It’s overused like you said and it’s sometimes annoying when an author creates a relationship and their bond is only as deep as it is because they knew each other as kids, it’s kinda refreshing reading a story when the couple met as adults and still was able to form a deep bond, I'm not super opposed to the met as kids trope either like I do this it’s overused but im assuming this is why some people just get annoyed, overused and usually used as a main plot point to increase the couples bond when it isn’t necessarily needed
like the other commenter said, at this point it’s so overused, it almost feels gimmicky. like an easter egg that every author just has to add in at least a glimpse of so that the story is totally “complete.” some stories literally make it so that the characters met as kids briefly for like 10 minutes just to add some kind of redundant childhood flashback. overall, it just feels cheap like an easy way to say, “actually, their relationship is very deep!” when they could be just as close from a fresh encounter as an adult (not to mention that their supposed first encounters are always so much more fun and whacky like Chaejun reporting Seunghyun for harassment lol. to change it to “when we were kids…” makes it so yawn boring).
op> asking people why they hate this trope other than the reason that its an overused trope
comments> saying they hate it because it's an overused trope
well, no. there were other reasons provided. to reinstate, it really overrides the uniqueness of stories between authors. many manhwas try to immediately grab your attention with shocking and engaging first encounters, but to then back up and say that the start of their relationships were actually built up from minimal interaction when they were kids completely rids of the story’s initial fun plot line. so this particular trope being overused causes plot-weakening issues and we’re explaining why as the reason everyone throws their head back and groan every time a childhood flashback comes up ties back to the trope appearing in so many other stories. to compare, there’s also a very random trope in manhwas to make bottom characters who look much younger and shorter compared to the top to be older, even if it’s by a year for whatever reason, but that one doesn’t affect the story in any way so it’s nothing to be disappointed about.
reading isn’t your strong suit, huh?
why do you guys hate it when they met as a kid? (any reason other than its an overused trope), personally I think it's kinda cute