The Second-Lead Males who Gets Our Attention but Always Have a Tragic Romance
Let’s admit, we all love romance in Korean dramas even though the drama’s genre is not romance. It’s so fun to see the romantic relationship between the female lead and the male lead. Sometimes it gets you goosebumps, sometimes it makes you want to fall in love, or even feels like you are loved just by seeing the couple together on screen.
But hey, just between the main leads couple, there is another man who always try to “ruin” their romance development. Do you notice that?
Well, come on, we already watched a lot of Korean dramas, of course we know what are we talking about in this article.
Yes, it’s the second lead syndrome.
Second lead syndrome means that the viewers are rooting to the second lead male character instead of the main lead. Usually, the second lead is also in love with the female lead. Most of the time, the female lead never notice the second lead’s feeling towards them. Even though, also most of the time, the second lead is always the one who suffers the most for the female lead.
It’s so cute to see that there is another person who loves the main female character, and sometimes even love her more than the main lead. So, yeah of course, there’s a term called “Second Lead” syndrome for those of you who demand justice for the second lead male instead of the main character.
Who are the popular second leads who succeeded to make viewers to root for them instead of the main lead? Let’s scroll down to find out more!
Jung-hwan in Reply 1988
The popular drama, “Reply 1988” tells a story about five best-friends who lives close to each other. They have been friends since they were a kid. The group best-friends consist of Duk-sun as the only girl, while the rest of the members are boys which are Sun-woo, Jung-hwan, Dong-ryong and Taek.
Jung-hwan and Taek are both in love with Duk-sun.
For the whole episodes viewers had to guess which between the four guys in the best-friends group that ended up becoming Duk-sun’s husband in the future. Compared to Taek who is expressive on showing his affection towards Duk-sun, Jung-hwan is the type of a guy who secretly care for Duk-sun. Since he has a cool characteristic, he doesn’t really like to show that he’s in love with Duk-sun even though he was always there for her.
Let’s take a look at pictures of Jung-hwan and Duk-sun’s moments!
If seeing the pictures is not enough, let’s take a look at some clips of Jung-hwan and Duk-sun!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7gwy7JIaWY
Despite all the sweet moments of Jung-hwan and Duk-sun, we all know that if he’s on this list, then the role of him in “Reply 1988” is only as the second lead. Even though we got a lot of hints of Jung-hwan and Duk-sun, the guy that ended up marrying Duk-sun is Taek!
Are you Jung-hwan’s team or Taek’s team?
Gong Tae-kwang in School 2015: Who Are You?
The guy who actually falls for you probably doesn’t show it just like what Gong Tae-kwang did to Lee Eun-bi. Gong Tae-kwang described as a person who tend to hide his true feelings. He actually came from a wealthy family where his father is the director of his school and his mom is a celebrity. Despite all of that, Gong Tae-kwang always shown as a person who doesn’t really care about anything and likes to sleep or causing trouble.
One day, when Lee Eun-bi came to his school with Go Eun-byul’s identity, Gong Tae-kwang started to show interests for her while they keep meeting accidentally. All of those moments makes his feelings towards Eun-bi to grows. However, no one knows about this. He keeps his feelings for the whole episodes and not letting Eun-bi to know, even though we all know that he definitely falls for her.
Let’s take a look at some cute moments of Lee Eun-bi and Gong Tae-kwang!
If that’s still not enough, let’s take a look at some short clips!
Baek In-ho in Cheese in the Trap
If you see Baek In-ho from the outside, he’s just the stubborn and arrogant person who sometimes like to cause trouble, doesn’t want to follow the rule, and even looks like a beggar despite his handsome face! Well, yeah, we don’t know how precious Baek In-ho is until he met Hong Seol, the girl who actually in relationship with his former bestfriend, Yoo Jung.
Unlike Yoo Jung, Baek In-ho is a type of person who doesn’t show his interests for Hong Seol. He even likes to tease Hong Seol and throw bad words towards her. No one knows he’s in love with Hong Seol, but if you see how much he cares for Hong Seol, and even how Hong Seol also care for him, especially in their bad situations.. we all know that we’ve been in the second-lead syndrome trap.
Okay, let’s just take a look at some moments of Baek In-ho and Hong Seol. Just look at how sparkly Baek In-ho’s eyes when he looks at Hong Seol.
And don’t forget about the moments that they shares together!
Guk Doo in Strong Woman Do Bong-soon
Another one-sided love that succeeded in stole attention is Guk Doo from “Strong Woman Do Bong-soon”. Guk Doo is a detective character that helped Do Bong-soon with the case that involved her. They are also friends since they were childhood. Guk Doo knows every little thing about Do Bong-soon and is ready to fight everyone to protect her.
Bong-soon was in love with Guk Doo at first, but it was when she hasn’t met Min-hyuk, the character played by Park Hyung-sik. Her love for Guk Doo is an unrequited love since Guk Doo already had a girlfriend.
However, Guk Doo was late to realize that he was actually in love with Bong-soon as well. But it was too late, Bong-soon already chose Min-hyuk in the end.
A lot of people feel bad for Guk Doo who also betrayed by his girlfriend and left by Bong-soon. What a pity!
Let’s take a look at cute moments where Guk Doo shows his love towards Bong-soon!
Choi Young-do in The Heirs
Ever wonder what the formula for a second-lead is? They usually have a bad personality, secretly in love with the female lead, are ready to fight everyone who messed up with the female lead, and are silently hurting themselves from loving the female lead. All of that formula really matched with this character. It’s Choi Young-do from The Heirs!
