Twenty-four years is a long time. But looking at the photos Kim Ha-neul posted on February 28, you would not necessarily know it.
The actress, who played a high school teacher named Chae-won in the 2002 MBC drama "Romance," shared a series of photos on her social media with the caption "Romance reunited," showing her standing beside Kim Jae-won, her former co-star who played her student Gwan-woo. Fans reacted immediately. Many pointed out that both actors look almost identical to how they did in 2002. The photos spread quickly online and sent a wave of nostalgia through K-drama communities worldwide.
The reunion happened as part of a special program filmed for Japan's Satellite Theatre to mark the rebroadcast of "Romance" in the country. The drama, originally a hit during the early days of the Korean Wave, is returning to Japanese screens 24 years after it first aired there and drew a devoted audience. For the special, the two actors sat down together to share behind-the-scenes stories from the production and reflect on what the drama meant to each of them.
When it aired in 2002, "Romance" caused a major sensation for its central premise an emotional love story between a female teacher and her male student, told with sincerity rather than sensationalism. The line "You're a student and I'm a teacher," delivered at a pivotal moment in the series, became one of the most quoted lines in early 2000s K-drama history. The drama earned Kim Ha-neul the Best Actress award in the mini-series category at the 2002 MBC Drama Awards and helped establish her as one of the defining actresses of that era. It also helped carry the Korean Wave into Japan at a time when Korean content was just beginning to find a serious international audience.
Kim Ha-neul spoke about the significance of the drama and the reunion. "Romance was a major turning point in my life as an actress. Though much time has passed, the passion and excitement of that era remain cherished memories. Reuniting with Kim Jae-won after such a long time and talking about those days made it deeply meaningful," she said.
The drama's continued relevance, even after two decades, says something about how certain K-dramas become part of the emotional vocabulary of the people who watched them. For fans in Japan and beyond who grew up with "Romance," the reunion of its two leads was exactly what the caption said it was.