r/webtoons • u/Stunning_Taste8845 • Jul 29 '26
Question Is this series even worth it?
I remember reading I love Yoo like a long time ago, like right during the pandemic but it's all blur now. I wanna try re-reading but from what I heard this series hasn't really progressed at all. Its been like 290+ chapters and it's being dragged to hell. Not even most action series have this much space.
Maybe i should just re-read purple hyacinth instead
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u/Organic_Marzipan_715 Jul 29 '26
Honestly, wait til it ends. If it ever ends. Itās not a bad story, itās just been going on forever and thereās so much to process that weekly reading just isnāt it
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u/Sunset-Melody Jul 29 '26
I am interested in the plot and characters (I'm very glad it was not supposed to be a love triangle) but the pacing is atrocious especially considering the frequent long hitatuses. I do feel like the story wasn't meant for webcomic format though I also appreciate the symbolism used in the art at the same time.
I want to see how the story wraps up but I feel like it might take another decade to finish so it's really only worth it if you're patient and invested but not so invested the hiatuses are painful lol
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u/Own_Assistance1436 Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
Tbh no, I enjoyed it at first when it was listed as romance but now thereās just too much drama to follow along. And yes, I would absolutely re read Purple Hyacinth.
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u/CallMePain- Jul 29 '26
That and this were some of my favorite webtoons but I stopped when I caught up and had to wait. I hate waiting and I rarely ever come back. Maybe oh maybe Iāll come back and finish purple hyacinth
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u/Own_Assistance1436 Jul 29 '26
Yeah I hate to break it to you but Purple Hyacinth is on indefinite hiatus, the author is currently dealing with their health. Nonetheless itās still a great read.
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u/CallMePain- Jul 29 '26 edited Aug 01 '26
Is the āauthor is dealing with health issuesā just the āMcDonalds ice cream machine is brokenā of authors, especially webtoons? Or is webtooning just a crazy demanding job? I mean it seems super demanding, but I feel like authors also use it for vacation because they know that fans will accept that excuse over āIām tired and am taking time off to relax.ā
Edit: this isnāt about purple hyacinth author. Itās just that your comment brought it to my attention.
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u/teddyeatsyourface Jul 29 '26
Webtoons/Manhwa and weekly Manga are especially hard on the long-term health of their creators. They essentially work non-stop, have to disregard their own physical and mental health to meet deadlines and release schedules. They meet with editors who sometimes provide feedback from the publishers who want certain things implemented which screw up the flow of the original story pace.
It's genuinely a terrible work environment, so I learned long ago that my impatience with weekly releases or hiatuses are nothing in the grand scheme of things. š
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u/OnionForeign9785 Jul 30 '26
If you follow their social media account it really is due to their health decline. They seem to go get medical check ups often :( hope they are able to recover!
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u/Boring-Candidate4103 Jul 30 '26
That was a good one for sure kept me on the edge of my seat the whole story
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u/Menirz Jul 29 '26
I found it interesting to binge, but once I got caught up, I didn't really care to keep up with it weekly.
Haven't read it in a couple years now, but I really don't have any desire to read it at the moment. I'll probably pick it up again once it's completed.
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u/TobytheDog10 Jul 29 '26
I still read it and I would say every episode has info in it, there's no fillers for the sake of filling. There's a lot of characterization which I really appreciate in stories. It also portrays serious themes like gaslighting, SA, and trauma in very real ways imo. The only complaint I would really have is the dialogue is sometimes very 2015 millennial, but it doesn't affect the plot negatively
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u/jejebbbb Jul 29 '26
No
Don't bother listening to comments who write paragraphs justifying how "good" this is . This is as sloppy romance as it gets . Clusterfck of triangle romance .
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u/No_Pineapple2799 Jul 29 '26
Eh the romance kinda gets thrown aside at some point when the story changed tone and is definitely not a focus of the current story. Anyone who wants romance isn't going to get that, nevermind the clusterfuck that's going on in Kousuke's life (though considering their age gap, he was never to be a love interest)
In hindsight, the early chapters come off as misleading and don't really mesh well with the current tone of the story and characters. I actually like it better now with how it tackles certain topics but the pacing really is slow
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u/teddyeatsyourface Jul 29 '26
It's not a romance story, but it is building a romantic future. There's no triangle.
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u/jejebbbb Jul 29 '26
Thare IS a triangle , wdym ? š You probably talking about when relationship is established but not the drama with hopping on from one to another in between seasons and change the dynamics
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u/teddyeatsyourface Jul 29 '26
The only triangle that could be a thing is Dieter-Shin Ae-Nol and that's if Dieter's crush isn't one-sided but mutual AND he hasn't given up on it. But the story as whole up until this point? No real triangles because it's not a romance story. It's a coming of age story..
