These K-Drama Awards Name 2021's Best Onscreen Couples
Which pairing is your favorite from this list?
2021 was yet another memorable year for many K-drama fans, as there was a long list of amazing, noteworthy series to choose from. Despite the pandemic, K-dramaland continuously gifted viewers from different parts of the world with a wide array of shows.
To cap off 2021, network companies MBC, KBS, and SBS held their annual Drama Awards that honored their best dramas for the year. Among their categories is the Best Couple award, which recognized the undeniable, outstanding chemistry of several onscreen couples.
tvN network, which doesn’t hold a similar award ceremony, also gave us 2021 K-drama pairings like Kim Jung-hyun and Shin Hye-sun in Mr. Queen, Song Joong-ki and Jeon Yeo-been in Vincenzo, and Kim Seon-ho and Shin Min-ah in Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha; they were all nominated in the Best Couple category at our 2021 Metro Best K-Drama Awards, with the adorable Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha duo ending up as the winner.
In the gallery below, see the other K-drama couples who made a mark in 2021, as named by MBC, KBS, and SBS Drama Awards:
Photo Gallery
Photo Gallery
Lee Junho and Lee Se-young in “The Red Sleeve” (MBC)
In this historical drama, Lee Junho is Crown Prince Yi San and Lee Se-young is court lady Seong Deok-im. Brave, confident, and independent, Deok-im wishes to live her life on her own terms. As she is assigned to take care of the Crown Prince as his personal maid, the two develop romantic feelings for each other. Yi San later becomes King Jeongjo, and he wants her to become his concubine. She, however, refuses to be one of the King’s women, because that means she will not be able to live her life the way she wants to.
Photo Credit: @mbcdrama_now
Na In-woo and Kim So-hyun in “River Where the Moon Rises” (KBS)
This historical series focuses on the love story of Na In-woo’s On Dal and Kim So-hyun’s Pyonggang, formed in the midst of political conflicts. He’s a peace-loving man who has made it his mission to protect her, a princess raised as an assassin, and join her in her battle against corruption.
Photo Credit: KBS on YouTube
Kim Yo-han and Cho Yi-hyun in “School 2021” (KBS)
This coming-of-age series tells the stories of high school students navigating their way through life, love, friendship, and passions. Among this group are Kim Yo-han’s Gong Ki-joon (who has always dreamt of becoming a taekwondo player until he suffers a serious ankle injury that leads to him quitting the sport) and Cho Yi-hun’s Jin Ji-won (a confident young woman who’s firm on pursuing her dream to become a carpenter).
Photo Credit: KBS on YouTube
Kim Min-jae and Park Gyu-young in “Dali and Cocky Prince” (KBS)
“Dali and Cocky Prince” is a rom-com that merges food and art. At the core of the plot are Kim Min-jae’s Jin Moo-hak, the director of an F&B company that has hundreds of franchised gamja-tang restaurants, and Park Gyu-young’s Kim Dali, the director of an art museum that’s on the verge of bankruptcy. In an interesting mix-up, their paths cross and they develop an unexpected business partnership that eventually evolves into a romantic one.
Photo Credit: KBS on YouTube
Lee Do-hyun and Go Min-si in “Youth of May” (KBS)
Set in the year 1980 during the Gwangju Uprising, period melodrama “Youth of May” zooms in on the love story of Lee Do-hyun’s Hwang Hee-tae, a medical student who enters Seoul National University College of Medicine with top scores, and Go Min-si’s Kim Myung-Hee, a struggling breadwinner and nurse who hopes to study in Germany. In the middle of protests and cries for democracy, they fall in love with each other and face injustices together.
Photo Credit: KBS on YouTube
Rowoon and Park Eun-bin in “The King’s Affection” (KBS)
This sageuk starts off with the birth of the Crown Prince’s consort’s twins, a boy and a girl. As twins are considered an ominous sign in the Joseon Dynasty, the boy was saved while the girl was ordered to be killed. The mother couldn’t let this happen, and planned to send her daughter out of the palace instead. Years later, the daughter (Park Eun-bin’s Dam-yi) returns to the palace as a maid. When her twin brother, Crown Prince Lee Hwi, is killed due to mistaken identity, their mother persuades her to disguise herself as the Crown Prince. She later meets Rowoon’s Jung Ji-woon, a man from a noble family who serves as her teacher. The inevitable eventually happens and they fall in love with each other while protecting her secret.
Photo Credit: @eunbining0904
Ji Hyun-woo and Lee Se-hee in “Young Lady and Gentleman” (KBS)
A family drama, “Young Lady and Gentleman” is about Lee Young-guk (Ji Hyun-woo) and Park Dan-dan (Lee Se-hee) and how their relationship bloomed. 40-year-old Lee Young-guk is a corporation’s chairman and a widower with three kids who hasn’t gotten over his wife’s death yet 27-year-old Park Dan-dan is a bold and bubbly woman who ends up becoming a live-in tutor at Lee Young-guk’s house. As they live in the same house, he develops feelings for her.
Photo Credit: KBS on YouTube
Ahn Hyo-seop and Kim Yoo-jung in “Lovers of the Red Sky” (SBS)
This historical series with a fantasy twist features the intertwined fate of Ahn Hyo-seop’s Ha Ram (Ilwolseong) and Kim Yoo-jung’s Hong Cheon-gi. Ha Ram had an accident during a rain-making ritual when he was a kid, causing him to lose his sight; with the power of the Demon King, he survived the accident and is now an astrologer. Meanwhile, Hong Cheon-gi is a genius female painter who was born blind but whose eyes are miraculously healed due to the curse of the Demon King during the same accident Ha Ram was in. Years later, the two reunite and eventually fall for each other.
Photo Credit: Kocowa
BONUS! Cha Tae-hyun and Jinyoung in “Police University”
Jinyoung’s Kang Seon-ho and Krystal’s Oh Kang-hee sure had several kilig scenes in romance drama “Police University.” But the bromance of Kang Seon-ho (a freshman in the National Police University who’s skilled in hacking) and Cha Tae-hyun’s Yoo Dong-man (a detective with 20 years of experience in the field-turned-professor at the said university) here was indeed notable. Together, the two men investigate the internal corruption in their school.
Photo Credit: KBS on YouTube
Lead photos from @mbcdrama_now and @eunbining0904
