Love Alarm (좋아하면 울리는; Joahamyeon Ullineun) is a 2019 Korean Drama series developed by Netflix, based on the webtoon of the same name created by Kye-young Chon.
The story centers around a new phone app called Love Alarm, which can synchronize with the users' hearts, and notifies them whenever there's someone who has romantic feelings for them within a 10-meter radius. The app becomes massively popular throughout the country, including the main characters' high school.
The show focuses on the Love Triangle between Kim Jo-jo (Kim So Hyun), a sweet girl who hides a tragic backstory, Hwang Sun-oh (Song Kang), a popular young model who quickly develops feelings for her, and Lee Hye-yeong (Jung Ga-ram), Sun-oh's childhood friend, who is also in love with Jo-jo.
The first season premiered on Netflix on August 22, 2019, while season 2 was released on March 12, 2021.
Love Alarm contains examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Gul-mi is absolutely disgusted by Duk-gu, and she is horrified when he rings her Love Alarm.
- All of the Other Reindeer: After the picture of Jo-jo and Sun-oh kissing goes viral, Jo-jo is ostracized by the entire school and her friends want nothing to do with her. In one episode, a girl purposely bumps into her, causing her to drop her phone.
- Armoured Closet Gay: A male high school student beats up another one for ringing his love alarm, but he immediately stops and runs away when Hye-yeong comes in his defense. The truth is that he likes men himself, and the reason he runs away from Hye-yeong is because he has a crush on him.
- Butt-Monkey: Duk-gu is the laughing stock of his school, and he's especially hated by his crush Gul-mi.
- Chick Magnet: Sun-oh's Love Alarm is always ringing, and there are literally thousands of people who have a crush on him. Justified, since he's an international model. He has no interest in them, and only has eyes for Jo-jo, since she likes him for who he is, not for his celebrity status.
- Clashing Cousins: Jo-jo has a terrible relationship with her cousin Gul-mi, who blames Jo-jo for all of her family's problems, since Jo-jo has been raised by Gul-mi's mother ever since she became an orphan. It only gets worse when Jo-jo begins a relationship with Sun-oh, who Gul-mi has a crush on.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Jo-jo has a tragic backstory, in which her parents died and she almost died herself.
- Dating Service Disaster: The Love Alarm app starts out well, but soon spirals into several issues. Not only does it fuel the conflict between the main Love Triangle, but it also ruins relationships where the lovers don't ring each other's alarms, outs closeted LGBT+ people, and even drives people suicidal when no one rings their alarms.
- Emotion Suppression: Downplayed. Jo-jo activates a shield on her Love Alarm, which doesn't suppress her actual feelings, but keeps her from ringing other people's Love Alarms even if she's in love with them.
- Even the Guys Want Him: Hye-yeong has quite a few admirers, one of them a guy who tried to keep his feelings a secret.
- False Friend: Despite supposedly being Jo-jo's best friend, Jung-go takes a picture of Jo-jo and Sun-oh kissing and spreads it through the internet, in order to ruin her relationship with Il-sik, who she has a crush on.
- Fictional Social Network: The show revolves around Love Alarm, a fictional phone app that tells you if there's anyone with a crush on you within a 10-meter radius.
- Foreshadowing: Il-sik asks Jung-go why she was trying to get between him and Jo-jo in the first episode when she told Jo-jo that one of their teachers needed to see her. Later on, it’s revealed that she really was trying to break them up because she was in love with Il-sik.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Gul-mi is jealous of Jo-jo being the object of Sun-oh’s affections. She tries to get Jo-jo to break up with Sun-oh on her own and later told Sun-oh part of Jo-jo’s past hoping that he would leave her and go out with Gul-mi.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Sun-oh and Hye-yeong are childhood friends, and are still very close to each other.
- Homophobic Hate Crime: One of the male high school students beats up another one for ringing his Love Alarm.
- Jerkass: Gul-mi is a complete jerk to Jo-jo, as she pretty much blames her for surviving the incident in which her parents died, and bullies her all the time. She's also very mean to Duk-gu after he rings her Love Alarm and treats him like garbage.
- Love Hurts: A main theme with the series. A lot of characters deal with unrequited or spurned affections. For some people, not having their Love Alarm ring leads to them killing themselves.
- Love Triangle: The story focuses of the love triangle between Jo-jo, Sun-oh, and Hye-yeong.
- Love Dodecahedron: While main Love Triangle is that of Jo-jo, Sun-oh, and Hye-yeong, several other characters are romantically connected to them one way or another. In the beginning, Jo-jo has a boyfriend, Il-sik, who Jung-go has a crush on, so the latter tries to ruin their relationship. Gul-mi is attracted to Sun-oh, and is very jealous when Jo-jo starts dating him; meanwhile, Duk-gu is attracted to Gul-mi, even though she despises him. Later on, Sun-oh has a new girlfriend, Yuk-jo.
- Nephewism: Jo-jo is raised by her aunt after becoming an orphan.
- Not with Them for the Money: Jo-jo geniunely loves Sun-oh for who he is, not for his money or fame.
- Parental Neglect: Sun-oh's mother is very aloof. A famous actress, she doesn't seem to care much about Sun-oh, other than his modeling career.
- Secret Relationship: Jo-jo and Sun-oh initially try to keep their relationship a secret, though it becomes incresingly obvious for everyone that they're together.
- Stepford Smiler: Jo-jo tries to seem cheerful, but deep down she's a very sad person. She has a Dark and Troubled Past in which her parents died and she almost died herself, she's constantly tormented by her cousin Gul-mi, and she's forced to work for her aunt to pay for the debt her parents left.
- Suicide Pact: The country is shocked when it hits the news that a group has collectively committed suicide, because no one would ring their Love Alarms.
- Supernatural Phone: Technology has reached a point where a phone app can "synch with your heart" and tell who you're in love with.
- Survivor Guilt: Gul-mi and her mother constantly make Jo-jo feel guilty for surviving the incident in which her parents died.
- Waving Signs Around: Love Alarm is a very controversial app, and its detractors hold protests against it.
- Work Off the Debt: Jo-jo has to work for her aunt to pay for the debt left by her parents.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Gul-mi starts a fight with Jo-jo at school and after a teacher breaks it up, she claims Jo-jo started it. In the next episode, she reiterates the same thing to her mother.
