If you love your C-dramas packed with romance, angst, and sizzling chemistry but don’t have the patience for 40 episodes, these short-format series are perfect for a weekend binge. These bite-sized dramas prove that great storytelling doesn’t need long run times. In fact, their fast-paced plots, addictive characters, and sharp emotional arcs make them all the more irresistible.
Whether it’s rekindled romances, enemies-to-lovers twists, or a love that blooms against all odds, these mini dramas deliver big feelings in small packages. Here are five to add to your watchlist!
“Ten Years of Unrequited Love”
Lin Miao Miao (Ji Shu Yi) was forced to end her relationship with Cen Si Yuan (He Chang Xi) years ago after his ambitious mother, a powerful entrepreneur, decided her son deserved someone from a more “suitable” background. 10 years later, life comes full circle when Miao Miao ends up working as the trusted assistant to the same woman who once tore them apart. Si Yuan returns as the new CEO of the family group, now engaged to another woman, but a sudden business crisis throws him and Miao Miao back into each other’s orbits. As old wounds reopen and long-buried feelings resurface, the two must face their past while navigating the tension that still sparks between them.
With just 24 episodes of 10 minutes each, this short drama delivers it all—heartbreak, nostalgia, redemption, and sizzling chemistry.
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“Rainkissed Fate”
Six years ago, Bu Yan (Chen Fang Tong) had a one-night stand after a blind date that unexpectedly left her pregnant with twins. Now, her world is shaken when one of her children is diagnosed with leukemia and needs a blood donation from a close relative. In her desperate search, Bu Yan crosses paths with Hu Ye Chen (Dai Gao Zheng)—the father of her twins, a once-promising boxer whose career was destroyed by a match-fixing scandal.
Knowing that Ye Chen is the donor her child needs, Bu Yan proposes a contract marriage, hiding her true intentions. But as they start living together, old wounds resurface, buried emotions reignite, and the two find themselves confronting the past they once ran away from.
“Rainkissed Fate” is a poignant, healing romance about timing, forgiveness, and the courage to embrace second chances.
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“Grab Your Love”
If you love a mix of romance, light-hearted banter, and ambition wrapped in a gorgeous period setting, “Grab Your Love” might just be your next binge.
The drama follows Min Jiang Xi (Tan Yan Yan), a fiercely driven woman who dreams of becoming the best female tutor in Shencheng. Smart, confident, and not afraid to challenge conventions, Jiang Xi knows that joining the influential Qin family could open doors to her dream career. But things take a complicated turn when she crosses paths with Qin Zhan (Wang Xuan), the family’s formidable head—a man both feared and misunderstood, known across the city as “the Villain of Shencheng.”
What starts off as a clash of egos and wit slowly transforms into a story of mutual respect, understanding, and undeniable chemistry.
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“Love in the Edge of Divorce”
What happens when a marriage that’s all but over turns into an unexpected second chance at love?
Sheng Mian (Li Xing Yao), a designer, is trapped in a loveless arranged marriage with the stoic CEO Fu Yan Cheng (Ryan Ren). After three years of silence and distance, the couple mutually agrees to divorce, but fate and a scheming stepmother have other plans.
A twisted setup leads to Sheng Mian and Yan Cheng sharing an unplanned yet steamy night together, neither realizing who the other truly is. When Sheng Mian discovers the truth, she chooses to keep her identity hidden. By a stroke of coincidence, Yan Cheng soon hires designers for his villa, and Sheng Mian, desperate for clients, takes the job under an alias. As they spend more time together, sparks fly, and as they fall in love, there are complications. Will Sheng Mian reveal her identity to Yan Cheng as the very woman he had rejected and refused to acknowledge as his wife? What happens once the truth comes out? Can they start all over again?
“Love in the Edge of Divorce” is a racy romantic drama, giving you all the melodrama that makes a love story dramatic.
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“Sadistic Love”
He Zheng (Dai Gao Zheng) has secretly loved his stepsister, He An Ran (Yu Yi Yao). But when tragedy strikes and he witnesses his mother’s imprisonment and death at the hands of An Ran’s father, his love curdles into something darker. Vanishing without a trace, He Zheng reemerges five years later as He Lian Zheng, a powerful and feared warlord bent on revenge.
In a chilling twist of fate, he captures his stepfather and forces An Ran into marriage—a union haunted by love, guilt, and rage. Yet the story grows even more tangled with the return of Mo Yu Tang (Guan Yue), a boy He Zheng once protected. Bound by loyalty but scarred by betrayal, Yu Tang now harbors his own resentment after losing the ability to walk following He Zheng’s disappearance.
As past wounds and forbidden emotions collide, the three find themselves ensnared in a dangerous web of retribution and desire. Can love possibly survive in a world consumed by vengeance—or is tragedy inevitable?
Start watching “Sadistic Love”:
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Puja Talwar is a Soompi writer with a strong Yoo Yeon Seok and Lee Junho bias. A long time K-drama fan, she loves devising alternate scenarios to the narratives. She has interviewed Lee Min Ho, Gong Yoo, Cha Eun Woo, and Ji Chang Wook to name a few. You can follow her on @puja_talwar7 on Instagram
