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A scene from “Between Steps” / Courtesy of KT Studio Genie

ENA’s Monday-Tuesday drama “Between Steps,” which portrays the awkward romance and growth of young people, is quietly gaining critical acclaim. It has ranked No. 1 in Korea and No. 5 globally in the Disney+ TV show category, according to FlixPatrol.

The series is the final work of director Ahn Pan-seok, who died in August this year. His signature approach to romance of moving viewers through everyday words and glances, without rich corporate heirs or fantasy elements remained unmistakably his to the very end.

Min-jae (Choo Young-woo), a doctoral student in robotics, is a guarded man who has never been in a relationship. Having lost a leg to bone cancer more than a decade ago and been forced to give up his dream of becoming a swimmer, he pretends to be unaffected but is full of thoughts and deeply afraid of being hurt. Yu-jin (Kim So-hyun), a junior researcher in his lab, boldly pursues him. Min-jae initially pushes her away, saying, “You’re too hot, like the sun,” but eventually decides to approach her. “Once I swallow something, I never spit it back out. I have to see it through to the end. Are you still willing?”

Ahn was widely regarded as a master of hyperrealistic directing. His works brought everyday life to the screen through detailed portrayals of people in specific professions and environments, including doctors, private academy instructors, pharmacists and librarians. “Between Steps” similarly uses a university’s graduate research lab to realistically depict young people struggling with careers and futures.

“An engineering research lab is a place where people find studying the easiest thing to do and romance the hardest,” said Kim Hyun-jung, executive producer at KT Studio Genie. “I think he wanted to capture the amusing irony of these characters growing through relationships.” The small conflicts and bonds among lab colleagues also lend the drama a sense of realism and vitality.

Another distinctly Ahn-like quality is his ability to reveal the characters’ emotions gradually, rather than rely on sensational events. In one scene, Yu-jin is overcome with emotion as she helps Min-jae put a sneaker on his prosthetic leg. In another, Min-jae receives an email offering him a postdoctoral position at a U.S. university — when he seeks out Yu-jin and embraces her, his face clouded with conflicting emotions. Without a single line of dialogue, both scenes convey the feelings the two have kept inside.

“Ordinary words — one, two, three — accumulate, and then, in the silence that follows, in what lies between the lines, a deep emotional connection and resonance emerge,” Kim said. “His distinctive approach was to build each episode’s climax solely through the playful exchanges of feelings between characters.”

In Ahn’s melodramas, love does not solve everything. After learning about Min-jae’s disability, Yu-jin’s older brother demands that he stop seeing his sister. Min-jae gives up his opportunity to go to the United States. But Yu-jin pushes him to pursue his future, refusing to let him abandon his dream because of her.

Even if you are imperfect and your future uncertain, this moment is the most beautiful time of your youth, so do not be afraid to move forward. It is the final encouragement the master director left for Min-jae and Yu-jin, who stumble through love as they grow, and for the viewers watching them.

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.