Adnana

Volume I EN translation here: https://hui3r.wordpress.com/gu-man/blazing-sunlight-i-completed/

For English transliterations and translations of Chinese names, you can install Zhongwen Chinese Popup extension/add-on in your browser.
Another trick is to simply google "novelupdates author title" with author and title written in Chinese as I wrote them in the list above.
For example, googling "novelupdates 九月流火 九叔万福" gives you as the first result the page of the translated novel "Greetings, Ninth Uncle" (九叔万福).

As a huge fan of this novel, I can recommend novels of similar high quality, but I don't know if they've been translated (check novelupdates), or you might need to use MTL.
(author: title)
面北眉南: 名门闺杀, 嫡谋
素素雪: 侯门嫡女, 重生名媛望族
醉疯魔: 重生之锦绣嫡女
莞尔wr: 长嫡 (impeccable period feel)
青铜穗: 锦庭娇
关心则乱: 知否？知否？应是绿肥红瘦 (Legend of Concubine's Daughter Minglan)
沉香灰烬: 良陈美锦 (like in "Minglan" above, the ML has a prior marriage and children; also like above, and this applies to all the books I've recommended, the ML doesn't sleep with any other woman after being with the FL)
九月流火: 九叔万福,玉佩里的太子爷, 难消帝王恩
秀木成林: 皇子妃奋斗史, 错拿了女主剧本的咸鱼
凤轻: 盛世嫡妃 (epic in scope)
吱吱: 慕南枝 (same author as 九重紫)

In the source novel, the "present" timeline was 5 years or so after the "return-to-the-past" highschool timeline. And 5 years seemed like a perfect sweetspot--long enough to test his love, short enough not to make it seem he had wasted his whole youth waiting for her.
I remember, when I first read that the drama had extended that timeline from 5 to 15!!! years, I was so upset. They stole a whole 10 years that the OTP should have had together. It's not that love--true, larger-than-life love--isn't worth waiting for, but that it seems so sad and wasteful that such a love could only be fulfilled after a quarter of a life of loneliness and yearning. Plus, age 24 is usually the height of an idol career, whereas 34-year-old idols are rare, no? By that age they would have left the industry of diversified into adjacent domains (acting, variety etc.). The challenges to their relationship if they had met again at 24 would have been very different.
All in all, I very much wish the drama screenwriter had stuck to the original premise and not made the timeskip so long.
As for whether it seems unrealistic that he would have waited for her for so long and so steadfastly--yes, for the average viewer it would definitely seem unrealistic. It might even be a deal-breaker for some, and that is perfectly understandable. After all, we all have our different worldviews and understanding of love/relationships/etc.
But for me, personally, his love and willingness to wait is not a logic fail. I've never thought that the average romantic K-drama depicts any average run-of-the-mill ordinary romance, the kind that every average Jane and Joe could experience easily and frequently. No, K-dramas usually depict the exceptional cases, the special romances, the once-in-a-lifetime (and for some people, not even once) kind of love.
Therefore, I don't have to believe that every man in the world who fell in love once would love and wait like him--because I don't. I just have to believe that this one man (Seon Jae) is capable of loving to that depth, and that this one woman (Sol) was capable of awaking in him that kind of love. That once he fell in love with her, he knew (and over the years, confirmed) that he could never love anyone else as deeply--and knowing that, he didn't want to settle for less. Not wanting to date other people while he was still in love with Sol--I think that's a fair choice, even if it goes against the modern dogma of dating whoever, even if there's no soul connection.
As for why he kept loving her that long--why call this obsession, when nothing else in his behavior depicts him as mentally disturbed? It may be mental firmness--once he made up his mind/heart, he wasn't the kind to change it easily. It may be he didn't meet any other girl who could arouse in him that same emotion. It may be he thought he might still have a chance with Sol sometime in the future (his love wasn't unrequited, and that's significant), and that made all the years of waiting worth it for him. It may be he just loved her that much.

"i never really understood why is it so important for both leads to be human by the end of so many dramas"
Right? Immortality is cool when it comes with eternal youth/beauty and countless historical wealth.
These dramas present "becoming human" as the be-all and end-all for these superhumans, when it only means losing their superpowers, and like you well pointed out, it doesn't even mean they'd get to grow old with their beloved as human life is so fragile. For example, what if the ML in "Goblin" had turned human to accompany his bride in mortalhood? She freaking ended up dying at 29, while they were still newly-weds. Being immortal however, he was able to wait for her next reincarnation and continue their fate. If the superhuman one stays unwavering in their love for their human partner, I actually prefer that the superhuman retain all his supernatural powers and use them to protect his beloved to live a long, happy life together. In "Black Knight" the FL was so stupid to actually end up resenting the ML for staying young while she grew old, even though he never stopped loving her and only wanted to be with her together.
The only time a piece of fiction actually convinced me that becoming human turned out the better deal was Karen Marie Moning's "The Immortal Highlander". Because when the ML there was an immortal dark fae he didn't have a soul, but after turning human, because he loved and was loved so much, he somehow got to have an immortal soul, like all humans do. And if you believe in that kind of stuff (I do), it means he ended up receiving true eternal life (after a limited life on earth).
But of course, Asian dramas are subject to a different theology, with reincarnation and the likes, (or to secularism), so they wouldn't add this layer of significance to being/becoming human. Well, for me, the reasons for "becoming human" they do mange to scrounge up instead, are pretty much worthless. :) I'd rather be a superhuman, then.

Oof, so they changed the official synopsis too, it's not just a mydramalist blunder. I don't know why they just couldn't leave it alone! 15 years is an awfully long time, and it makes so much less sense that he would have waited for her so long, with zero interaction between them all that time.

