The Heirs, My First First Love and more: 6 coming of age K-Dramas that will warm your heart

Coming of age K-dramas is a genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood. The journey from youth to adulthood is a bittersweet experience for most of us so here is our curated list of dramas :- 

The Heirs 

Kim Tan (Lee Min Ho) is the heir to Empire Group who has been sent to study abroad in the U.S. In reality it's a form of exile, as his elder half-brother back home schemes to take over the family business. While in the States, Kim Tan meets Cha Eun Sang (Park Shin Hye), who arrived from Korea in search of her older sister. He feels himself falling for her, never realizing that she's the daughter of his family's housekeeper. When his fiancée Rachel Yoo (Kim Ji Won) arrives to bring him back to Korea, his heart is torn between love and duty. When Kim Tan returns to Korea, his former best friend turned enemy Choi Young Do (Kim Woo Bin) begins picking on Eun Sang to irritate Tan. Tension ensues when Young Do also falls in love with Eun Sang, and Kim Tan is forced to choose between his responsibility of pursuing the family business or love.

My First, First Love 

The drama tells the story of five youths and their messy encounters with the concept of first love. Yun Tae Oh is a college student whose friends — a college drop-out, a runaway family friend, and his long-time childhood friend — decide to unexpectedly move into his house, due to their own individual reasons. Now they must all learn to live together and learn to love. Ji Soo took the role of Yun Tae Oh, who has been best friends with Song Yi since they were in elementary school, and feels the constant need to take care of her. Because of this, he has always been conflicted about his feelings towards her, often having a secret on and off crush. He initially pursues a relationship with Ryu Se Hyeon.

Nevertheless 

Park Jae Eon (Song Kang) is a university student, majoring in art. He seems nice to everyone and he is usually cheerful. Yet, he is really indifferent to others and he doesn't want to have a romantic relationship. Unexpectedly, he falls for Yoo Na Bi (Han So Hee) and begins to change. Yoo Na Bi is an art student at the same university as Park Jae Eon. In the past, she broke up with her first love due to his unfaithful ways. After that, I decided to become unswayed by love. She then meets Park Jae Eon and develops feelings for him.

School 2017 

The plot follows a class of high school students attempting to overcome the stress of being ranked by their exam grades, and facing the difficulties of being a teenager in a high-pressure, corrupt system. Its central protagonist is Ra Eun Ho (Kim Sejeong), a cheerful and kind-hearted 18-year-old who dreams of being a webtoon artist but is caught up in the search for a mysterious troublemaker in the school, known as 'Student X'. When she is accused of being Student X, her dream of going to university to study art is put at risk as she faces expulsion. Hyun Tae Woon (Kim Jung Hyun) is the son of the director of the school who enjoys his youth but hides deep scars. Song Dae Hwi (Jang Dong Yoon) is a bright student who's ranked 1st every time but doesn't have enough money for his dream college.

Cheese In The Trap 

The drama focuses on the life and relationships of a group of university students, particularly the difficult relationship between hard-working scholarship student Hong Seol (Kim Go Eun) and a deceptive senior, Yoo Jung (Park Hae Jin) Jung is rich, popular, and he is heir to Taerang Group. Although he appears to be kind to everyone around him, he is quite manipulative with a penchant for destroying those who irritate him, often by using others. When Seol discovers this, her life starts becoming so miserable she decides to take time off school. When she returns through a scholarship that was intended for Jung, he is unexpectedly nice to her and he asks her on a date. Although she is unsure what kind of person he is, they begin an awkward relationship complicated by the distance between them as well as the aftermath of his various schemes. The situation is further complicated by the arrival of Baek In Ho and his sister In Ha, childhood friends of Jung who have since had a falling out.

Reply 1997 

The drama centers on the lives of six friends in Busan, as the timeline moves back and forth between their past as 18-year-old high schoolers in 1997 and their present as 33-year-olds at their high school reunion dinner in 2012, where one couple will announce that they're getting married. As the first installment of the Reply series, it also portrays the extreme fan culture that emerged in the 1990s when first generation idol groups such as H.O.T. and SechsKies took center stage and K-pop was just beginning to blossom. The series is one of the highest-rated Korean dramas in cable television history, and has garnered praise from audiences and critics for being well-researched, refreshing, genuine, and full of humor and heart.

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Which drama are you watching? Let us know in the comments below.