Rating: 10/10 | JTBC | 12 Episodes | Dec 19, 2025 – Jan 23, 2026
If you’re looking for sunshines and rainbows, close this page right now. I’m warning you. This drama will take your heart, stomp on it, put it back together, stomp on it again, and then somehow leave you feeling grateful for the entire experience. Love Me is one of those rare dramas that doesn’t give you a fairytale ending — it gives you something better. It gives you real.
Before I get into it, let me just say — this is a remake of the Swedish series Älska mig (2019), and honestly? The Korean version absolutely ate. Seo Hyun Jin leading this cast was the right call because this woman can make you feel every single emotion just through her eyes. The director, Jo Young Min (who also did The Interest of Love), has this way of putting big emotions into small, quiet moments — a glance, a pause, the things that go unsaid — and it works beautifully here.
Right. Let me break this down properly.
The Setup: A Family Held Together by Distance
Seven years before our story starts, an accident left the Seo family’s mother unable to walk, and it shattered everyone. Not just physically — emotionally, spiritually, the whole lot. By the time we meet them, the mum is just about to past away and every single member of this family is lonely in their own way whilst being surrounded by people.
Seo Jun Gyeong (Seo Hyun Jin) — our female lead — is an OB-GYN. Good job, attractive, seems like she’s got her life together. But she’s been running from guilt for seven years. She feels responsible for her mum’s accident and has lived as a shadow of herself ever since — not letting anyone get properly close, keeping her family at arm’s length. She’s the kind of person who builds walls so high she forgets there’s a world on the other side.
Seo Jin Ho (Yoo Jae Myung) — the dad — spent years as a devoted carer for his wife and now he’s lost. Like properly lost. But he’s also a bit of a complicated character and I’ll get into why in a minute because I have OPINIONS.
Seo Jun Seo (Lee Si Woo) — the younger brother — is basically the family letdown. Or at least that’s how everyone makes him feel. He’s pushing 30 and still doesn’t know what he wants to do with his life while his sister’s out here being a whole doctor. He’s the kid who never quite met anyone’s expectations and you can feel it in everything he does.
Episodes 1-6: When Love Starts to Feel Possible
So Jun Gyeong meets Ju Do Hyeon (Chang Ryul), her neighbour, right after her mum’s death. And honestly? This man is a breath of fresh air. He’s a 35-year-old music director, genuinely good person, smiley, warm — the kind of guy that just grows on you. He’d had a secret crush on Jun Gyeong for a while and just before he’s about to move away, he finally shoots his shot. And it works! Her friends meet him, they like him, everything feels like maybe, MAYBE, she’s finally ready to let someone in.
Then he drops the bomb. He has a son.
A 15-year-old son he’s never met before who’s moving in with him.
Now, Jun Gyeong’s first reaction is to break up with him, and honestly I get it — that’s a LOT to process. But she eventually realises her feelings run too deep and him having a child isn’t the end of the world. Growth! Love it.
Then there’s Daniel — Do Hyeon’s son. Korean-born, raised in Germany, comes to Korea to build a relationship with his dad. But then he discovers his dad’s dating Jun Gyeong and he hates her for it. Initially I thought Daniel was just a bad kid — like maybe his mum sent him to Korea because he was causing too much trouble. But the more I watched, the more I realised this boy has been neglected by his own mother. She’s got a new life in Germany, probably hasn’t given Daniel the time or love he deserves. So when he sees Jun Gyeong, all he sees is another person who might take his dad away from him. His only option, in his mind, is to get rid of her.
My heart broke for this kid, honestly.
Episodes 7-9: When the Cracks Start to Show
So Jun Gyeong decides she’s not giving up on Daniel. She works HARD to win him over and it actually starts working — they develop a genuinely nice relationship. He starts warming to her, seeing her as important in his life. There’s this beautiful moment where Daniel is moving back in with his mum and he turns to Jun Gyeong and says, “Will I’ll still see you? Even if you and dad aren’t together, I’m still going to see you.” That got me. This kid who started off hating her now wants her in his life permanently.