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u/blakes5353 Jul 29 '26
Idk where itās at now but there is no chance you can say the story doesnāt have a love triangle, I mean hell look at the cover art lol, they might have dropped it at some
Point but there was absolutely a love triangle to start and that was a big part of the initial premise23
u/teddyeatsyourface Jul 29 '26
That's what Webtoon wanted to promote but not the author. Webtoon pushed for a traditional romance story but that's not what the author created. That whole shtick got the boot once the real story started to ramp up with the party and Shin Ae being drugged.
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u/Yuna_Hudson Jul 31 '26
Not the author, you say???? Just the title includes LOVE on it. Plus the author since the first season fantasized about the MC marrying the guys and having children with them. It's true that love or romance isn't the most important part of the plot, but definitively is a missguiding issue.
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u/kiircsaki Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
The black haired guy is 24 while the female lead is 17, btw. There being a trio as main characters doesn't indicate it's a love triangle. The same way Fruits Basket doesn't have a love triangle with the main trio of Tohru, Kyo and Yuki. It's a trope for sure! And both stories end up flipping the script on you by subverting expectations. Like Yuki actually craving maternal love from Tohru and Kousuke seeing his little brother Nol in Shin-ae, treating her better out of guilt.
This isn't just readers pushing a false narrative on you...it's really shown with a lot of early perceived "romantic" moments with Kousuke. There was always another layer to them that easily got overlooked by romantic interpretations. (Shin-ae talking about her father whenever Kousuke would just stare at her because of his distant relationship to his father, Kousuke remembering rejecting Nol's gifts when he got a gift by Shin-ae, "Don't call me brother" to Nol -> "Call me Kousuke" to Shin-ae etc.)
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u/Ecstatic_Bus_7232 Jul 29 '26
You obviously didn't read much of it, so why commenting ? š¤
"wdym lol look at the cover, heh look at the very beginning lol " is not very informative.. on the contrary it makes you look dumb.
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u/blakes5353 Jul 29 '26
I read a large amount of chapters or when it came out. Not sure where I stopped but I probably read over 100. So saying I havenāt read much of it is wild. I read a large part of it. If they took a sudden turn after I stopped reading that doesnāt mean weāre just gonna act like there wasnāt a clear love triangle for a large part of the series.
Thatās like saying ālookism is a fighting only manwha with nothing deeperā because recently thatās all itās been even though it clearly didnāt start like that for a large portion of the manwha in the beginning.
Has it been all fighting recently? Probably I stopped reading, but we canāt act like thatās what it always was. similarly has it not had a love triangle recently? Maybe but letās not act like there was never a love triangle in the story.
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u/Dr4fl Jul 29 '26
Let me guess, you barely read like 10 or 20 episodes if anything. There's literally no triangle. Perhaps at the start it seemed like it, but that idea gets scrapped very early on, at around episodes 30 - 40.Ā
Besides, it isn't a romance either. Again, at the start it SEEMED like it, but as the story goes on it really goes deep into the drama and thriller genre, and romance takes a back seat.
Perhaps try actually reading things before having an opinion on them, yeah?
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u/Huntress08 Jul 29 '26
Perhaps try actually reading things before having an opinion on them, yeah?
Why do ILY stans always do this weird discrediting of peeps opinions on the series as if they didn't read it at all and are triglodytes?
I've been alive long enough to see my fair share of terrible fandoms and fandom behavior, but Jesus, this airways happens with the ILY stans.
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u/Dr4fl Jul 29 '26
Why do ILY stans always do this weird discrediting of peeps opinions on the series as if they didn't read it at all and are triglodytes?
Because most people criticizing the series don't actually read it, and it's very easy to notice if, for example, they still think the comic it's just a romance or say how the "love triangle" sucks, when there was literally no triangle in the story lmao.
But yknow, it's also very annoying how people say the series sucks just because it's not a romance, instead of admitting it's just not their type of comic/genre, that's it.
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u/teddyeatsyourface Jul 29 '26
It's one thing to read the first 20, 30, 40, 50 whatever episodes and say "oh this just wasn't for me, because xyz"
it's another thing to read however many episodes and get mad and call it any variation of trash because the story didn't cater to what you personally wanted from it.
It's not just this webtoon. So many readers of this genre cannot fathom simply not liking something without making it into some grand crusade of artistic criticism and trying to coerce others into joining their crusade.
