Han Hyo-joo and Gong Myung to Play First Loves Reuniting After 11 Years in New MBC Romance

Han Hyo-joo and Gong Myung will reunite on screen as former first loves in Your Ground, a new MBC Friday-Saturday drama confirmed for broadcast in the second half of this year. MBC announced the full lead cast on the 2nd, and the pairing is already generating plenty of anticipation: the two actors haven't shared a project before, but the chemistry premise, strangers-turned-colleagues who were once in love, is exactly the kind of setup the show's creative team knows how to handle.

Director Lee Sang-yeop, best known for the beloved Yumi's Cells series as well as Familiar Wife and Shopping King Louie, is behind the camera. Hwang Hae-yeon wrote the script. Between Lee's track record with emotionally layered romantic storytelling and a cast that covers a lot of ground in terms of tone, Your Ground is shaping up as one of the more compelling late-year drama entries on the public broadcaster.

The characters and what connects them

Han Hyo-joo plays Seo Hee-seung, a lawyer who never lost a single case in court before being dispatched by her firm's CEO to work at a sports agency called Donghaeng. She knows almost nothing about baseball when she arrives, but her competitive drive carries her through the adjustment, until she comes face to face with Kang Hae-hwan, the client she's been assigned and the man she was in love with eleven years ago.

Gong Myung takes on Kang Hae-hwan, a right-handed pitcher for a team called the Miracles who was dubbed a "genius pitcher" since his high school days. A career-shaking incident sent him into a prolonged slump, and it's Hee-seung's unexpected reappearance as his new agent that finally pushes him back toward the mound. The through-line of the drama is that comeback journey, with the professional and personal stakes wound tightly together.

Kim Shin-rok plays Dong Chi-yeong, the head of Donghaeng and a veteran agent known in the industry as a cold-blooded negotiator, the person who handles player contracts, free agency, and salary talks without flinching. Her presence gives the sports-agency side of the story some institutional weight.

Seong Joon rounds out the leads as Yoon I-seok, Hae-hwan's rival and the pitcher who rose to become the team's ace while Hae-hwan was away. The dynamic Lee Sang-yeop is setting up here is a careful one: Yoon I-seok wants Hae-hwan back, but he also has to compete against him the moment Hae-hwan steps back on the mound. His entanglement with Hee-seung adds another layer that shifts the balance between all three characters.

What to expect from the tone

With Lee Sang-yeop directing, the emotional register of Your Ground is likely to sit closer to Yumi's Cells, intimate and character-driven, than to the high-stakes sports drama genre. The baseball setting provides the stakes and the competitive tension, but the first-love reunion at the center of the story suggests the show's real interest is in what eleven years does to people, and what it means to choose someone again. Your Ground is scheduled to premiere on MBC in the latter half of 2026.