This article contains spoilers for Operation True Love up to Episode 135.
Operation True Love had a very engaging start: an interesting gimmick with the love points that felt fresh, good and slightly different art, a green flag ML and an antagonist you just love to hate. If you could get past the whole “cheat with me” premise, Operation True Love was an addictive read. And although the second male lead syndrome was strong in this one, our first ML was so good that it still felt rewarding when they finally got together.
Then we got about three chapters of bliss only to get hit with… the TIMESKIIIIP. Yes, you heard correctly – if you haven’t read it yet – Chapter 103 was the episode where Eunhyeok suddenly decided to ghost Su-ae for ten years. Yes, years.
So it’s no surprise that a manhwa that was getting an average rating above 9 stars per episode was suddenly hit with a 7.94 for the timeskip episode. But here’s the thing: that episode didn’t even make it into the five worst-rated ones. Every single episode that did, came after the timeskip – and they all point to the same problem: the story keeps spinning its wheels without moving forward.
The 5 worst-rated episodes of Operation True Love on Naver Webtoon Korea
While the international Webtoon App got rid of ratings not too long ago, Naver Webtoon Korea still has them; you can even rate each episode individually. Here is the overview:
- Episode 133: 7,11
- Episode 125: 7,04
- Episode 126: 7,01
- Episode 135: 6,83
- Episode 124: 5,44
Let’s take a closer look at the two lowest-rated episodes to understand what’s frustrating readers the most.
Episode 135: 6.83 Stars – Ra-im Strikes Again
The top comment on Naver for this episode (translated from Korean) sums up the frustration:
I honestly don’t know how many weeks this has been going in circles now (…)
(9,968 likes, 189 dislikes – 67 replies)
So what happened? In Episode 135 Ra-im drives Su-ae home and casually mentions that she’s been keeping in touch with Eunhyeok – which is a slap in the face for Su-ae, since he completely ghosted her. But things escalate: Ra-im realizes that Su-ae knows her secret – that she was the one who uploaded the photo of Eunhyeok’s father’s affair online, which ruined Eunhyeok’s life.
Ra-im panics. She drives straight to Eunhyeok, slaps the phone out of his hand to stop him from picking up a possible call from Su-ae, and clings to him, begging him not to answer. Then she drops two bombs: she confesses her love for him, and she tells him they’re not actually half-siblings – something Eunhyeok had believed all along, and the reason he stayed in touch with her out of guilt. In the next episode, he pushes her away.
I think the rating tanked not only because everyone hates Ra-im at this point, but also because Eunhyeok kept in touch with her and isn’t clear with his boundaries in this episode.
If you want some recommendations, check out my completed romance webtoons list.
Episode 124: 5.44 Stars – The Worst-Rated Episode in Operation True Love
The top comment on Naver says it all:
What’s the point of making her laugh every day when she ends up going to the guy who always makes her cry
(42018 likes, 387 dislikes – 164 replies)
And on the English Webtoon app:
Guess that’s curtain for Dohwa… again… sigh
(28670 likes, 186 dislikes – 87 replies)
Episode 124 is dedicated solely to Su-ae and Eunhyeok. Su-ae’s car breaks down in the middle of the road and Eunhyeok pulls up next to her, offering her to sit in his car because it’s cold. Although Su-ae tries to push him away, she ends up in his car anyway – and then, I didn’t expect it myself, she kisses him. Her reasoning is that she wants Eunhyeok’s facade to crumble, and she succeeds: they have a full make-out session in the car.
Readers hated that they kiss without talking about anything first, and I wholeheartedly agree. But I also have to say – the drama is pretty juicy. And the tension was good in this chapter.
The Bigger Problem
Both episodes reveal the same writing issue: the story keeps the weird dynamic between all of the leads without really going forward. It has been more than 30 episodes since the timeskip and while I don’t think it’s necessarily bad that we still don’t know the reason behind Eunhyeok’s actions, it gets more and more frustrating to follow the story without at least some breadcrumbs of progress.
Especially Episode 124 made it painfully clear: the way Dohwa and Eunhyeok got reintroduced after the timeskip made it seem like we were all starting from scratch. I sometimes think that I didn’t even have to read the first half of the story before the timeskip – and when you’re reading Operation True Love weekly, that can be frustrating.
That said, the low ratings also prove something: you don’t get 5.44 stars out of indifference. You get it from readers who are genuinely frustrated because they care about where this story goes. And honestly, the author does know how to write tension and drama that keeps you coming back.
