“Love Next Door” Faces Backlash for Insensitive Scene Depicting Women

Recently, a scene from episode 7 of the ongoing K-drama, “Love Next Door,” starring Jung Hae-in and Jung So-min, caught the attention of netizens for its negative portrayal of a sensitive topic.

This particular scene shows the female lead, Seok-ryu (Jung So-min), walking in a dark alley when the male lead, Seung-hyo (Jung Hae-in), begins to follow her.

As Seok-ryu becomes aware of her pursuer, she panics and runs in fear but finds herself at a dead-end, forcing her to confront Seung-hyo, whom she accuses of being a “crazy bastard” for scaring her.

Please don’t put in a scene like this. Especially if the male lead isn’t going to immediately realize his mistake and apologize, why don’t he just turn around once? Why are you just running away? Every single day, there are articles about women who stop for a moment and are immediately assaulted and killed. Is that really the male lead’s line in a romantic comedy? It only happens to men, but it’s a real horror that happens to women. Fucking pic.twitter.com/y0d9DmDWwI

— Nugingi (@hiiamnugu) September 7, 2024

However, rather than comforting Seok-ryu, Seung-hyo dismisses her fear, telling her to remain quiet since they are in a residential area.

When Seok-ryu inquired why he had followed her, Seung-hyo retorted with a question about why she had started running.

Upon realizing that her fear stemmed from the belief that someone was chasing her, Seok-ryu asked Seung-hyo to simply call her name. Instead, Seung-hyo shifted the blame onto her, saying, “Well, you should have checked behind you. Why were you only looking forward?”

This scene has resonated deeply with female viewers, eliciting responses that reflect their personal experiences and fears.

“For f*ck’s sake, stop including stupid scenes like this in K-dramas—especially if the male lead isn’t going to realize his wrongdoing and apologize for it right away,” expressed one viewer. They added, “We constantly see news about women getting assaulted and even murdered for stopping to check what’s behind them. So why is a rom-com male lead saying such nonsense? For men, this is just a normal scene, but for women, the fear is real.”

In fact, this criticism has sparked significant discussion on the Korean forum ‘theqoo,’ attracting over 100,000 views.

Here are some reactions from netizens:

Why is the male character like that?
The male lead character is f*cking ruined….
? That’s the male lead? He doesn’t even apologize until the end.
Instead of apologizing, he blamed the female lead?? It’s ridiculous when someone gaslights another after they’ve done something wrong.
Damn, I want to beat up the male lead.
Ah, I hate it when people say things like that as if it’s nothing.

Source: theqoo, Krb, X