Park Min Young and Yook Sung Jae get off to the worst possible start in SBS’s upcoming drama ‘Nine to Six’, with newly released stills capturing a tense first encounter in the middle of the street.
The new SBS Wednesday-Thursday drama is set to premiere on Wednesday, November 25 at 9 p.m. KST. The stills, released on October 26, show the two leads sizing each other up from their very first meeting, setting up the love-hate dynamic at the heart of the series.
Park Min Young plays Kang Yi-ji, a deputy manager on the legal team at Chronic Motors who has built her life around proving herself through work. Described as a perfectionist who leaves no room for error on the job, Kang Yi-ji is a workaholic who has long put romance on the back burner because of her intense focus on her career.
Yook Sung Jae plays Han Sun-woo, a warm, caring and emotional man whose outlook could hardly be more different. Despite graduating from law school, Han Sun-woo first chose to follow his passion for jewelry design, according to reports on the series. An unexpected turn of events then brings him into the legal team at Chronic Motors as a new intern, placing him directly in Kang Yi-ji’s world.
The newly released stills turn that contrast into a single street scene. Kang Yi-ji blocks Han Sun-woo’s path and looks at him with a sharp, tilted gaze, taking the upper hand from the first moment. The phone in her hand stands out in particular: it is the phone Han Sun-woo dropped, and she holds on to it while rattling off legal clauses, showing the same firm, no-nonsense approach she uses at work.
Han Sun-woo, by contrast, is visibly flustered. With wide eyes, he points at himself and appears to protest his innocence, unable to mount a proper response to Kang Yi-ji’s unyielding manner. The scene ends with the two having left each other with the worst possible first impression, their misunderstandings already piling up before they have even properly met.
That clash is the engine of the drama’s premise. ‘Nine to Six’ is an office romance about a rational woman who has lived her life proving herself through work and an affectionate, emotional man who helps her rewrite her definitions of work, love and happiness. The story follows the pair as they grow together in both their careers and their personal lives, starting from a relationship built on friction rather than instant attraction.
The pairing also carries a real-life age gap that mirrors the on-screen dynamic. Park Min Young was born in 1986 and Yook Sung Jae in 1995, a nine-year difference that the drama leans into as part of its older-woman, younger-man romance. Reports on the series note that the two will show an older-woman and younger-man chemistry, with Kang Yi-ji’s cool logic set against Han Sun-woo’s warmth.
The new drama is based on the 2021 Chinese drama ‘The Rational Life’, which starred Qin Lan and Dylan Wang. That source material gives ‘Nine to Six’ a familiar framework, a workplace romance built around opposite personalities, relocated here to Chronic Motors and its legal team.
Earlier previews of the series have already introduced Park Min Young’s character in the office. Previous stills showed Kang Yi-ji in a sleek blunt bob and a tailored suit, talking on the phone at work with bright eyes and a firm expression that underline her professionalism. In another image, she faced Jung Ki Tae, played by Jo Bok Rae, a master of office politics, meeting his attempt to block her path with a cold stare.
The production team has praised Park Min Young for capturing a relatable character who repeatedly grapples with the balance between work and love, with staff reportedly giving her high praise for the performance. That balance is the question the drama keeps returning to: whether a woman who has measured herself entirely by her work can learn to make room for something else, and whether a man who leads with feeling can hold his own beside her.
Go Soo also stars in the series, according to reports, adding another established name to the cast around the central pair. With the premiere less than a month away, the stills promise a romance that starts with a standoff.
‘Nine to Six’ will premiere on November 25 at 9 p.m. KST on SBS, and reports note it will also be available on Prime Video. The question the stills leave hanging is the one the drama itself will have to answer: how does a first meeting this bad turn into a romance at all, and what will it take for Kang Yi-ji and Han Sun-woo to see each other differently?
