Sweet Stranger and Me

Flight attendant Hong Na-ri aimlessly returns to her childhood home, Seulgi. Ten months earlier, her mother, Shin Jung-im, died in a car accident, while her nine-year relationship with her fiancé, Jo Dong-jin, ended abruptly when she saw him cheating with Do Yeo-joo, a fellow flight attendant infamous for being a homewrecker. She is surprised to see Jung-im's second husband, Go Nan-gil, who is three years Na-ri's junior, waiting for her at home. Na-ri is initially hostile to Nan-gil, suspecting that he is a conman who married her mother so he could inherit ownership of her lakeside property. As she lives with him, she learns that Nan-gil indeed married Jung-im to inherit her property, but not for his own benefit. He made a promise to Jung-im that he would protect the land from being sold to Green Land, a chaebol who wants to convert it into a resort. The CEO of Greenland's robot division, Kwon Deuk-bong, pesters Nan-gil's mandu restaurant everyday to sell the land.

Na-ri slowly warms up to and eventually falls in love with Nan-gil. She realizes that Nan-gil is not a stranger to her. He grew up in an orphanage where Jung-im volunteered at and had been watching Na-ri since childhood; in fact, she was and remains his only crush. Nan-gil was adopted by Bae Byung-woo, the ruthless chairman of Dada Finance, a loan shark company, and trained to become a cold criminal. He quit the company after driving a man to commit suicide. To his horror, he learns that the man was Hong Sung-kyu, Na-ri's biological father. In the meantime, Dong-jin grows guilty of cheating on Na-ri, whom he still loves. A heartbroken Yeo-joo decides to break up with him.

Deuk-bong teams up with Na-ri and Nan-gil to uncover the secrets regarding Dada and Green Land. He falls in love with Na-ri and tries to win her affection. Wanting to atone for what she has done, Yeo-joo tries to help him, only to end up falling in love with him instead. Deuk-bong learns that two generations ago, Green Land owned the Hong family's land and had used it as a chemical waste disposal center. The orphanage that once stood in Na-ri's childhood home was destroyed by chemical fire, killing everyone except for Green Land's secretary, Ms. Kwon. Jung-im was protecting the land to prevent Green Land from whitewashing their crimes. In response, Green Land and Dada have been working together to discredit her family; they set up Sung-kyu and Jung-im's brother, Jeong-nam, into a debt that forced them to go on the run.

Byung-woo's assistant and adopted son, Kim Wan-shik, eventually betrays him by helping Nan-gil get a document exposing Dada's crimes. Meanwhile, Na-ri unexpectedly reunites with Sung-kyu, who faked his death and is living in hiding. He decides to surrender to the police, though he is allowed to leave on bail. To stop his father, Green Land's chairman, from messing up Na-ri's family further, Deuk-bong exposes Green Land's dealings to the police, preventing his father from continuing his plans but slandering Green Land's reputation. Now that Sung-kyu is around, Nan-gil files an annulment of his marriage with Jung-im, therefore allowing him to legally pursue a relationship with Na-ri.

A year later, Nan-gil proposes to Na-ri at their elementary school, the place where they first met.[4]

First script reading took place on September 12, 2016, at KBS Broadcasting Station in Yeouido, Seoul, South Korea.[9]

Yoo Seung-ho was first offered the male lead role, but declined.

• In this table, the blue numbers represent the lowest ratings and the red numbers represent the highest ratings.
• NR denotes that the drama did not rank in the top 20 daily programs on that date.
• N/A denotes that the rating is not known.

• Vietnam: HTV2 under the name Bố dượng tuổi 30 (from February 28, 2017).

• Official website (in Korean)
• Sweet Stranger and Me on KBS World