South Korea · Drama · 2025
Spring of Youth
Binge Brief
- Ten episodes aired on SBS from 6 May to 2 July 2025: the first two on Tuesday 6 and Wednesday 7 May, the rest on Wednesdays at 10:40 pm.
- Nielsen Korea put the premiere at 1.4 percent nationwide; the series averaged 0.9 percent and never went above that first night.
- Ha Yoo-joon shared Best New Actor at the 2025 SBS Drama Awards on 31 December 2025 for playing Sa-gye.
- Ten OST parts came out between 6 May and 2 July 2025, three of them versions of "See You Later".
Synopsis
Spring of Youth (사계의 봄) is a ten-episode SBS youth romance from 2025 about Sa-gye, the leader, singer and guitarist of the world-charting band The Crown, who is pushed out of the group and ends up at Hanju University. There he meets Kim Bom and starts a new campus band. It aired from 6 May to 2 July 2025.
The fall is fast. After a concert after-party Sa-gye gets drunk and causes a scandal that stops his career, and Jo Sang-heon, the head of The Crown's agency who added him to The Crown as its last member and made him a star, leads the push to throw him out. A doctored video of an assault then costs him what is left, and he ends up renting a room in Bom's house.
Bom first gets his attention by insisting that a melody he is playing belongs to her. She lives with her aunt Kim Ja-young and her cousin Bae Gyu-ri, who moved in after Bom's mother died six years earlier. The third lead, Seo Tae-yang, has a place at Hanju's medical school and a father, hospital director Seo Min-cheol, who considers music a waste of time. Tae-yang beats Sa-gye in a guitar battle for a spot in the university band, and the two are at odds from then on, with drummer Gong Jin-gu, a computer engineering student, trying to keep the peace.
The band they form is called TWO SAGYE. Midway through the Spring of Youth kdrama, The Crown's new single turns out to be one of Bom's songs, and when Tae-yang signs with The Crown, the campus band and Sa-gye's old group become direct rivals. Ha Yoo-joon plays Sa-gye, Park Ji-hu plays Bom and Lee Seung-hyub of N.Flying plays Tae-yang, and the songs the band performs on screen were released as the drama's OST.
Why it still gets watched
Most of the band is played by working musicians. Lee Seung-hyub fronts N.Flying, Ha Yoo-joon performs with the band AxMxP, and the songs heard in the drama were released as ten OST parts. It is also easy to find: Rakuten Viki carries it in most Western markets and Netflix in South Korea and parts of Asia.
Spring of Youth cast
Best scenes
Spoilers aheadThe moments people come back for, and where to find them. Episode numbers and outcomes are named, so come back to this one after watching if you would rather not know.
-
The guitar battle Episode 1
Sa-gye challenges Tae-yang to a guitar battle for a place in the university band and loses, then talks Bom into starting a new band with him (Sports Kyunghyang review, 7 May 2025).
-
Rowoon's Blue Day Episode 9
Rowoon plays himself as the guest host of a music talk show inside the drama, Rowoon's Blue Day, in a scene SBS previewed on the day of broadcast, 25 June 2025.
Visual design and costumes
Director Kim Sung-yong, who co-directed My Dearest (2023), told the press on 28 April 2025 that he had tried to make the drama shine the way spring does and wanted youth to show in every part of the frame. Beyond that statement, nothing has been published about the camera or costume choices.
Themes and messages
A second start. The story begins with a star losing his band, his career and his reputation in a few days, and it follows him into a place where nobody owes him anything.
Whose song it is. Bom's first words to Sa-gye are a claim that his melody is hers, and the middle of the series turns on The Crown releasing one of her songs. Credit for music is the plot, not a side issue.
Parents' plans. Tae-yang's father wants a doctor, not a guitarist. His story runs against Sa-gye's: one is told music is not a future, the other has just lost the future music gave him.
Interesting facts
- A pen name. The credits named Kim Min-cheol as writer. On 3 July 2025 a representative of the drama confirmed to Star News that Kim Min-cheol was a pen name for Kim Soon-ok, the writer of The Penthouse.
- Agency cameos. Jung Hae-in and Rowoon share an agency with Ha Yoo-joon and Lee Seung-hyub and took cameos to back the drama, Soompi reported on 23 April 2025. Jung plays an orthopaedic fellow in the finale; Rowoon hosts a music talk show in episode 9.
- A voice only. Seo Kang Joon's part in episode 9 is heard, not seen. He took it to support Kim Sun-min, his junior at the same agency and his co-star in Undercover High School.
- Comedians on campus. Son Min-soo and Im Ra-ra, Kim Yong-myung, Moon Se-yun, Jonathan, Patricia and Yoo Jae-pil all made special appearances in the first two episodes, Sports Kyunghyang reported on 30 April 2025.
- An idol's acting debut. Won-hee of ILLIT, who sang OST Part 3, made her acting debut in the finale as a woman at an airport who throws a gift at Sa-gye.