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u/Huntress08 Jul 29 '26
Because most people criticizing the series don't actually read it
People do read the series. People can have an opinion on something even if thru drop at episode 50 vs 200 or even 250+
It's very weird that all and every criticism of the series is instantly shot down by stans and people are treated as if they lack intelligence (or literary analysis) for it. It's no better than OP stans telling people if they have any criticism of the anime that they don't understand Oda's vision and just need to get through all 1000+ episodes of the anime.
You can disagree with someone's opinions and criticisms on a series you like and push back on it, but there's a hard line between that and shutting down all criticism of a series because you think someone is intellectually lacking to be able to form an opium or hasn't read past some arbitrary checkpoint in the series.
instead of admitting it's just not their type of comic/genre, that's it.
...that person you replied to literally did and you called them an idiot and said they weren't allowed to have an opinion
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u/Dr4fl Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
I'm not saying people can't have opinions, but it would be nice if people actually read and understand what they're reading before having an opinion on it. People saying the comic is bad is because they're expecting/reading it as a romance, so no shit, of course the comic is bad if you think that way, because this comic is more in the drama/thriller genre. I'm not saying the comic is perfect, just that it would be nice if people criticized/formed an opinion on the comic for what it actually is. For example, in the ILY fandom we all discuss and agree that the pacing overall isn't very good and a bit awkward, but of course, we talk about the comic seeing it for what it IS, a drama/thriller. See the difference?
Imagine if someone thinks Transformers or Star Wars is a romance series, and they say the series is bad because of that. That's literally what's happening with ILY omg š
...that person you replied to literally did and you called them an idiot and said they weren't allowed to have an opinion
When did I even say that? Can you point the part where I called them an idiot?? Jesus christ. Holy overreacting.
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u/Huntress08 Jul 29 '26
Addendum, you didn't verbally call them an idiot and for that I will apologize.
ily Initially being genre tagged as a romance or marketed as one is something that had been discussed to death on this sub. Something that Webtoon greatly messed up on but was changed some time during the early course of the series. However, this doesn't negate people's opinions if they dropped the series after the genre was correctly changed and they didn't like the course of the romantic subplot.
For example, in the ILY fandom we all discuss and agree that the pacing overall isn't very good and a bit awkward
LOL, this has not been my interaction with a very vocal percentage of the fandom when I criticized the pacing, structure of the story, and many other things about the series from both the perspective of a reader and writer.
I know you said people can have opinions on the series of they read it, but my whole comment about ILY stans is they pay back on the criticism even if someone dropped the story after the genre was changed.
Transformers or Star Wars is a romance series
This is an apple to oranges comparison because neither series was ever mismarketed (by either corporate, fan base or detractors). A more apropos example in the past 10/15 years would be Killing Stalking being mislabeled as a BL when it's psychological thriller/horror.
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u/jejebbbb Jul 29 '26
SmartĆ ss i DID read it , although long back , that thing with "triangle" did existed , how they scraped it doesn't make it less of a bad taste when people were riding on it in initial 50 episodes
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u/Dr4fl Jul 29 '26
But did you ACTUALLY read it, up until like episode 200 - 250? That was the question. Most likely the answer is no.
Again, READ before having an opinion lmfao.
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u/teddyeatsyourface Jul 29 '26
They don't even need to read it up to 200 episodes. Just finish out the party arc and Shin-Ae going to the hospital. There's an immediate shift in that storyline that frees us of WT's story influence.
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u/Dr4fl Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
Yeah... Honestly I've been thinking perhaps this comic would've been better in another platform/format due to the story structure, and also because of, well, Webtoon audience itself. People here clearly don't have enough attention span/media literacy for it. These ppl would die if they try to read a book lol.
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u/teddyeatsyourface Jul 29 '26
That's really true. I've been hearing the same complaints about the "romance" since the story started. Freaking out that there's not another generic teen love manhwa, meanwhile the actual story got 1000x more interesting when it switched to a full fledge drama with undertones of unrealized romantic yearning.
This story was too ahead of its time and on the wrong platform.
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u/ShinYoo-Yeonggi Jul 29 '26
Never was a romance tho but a drama.
Also it had romance subplot but never love triangle-5
u/SwaggiiP Jul 29 '26
It was a romance when it first came out. The author went on a gaslighting campaign after one of her long hiatuses to pretend like it was always a drama to cover the fact that the romance wasnāt progressing.