But then Daniel’s mum, Im Yun Ju, moves back to South Korea from Germany and THIS is where the drama kicks up.
Let me talk about this woman for a second. She rocks up after SIXTEEN YEARS and suddenly decides she wants Do Hyeon back. Sixteen years! You haven’t seen this man in sixteen years! From the age of 20 to 35, you become two completely different people. You cannot tell me you’re the same person after all that time and if you ARE the same person after sixteen years then something is seriously wrong because that means you haven’t grown AT ALL.
She keeps making little comments to Jun Gyeong, dropping hints, basically doing that thing where she’s making it very clear — I want my man back. And the worst part? Jun Gyeong doesn’t tell Do Hyeon. She just holds it all in. This is her fatal flaw throughout the whole drama — she holds EVERYTHING in instead of just communicating.
Meanwhile, Do Hyeon is clearly uncomfortable around his baby mother. He’s normally this happy, smiley guy but whenever Yun Ju is around, his face turns to stone. He doesn’t want to interact with her. He’s even out ring shopping because he wants to PROPOSE to Jun Gyeong. When Daniel moves out and his lease is up, he asks Jun Gyeong to move in together. This man sees his endgame and it’s her.
Now let me address the Dad (Seo Jin Ho) situation because I need to get this off my chest.
I do like the dad. But some of the things he does are just SHADY. He decides he wants to sell the family house and buy a camping site with his new woman, Jin Ja Yeong (Yoon Se Ah). Fine. That’s your prerogative. But do you know when he decides to announce this? On the TWO-YEAR ANNIVERSARY of their mum’s death. The audacity! I’m not saying his kids wouldn’t have been upset whatever day he told them, but of ALL the days you could’ve chosen, you picked THAT one? That’s selfish and inconsiderate.
And then when the son gets upset, the dad hurls insults at him. Like, that’s not how you do things! I’ve come to the conclusion that the dad is one of those people who’s a people pleaser but is also actually very selfish at the same time — if that makes sense. Even getting with Ja Yeong so quickly after his wife died… look, I don’t think you should spend your whole life mourning, but you couldn’t even give her a year? If that was me, you best mourn for a WHOLE year. After that you can do what you want. But give me ONE year, otherwise I’m thinking — did you even LIKE me? Forget love, did you even like me?
And then there’s the brother (Seo Jun Seo). Oh, Jun Seo. His girlfriend cheated on him, told him about it, and you know what killed me? It wasn’t even the cheating — it was the fact that she TOLD him, he got upset, left, and then went BACK the next day and ended up fighting with the other guy. Have some PRIDE. From the moment she told you she cheated, you should have said deuces. But instead he goes back, then leaves again, finds his best friend Ji Hye On (played by TWICE’s Dahyun, by the way — her acting debut and she does really well), sleeps with her, and then makes HER feel like rubbish about it. Why would you do that? But then I think deep down he actually had feelings for his best friend and just didn’t realise it. Could’ve been very messy. Thank God it wasn’t.
The dad’s new partner, Ja Yeong, at this point is just living her best life. She’s been accepted by the family, she’s happy, everything’s coming up roses for her.
For now.
Episode 10: The Proposal, the Rejection, and the Secret
Do Hyeon proposes to Jun Gyeong. And she REJECTS HIM. This man is ready to accept her with all her flaws and she can’t do it because she’s too insecure — not insecure about the relationship, but insecure as a person. She’s scared to fully give herself to someone. Meanwhile he’s standing there like… I love you. All of you. What more do I need to say?
After thinking about it though, she comes around and decides yes, she IS going to marry him. They want to try for a baby. Her period’s late so she gets excited but — she’s not pregnant. So because she’s an OB-GYN, she takes Do Hyeon to a sexual health clinic to check if they’re both fertile and THAT is when they find out…
He has no swimmers. The doctor tells them he could never have got anyone pregnant. Which means Daniel isn’t his biological child.
