The game being played in the South Jersey church social hall was not easy. It asked players to match up k-drama idols with either the group they were in or the drama series they starred in.

Did Krystal match up with "The Heirs" or f(x)?

There was only one correct way to match up the cards but the players at the Korean Drama Group meet-up knew a lot about the subject.

And that's not surprising since they have been meeting to talk about dramas for a decade.

Barbara Pellecchia and her husband John, a schoolteacher, began watching k-dramas when they were shown on Philadelphia's public access television.

"I didn't think anyone else watched them until I joined this group," said Barbara, who searched online for someone to discuss them with. Back in 2000 there were not a lot of options. Then she discovered the Korean Drama Group organized by Theresa Landis.

It started as a yahoo group in 2003 and became a web-based group, koreandramas.net in 2005.

"We used to get together twice a year," said Landis. "But now we only meet once a year."

Landis also began her k-drama addiction viewing historical dramas on a PBS station and wanted someone to discuss them with, so she founded the group.

"Within a month we had 100 people in the yahoo group, who mainly wanted to talk about daily dramas and mini series."

At the most, the group had 700 members but that's now down to 250.

"Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of them have the same story," said Landis. "They caught the dramas by accident. It seemed interesting so they watched it and they were hooked."

Landis liked how different k-dramas were from American television.

"What I like about them is that they tell a story without people jumping in and out of bed. And there's the format. There's a start, middle and finish to the stories. They don't go on for 20 years."

But once the drama ends, fans do want to discuss it.

"When the dramas end, people are sad to see the characters go," said Landis.

Some of the group's members have been inspired to learn more about Korean culture. Some take language and Korean cooking lessons. Some members of the group traveled to Korea on the k-drama tour inspired by "Winter Sonata."

"When we were on the tour, people seemed surprised to see us and wanted to know why we were there," said Kathy Dewes, who shares her love of dramas with her daughter Jenn.

An interest in Korean drama also inspired some of the members to learn more about k-pop.

Barbara Pellecchia says her husband's interest in k-pop comes in handy when he's teaching school in Philadelpia.

"Ten percent of the kids there are Asian," said Barbara. "His students love it that he knows kpop. They think he's kind of cool."

This story is the first in a series about k-drama fans.

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