Have you ever wished that real life could be like the romantic kdramas on your screen?

Well, that actually happened to our very own Ella, whose real life became very kdramatic, when she least expected it!

She first told us about it over on Patreon, during one of the Entertainment Drops, when I’d shared the trailer for Soundtrack #2, which is coming up soon, and we basically all lost our collective minds squeeing over the summary that she’d provided. 🤭

One thing led to another, and now, Ella’s here to share her real life kdrama love story with all of us, with fresh new details that weren’t included in her initial summary. Eee!!

I’ve also taken the liberty of doctoring a Soundtrack #1 poster, so that we’d have a customized poster for Ella’s story, because it totally deserves one, yes? 😁

Thank you Ella, for sharing your lovely story with us!

I hope you all love her story as much as I do!

KFG ❤️

PS: Also, in case you’d like to read more of Ella’s writing, she’s shared a guest post with us before, in our Stories from the Community series, which you can find here!

How a Kdrama Turned My Life Around

Hello kfangurl/ Kdrama family! My name is Ella and I would like to tell you all about how watching a Kdrama in April 2022 (Soundtrack no.1) led to me being engaged in October 2023!

Do you know the saying “life is a movie”? Well for me, that phrase couldn’t be truer.

Except, it’s more of a Kdrama rather than a movie hahah!

So, what happened and how did Soundtrack no.1 lead me to the love of my life?

As it’s a bit of a long story I’ve sectioned this blog post out akin to a 16 episode Kdrama (gotta pay homage to Kdramaland and its frameworks hehe!).

I’ve watched quite a few romantic Kdramas and 16 seems to be the glorious number so here goes. If you dont have time, just read Episode 1, Episode 7-9 and Episode 16.

Happy reading!

Episode 1: Childhood friends (2004)

K and I were born and raised in the same neighbourhood in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Both with a Ghanaian heritage, it was just a matter of time before we crossed paths due the large but intimate community at the age of 13.

I don’t recall the first time K and I actually met but he remembers seeing me around. We were also friends on the “then Facebook” from back in the day but had not spoken to one another in real life.

In the year 2004 my family decided that we were to leave Amsterdam and move to England. 2 weeks before we were due to leave, K and I bumped into each other near our neighbourhood.

To my knowledge, this was our first in person conversation. He vaguely remembers this interaction which I find funny as I don’t recall the interactions we had prior to this.

We greeted each other and got talking. During the conversation he asked whether he could have my number. I politely told him there was no point as I was moving.

That didn’t deter him (Thank Jesus!). In response, he asked whether he could have my email address instead so we could keep in touch via email instead. I agreed.

Episodes 2-4: Building Blocks (2005 – 2017)

When I moved to England I did not speak much English at all. Starting a new school at that age – secondary school might I add – meant that everyone had already formed their friendship groups.

The need to therefore keep my friends from back home close was important to me as was the retention of the Dutch language.

As a result of this, instant messaging as well as emails became a comfort blanket for me after a long day at school trying to catch up with a new syllabus whilst trying to keep up with understanding the British language and all that comes with it.

Being able to speak to my best friends became a life line for me in the first 3 years.

K was one of the friends I kept close and chatted to regularly.

Slowly but surely we became very close and would chat chat daily (hello MSN). We would share about school, homework and life in general. He was so easy to talk to and that’s exactly what I needed to navigate the teenage years.

Episodes 5-6: Unrequited Love (2017 -2022)

My family would often go back to the Netherlands for holidays to visit family and friends.

Of course I also always wanted to go back because I wanted to see my friends. I would always make it a point to tell K that I was in town.

We would go out for lunch or dinner and hang out. I never thought of him in any other way.

Slowly but surely however, I started to feel a shift. K liked me but I didn’t feel the same way.

Whilst hurt, as one would expect from an 18 year old, he decided that he still wanted to be friends.

The years that followed saw us both heading to university followed by the working world. It meant that we didn’t speak as much. But we still made sure that we checked in on birthday’s, milestones like passing driving tests or any other major life updates.

Episodes 7-9: Soundtrack no.1 (April 2022)

Fast forward to April 2022.

I had grown to love Kdramas since I was introduced to it in 2020. And like most people reading this, it’s all I’ve ever watched since then.

I, however, took things a bit further. I introduced many people to it and built my own Kdrama tribe around me.

I’ve convinced at least 20 people to watch Crash Landing On You, I’ve hosted a few K-BBQ’s, introduced my family to Korean restaurants and hosted watch parties.

The 2nd of April 2022 was one such day where 2 friends and I decided to do just that. The chosen drama being Soundtrack #1.

For those who haven’t seen it, see kfangurl’s brilliant review here.

In summary, it’s about 2 best friends who have known each other for nearly 2 decades. The male lead has always been in love with the female lead since young. And now years later, as adults she finally realises this and falls in love with him too.

He had been waiting all along.

After we finished the drama my friend sighed and said “I wish I had a best friend that was in love with me.”

I then looked at her, sighed and said “I know right, I wish I did too.”

It then hit me.

“Wait a minute..” I said and both friends turned to look at my shell-shocked face. “I think I do”.

In that moment our friendship, his kindness, his generosity and all the things that I loved about him that made me like him as friend came rushing to me.

Episodes 10-12: My Epiphany (April 2022 – September 2022)

On the same day I messaged him to check how he had been doing. This turned into a daily conversation over the course of the month.

