I did not see this drama in 2019. When I noticed it on Netflix in April 2021 and that it had only 8 episodes, that made me motivated enough because it means I could probably watch the whole thing in 2 days. Not to mention that I have this great interest in teenage love dramas. I’ve already seen Kim So Hyun in other dramas, including River Where The Moon Rises, which was still ongoing. I also saw Song Kang in Navillera, also still ongoing. So I thought, this drama must be a good one since I like both of their acting.

I read both good and bad reviews about this drama, but never mind, I’ll just watch it anyway. So in the first episode we are introduced to this cool phone application called Love Alarm, where you get notified if someone within a 10-meter radius likes you. Then we get to know three students, Kim Jojo, Hwang Sun-Oh and Lee Hye-Yeong who goes to the same school, and as you could probably guess, would get caught in a love triangle.

There were so many questions in my mind about the three of them. Jojo seems to have gone through a traumatic childhood, which I never understood exactly, until I got the answer in episode 6 of Season 2. Hye-Yeong as we know is childhood buddy of Sun-Oh, the son of a wealthy politician and beautiful actress. We then understand that Sun-Oh has a dysfunctional family, with self-centered parents who can only care about their public image.

Then we get to know that Hye Yeong’s mother works in their mansion, more like a head housekeeper, and so basically they live in the same house, but different quarters, but not much do we know about the family background (until Season 2)

I have seen some Song Kang’s temper tantrums as Chae-rok in Navillera, where he still remains to be a good boy, but the character Sun-oh in this drama was so unbearable to me. Sun-Oh was a rich, good-looking guy but he was also arrogant, conceited and somewhat bossy, as if the world revolves around him. He was annoyed that Hey-Yeong did not pick him up at the airport when he returned from the US. He also didn’t approve Hye-Yeong working part-time in a restaurant, because he wants Hye-Yeong to spend more time with him.

What I found also really annoying was he even stalked and kissed Jojo, whom he barely knew, and he already knew that she was Hye-Yeong's object of affection. How could you do this to your very best friend? But then again, I thought, this is a teenage romance drama. You do all sorts of stupid stuff when you were young and immature, and this was part of growing up. So I thought this would be the core of the story, a love triangle among Jojo, Sun-Oh and Hye-Yeong.

The script was a bit disappointing though, and sometimes confusing. We keep on seeing the same flashbacks of Jojo’s childhood, but as each episode continues, we still don’t get a grip on what was going on. Jojo’s cousin, Gul-mi (another annoying character) kept on mentioning about what happened in Jeju with her parents, and even threatened to tell people about it. Still we never understood what happened, and surprisingly, I was not that curious.

Anyway, Love Alarm showed the usual ingredients for teenage drama: love triangles, unrequited love, school bullying, family matters, and the ups and downs of friendship. This was illustrated using the usual K-drama formula, but there were more serious issues on the dark side which were touched briefly, such as school bullying, homosexuality (or more likely gay bullying), suicide (and mass suicide), murder and data privacy.

So how would I rate this drama? I think the acting was superb, but the script needed more substance. I don’t even know what it is, but it seemed like it could be done better. I must say I do like the soundtrack songs (some were in English) and might google to find them after this.