"Valid Love" started this week with the back-story of the relationship between Hee Tae, played by Uhm Tae Woong, and that of the young woman who would one day be his wife.
When they first meet she is a quirky high school student and he is her substitute teacher. The young woman, Il Ri, played by Lee Si Young, develops a crush on her teacher and he cannot help but like her. Fortunately he does not do anything about it.
"Even if I was a substitute, I was still a teacher," says Hee Tae in the drama. "The girl is a minor and a student. I had to stop before it got weird."
Later on they meet again and marry.
Student-teacher relationships are not an uncommon theme in k-dramas. Sometimes it seems okay and sometimes it does risk getting weird. It's most weird when the student is still in high school. Lee Chung Ah was Jung Il Woo's gym teacher in "Flower Boy Ramen Shop." She was only a few years older than he was but as long as she was his teacher it was still a little weird. It certainly was embarrassing for her when she called him oppa and found out he was a high school student and in the class she was teaching.
She did not give in to his advances but she considered it.
Of course, she should not have given in.
Lim Joo Eun rejected Kang Ha Neul's crush on her when she was his Jeguk High School tutor-turned teacher in "The Heirs." But Lee Min Jung was confused about whether she should give in by the fact that her student suitor in "Big," had been magically transported into her grown boyfriend's body.
It's less weird if everyone is already an adult. Kim Soo Hyun was not only Jun Ji Hyun's neighbor in "You Who Came From The Stars." He was also her college professor and no amount of flirting on her part could improve her grades. But he wasn't her teacher for very long, she didn't really care about her grades, and they were both adults.
In "The Woman Who Still Wants To Marry" Park Jin Hee meets Kim Bum for the second time when she is subbing as his college teacher. But she is only his teacher for a short while and he is over 20.
And then there is "A Secret Love Affair" in which a young man, played by Yoo Ah In, falls in love with his much older piano teacher, played by Kim Hee Ae. But again, everyone is an adult in this passionate and secret love affair.
How do you feel about student-teacher romances in k-dramas? Does it creep you out? Is it okay as long as it's platonic? Or as long as both parties are adults? Do you think that age is just a number and in a few years, the age difference won't seem like such a big deal? Let us know what you think.
