It marks her fifth acting project. Jisoo of K-pop group BLACKPINK, who enjoys global popularity, is drawing attention over whether she can overcome lingering doubts about her acting and prove her capabilities as an actress through the upcoming series “Boyfriend on Demand.” Set to premiere March 6, the Netflix original series “Boyfriend on Demand” is a romantic comedy about Mi-rae, a webtoon producer exhausted by reality, who subscribes to and experiences romance through a virtual dating simulation. Combining the relatable daily life of office workers with the novel premise of “subscription-based dating” in a virtual world, the series promises both empathy and fresh entertainment. Jisoo stars opposite actor Seo In-guk, with director Kim Jung-sik — known for “Work Later, Drink Now” and “No Gain No Love” — at the helm. Jisoo plays Seo Mi-rae, a busy and weary webtoon producer accustomed to life without romance. After obtaining a mysterious Boyfriend on Demand device, she enters a virtual world where she experiences diverse romances with unrealistically perfect men,

In K-pop, idols can be superheroes, werewolves, vampires and pirates, all inside elaborate fictional worlds rich with their own lore. These self-made universes showcased the genre’s imagination, framing each comeback within a larger narrative that stretched across music videos, lyrics and visuals. Albums started feeling less like isolated releases and more like chapters in a continuing story, with cryptic teaser films and hidden clues turning world-building into one of K-pop’s most playful creative endeavors. Over time, however, that lore grew into something bigger than just storytelling. What began as a fun narrative layer expanded into a production framework linking music with webtoons, games and wider branding strategies. As labels positioned idol groups as long-term intellectual properties (IPs), world-building became more systematic — even as a new wave of artists began stepping away from overt storylines to keep the focus on the music itself, reflecting K-pop’s ongoing evolution as a comprehensive art form. Birth of lore The roots of fictional universes in K-pop trace back t