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Choo Young-woo and Kim So-hyun are preparing to meet viewers as two graduate students navigating disrupted plans and an unexpected relationship in Between Steps. Promotional posters, stills and teasers released ahead of the drama’s October premiere emphasize quiet affection rather than a large-scale romantic spectacle.
The ENA romance introduces two people rebuilding their futures inside a university robotics research lab. Choo plays Park Min-jae, a former high school swimmer who lost his right leg to illness and subsequently turned to robotics. Kim plays Im Yoo-jin, a clothing and textiles student whose original graduate-school plans fall apart before she discovers a different academic path.
A romance built through small gestures
The main poster places Min-jae and Yoo-jin together on a sunlit bus. Yoo-jin rests her head on Min-jae’s shoulder while the pair hold hands, presenting their relationship through a familiar everyday moment rather than a dramatic declaration.
Earlier character stills used a similar approach. The two sit beside each other at a bus stop, where Yoo-jin holds Min-jae’s hand, and later stand close together in a dark alley as she grips his sleeve. Those images establish Yoo-jin as the more direct presence while Min-jae remains comparatively guarded.
The video teasers make that difference clearer. Both characters acknowledge their attraction, but Yoo-jin is repeatedly shown expressing what she wants directly. Min-jae’s growing feelings are accompanied by scenes pointing to the physical and emotional pain connected to his illness and the end of his swimming ambitions.
The romance therefore develops alongside two changes in direction. Min-jae has already rebuilt his academic life around robotics, while Yoo-jin enters that world after her expected route through fashion studies is blocked.
Background: How the drama’s story was introduced
The promotional campaign began by confirming an October 5 premiere and introducing the central pairing. A script-reading feature released shortly afterward provided more detail about the characters and the research-lab setting.
At the reading, Choo described Min-jae as someone studying robotics with hope for a new future after osteosarcoma ended his swimming dream. Kim explained that Yoo-jin discovers robotics while deciding what to do after abandoning her previous graduate-school plan. Their descriptions established personal recovery and career uncertainty as parallel parts of the love story.
The drama is directed by the late Ahn Pan-seok, whose romance credits include Something in the Rain, One Spring Night and The Midnight Romance in Hagwon. His involvement provides a clear point of reference for viewers familiar with character-focused romances built around work, family and ordinary routines.
Later promotional material expanded the setting beyond the couple. The research lab includes fellow graduate students and faculty members, while separate stills introduced Yoo-jin’s parents and older brother. That supporting cast indicates that the leads’ relationship will unfold within academic and family lives rather than in isolation.
Why it matters for international K-drama viewers
The early campaign gives viewers a specific idea of what Between Steps intends to combine: romance, graduate-school pressures and the process of choosing a second path after an original ambition becomes unavailable.
That changes the stakes of the central relationship. Yoo-jin does not simply enter Min-jae’s life as a romantic interest; meeting him also introduces her to robotics. Min-jae, meanwhile, is not presented only through his past as an athlete. His doctoral research is part of the future he has constructed after leaving competitive swimming behind.
The robotics-lab setting also shifts the familiar campus-romance framework beyond undergraduate classrooms. Both leads are dealing with research, career direction and adult consequences while remaining inexperienced in love. For viewers choosing among new Korean romances, the promotional material points toward a restrained, character-led series in which academic work and emotional recovery are connected.
Between Steps is scheduled to premiere on ENA on October 5, 2026, at 10 p.m. KST.
Sources: Soompi — Main Poster Report; Soompi — Romantic Stills Report; Soompi — Script Reading Report.
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