I’m looking for modern romance dramas (Korean or Chinese) centered around a hidden love theme — specifically the kind where the male lead actually fell in love first, but that fact is revealed only later in the story.
I’m not interested in historical dramas. I prefer modern settings — CEO romance, office romance, slice-of-life, high school, college, or any contemporary setting is fine.
What I’m really searching for is this particular dynamic:
At first, it seems like the female lead is the one who develops feelings first, or even actively pursues the male lead. It may look like she’s chasing him, wanting to date or marry him, while he appears indifferent, cold, or unaware.
But somewhere in the middle of the drama, there’s a reveal or twist — we find out that the male lead had already fallen in love with her long before she realized her own feelings. Maybe he liked her in the past, maybe he quietly protected her, or maybe he has been hiding his emotions for a long time.
An example that fits what I’m looking for is Well-Intended Love. At first, it seems like the female lead is the one chasing the male lead, but later it’s revealed that he had actually fallen for her much earlier and even created circumstances that led her to pursue him.
Using that as a reference, I’m looking for a modern romance where it initially appears that the female lead falls first, but there’s a twist showing that the male lead loved her long before she realized her feelings. He may have kept it hidden, secretly protected her, or didn’t reveal his feelings earlier — but the key is that he loved her first, and that truth is revealed later in the story.
I’m not looking for stories where it’s obvious from the beginning that he has a crush. I want the second type of scenario — where the audience initially believes the female lead fell first, but later it turns out the opposite was true.
If you know any dramas with this trope in a modern setting, I’d really appreciate your recommendations.
