- Status: Ongoing
- Platform: Webtoon
- Chapters: 31+
- Genre: Modern Romance Manhwa
- Creators: Cakenyam
- Release year: 2025
- tropes: socially awkward FL, player ML; setting: College Romance Manhwa
Sujeong writes romance novels but has never lived one. A proud homebody and a self-proclaimed loner, she’s content on her own—until the sly and irresistible Seunghyeon crashes into her life and turns it upside down. His charm feels dangerous, yet impossible to resist. Now Sujeong must find out: is he the love that she’s been waiting for… or the heartbreak she never saw coming?
Is “Falling For It” worth reading? Short review
Falling For It has it rough on Reddit and other platforms, and I get why – but I disagree. I think it’s worth reading, because it’s genuinely a romance you haven’t read 100 times already. Cakenyam is the author of Our Secret Alliance, one of my all-time favorites, so I was expecting a lot – and maybe other readers felt the same.
Falling For It is not a feel-good romance with sunshine and rainbows. We have an ML who communicates in cheesy pick-up lines left and right, and a socially awkward FL who “falls for it.” Or does she? When he goes abroad, he lies to her about the reason why, and she calls him out on it. The ML doesn’t think much of it, and when the FL contacts him again (even though she promised not to), he arrogantly assumes she must have forgiven him.
And that’s what I actually like about Falling For It. It’s grey. Not black and white. Both leads do questionable things (and know it). It feels believable and real.
artstyle
The art isn’t like your typical OI. The colors are muted, the lineart isn’t completely crisp, and the eyes can look unfocused sometimes. But it still delivers, in my opinion, because the expressions are drawn really well.
romance
The romance won’t give you butterflies – more like a bad feeling in your stomach. First it’s the ML who’s vague and dodgy while still not leaving the FL alone, and then it’s the FL who only gets close to him as part of an “experiment” for her novel (But he completely deserves it).
characters
Falling For It doesn’t have a big cast outside of the protagonists. The FL has a female friend who’s briefly mentioned and a male friend who could be perceived as a threat to the love interest, but they play such minor roles that you don’t even know what their purpose is.
protagonists
The female lead of Falling For It is Sujeong. She is socially awkward and constantly refers to herself as a robot. But she also has a secret: she’s a bestselling romance writer. And in order to “gain some experience” for her writing, she lets herself be swayed by the ML.
The ML, Seunghyeon, is hard to read – not only for the FL, but for the readers too. He says cheesy, flirty things and doesn’t leave the FL alone… until he decides it’s time to be an ass and gaslight her before he leaves. Does he have a reason? (Yes, there were some brief flashback moments.) Does that make it better? No. But it’s so damn satisfying to see him grovel when he realizes his mistakes.
Read if you…
- love well-written tension. Seunghyeon lays it on thick and drops cheesy lines constantly, but Cakenyam still manages to create real tension
- are in the mood for a push-and-pull romance that feels realistic in the modern dating world
- don’t expect the same wholesome read Our Secret Alliance was
- love when the ML doesn’t get away with his mistakes. The moment he realizes it is delicious
Skip if you…
- find it weird that the FL uses ChatGPT. Seriously. The first time it happened I thought it was a joke, but she turns to GPT constantly for relationship advice and actually acts on it. That really threw me off
- mind when the romance isn’t wholesome whatsoever
- can’t forgive an ML who lied even though he “had his reasons”
- aren’t in the mood for a college romance
