love this group of young friends, especially when their vivacious and contagious deep-rooted love and affection for each other wins the viewer quite early on.

Chief Kim or Good Manager

One can only imagine how good of a bromance in K-dramas this was that Namkoong Min and 2PM’s Junho even went on to win the award for the same category at the KBS Drama Awards in 2018. Making for a charming enemies to besties storyline, you know the bond is real when you and your best buddy dance your heart out TWICE’s TT.

Which of these Korean drama bromances got you to laugh the loudest? Let us know your personal favourites (apart from the ones in the list) in the comments section below.

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