Talk to enough of your friends and you’re bound to find an ardent fan of Korean dramas. In fact, you’ll probably find more than one. Korean dramas, or K-dramas as they’re more commonly called, have become a mainstay of binge-watching consumers on Netflix, Hulu, and other streaming platforms. Like other types of media, K-dramas span many different genres, but the series that gain popularity tend to fall into the romance category. Case in point: Crash Landing on You, which provided a welcome escape from reality for American viewers in early 2020.

But while some romantic K-dramas are original stories, many are based on existing properties. Some, like the forthcoming True Beauty, are based on webtoons. Others, like What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim, are based on webnovels. As with other television shows, interest in a K-drama can often lead to interest in the source material, which can then serve as a gateway to other series in that format. I can’t tell you the number of people I know who became avid webtoon readers after watching Cheese in the Trap and picking up the original comic. Korean romance fans are always hungry for new stories, whether they take the form of a K-drama, webtoon, or webnovel.

A Quick Primer on Korean Romance

People love romance. Approximately 70 percent of webnovels on Naver fall into the romance genre. Similarly, a recent KPIPA survey revealed that over 50 percent of people considered romance to be their favorite genre. These statistics should surprise no one, especially readers well versed with the romance genre in North America. Like Korea, romance is the most popular genre in the North American fiction market. In fact, romance novels earn over $1 billion every year.

In addition to astonishing sales, the North American romance market has a reputation for being very resilient. Most genres experience falling sales due to recessions or uncertain times. Not romance! If anything, sales of romance novels increase whenever readers need a distraction from turbulent current events. That ability to provide a respite from everyday stressors may sound familiar to fans of romantic K-dramas.

Korean Romance vs. North American Romance

The similarities don’t end there. A well-known staple of the North American romance market are Harlequin novels. These short romantic tales first gained a foothold among readers by marketing directly to them using a monthly subscription. Although the model may seem antiquated in today’s digital world, that isn’t fundamentally different from following a serialized webnovel and reading each new installment upon release.

On the other hand, Korean romances have a cross-media aspect to them that’s not as common among their North American counterparts. A Korean romance can exist in many formats. It may first be serialized as a webnovel before being published in print form. The webnovel may be adapted as a webtoon, a K-drama, or both. The multitude of formats may seem like overkill, but let’s look at it another way. Different formats maximize exposure for the original story by targeting different audiences. For example, Ryu Hyang’s Light and Shadow began as a webnovel before being adapted into a webtoon. Obviously, there are crossover audiences like my friends who pick up webtoons after watching the K-drama adaptation but getting them to pick up a new series in the first place is key.

The different formats have another advantage. As more international series are translated, English-speaking fans can choose from a variety of formats. As Yen Press demonstrated with the fantasy series Solo Leveling, North American companies like to bring over all formats, if they’re available. Who’s to say the same can’t be true for Korean romance? As more translated works cross the Pacific, we will soon see an increase in Korean genre books—including romances like Just the Two of Us by Ryu Hyang.

Love Conquers All…No Matter the Country

Romance offers a welcome distraction from life’s worries for many reasons. In North America, it’s the promise a happy ending. In South Korea, it’s the promise of a compelling story offered to you in quick and easy pieces. How many times have you heard people describe K-dramas as addictive? A lot of that has to do with the way the original webnovel was written.

Above all, however, love is a universal experience. Who doesn’t love a good romance? Love transcends time and place. It doesn’t matter what language it’s written in or which country it’s originally from.