Episodes
| Ep | Title | Air date | Status | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | I Came Here to Meet Bom (봄을 만나기 위해 이곳에 왔다) A drunken incident at The Crown's after-party gets band leader Sa-gye suspended, and the enrolment that follows puts him on the Hanju University campus, face to face with Kim Bom. | 2025-05-06 | Aired | 1.4% |
| 2 | To TWO SAGYE! (투 사계를 위하여!) Sa-gye starts recruiting for a band, new rumours set off a protest demanding his expulsion, and an unexpected visitor turns up while he is fighting it. | 2025-05-07 | Aired | 0.7% |
| 3 | We're Best Friends Now, Starting Today (우리 이제 절친이야, 오늘부터 1일) With the school festival close, Sa-gye and Tae-yang keep needling each other, so Bom plans a membership trip to pull TWO SAGYE together. | 2025-05-14 | Aired | 0.7% |
| 4 | Whoever Holds Out to the End Wins (끝까지 버티는 사람이 승리한다) A crowd far bigger than expected forces the festival to be cancelled, the band goes looking for a missing Tae-yang, and Sa-gye's fans descend on Bom's house. | 2025-05-21 | Aired | 0.8% |
| 5 | I'm Afraid to Look at You With These Eyes (이 눈으로 널 보는 게 두려워) Bom and Sa-gye finally admit how they feel, then he drops out of sight without warning and Tae-yang moves to fill the gap. | 2025-05-28 | Aired | 1.1% |
| 6 | Let's Prove Together That the Real Thing Is Different (우리 같이 증명해, 찐은 확실히 다르다는 거) The Crown's new single matches a song Bom wrote, and Sa-gye stops her from storming into the agency so they can find another way to get it back. | 2025-06-04 | Aired | 0.8% |
| 7 | So We're Going to Try, We're Young (그래서 해보려고, 우린 젊잖아) Tae-yang joins The Crown while TWO SAGYE's cover video climbs the charts, and the two acts become rivals. | 2025-06-11 | Aired | 0.8% |
| 8 | Whatever You Say Comes True (뭐든 말하는 대로, 루프리텔캄) Unable to stop thinking about Tae-yang, Sa-gye goes to see Director Seo, and Tae-yang badly misreads the argument he walks in on. | 2025-06-18 | Aired | 0.9% |
| 9 | If You Don't Want to Be Sorry, Don't Do Anything (미안해지기 싫으면 아무 짓도 하지 마) The rift between Tae-yang and the band widens until he and Bom reach a point of no return, and Sa-gye says something to Tae-yang that he cannot make sense of. | 2025-06-25 | Aired | 0.9% |
| 10 | Spring Came Again, as It Always Does (또 다시 봄은, 어김없이 왔다) The truth finally comes out, and Sa-gye, Bom and Tae-yang go their separate ways into a long, cold stretch apart. | 2025-07-02 | Aired | 1.0% |
Soundtrack
| Track | Artist |
|---|---|
| See You Later, Part 1 | AxMxP, 6 May 2025 |
| Fire (FFWF), Part 2 | The Crown, 8 May 2025 |
| The Look in Your Eyes (그대 눈이 내게 말해요), Part 3 | Won-hee (ILLIT), 14 May 2025 |
| My Heart Says (말해), Part 4 | Lee Seung-hyub, 22 May 2025 |
| Fever (내 머리에 열이 나), Part 5 | Hi-Fi Un!corn, 28 May 2025 |
| You and I (난 넌 우린), Part 6 | Hi-Fi Un!corn, 4 June 2025 |
| The Look in Your Eyes (그대 눈이 내게 말해요), Part 7 | Yoo Hwe-seung (N.Flying), 11 June 2025 |
| See You Later, Part 8 | The Crown, 18 June 2025 |
| Special Day, Part 9 | The Crown, 25 June 2025 |
| See You Later, Part 10 | TWO SAGYE, 2 July 2025 |
Awards
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Recipient | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | SBS Drama Awards | Best New Actor | Ha Yoo-joon | Won |
Frequently asked questions
How many episodes does Spring of Youth have?
Spring of Youth has ten episodes of about 70 minutes. SBS aired the first two on 6 and 7 May 2025 and the remaining eight on Wednesday nights until the finale on 2 July 2025.
What is Spring of Youth about?
Spring of Youth follows Sa-gye, a star guitarist thrown out of the band The Crown, who enrolls at Hanju University, falls for Kim Bom and forms a new campus band with her, his rival Seo Tae-yang and drummer Gong Jin-gu.
Is Seo Kang Joon in Spring of Youth?
Yes, as a voice. Seo Kang Joon voiced a mysterious character in episode 9, broadcast on 25 June 2025. SBS and the press reported that he agreed to it to support his agency junior Kim Sun-min, with whom he had worked on Undercover High School.
Who wrote Spring of Youth?
Spring of Youth was credited to Kim Min-cheol. On 3 July 2025, the day after the finale, a representative of the drama confirmed that the name was a pen name for Kim Soon-ok, the writer of The Penthouse series.
Where can I watch Spring of Youth?
Spring of Youth streams on Rakuten Viki in many countries and on Netflix in South Korea and several Asian markets. The where-to-watch box on this page lists the current services country by country.
Is there a Spring of Youth season 2?
No second season has been announced. Spring of Youth was made as a single ten-episode series and the finale closes its main storylines.
If you liked this drama
Matched on genre, country and era. Closest first.
