Netflix K-drama Love Next Door: Jung Hae-in, Jung So-min in colourful healing romcom

Jung Hae-in and Jung So-min both give strong performances as childhood friends thrown back together in adulthood

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Jung So-min (left) and Jung Hae-in as childhood friends Baek Seok-ryu and Choi Seung-hyo in a still from Love Next Door, a new Korean drama on Netflix.

Pierce Conran

Published: 7:45pm, 22 Aug 2024

Lead cast: Jung Hae-in, Jung So-min

Latest Nielsen rating: 6 per cent

Echoing popular recent series such as Welcome to Samdal-ri and The Good Bad Mother, Love Next Door shows that sometimes the thing you have been looking for has been there all along.

Jung Hae-in (Snowdrop) and Jung So-min (Alchemy of Souls) lead this romantic comedy as childhood friends and neighbours who have grown up and left home, but life lures them back to the nest.

Love Next Door | Official Trailer | Netflix

Choi Seung-hyo (Jung Hae-in) and Baek Seok-ryu (Jung So-min) were thrown together when they were just four years old, when their mothers, Seo Hye-sook (Jang Young-nam) and Na Mi-sook (Park Ji-young), became friends.

Both children excelled in their schooling and careers, which sparked a healthy rivalry between their mothers, who like nothing more than to boast about their prodigious progenies. Seung-hyo became an architect and Seok-ryu a corporate go-getter.

Seung-hyo keeps getting awards for his architectural projects and charitable works, while Seok-ryu works for a world-famous company in America and is on the cusp of getting married.

But one day, Seok-ryu makes an unscheduled visit back to Korea, unbeknown to her family. She tries her best to avoid them but cannot help bumping into Seung-hyo.

Jung So-min as Korea-returnee Baek Seok-ryu in a still from Love Next Door.