Director: Ahn Pan-seok
Seo Hye-jin has spent years building walls around her heart while running one of Korea's most demanding cram schools. The Midnight Romance in Hagwon cracks those walls open the moment a former student walks back through her office door, older, sharper, and impossible to ignore.
What is The Midnight Romance in Hagwon (Graduation) about?
Hye-jin is a veteran instructor known across the hagwon circuit for her discipline and her guarded personal life. When Lee Joon-ho reappears a decade after being her student, he's no longer the awkward teenager she remembers; he's confident, successful, and openly interested in more than a reunion. Their re-acquaintance starts professionally, as colleagues navigating the competitive world of private academies, but old feelings resurface faster than either expects. The series traces how a workplace built on strict boundaries slowly makes room for a relationship neither of them planned, while colleagues, family, and the pressures of the hagwon industry complicate every step forward.
Cast & crew
Jung Ryeo-won anchors the series as Hye-jin, playing the character's brisk professionalism against flashes of vulnerability she'd rather hide. Wi Ha-jun plays Joon-ho with an easy charm that makes his persistence read as sincere rather than pushy. So Joo-yeon and Yang Jo-a round out the supporting cast as figures inside the same academy orbit, each pulling the central pair's secret in different directions.
Context & significance
Director Ahn Pan-seok sets the drama inside South Korea's hagwon system, the after-school academy network where instructors' reputations and students' futures are tightly bound together. That backdrop gives the romance real stakes beyond the will-they-won't-they hook: a relationship between a teacher and a former student threatens careers, not just feelings, and the series leans into that tension rather than glossing over it. It sits within a wave of workplace-set Korean romances that trade fantasy settings for recognizable, high-pressure environments.
Where & how to watch
The Midnight Romance in Hagwon streams on K-Time with Persian dubbing and Persian subtitles, so viewers can follow every scene in Farsi. A free K-Time account is all that's needed to start watching; the show's episode guide and cast details are visible on this page without logging in.