HELLO! India Exclusive: Love that isn't lost in translation with Kim Seon-ho and Go Youn-jung 

For years, love has been portrayed as being instinctive; something you feel before you can name it. The rajs and simrans of Bollywood convinced us of it, didn’t they? But real relationships are rarely that fluent. They pause, misfire, recalibrate; which means one may slip several times, even when intentions are sincere. It’s this emotional in-between that the Netflix new K-drama Can This Love Be Translated taps into. It doesn’t just offer sweeping declarations, but asks an almost daring question: what does it really mean to understand someone you love? In today's, every day evolving lingo about love and relationships, that question resonates. Leads of the Netflix series — Kim Seon-ho and Go Youn-jung — echo how do they look at love: as words that needs "no translation".  In an exclusive conversation with HELLO! India, they reflect on relationships as emotional negotiations as they speak about love; not as a fixed idea, but as something fluid, complicated, and often unfinished. 

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For Kim Seon-ho of Hometown Cha Cha Cha fame, love exists in a delicate balance between expression and intuition. “There are many kinds of love,” he says thoughtfully. “The love I receive from my parents, family, friends, and fans—there are definitely feelings that can be sensed without being spoken.” Some emotions, he believes, are instinctively understood. Yet silence, he adds, has its limits. “If you don’t say anything at all, there are things that won’t be understood.” That contradiction defines how he views love today. “It’s hard to fully express love only through words,” he admits. “But if you don’t say them at all, people won’t know.” Love, to him, is “the most difficult, the hardest, and also the most beautiful thing to express”. Sometimes gestures speak louder; sometimes words are essential precisely because gestures can be misread. It’s why he makes a conscious effort to verbalise affection, especially to those who support him. Love, in his world, is sustained by intention rather than assumption.

Go Youn-jung approaches love from a different but complementary place. Listening to Seon-ho speak prompted her to reflect on how love shifts across relationships. “Love from parents is infinite and unconditional,” she explains. “They love you simply for existing, without needing you to show anything.” That form of love, she suggests, sets a foundation; one that's free of expectation, one that's almost unconditional. Romantic and platonic relationships, however, operate on a more fragile emotional contract. “With friends or romantic relationships, love often involves receiving as much as you give, which makes it conditional in a way,” she says. That conditionality, she believes, is what makes love so hard to define, and even harder to navigate. “Love is also the emotion that relies the most on non-verbal expression,” she adds. “Because of that, I feel it can be harder to receive love than to express it.”

It’s a revealing observation by the duo, who is busy setting the screens mushy with their easy breezy romantic chemistry. Their reflections form a shared understanding: love is not a universal language. It shifts depending on who is speaking, who is listening, and what remains unsaid. Feeling deeply isn’t enough; one must also learn how the other person experiences, processes and receives emotion. Much like their characters Cha Mu-hee (where Youn-jung doubles up as Mu-hee and her alter-ego DoRami) and Joo Ho-jin by Seon-ho. 

That philosophy underpins the story they tell. People can share affection and desire yet remain emotionally out of sync. Miscommunication is treated as an inevitable part of intimacy, rather than failure. What makes this perspective feel grounded is its refusal to romanticise love as a cure-all for trauma or heartbreak. But what it does is creates space to be misunderstood, to grow. Emotional struggles and trauma aren’t smoothed over; they coexist with romance, desire, and anticipation. Kim Seon-ho and Go Youn-jung endorse this idea. They credit each other and their openness to embrace each other's ideas and suggestions is what lends the show a voice that isn't diluted for entertainment. Instead, it asks the uncomfortable questions about love. Can it truly be translated through words? Or does it need more? 

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Ultimately, the idea of love that emerges is neither idealistic nor cynical. It doesn’t promise perfect understanding, nor does it frame misunderstanding as fatal. Instead, it offers love as an ongoing act of translation. It is clear: Meanings will be lost. Intentions will be misread. Feelings will arrive before the right words do. In a culture obsessed with instant chemistry and emotional certainty, that idea feels quietly radical. Love doesn’t have to be loud to be real. Sometimes, it just needs patience, and the willingness to try again.

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