Friendship Era (2005-2011)
Rina was barely twelve when she joined SM Entertainment quiet, polite, with a shy voice that still trembled during vocal lessons. Donghae was already part of Super Junior, confident but kind-hearted, known around the company for looking after younger trainees.
He used to bring snacks to the practice rooms, crack little jokes to lighten the mood, and Rina always the gentle one in the corner would laugh quietly. Over time, he noticed how mature she was for her age, how she listened before she spoke, how she never asked for attention yet somehow filled the room with calm.
They became close in the way people sometimes do without trying. They texted, shared music, and sometimes ended up staying in the practice rooms long after everyone else had gone home he’d be strumming a guitar, and she’d hum softly next to him.
She always called him Donghae sunbaenim back then. He’d tease her about it, telling her to drop the formality, but she never quite could. There was a quiet comfort between them, something safe.
Then, somewhere around 2010, Rina realized she was seeing him differently. She didn’t say it out loud not even to herself at first but her heart started doing that thing it does when someone becomes more than a friend. She’d blush when he complimented her singing or look away when their hands brushed. It was innocent, soft, and completely real.
First Dating (jan 2012 - sept 2012)
By early 2012, their closeness had deepened. He was 25, she was 19 young, but sincere. They had known each other for years, and he treated her with a care that felt steady and protective.
The night he confessed, they had both been in the SM building late he was working on a demo, she had stayed behind after practice. He offered to walk her home. Somewhere between the elevator ride and the quiet streets, he said it:
“I think I like you more than I should.”
Rina didn’t know what to say at first. But she smiled that small, knowing smile that Donghae would later admit “ruined him completely.”
They started dating quietly. No one outside their closest circle knew. Their moments together were soft coffee in his car after rehearsals, exchanging lyric notebooks, watching dramas in the practice lounge when everyone else had gone home. Donghae was her first love, her first heartbreak, her first everything.
But as 2012 went on, life got complicated. Super Junior was touring across continents; Girls’ Generation was at its peak. They barely saw each other. She was still figuring out who she was, while he was learning how to be a man in the public eye. The distance grew. By September, they ended things not out of anger, but because they cared enough not to ruin what they had left.
Rina cried quietly for a week. Donghae sent her a long message thanking her for “letting him feel something honest.” They promised to stay friends.
Akward State (oct 2012 - sept 2015)
The next few years were strange full of polite smiles, awkward hellos, and conversations that never went deeper than “How are you?” They’d see each other at SM family events, always surrounded by people. Sometimes their eyes would meet just for a second and they’d both look away.
Everyone around them could feel it: that quiet tension between two people who still had something unresolved. Neither wanted to reopen old wounds.
Rina poured herself into music. Donghae focused on work. But sometimes, late at night, when songs got too emotional or old memories played too vividly, both of them would think of each other not with pain, but with that soft ache that comes from missing something gentle.
Military Era (oct 2015 - july 2017)
When Donghae enlisted in October 2015, Rina was one of the few who reached out. She sent him a handwritten letter with no fanfare just words like, “I hope you’re eating well. I’m proud of you.”
Those letters meant everything to him. Away from the spotlight, with nothing but time to think, he found comfort in her words steady, kind, familiar. They started exchanging letters more often, and little by little, the awkwardness between them faded.
When he came back in 2017, the first thing he did was thank her in person, with that same warm smile she’d fallen for years ago.
Second Try (sept 2017 - oct 2017)
After his discharge, they started spending more time together coffee meetups, long talks about music and how much they’d both changed. One evening, he asked, “Do you ever wonder what would’ve happened if we didn’t let go?”
That conversation turned into something more. For a short while, in September 2017, they gave it another try. It was beautiful but brief. They realized they still loved each other, but the timing was still wrong. Their careers were in full motion again, and both knew they couldn’t give the relationship the attention it deserved.
When they ended things a month later, it wasn’t sad it was calm. She told him, “Maybe love doesn’t always mean staying. Sometimes it means understanding.”
Friendship Era (feb 2018 - april 2023)
By 2018, they had found a new balance real friendship. They supported each other’s work quietly and sincerely. When she released her solo EP Ethereal, Donghae sent flowers with a note that simply said, “Proud of you, always.” She kept that note in her journal for years.
They were part of each other’s lives again, not as lovers, but as people who had grown through each other. There was laughter again, shared messages, the occasional teasing comment on variety shows. It wasn’t awkward anymore it was peaceful.
Rina once told an interviewer offhand, “Some friendships are just unfinished stories and that’s okay.” Fans didn’t know then how prophetic that line would become.
Third Try and final (may 2023 - present)
It happened unexpectedly as most real things do.
In May 2023, Super Junior’s Donghae, Leeteuk, and Shindong were guests on Rina’s variety show ShowInterview. The episode was playful, full of laughter and jokes. But near the end, there was a final segment a skit called “Confess Your Love”. The guests had to write a fake love confession on a sketchbook, as part of the bit.
When it was Donghae’s turn, he joked his way through the first few pages, making everyone laugh. But then, on the last page, he paused smiled nervously and flipped it over.
The sketchbook read:
“I love you.”
The audience laughed, thinking it was part of the show. But Rina froze not from embarrassment, but because she knew. And so did Leeteuk and Shindong, who exchanged knowing looks off-camera.
After filming ended, Donghae waited for her in the hallway. He didn’t make a grand speech; he just said quietly, “You know that wasn’t for the show, right?”
She looked at him, half-laughing, half-teary-eyed, and nodded.
That was the beginning again.
They started seeing each other soon after. No secrecy, no heavy expectations just two people who had already seen each other at their best and worst, finally ready for something real.
And then, just as winter turned to January 1st, 2025, the world found out.
Dispatch revealed them as the first New Year’s couple of 2025, publishing photos of them leaving a quiet café in Cheongdam-dong.
For once, the reaction wasn’t scandal or shock it was warmth. Fans from both fandoms flooded social media with messages like “They deserve happiness” and “Finally.” Even their SM family joked that “it only took them eighteen years.”
Neither Rina nor Donghae denied it. Instead, their agencies released a joint statement:
“They’ve known each other for a long time and have recently begun seeing each other with care and respect. Please show them warm support.”
It was simple. Honest. Just like them.
Now, in 2025, they’re together quietly, steadily, happily. They don’t flaunt their relationship, but their warmth shows in small ways: the way he mentions “someone who makes me laugh” on radio shows, the lavender ribbon she wears during Super Junior events.
People around them say they bring out the best in each other. He makes her laugh louder; she makes him softer. After years of almosts and pauses, they’ve finally found peace not in perfection, but in understanding.
Rina once summed it up beautifully during an anniversary interview:
“He was my first love, my heartbreak, my silence, and my peace. Some stories don’t end they just take a long time to find their home.”
