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I’m not sure why, but it’s extremely rare in K-drama for male love interest to grow up with his biological parents. This does not seem to reflect Korean culture in real life. Wikipedia says that Korea doesn’t have a strong culture of adoption, and Korea was the origin of America’s international adoption industry after the Korean War. Yet something makes this a compelling trope for K-drama.

In K-drama, the boy was usually abandoned or orphaned at an older age rather than as an infant. This is always a major trauma, although often subject to amnesia. It does not seem to be a romanticized idea of the woman meeting all of a man’s emotional needs; in many cases, the boy has landed in a loving and supportive adoptive family. It is often tied to the nearly mandatory secret childhood connection. If your parents died in a car accident or a fire, it’s a safe bet your one true love lost their parents in the same tragedy. Since most K-drama parents die in traffic accidents and fires, this means that many female leads are also adopted. But I have yet to watch a K-drama where the female lead is orphaned, and the male lead’s biological family is intact. So the trope seems to be specific to male leads.

The reason is a mystery, but as the length of the example list below shows, something makes adopted boys more lovable.