With so many attractive actors playing the lead characters in kdramas, how can the female lead tell if she's really in love? There are a few hints to help kdrama heroines-and viewers-know who is really meant to be together.

1. You met as children. This is a sure sign that the heavens meant for you to be together. Remember "Gu Family Book?" The fact that Lee Seung Gi and Suzy are attracted to each other, are best friends and make a great fighting team is not enough to prove they are meant to be. But the fact that they met as children proves it's their destiny. The same applied to Moon Geun Young and Lee Sang Yoon in "Goddess of Fire," although that did not work out well. Or the characters might have loved each other in a previous life.
2. The person was your first love and you never ever forget them. Again, it's a question of destiny. As is sadly rarely the case in real life, kdrama characters are loyal throughout their adolescent and young adult years. Park Yoochun cannot forget Yoon Eun Hye in "Missing You" even though 15 years have passed. Lee Jong Suk did not forget Lee Bo Young for 10 years in "I Hear Your Voice." In "The Moon Embracing the Sun," Kim Soo Hyun never gets over Han Ga In. And, yeah, they met as kids or at the very oldest, teens.
3. Your parents oppose the union. Whether it's because one of you is poor, somehow disgraceful or too young, your parents will not want you to marry. When the character defies his parents and chooses the person they love, you know its real. Think "Secrets," "The Heirs," "Boys Over Flowers," "My Lovely Kim Sam Soon" or "Secret Garden" for just a few dramas in which love eventually persuades parents to relent.
4. Distance as well as absence always makes the heart grow fonder. Even if the character goes to the other side of the planet, his love will only grow stronger. Whether they go to the U.S. to become a success as Gun Jun Pyo did in "Boys Over Flowers" or Armenia as Ji Sung did in "Secrets," the characters are never distracted from their love. This is really a variation of sign # 2, but it adds distance to time.
5. Love transforms you. Love so moves you that you would give up a life of crime, acting arrogant, eat food you never previously liked or just generally be convinced to become a better person. This is pretty much the defining qualification of true love in all kdramas. If it's a revenge melodrama the character gives up or is at least seriously tempted to give up his desire for revenge in the face of love. And in the chaebol-poor girl dramas, the chaebol must seriously consider giving up his fortune to win the girl of his dreams.

Have you noticed any other signs? Let us know.