That worked for me as I needed to really understand how I was feeling, pray about the situation and make sure this was real.

Mind you, we hadn’t spoken for 4 months but hadn’t seen each other for 4 years. I therefore took the approach of taking my time and treading carefully.

Due to a family emergency, it so happened that I needed to head back to the Netherlands 2 months after my epiphany. It now meant that I could see him, see what it would be like in person and again, check whether this was real.

I saw him twice, and for me that was it. It was a done deal.

Episodes 13-14: Kdrama (October 2022 – December 2022)

What then ensued over the next few months could have definitely been written by a Kdrama writer.

To keep the story short, I attended a wedding not long after my trip to the Netherlands where I was approached by another gentle man who seemed lovely.

Around the same time K, who was blissfully unware of the shift in my heart, was considering getting to know another lady.

This meant that I had to say something and do so quick.

I ended up having to confess to him.

And you will never guess how it started. “So, I watched a Kdrama…” you can imagine his face haha!

It turned out that he had not looked at me in that way since he confessed during our teenage years and therefore needed time to think.

I was taken aback to be honest. We had been speaking every day for nearly 6 months at this point and I, in classic girl fashion, assumed he was on the same page.

We decided to carefully explore this new territory whilst still considering the other people who had entered the scene.

This was not my idea and it wasn’t something that I wanted. But given the fact that I had 6 months to process my feelings and he, at the point of this conversation, had only had 24 hours, this was what he was comfortable with.

He wanted to make sure that he made the right decision as he knew that he would be marrying the person he would be choose. We wanted to be transparent with either people on our side who we both made aware of this situation. (Sticky!)

The next few months was a rollercoaster for me. I would wake up hopeful and go to bed sad. Not quite knowing what the future held.

We decided to check in each month for the next 2 months to see how we were both feeling.

Each monthly catch up for me was full of hope that he had decided but he would express on each occasion that he still needed time.

I know this wasn’t a long time, but it felt like an eternity.

We then made the decision that a conclusion would need to be reached by the end of the year.

I definitely didn’t want to enter the new year with uncertainties, neither did I want to keep someone who was keen to get to know me waiting either. To manage my emotions, I kept a daily journal which helped me express my thoughts and feelings.

Episode 15: It’s You (December 2022)

Having made up his mind, K decided to fly over to London in December.

He wanted to have the talk straight away when he landed. But, unsure of what the final decision would be, I asked whether we could have the talk the day before he was due to fly back, which was 3 days later.

On his penultimate day, we had the chat in which he had a few questions for me. As did I. Once those were smoothed out, I held my breath as he spoke.

“Ok, I’ve made my decision. I would like to be with you. Also, we’ve known each other for such a long time so this is it for me. I would like to spend the rest of my life with you and therefore wouldnt want to spend too long in a relationship before we move on to marriage.”

I don’t think I’ll ever forget how I felt when I heard those words. Firstly, this was now my first ever relationship. As if that wasn’t enough, here was also a promise of a future together forever.

We both knew that this was indeed it.

On the same day, I also gifted him with the journal I kept. It allowed him to see the whole journey from my perspective and till this day, is the most precious gift he has received from me.

The next 9 months saw us flying back and forth between London and Amsterdam on a monthly basis. Thankfully the flight is only 45 minutes and therefore works!

Episode 16: Happy Ever After (October 2023)

10 months into our relationship he flew over to London for my birthday. He surprised me with a holiday to Santorini for my birthday.

He had each day planned out. We hiked, enjoyed a food tour and countless of beautiful evening strolls through the main town in Thira.

On our penultimate day, he had booked a private sunset boat tour. It was just us and the crew.

As the sun was setting, we decided to take some pictures. Whilst directing and posing, I had no idea that one of the crew members had slipped the engagement ring box to him.

Busy giving directions on how we should pose for the captain who had his phone at the ready, I turned to him as he was not responding to my directions. Only to find him on one knee!

It was an instant yes for me! Lots of tears and phone calls ensued over the next 48 hours.

It was my birthday two days later and I certainly wasn’t expecting anything apart for a nice quiet dinner with him as he had told me we would be going for dinner.

That evening, we drove into Central London where he had organised a surprise dinner with 28 of my close friends and family.

Needless to say, the flood gates opened again. The evening was simply glorious as it doubled as my birthday celebration but also an engagement party,

So, here we are in November wedding planning!

For those who have been keeping track of the timeline, we celebrate our first anniversary next month.

So much has happened in less than a year.

A year ago I was single and now I’m planning a wedding.

I’m a Christian and believe that everything can happen but also that there is a purpose to everything that happens to one in life.

So just a word of encouragement from me: if you are believing and hoping for something, keep believing and hoping. Everything is possible.

I’m living and walking in a miracle and I’m forever thankful to God who has weaved a wonderful Kdrama love story together. And its so much better than what I hoped for or could have ever conjured up myself.

I will be sharing our wedding pictures once we get married but for now, thank you for reading my story!

Credits – Thanks a million!

I don’t know if this will ever be seen by the Soundtrack #1 crew, but a heartfelt thank you to writer Ahn Sae-bom and producer Kim Hee-won of Soundtrack #1.

And of course a very big thank you to Park Hyung-sik and Han So-hee who depicted this story so beautifully.

Finally, thank you kfangurl for giving me the opportunity to share my story.

~Ella