The drama Just Between Lovers (JTBC 2017–2018), also known as Rain or Shine, is at the more serious end of the K-dramas I have watched. I really enjoyed it despite not having expected something with this tone.

The story’s background is loosely based on the real-life disaster in 1995 when Sampoong Department Store in Seoul collapsed. In reality 502 people were killed and 937 injured. In the TV show, the collapse of the fictional S-Mall kills 48 people and the drama focuses on two of the survivors 10 years later.

Lee Kang-doo (played by Lee Jun-ho) and Ha Moon-soo (Won Jin-ah) both lost a family member when S-Mall collapsed and they are still dealing with grief as well as their own trauma. Kang-doo was badly injured in the disaster and still struggles with physical pain as well as nightmares about the time he spent trapped in the rubble. He works in temporary construction jobs. He acts tough but is sweet at his core.

Moon-soo has trained as an architect specializing in safety regulations. She has her life together but suffers from her mother’s alcoholism. And though she has lost much of her memory from the day S-Mall collapsed, it still haunts her. She’s practical and not easily phased.

After a decade of the land sitting empty, a new building project has been approved for the site where S-Mall once stood. Moon-soo is hired as a contractor for the architect firm working on it. Kang-doo is hired as a night watchman by the construction company. Their paths begin to cross but their worlds seem so different it takes time for them to realise they have so much in common.

There’s a big class element to the story. Both the lead characters have working class backgrounds, but their financial situations and the circles they mix in are quite different. Moon-soo’s parents both own their own small businesses. Her best friend Kim Wan-jin (Park Hee-von) writes web toons. Kang-doo is drowning in debt. The people closest to him are a nightclub hostess and a black market medicine seller.

At the other end of the scale, the head of the architect firm where Moon-soo works is Seo Joo-won (Lee Ki-woo), a suave rich sophisticate who honestly I found a bit smug. And the construction company is an old-school example of chaebol – large Korean corporations that are family-owned. As is often the case in K-dramas, some of the most senior figures in this chaebol are corrupt in that they are willing – keen, even – to cut corners to save money or get the project finished quicker. Which has worrying echoes of what happened 10 years earlier, leading to the S-Mall collapse. The link between the two firms is Jung Yoo-jin (Kang Han-na, one of the leads in Start-Up), a member of the chaebol family sent to oversee the architect firm – a role she gladly takes as Joo-won is her ex and she’s still in love with him.

Lee Jun-ho is convincing playing someone living with chronic pain and insomnia. He sometimes walks with a limp, but most of the time the only obvious sign is that he will wince when he jumps onto or pushes with his bad leg. I like this acknowledgement that even physical injury isn’t always outwardly obvious and it can vary a lot day to day.

Another aspect of this show I like is that Moon-soo’s best friend Wan-jin is a full-time wheelchair user. Wan-jin lives in her own flat and is entirely self-sufficient, there is no tone of pity for her in the way the character is written. At one point she is waiting to get into a car and Kang-doo lifts her into the backseat. I really appreciate that the next line is Moon-soo asking why on earth Wan-jin let him do that when she’s perfectly capable of getting herself into a car and Wan-jin replies that it’s because Kang-doo is hot!

Despite the serious subject matter, which is all dealt with really well, this is an entertaining well-paced series. The only parts that dragged for me were the chaebol power struggles and rich architect Joo-won being hopelessly in love in a kinda pathetic way. The other romances, friendships and family dynamics – including found family – all felt real.