Choi Young-do portrayed by Kim Woo-bin. Just like any other student in Jeguk High School, Choi Young-do is the son of the CEO. As a rich kid, Young-do is secretly lonely because he was abused by his father since he was very young. He doesn’t have his mom by his side, and the presence of Eun-sang makes him fall in love and little by little took away his loneliness.
However, Eun-sang already chose Kim Tan, the male lead of “The Heirs” who is portrayed by Lee Min-ho. Eun-sang has to reject Choi Young-do’s love. And since they can’t be together, Choi Young-do chose to stay away from her since he doesn’t want to be friends with her.
Let’s take a look at sweet moments between Young-do and Eun-sang! Although he has a tough and bad personality, he is actually a warm and a soft guy, especially when he protected Eun-sang!
Yoon Ji-hoo in Boys Before Flower
Another opponent of Lee Min-ho in a drama. This comes from a very popular drama in 2007. If you know the popular F4 gang, this drama is the Korean version of it. It’s “Boys Before Flower”!
Some of you probably rooting for Goo Jun-pyo, the male lead who is portrayed by Lee Min-ho. But the second-lead of the drama also has a irresistible charm. It’s hard to only look at Goo Jun-pyo when there’s Yoon Ji-hoo who is more caring towards Geum Jan-di than Goo Jun-pyo. As a rich kid himself, Yoon Ji-hoo finds Geum Jan-di’s behavior interesting and slowly falls in love with her.
However, Goo Jun-pyo, his best friend and one of the gang in F4 is also in love with Geum Jan-di, even though Goo Jun-pyo doesn’t really show it since he has a bad temper. It was too bad for Yoon Ji-ho since he can only secretly falling in love with Geum Jan-di without any chance to have her.
But still, the moments between Yoon Ji-ho and Geum Jan-di are so sweets and makes us want to rooting for Yoon Ji-ho instead. Let’s take a look at their moments!
Wang Wook in Scarlet Heart Ryeo
Another such a waste moment in a Korean drama is when Wang Wook got rejected by Haesoo, the girl who travel back to Goryeo era. Instead, Haesoo was in love with Wang So or the protagonist of the drama “Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo” who is portrayed by Lee Joon-gi. Wang Wook and Haesoo developed some kind of romance relationship in the beginning of the drama, until Wang Wook turned into the evil character who is aiming to rule the kingdom.
Even so, Wang Wook was played really well by Kang Ha-neul. He really succeeded to portrayed the cool and calm character of Wang Wook. Although the character developed to a villain, Kang Ha-neul still managed to play it well. He may got rejected by Haesoo, but he got our heart!
Let’s take a look at Wang Wook and Haesoo little crumbs in “Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo”!
Han Woo-tak in While You Were Sleeping
Usually, you will get a bad guy and the good guy as the two males that will fall in love with the female lead in most of the drama you watch. But in “While You Were Sleeping”, both of the male leads are a good guy. Although none of the two between Jung Jae-chan and Han Woo-tak who has a bad character, but both of them still radiates a different energy. Compared to Jae-chan, Woo-tak is even more capable since he is a policeman.
He also always there to help Nam Hong-joo, the female protagonist, and secretly falls in love with her. Hong-joo’s mom also love Woo-tak since he likes to go to Hong-joo’s mom’s restaurant with his fellow policeman.
However, it’s such an unfortunate because Hong-joo falls in love with Jae-chan instead of him. Besides, Hong-joo only think about him as a friend.
So sad.
But still, let’s take a look at Hong-joo and Woo-tak moments!
Do-hyun in My First First Love
The drama called “My First First Love” tells you a story about Tae-oh who live under the same roof with a long time friend of him as well as the girl that he secretly likes, Song-yi, and his three other friends. Do-hyun, his other best-friend, also live in Tae-oh’s house. Do-hyun is like a dependable man, he’s a good student, and he also has several part-time jobs. At that time, he who hasn’t known about Song-yi, met her in one of his part-time jobs. They soon fall in love each other and they develop romantic relationship while they met frequently.
However, Do-hyun is not the main lead in “My First First Love”, he actually the second lead in this drama. Although he at first get Song-yi as his girlfriend, soon Song-yi will end up with Tae-oh, in which the two of them has known each other since a long time, and secretly has a feeling for each other.
It was such a pity for Do-hyun but at least his moment and Song-yi is too cute to handle. Let’s take a look at some of those!
Kang Shin-woo in You Are Beautiful
The drama tells you a story about a girl who hide her identity as a boy and ended up in a band called A.N.JELL, along with three of her twin brother’s friends. When the girl, Go Min-yeo is disguising herself as her twin brother, Go Min-nam, no one in the band knows about that except for Kang Shin-woo. He is the one to know that Go Min-yeo is actually a girl. By that, he always protect her and secretly falls in love with her.
However, Go Min-yeo is in love with Hwang Tae-kyung. The front man of the band, as well as the guitarist and vocalist. Instead of Shin-woo who is so soft and always protect Go Min-yeo, and even always be there for her, Taek-kyung is more like the bad guy. He’s always bad at saying things and doesn’t really have a good attitude. It’s not a second-lead syndrome if the second-lead doesn’t get rejected despite all the good side he has!
But still, let’s take a look at the moments between Kang Shin-woo and Go Min-yeo!
