"I risked my life on love like a gamble."

On the July 23 broadcast of SBS "Tails of Tales", the love story of An Jae-hyun and Jiao Zhimin, who crossed the barriers of reality under the subtitle "A Century of Love - An Jae-hyun & Jiao Zhimin", was spotlighted.

Former national table tennis player An Jae-hyun fell in love at first sight with China's top star player Jiao Zhimin in the 1980s. Nervous just to greet her, An smiled by imitating a gesture Jiao frequently made, and as his flirting repeated whenever they met, Jiao eventually smiled back at him.

The two grew close as if by fate. They shared their feelings through letters. However, South Korea and China did not have diplomatic relations, and official exchanges were limited. Especially since China had pointed guns at each other during the Korean War, it was a distant and cautious country much like North Korea, making phone calls or sending letters no easy task.

After half a year passed without even knowing each other's whereabouts, the two met again. An Jae-hyun communicated with Jiao Zhimin in writing, looking up Chinese characters in a Korean dictionary. Jiao Zhimin was two years older than An. Not wanting to look young to her, An introduced himself as being one year older than her.

And as feelings for each other grew, the time to part ways approached once again. Afterward, meeting each other was not easy. Because of this, An delivered letters to Jiao through other Chinese players at international competitions, and at another international competition, a different Chinese player delivered a gift from Jiao to An.

However, Jiao's letters were unreadable no matter how much he looked at them. In response, An devoted himself to studying Chinese by playing Chinese language tapes all day long. And he worked just as hard at table tennis as he did at studying Chinese, because he needed to become a player recognized in world table tennis in order to meet Jiao Zhimin.

Afterwards, An Jae-hyun made the final five-member roster for the national table tennis team at the 1986 Asian Games. Jiao Zhimin was also selected for the Chinese national team, and the two finally met again in Seoul.

And the South Korean men's national table tennis team won the gold medal thanks to An Jae-hyun's stellar performance. South Korea won the gold medal against an unprecedented lineup of Chinese generals, and An Jae-hyun was at the center of it. With this, An engraved his name across the world overnight.

Jiao Zhimin also won a gold medal, and the two met again. Unlike the first time, they directly congratulated each other and expressed their feelings, albeit awkwardly. And An presented Jiao with a South Korean national team training suit that she liked.

An Jae-hyun realized his feelings two years after first meeting Jiao Zhimin. One day, as days of meeting only to part ways again soon repeated, An sent a confession letter containing his feelings to Jiao.

He sent a letter containing his sincere feelings: "They say the saddest thing in the world is parting with the person you love. I cannot believe how I came to like you this much. Love is not done with words, but with the heart. I love you. Do not forget me. I will not forget you either." And Jiao Zhimin expressed her feelings with a photo of her room featuring An Jae-hyun's poster.

Thus, in the autumn of 1986, their love began. But at the same time, it was the beginning of trouble. At the time, their love was blocked by walls of reality that were hard to overcome with love alone.

Then in January 1987, an unexpected incident occurred. A Japanese newspaper broke the news of their romantic relationship. A photo of Jiao Zhimin wearing the training suit given by An Jae-hyun was released, drawing the attention of domestic media as well as media around the world.

In the end, the two denied their relationship through the media, and even when they met, they had to pretend not to see each other. However, none of this was sincere. They spoke of parting out of falsehood, fearing that they would put each other in difficult situations.

As their deep feelings met higher walls of reality, An asked the national team doctor to help him. The doctor, who was cheering for Jae-hyun's feelings, thought of helping their love with a pure heart, and the two continued their secret romance. They also met each other's parents and began to think about marriage.

Around that time, reports of their marriage surfaced. To handle the situation, An personally appeared on a live news broadcast to deny the marriage rumors with Jiao Zhimin, as it was an issue that could cause political repercussions.

However, An continued to think about marrying Jiao afterwards and planned to register their marriage at the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Sweden. The marriage proceeded in strict secrecy. Jiao Zhimin fell into deep thought over this. But ultimately, what the two chose was love.

Recalling that time, Jiao Zhimin said, "Because I liked him, I thought I didn't want to lose this opportunity and love. I risked my life like a gamble."

The two became a couple on October 19, 1989. Around that time, however, the world was changing little by little, as changes came to socialist countries.

And the marriage between the two, which seemed impossible, and their relationship impacted both countries. It served as an important turning point and catalyst in promoting Northern diplomacy.

Through a love achieved beyond the high barrier of ideology, the two held a traditional Korean wedding ceremony at Olympic Park on December 22, 1989, amid the cheers of many. And their love is forever recorded as a century of love that transcended the barriers of borders and ideology.