5 Lessons The Kdrama “Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha” Taught Us About Love

If you’re like me, you have been OBSESSED with the Netflix Kdrama “Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha,” and have been binging all of the content you can find, including artist exclusive interviews, replaying the Kdrama OST album nonstop, and snagging the latest kdrama merch from the popular Kdrama.

If there is one thing we can take away from this family Kdrama, it is its prominent theme of the importance of healthy relationships when it comes to love. We follow the tales of Hong Du-sik (played by Kim Seon-ho) and Yoon Hyejin (played by Shin Min-a) and their story through finding romance and building their relationship in Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha.

Following their storylines was refreshing compared to other main leads in romantic Kdramas seen recently. We enjoyed watching their journey on Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha and the imperfections that life and love have in their lives. As a person who is still exploring her own way in love and relationships, here are the 5 major themes of love that resonated with us throughout the show’s run:

Right from Episode 1 of Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha, we never expected Du-sik and Hye-jin to be compatible, as they seemed to be from two different worlds. Du-sik is introduced as the jack-of-all-trades, using his talents to help others in his community first while living a simplistic lifestyle overall. Meanwhile, Hye-jin seemed to focus and put more prestige on her career goals and morals, believing that her luxurious and well-educated lifestyle was superior to others.

The couple did clash at the beginning of Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha, with their conflicting lifestyles and values trumping each other. However, along the way, both became more open to the idea of one another, and from that openness to learning, they could balance and complement each other in a special way. This, in turn, strengthened their bond and formed the relationship we all fawned over by the end of the series.

This point embodies the entirety of the show as a whole. Hye-jin was one to quickly judge each townsperson in Gong-jin and even openly criticized musician and cafe owner Oh Yoon during the second episode of Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha, causing the rest of the townspeople to openly dislike her as well.

However, through further getting to know each of the townspeople's characters and life stories, Hye-jin learned to appreciate each individual's different backgrounds and grew to love the charming personalities that made up the quiet, rural town of Gong-jin in Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha.

She also would not have grown closer to Du-sik if she had not opened herself to learning more about his background and how he got to the casual lifestyle he is living today. This is the same for Du-sik in his own judgments of Hye-jin and her more luxurious life values. 

Their love and relationship blossomed in Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha through sharing personal past experiences with each other and really getting to know each other as people, looking past their first impressions. 

We often forget that love doesn’t always have to be romantic, and this is showcased most powerfully in “Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha.” However, in this family Korean drama, we never truly see the traditional nuclear family represented; instead, the family comes from within the small town community’s bond with one another.

Sure, the townspeople in Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha fight each other sometimes. And lots of times, they do genuinely hurt each other’s feelings and have misunderstandings with each other. However, they always manage to mend those relationships and can be there for one another when in need.

It’s also heartwarming and healing to see the multitude of interactions and bonding moments among the members of the town of “Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha.” From the moments that Hye-jin bonded with Oh Juri over boy band DOS in episode 4 to learning more about Gam-ri and Du-sik’s long history and the grandmothers in Gong-jin always seen together in all of their daily activities, you can’t help but fall in love with this community’s strong bond and realize its importance in one’s own life. 

You may believe that it was fate from the start with Du-sik and Hye-jin as it was revealed that the two met in Gong-jin when they were children during the last episode of Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha. However, their love didn’t truly start until they started properly communicating, eventually bonding over their deepest secrets and learning to accept their past mistakes, making them the people they are today.

One relationship that followed through with this theme of love strongly was our second lead relationship with Hye-jin’s best friend, Mi-seon, and her growing affections for the police officer, Eun-chul. Their relationship was built on the fact that the timing to confess was always slightly off until Mi-seon chose to initiate the confession in episode 12 of Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha.

As mentioned earlier, relationships come with proper communication and looking past those first impressions. That communication comes with time and often with trial and error. Hye-jin and Du-sik’s relationship in Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha came with patience as they shared more about their past experiences and went through hardships after they were all grown up together.

This theme of love also goes for familial relationships as well. Otherwise, how else would Hyejin have been able to recover from the microphone blunder in Episode 2? She had to spend a lot of time repairing the relationships she broke with the rest of the townspeople after badmouthing Oh Yoon and losing everyone’s trust in her. Fortunately for her, as the season went on, Hye-jin was able to connect with the townspeople more and opened up a more symbiotic, empathic relationship with her and her community members.

Did you notice any of these lessons of love as well? Let us know which theme resonated with you the most in the comments below! If you wanted to know more about where to buy kdrama OST albums such as “Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha,” and the latest kdrama goods, be sure to check out The Daebak Company!