Outside of fiction, the romantic storylines of real Miss Korea titleholders follow a different, often harsher script. When a real Miss Korea dates a celebrity or a billionaire, the media frames it as a "power coupling"—a merger of beauty and influence (e.g., Miss Korea 2002 Kim Na-na’s relationships). However, the moment a pageant queen dates a commoner or, worse, a controversial figure, the storyline becomes a scandal.