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u/ShinYoo-Yeonggi Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
No, Webtoon painted it as a romance. At that point, they werenāt always respecting the authorās choices, and it was marketed or tagged as a romance and love triangle to attract more readers. The story itself was always a drama, even in the beginning, the romantic elements just overshadowed the drama at first. So no, she wasnāt āgaslightingā anyone. She has talked about having to fight for the storyās proper genre, and she has also explained that some of the early fanservice came from editorial requests.
You are so wrong about all of it.1
u/AugmentedElle Sep 12 '26
Thereās posts on her Patreon from the creation of the very first Webtoon trailers about how the marketing isnāt representative of the story sheās telling and sheās worried about how Webtoon is trying to draw in readers on false premises
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u/BigosFan85 Jul 29 '26
Looking at the cover it looks like gay existential drama with a hetero twist also. Like the red hair guy is on his polyamory life stage bc he is in the middle of identity crisis.
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u/Opposite_Welder_8637 Jul 29 '26
Yea, it seems dishonest to say that it was never teased as being a love triangle. I can understand if Webtoons mismarketed, but quimcheeās own posts and promotional art pushed the same idea. Thereās even an old post of Nol and Kousuke with the caption āwho are you guys rooting forā.
Itās supposed to be heavily inspired by Cheese in the Trap, which also features a similar love triangle.
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u/kiircsaki Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
aaand here we go, another r/webtoons post where people can let out their grievances about I Love Yoo not being a romance, actual readers saying how it's not about that and getting dunked on for it.
That to say, if you do want a romance then this isn't for you (clearly) as it's very slow with the romance subplot and mostly focuses on mental health struggles and corporate intrigue.
I've been reading since january/febuary of 2019 and never stopped enjoying it despite having to go through all the long hiatuses and admittedly sometimes atrociously slow pace (reading it weekly especially) but if you're not up for analysing characters and accepting that the story won't spoonfeed you character motivations and backgrounds, you'd just miss out on a lot of enjoyment. I feel like that's where a lot of the disconnect stems from besides the romance misconceptions. "The story lost its plot" often reads more like "I didn't care enough to understand what the story laid out for me" to readers who've been enjoying collecting the puzzle pieces all this time.
Basically, it's very much a psychological drama with mystery aspects to it. It can definitely feel draining with the little amount of breaks you get once the story unfolded completely. But hey, everyone has their own preferences..this is mine and this is how the story is built ā not as a love triangle romcom or what other kind of narrative some people like to push.
In the end, you can only make your own judgement on whether you want to get into that or not, there are enough well meaning readers who can tell you what it's all about but in the end you just gotta be interested enough to start.
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u/ShinYoo-Yeonggi Jul 29 '26
Thank you for saying this. I couldnāt put it any better. So glad you are here
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u/ggc4 Jul 29 '26
Iāve been a fan from the start, and I remain so. Itās a drama with dark edges, and the writing is fantastic.
Many readers were upset that romance didnāt bloom quickly. (Romance is a small element of the story, not the focus. There were more tones of it at the beginning than the middle.) Others didnāt like waiting for weekly updates. (This is fair, I also had periods where I waited a couple months to read a stretch of chapters at once.) But to say that the story hasnāt progressed and itās dragged on is simply incorrect. Itās progressing at a good pace, and every chapter has added to the plot and characters. Itās not a fast-paced action, thriller, or romance like many readers are used to, but itās not a super slow burn either. I do think youāll enjoy it more now that so many chapters are out.
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u/blakes5353 Jul 29 '26
I mean I guess my question as someone who read and dropped it is have they in 290 chapters is have they solved many of the major mysteries and has anything been atleast partially resolved in terms of the initial family issues/relationships/drama.
Bad dramas have this tendency to create mini issues and resolve them while adding more mini issues but never progressing the initial main issues or new Main issues that pop up. Iām not saying thatās what happened as a stopped reading a long time ago Iām legit asking.
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u/teddyeatsyourface Jul 29 '26
Resolved:
-Shin-Ae had an extended flashback that went into detail about her life and her horrific injury as a kid, and the friend who betrayed her.
-The backstory of Rand and Nol's mother was explained. The details of how Nol came to live with Rand is still under wraps but it's pretty easy to guess what happened there.
-Kousuke's background story with both parents were revealed, and Yui is a psycho.
-Shin-Ae's sister is back, unbeknownst to Shin-Ae, and her entire backstory along with her and Shin-Ae's mother has been revealed.
Ongoing storylines:
-Yui is a psycho, like criminally so. Like, Epstein level criminally insane. But Rand and the reporter girl are actively working to bring her down.
