Five Edgy, Sophisticated Leading Men in Romance Kdramas

Hyper-competitive Lee Hwa Shin's baseline personality is naturally edgy. Add in feeling tortured over family events, and he doesn't get any nicer. He spurns Pyo Na Ri's advances for three years. Then unforeseen events make him see what a stellar human being she is. But by the time he falls, she's fed up. Will she rebound with his kind, sweet best friend?

Leads Jang Jae Yeol, a sharp-tongued author, and Ji Hae Soo, a psychiatrist who it turns out can hold her own, verbally battle on his talk show. It's instant frenemies to lovers. This is a moving, profound drama that explores trauma and mental illness.

Yoo So Joon's cynicism filter seems to have a permanent on switch, and he can be cutting and dismissive. He's made a fortune in real estate due to a limited time travel ability, but he keeps a distance from his employees. And when he first meets Song Ma Rin, he holds her at arm's length, too. But Yoo So Joon sees some alarming future timelines that motivate him to get closer.

Rejection karma ricochets from one couple to another in this psychologically complex drama. Although the show is closer to romcom than melodrama, its characters have remarkably strong feelings of self doubt, jealousy, resentment, regret, and self-loathing. Sound engineer Park Do Gyeong is edgy for the degree to which he's uncomfortable in his own psyche. 

Two incarnations for one soul, writers Han Se Ju and Seo Hwi Yeong share not only literary talent, but also the kind of personality that can keep secrets, hold back vulnerability, and do what must be done.