And what does this man do? He doesn’t crumble. He says, “Daniel is MY child. That’s the end of it.” He asks Jun Gyeong to never tell anyone. That’s his one condition. Don’t ever tell anybody.
Beautiful. Heartbreaking. Beautiful.
Episodes 11-12: The Ones That Broke Me
These last two episodes absolutely DESTROYED me.
So Daniel’s mum (Im Yun Ju) calls Jun Gyeong to meet up and tells her she’s moving to their area because she and Do Hyeon have a “bigger connection” since they share a child. This woman has been hunting Jun Gyeong down for weeks, making her feel like dirt, and Jun Gyeong has been holding it ALL in. No communication. No telling Do Hyeon what’s been happening.
So Jun Gyeong finally snaps and says it: “Is Daniel even his child?”
The one thing. The ONE thing he asked her not to reveal. And I’m conflicted because on one hand — she broke his trust. She promised. But on the other hand, this woman has been pushing her and pushing her and pushing her into a corner, and she finally hit back. If she’d just TOLD Do Hyeon that his baby mother was coming for her this whole time, he might have understood. But she doesn’t explain herself. She just keeps saying “I’m sorry, I’m sorry” when what she SHOULD have said was “because your ex has been harassing me for months and I reached my breaking point.” She’s not giving him the reason, so from his perspective it looks like she did it out of spite.
Do Hyeon gets a paternity test done but doesn’t open it. Doesn’t even look. Because as far as he’s concerned, Daniel is his child and that’s that. The love this man has? Unmatched.
But then Yun Ju — this absolute villain of a woman — goes to his studio, finds the DNA test, sees the results, and TELLS DANIEL. She tells her own child that the man he thought was his father isn’t his biological dad. Who does that?! She then calls the police, says Daniel is at their house and Do Hyeon isn’t his real father, so she’s taking him back. The police have to take Daniel away.
It’s like — if you can’t win the war, you burn the battlefield. She lost Do Hyeon, she couldn’t get him back, so the only thing she could do was be spiteful. But the only person she truly hurt was her OWN SON. Everyone else already knew. They could have carried on living this happy life with Daniel never finding out. But no. She had to be the evil, heartless person she is and break her child’s heart.
Then she decides to go back to Germany and forces Daniel to go with her. This boy who’d finally found happiness, who went from hating Jun Gyeong to genuinely wanting her in his life, ripped away because of his mother’s selfishness. Mark my words — once he’s old enough to decide for himself, he’ll go back to them. Because sometimes the people who aren’t your blood family treat you more like family than the ones who are.
Now. The dad and Ja Yeong storyline.
I need you to understand something. This man spent seven years caring for a wife with a devastating injury. He went through all that trauma and suffering. He lost her. It broke him. And then Ja Yeong came along like a ray of sunlight in his darkness. She was the rainbow in his rain.
And then she gets diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. Fast-progressing. Within two years, she won’t remember anyone or anything.
I can’t even… how do you process that? This man is going to lose another partner. And there’s this scene — he goes out to meet friends for drinks, but actually he’s just sitting at the bus stop, unable to face going home. She checks the bus timetable because she has it written down, works out when he should be back, goes to find him, and sees him just sitting there. She realises he can’t handle her illness. So she runs away. Leaves a letter saying she doesn’t think it’ll work.
He’s devastated. He goes to the police station, they show him CCTV footage of her seeing him at the bus stop, and he realises he’s messed up. He goes and gets her. They stay together. And they decide that even though their time together might be short, the time they do have can be happy.
The birthday scene at the end broke me completely. Everyone’s there — the kids, the sister-in-law — and Ja Yeong says she’s going to make a wish. But before she makes it, she tells everyone that she has early-onset Alzheimer’s. And everyone’s sitting there, smiling through the pain, knowing this woman is going to lose all her memories. Knowing the dad is going to go through losing someone again. The sister-in-law who went from hating her to becoming her friend is sitting there devastated. It was too much. I was a MESS.