Wow. Ok. I completely assumed the drama followed the webnovel at least regarding the basic premise: main characters' ages, and how far back the FL TT-ed. And well, the drama synopsis says "Transported back 15 years into the past, she confronts Ryu Seon Jae in his 19-year-old high school self. " So I assumed the ML and FL are over 30 in the original/main timeline. And I did hate the thought that they had wasted more than 10 years not being together. 6 years is more bearable. I hope the synopsis is bull**** and the screen adaptation won't make their separation so long.

Ooh, thank you for the rec, you are right--I loved it. As a rebirth/revenge story junkie, there was no way Marry My Husband and Perfect Marriage Revenge would have escaped my notice. You're also right that I LOVED the non-rushed, super-happy and complete ending that particularly MMH had. I wish more dramas would be as generous with the actual happiness in their happy endings.

My literal translation of the two titles would be "The Entertainment Circle is Mine" and "I am Helping [My] Idol Change [His] Fate" respectively.
But actual title translations are subjective (for example, the C-novel title 折腰, literally "Bending low at the waist," was arbitrarily translated to "Prisoner of Beauty" in English). Basically, I'm saying that someone who read the novel in its original language, and only knows the Chinese title (my case here), might not be familiar with the random name that the translator of the project might have decided upon (if there even exists a translation project).
So to check if a C-novel you're interested in was translated to English, and under what name, google "novelupdates + Chinese title", here "novelupdates 娱乐圈是我的". This time, you're in luck, as you find https://www.novelupdates.com/series/the-entertainment-circle-is-mine/
For 我帮爱豆逆天改命, there doesn't seem to be an English translation.

Thank you so, so much for the detailed spoiler. It covers just about everything I wanted to know about the story setup--just one more question, please. After meeting again, does the ML ever get to find out why the FL acted like she didn't remember him anymore in the past 13 years (after the present her departed from the past). After all, assuming he never stopped liking her, it seems he tried to approach her a few times during those years.
Oh, and a final extra question. :) Is the ML still only just an idol in the present timeline, or does he have a broader career? It's just, from what I've seen, 30 seems like the terminus age for full-time K-idols.
Thank you again for replying!

Thank you for replying.
Do please give me the full on spoilers as I want to know about the novel, primarily. I don't expect the drama to necessarily stick close to the source material, but just in case, I hope not to stumble across the dreaded "everything in the re-do timeline didn't actually happen or impact/change the FL's own life". The FL, and even the ML, retaining the memories of the 2nd timeline is not enough for me, if they are just "imagined".

After reading your reply, I went to read spoilers for the ending in "A Time Called You", and wow, what a dumpster fire, to erase basically everything the characters lived through during 99% of the story, all their interactions and emotions in two timelines. If there's one trope I hate the most in novels/dramas, it's this one. And what a departure from the original ending (I watched Someday or One Day a couple of years ago, so I know its plot.) It makes me wonder how much the writer hated their own story (or in this case, how blinded with arrogance, to think they could be "innovative" and do better than the original drama's ending), that they felt the need to make it all pointless and meaningless through a reset.

Thank you for replying. So in the source novel (I don't care to speculate how they'll do it in the drama), she returns to the original timeline, and nothing has changed in her present life after her stint in the past? Only that the ML doesn't commit suicide, and it later turns out he also remembers her? But is he remembering her from the highschool do-over (when she relived highschool), or did they also know each other in highschool in the original timeline?

So if they can't say they like each other, they can't be together/love each other in the second timeline until they're 32 years old (back to the age where he died and she returned to the past)?

@bbaek__peace
So after he dies in the first timeline, and she returns to the second timeline to save him, they're always in the second timeline, right? No going back to the original timeline, with everything that happened in the second timeline "just a dream" or something? (They would totally do this in a C-drama, because actual and not just imagined transmigration/rebirth are forbidden themes.)
It would be cool if the FL changes (improves) her life too, in the second timeline, not just helps the ML; and losing everything again by returning to the original timeline (also something that some novels do) would be awful, because it cancels all the FL's efforts and gains.

It seems you know the novel, so I want to ask: under what circumstances do they return to 32 years old? Is it a time jump, but they lived through the in-between years in the second timeline (preferably without going separate ways); or is it a return to the first timeline, and the highschool do-over in the second timeline turns out to be only a dream or something? (Please don't say it's the second version!)

娱乐圈是我的[重生], right? I loved that novel, and immediately thought of it when I heard about "Lovely Runner". If this drama turns out half as good as the novel (and doesn't do any fake-outs, as in the FL does change the ML's tragic fate, but it turns out to be only a dream or sthg), then I'll be glued to the screen watching this.
p.s.: 我帮爱豆逆天改命[重生] also has a similar theme, in that the FL returns to the past and wants to save her idol, only it's not from committing suicide but from a career-destroying car accident

In "Road Home" (also a recent drama), when the FL was diagnosed as pregnant, there was a mention about her having to get a birth permit issued.
Even while the one-child policy was in place, conditional exceptions were allowed, especially in the later years. For example, if both partners were an only child (without siblings), they were allowed to have two children. (That is how the couple in Love O2O were allowed to have two sons.) Plus exceptions in rural areas. Plus, so long as one wasn't employed in an official/public position, one could always pay a fine and have the second child without grave repercussions.

I got into reading C-novels because so many do the rebirth/revenge (and also transmigration/time travel) theme, and do it very well, but unfortunately, after Bu Bu Jing Xin, they aren't allowed to use rebirth or transmigration anymore in C-dramas because of censorship.
Since you love this theme, do you know of any other Asian dramas that have it (preferably with a happy ending, unlike Bu Bu Jing Xin or Moon Lovers)? I already know of PMR and MMH in K-dramas, "Kunning Palace" in C-dramas, and "Tawee Pope" in TH-dramas.

What other K-dramas do you remember also having a longer HE and can recommend?