Hi, media studies PhD student here with a focus in manga, manhwa, BL, etc.
It's not so much a cultural thing as much as it is a trope tied to cultural differences. There's some research that suggests, for example, that culturally East Asia tends to be more centered on grudges towards wrongdoings than, say, America, because America is a particularly individualist-oriented society. Similarly, bullying in East Asia, especially Korea, tends to be more violent and extreme than that in America as a sort of byproduct of this culture. As a result, the tropes that surround bullying/school violence/personal grudges tend to be related to longtime festering feelings that explode at an opportune moment years later because they're not dealt with in the same capacity that bullying is often handled in the states. This is why extreme bullying revenge plots are perhaps more common, and why these sort of confrontations make appearances as a trope
honey you gotta be a bit more open minded about cultural differences… there’s a stark representation of this phenomenon happening in kdramas/webtoons while the comics and shows in the us don’t ever do this trope. this outlook wasn’t about realism, it was curiosity on why this is common in k-media vs uncommon in american media
I’ve seen it in multiple Korean webtoons that have a random character appearing and asking for an apology of years ago. Or a crush that’s been there for years and after meeting for so long they still got those feelings. Or people coming up to another person and saying “I find you attractive, let’s go out” is that like real? LOL like is that something that happens irl in Korea? I am Mexican and live in the US. And I’ve been reading Korean Webtoons since early 2020? I can’t remember I love it. But I’m still pretty ignorant to the Korean culture. I am just here to and appreciate it even more haha