And then there’s the brother’s situation. He gets offered a lecturing job but has to PAY for it. Like — hold on, how are you paying for a job? Isn’t a job supposed to pay YOU? He takes out a 5 million won loan because he’s desperate to prove himself to his family, and ends up working as a designated driver just to survive. His girlfriend goes to some fancy award ceremony, he ends up being the driver for one of the guests, and she pretends she doesn’t know him. In the CAR. Right there. Talking about how her boyfriend is a lecturer while he’s literally driving.
But you know what? That humiliation becomes his wake-up call. He goes back to the university and demands his money back, and that’s when it comes out — it was a SCAM. He never needed to pay. The man was just conning him. So that gets resolved, he and his girlfriend sort their issues out, and honestly I’m glad because this boy has been through it.
The Verdict
This drama was absolutely beautiful. 10 out of 10. Everything about it was top tier.
It felt so raw, so emotional, so REAL. Each character had such strong development — you almost felt like you knew them, like they were part of your own family. What I noticed is that whenever something happens to one of them, something happens to all three at the same time. Not the same things, but they’re all struggling simultaneously. It’s like they can’t help each other because they’re all drowning at the same rate. They’re all stranded at the same time.
And I love that it ended not happy but not sad. It ended REAL. Things like that genuinely happen. People lose partners to illness. People find out their children aren’t biologically theirs. People get scammed trying to make something of themselves. Relationships break down because nobody bothers to actually TALK to each other. Love Me didn’t give you that fairytale ending — it was just perfect in its imperfection.
One thing I will say about this drama — the biggest recurring theme is MISCOMMUNICATION. Almost every single conflict in this show could have been avoided if people just opened their mouths and talked. Jun Gyeong holds everything in. Do Hyeon doesn’t share enough. The dad announces life-changing decisions at the worst possible times. The brother pretends everything’s fine when it’s not. And his girlfriend talks about success without checking if her partner is okay. It’s frustrating to watch but it’s also… exactly how real families operate. Nobody talks. Everyone assumes. And then things blow up.
Quick Stats
MDL Score 8.0/10 (2,130 users) IMDB 7.9/10 Network jTBC (Fridays) Episodes 12 × 70 min Based On Swedish series Älska mig (2019) by Josephine Bornebusch Director Jo Young Min (The Interest of Love) Where to Watch Viki, TVING
Cast
Seo Hyun Jin Seo Jun Gyeong — the OB-GYN carrying seven years of guilt
Yoo Jae Myung Seo Jin Ho — the dad navigating loss and new love
Lee Si Woo Seo Jun Seo — the younger brother finding his way
Chang Ryul Ju Do Hyeon — the warm-hearted music director and ML
Yoon Se Ah Jin Ja Yeong — the dad’s new partner
Kim Da Hyun (Dahyun/TWICE) Ji Hye On — Jun Seo’s best friend turned love interest. Her acting debut!
Fun Facts
- This is TWICE’s Dahyun’s first acting role in a TV series and she genuinely holds her own alongside veterans like Seo Hyun Jin and Yoo Jae Myung
- Seo Hyun Jin is known as the queen of playing women who hide their pain — she did the same thing brilliantly in The Trunk
- The drama aired nine straight episodes in the 1% ratings range domestically, which sounds bad but it found its audience on streaming platforms internationally
- The original Swedish version ran for two seasons — so there’s source material for more if they wanted to continue
- Yoo Jae Myung is primarily known for heavyweight roles in crime/thriller dramas, so casting him in a romance was a deliberate and brilliant choice
- The family home in the drama is intentionally kept dark and unwelcoming — the lighting director made a conscious choice to make it feel like a place people exist in rather than live in
If this drama taught me anything, it’s that love isn’t about perfection. It’s about showing up — messy, scared, flawed — and choosing someone anyway. Even when you know you might lose them. Even when the time you have is short. Even when the ending isn’t guaranteed to be happy.
That’s real love. And that’s why this drama is called Love Me.
Carlene Loves This 
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