the synopsis

Title: in the name of love

Genre: Romance, friendship, slice-of-life

Ratings: All ages

“A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you."

– ia Woolf

In college, six students became best friends hosting a weeknight romance-themed school radio program, called "In the Name of Love".

Ten years later, they find themselves all in occupations intrinsically linked to matters of the heart: Wendy Son is a wedding planner who calls herself Cupid’s assistant, Nakamoto Yuta is a wedding dress designer who brings the wildest wedding dreams to life, Jung Jaehyun and Kim Jungwoo are relationship therapists who try to save romances at the brink of falling apart, and Johnny Suh and Kang Seulgi are divorce lawyers who help people when it’s time to let go.

As they involuntarily become involved in cases of romantic mishaps and arterial bursts of love, vicious cycles of breaking up and inevitably making up, they struggle to find a balance between their ideals and keen senses of reality. They soon begin to realize that life is not quite what we make of it, and sometimes, love comes in the most irrational and unlikely forms.

the main characters

{in order of age, not importance}

Johnny Suh. 33. Divorce lawyer.

Kang Seulgi. 33. Divorce lawyer.

Wendy Son. 33. Wedding planner.

Nakamoto Yuta. 33. Wedding dress designer.

Jung Jaehyun. 32. Relationship counselor.

Kim Jungwoo. 32. Relationship counselor.

the supporting cast

Irene Bae. 34. Professional dancer. Johnny's ex-wife.

Moon Taeil. 34. Medical researcher. Seulgi's older brother.

Mark Lee. 25. College student and professional dancer. Wendy's younger brother.

Shim Ryujin. 25. Professional dancer. Changmin's daughter.

Jung Sooyeon. 38. Socialite. Jaehyun's older sister.

Jung Soojung. 33. Socialite. Jaehyun's older sister.

Zhang Yixing. 38. Lawyer. Seulgi's ex-boyfriend.

Ningning / Zhang Yizhuo. 25. Grad student and receptionist at Jungwoo and Jaehyun's clinic. Yixing's younger sister.

the episode groups

{Each "episode" will consist of several chapters with several intertwined "cases" about the lawyers' clients, the therapists' patients, the wedding planner & designer's clients}

case #01: chapter 01 - chapter 11

Featuring: Yunho, BoA, Sungchan, Minho, Yuri, Siwon, Sooyoung

case #02: chapter 12 - chapter 23

Featuring: Changmin, Victoria, Jaemin, Yeri

case #03: chapter 24 - chapter 31

Featuring: Luhan, Yoona, Taeyeon, Tiffany, Seohyun, Jessica, Hyoyeon, Yuri, Sunny, Sooyoung, Shotaro

case #04: chapter 32 - chapter ??

Featuring: Kai, Joy, Sungjae, Seohyun, Kyuhyun, Onew, Tiffany, Nichkhun, Taecyeon, Tzuyu, Baekhyun

case #05: chapter ?? - chapter ??

Featuring: TBC - will be a surprise

the tracklist

{Coming soon}

the author's note

Hi everyone!

I'm so sorry for the multiple changes on this story.

I was speaking to my friend, Bee, who this story is dedicated to, and I got SO much inspiration to write this. It's inspired by a lot of dramas, movies and books, but I've recently really been into Hospital Playlist and wanted to make something really feel-good, toned down, and simple.

This story is about six friends who used to run a late-night romance-themed radio program in college. The story starts ten years after the older ones have graduated, where they are all in romance-related careers. The story follows their friendships, but also the different "cases" they see in their jobs. So for instance, Johnny and Seulgi's clients, Wendy and Yuta's clients, Jaehyun and Jungwoo's patients. Though they're all in different fields of work and each "episode" will see different sets of clients for each one of them, you'll see how everything links together. I've planned it such that everything links :) And we have SMTOWN stars feature as their clients/patients.

All of the main characters are equally important, with compelling backstories as to why they're doing what they're doing. But overall, this is more a story about friendship and about coming to term's with one's relationships (not necessarily romantic) with the people around them, whether it's family, friends, lovers, etc. I intend for this to be a feel-good type of fic, but also be warned that it might be a bit sad at some parts.

Hope all of you enjoy!

Dedicated to Bee, who I'm so glad to have found as a friend <3

- C

P.S. This story was started in June 2021, replacing an old mystery fic of mine with similar friendship vibes.

Note: There may be a few chapters with trigger warnings at the later half of the story, for reasons that I will mention in the chapters themselves. However, nothing will be very graphic. Most of it will just be alluding to certain situations.

P.S.S. My Twitter is @colorme_candy! Feel free to follow me there. Let's chat!

Poster credits:

Main poster and also forewords poster credits to the amazing Alis, who has this amazing poster shop - BEEB gfx, please check her out!

Chapter layout credits: