Park Hyung-sik plays a cursed prince in Our Blooming Youth, and 5 more K-drama crown princes we love

He has mystique, charm and is royalty — what more could a woman want?

Unfortunately, crown prince Lee Hwan (played by Park Hyung-sik) in the new K-drama Our Blooming Youth is also cursed by a supernatural entity that shows him his dark future in a letter, and the bad things detailed in it actually begin to happen.

He offers young noblewoman Min Jae-yi (Jeon So-nee) salvation in exchange for helping him break the curse, and Jae-yi has no choice but to accept as she is on the run after being accused of murdering her entire family.

Hyung-sik, 31, made his debut with the boy band ZE:A in 2010 before branching into acting, playing roles in The Heir (2013) and the South Korean adaptation of Suits (2018).

More recently, he's known for his tight friendships with fellow celebs Park Seo-joon, BTS' V, Choi Woo-shik and Peakboy, and they are collectively known as the Wooga Squad.

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Our Blooming Youth streams on Prime Video, but if you can't get enough of Lee Hwan, here are five more K-drama crown princes we love.

Shin Seung-ho in Alchemy of Souls

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Shin Seung-ho plays Go Won, crown prince of the fictional country of Daeho in Alchemy of Souls (2022) and its sequel, and is beloved for wanting to become a generous king.

Go Won and Jang Wook (played by lead actor Lee Jae-wook) share a complicated relationship where the prince finds the latter "irritating while he cares about him at the same time" according to the production team.

But don't just take our word for it, even Jae-Wook isn't immune to Seung-ho's charms and wants to win a Best Couple Award with him.

The duo's bromance is still going strong as Seung-ho, 27, visited Jae-wook after the latter's Feb 4 fanmeet in Bangkok.

"Bangkok trip with the Crown Prince," Jae-wook, 24, posted on Instagram on Tuesday (Feb 7), sharing photos of the two hanging out at the hotel pool and taking a walk through the streets.

"They're the main couple, everyone!" a fan commented.

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Alchemy of Souls: Light and Shadow streams on Netflix.

Lee Jun-ho in The Red Sleeve

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Set in the 18th century, The Red Sleeve (2021) adapts the real-life romance between King Jeong-ho (also known as Yi San) of the Joseon dynasty and his concubine-turned-royal consort Seong Ui-bin (also known as Sung Deok-im).

Lee Jun-ho plays crown prince Yi San who meets court lady Deok-im (Lee Se-young). When he becomes king, he asks her to become his concubine but she initially refuses, valuing her freedom over the restricted life of a concubine.

Jun-ho, 33, is best-known for being a member of boy band 2PM but his acting chops in The Red Sleeve earned him great accolades, including being the first idol-actor to win Grand Prize (Daesang) for Actor of the Year at the 2022 Asia Artist Awards.

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The Red Sleeve streams on Viu.

Park Eun-bin in The King's Affection

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Park Eun-bin playing a prince? It seems like she can do it all, except draw whales.

In The King's Affection (2021), Park Eun-bin's Dam-yi, a twin, is born to the Crown Princess in an era where multiple births were considered to be a bad omen. An order is given to kill the female child and keep the male heir, but her mother passes her off as a court maid to save her life.

When the prince gets killed years later, Dam-yi adopts his identity and becomes Crown Prince Lee Hwi. The 'crown prince' begins to develop feelings for her tutor and royal physician Jung Ji-woon (SF9's Rowoon).

Eun-bin, 30, became a fan-favourite after playing a 'male' role, and she told Esquire Korea: "I heard that people were going crazy over the teaser video. I was asking myself if they were going crazy after seeing how short I am."

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The King's Affection streams on Netflix.

Park Bo-gum in Love in the Moonlight

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Here's another historical drama based on a real story — this time, on the young 19th century Crown Prince Hyomyeong (also known as Lee Young, played by Park Bo-gum).

In Love in the Moonlight (2016), Lee Young is a young and indifferent man who serves as regent, taking care of royal affairs on behalf of his sick father, the king. He resents the king for blaming him for his mother's death.

Ra-on (Kim Yoo-jung) is a woman raised as a boy. She works as a male relationship counsellor and romance novelist and meets the crown prince through a love letter she helped one of her clients write. Neither knows the other's true identity at first but start to have feelings for each other, and eventually Ra-on joins the royal court as a eunuch.

Unfortunately, the real Lee Young didn't have a life quite so romantic as Bo-gum, 29, portrayed in the drama, as he tragically died at only 20.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmHFD0A74NM&ab_channel=ViuSingapore[/embed]

Love in the Moonlight streams on iQiyi, Netflix and Viu.

Ju Ji-hoon in Princess Hours and Kingdom

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Playing crown princes in two K-dramas of very different genres, actor Ju Ji-hoon may be versatile but his name continues to be synonymous with royalty.

His first lead role had him play the Crown Prince Lee Shin in 2006's Princess Hours, set in an alternate reality where South Korea retains its imperial family into the 21st century. He gets betrothed to his high school classmate (and commoner) Shin Chae-kyeong (Yoon Eun-hye), whose grandfather was best friends with the late Emperor of Korea, Lee Shin's grandfather.

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2019's Kingdom, a zombie horror set in Joseon-era Korea is a far-cry from the previous romantic comedy, but 40-year-old Ji-hoon once again plays a crown prince, Lee Chang. This time, plans are afoot to usurp him as his mother is only a concubine, not the queen.

When Lee Chang's father dies of smallpox, the king is turned into a zombie by the Queen Consort (Kim Hye-jun) and her father, Chief State Councillor Jo Hak-joo (Ryoo Seung-ryong) so they can keep him 'alive' to produce a heir with a more legitimate claim to the throne.

All this goes down while a mysterious plague sweeps through the kingdom. It's zombies, of course.

Kingdom ran for two seasons with a feature-length spin-off, Kingdom: Ashin of the North, being released in 2021. Though production was put on hold, fans continue to anticipate another spin-off following Lee Chang's story, Kingdom: The Crown Prince.

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Kingdom streams on Netflix.

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