-Shin-Ae's sister is working with/for Kousuke as he's dealing with a huge identity crisis and needs people to trust.
-Nol is in jail because of Yui but will be released in 6 months
-Alyssa is being sex trafficked by Yui as she rises the ranks in her idol career
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u/Weird_Vegetable_4441 Jul 29 '26
I mean with the cover and title name I was very much thinking it would be more romance centered
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u/SwaggiiP Jul 29 '26
It was at one point lmfao. The author got bored of the romance at some point and essentially lied and said it never was one. Like sis, the title itself is a remnant of its romance past lmao.
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u/teddyeatsyourface Jul 29 '26
The title is about the main girl. Also, the author didn't lie. She has been pretty forthright about how WT pushed for a romance angle in the beginning and she fought back & forth with them about how they promoted her series as a romance instead of a drama.
It's not even the first time WT has interfered with a series on their platform. Especially in that era.
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u/SwaggiiP Jul 29 '26
Nah, I was there when that webtoon was first added to the platform. The author definitely leaned into it being a romance. She changed her stance after one of her year long hiatuses.
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u/teddyeatsyourface Jul 29 '26
Dope. I was also there and I've seen her Q & A on her socials and Patreon before and after her first big hiatus in '21. The shift in the story began during that first party arc when Shin-Ae was hospitalized. It continued to focuse Nol's family life, Shin-Ae's desperation and depression, Yui getting her hands on Shin-Ae as a potential plaything for Kousuke/her own amusement, and even on Shin-Ae and Nol's bond that's going to eventually lead them to a relationship. But the story dropped the wacky antics in its first real arc.
ILY was always meant to be the story we're seeing now. I do not understand why there's such a kickback to that. It's ultimately a better story than what WT wanted to promote.
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u/ObiSkies Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
Not true.
And the indicators are all there. If you've read up to the formal arc (and I'm assuming you have cause it's about 50 chaps) that arc itself already makes it very clear.
"Subversion of tropes"
This requires a story to have SOME semblance of a trope before it can subvert it. That's what ILY does with the the typical "bullied girl, serious mean dude, and uber friendly dude in a love triangle" setup. It subverts it. This series was never a romance. Signs of everything the story is right now ARE there in the beginning. But until these aspects are brought more obviously forward a bit later on, or unless they're already catching the little details in the beginning, it's easy for some people to miss.
But to give explanation for Shin-ae and Kousuke: Neither of them ever saw each other in a romantic way. Not once. Regarding Kousuke, he DID pay a close eye on Shin-ae. But it wasn't because he liked her. Can't go into it without major spoilers, but it has something to do with how messed up his relationship with Nol is. Likewise, there are scenes where Yui "prompts" Kousuke to be with Shin-ae. But that's never presented in a "ha ha look how cute that is" way. It's always presented as "uncomfortable" for Kousuke/Shin-ae and straightup "predatory" from Yui
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u/Icy-Pension5768 Jul 29 '26
Honestly I tried to stick with it but it got too depressing to read for me and it looked like that it was only going to go downhill from there. So if endless angst is not for you then no
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u/karena74 Jul 30 '26
Yes. Itās an emotionally deep read. Itās great on character development, storytelling, and laughter. However, the slow burn is there. It takes time for romance to bloomā¦ if it does bloom at all. Iām still reading it, and like I said it has its fast moments and slow moments. Itās a very paced out story and the storyline goes through every issue very methodically. There will be light and dark moments and your emotions will be pulled in every different direction. Overall I love the series and itāll definitely make you wanna know what happens next. Itās a great read.
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u/Life_Peace5991 Jul 29 '26
No. It started off as a romance but it has dragged out so much that it got reclassified as a drama, and even then its not a good drama series.
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u/Rallen224 Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
Having been on WT from since this series first began, the author explained years ago that they never wanted it categorized as romance but they were having a hard time getting WT to advertise it correctly. At the time, WT was running a lot of banners against creatorsā wishes and cherry picking information that would make their series fit specific categories for views, to the equal chagrin of the indie creators who wanted to be featured and assumed that the big ones on contract were intentionally taking their āspotsā.
When things started to come to a head (not too long before hiatus 1) the author of ILY said it was always a drama but WT was refusing to categorize it/advertise it differently, so she continued getting flamed on twt. Got worse esp. in response to her medical emergencies iirc. Other large creators for the platform who began around that era have complained similarly, and also had to go through lengthy renegotiation processes for their ads. There were other issues with this incl. ads getting pulled entirely as a result (something the author also complained about, incl. having to shell out of pocket to get their ads with correct information made and used) but this is the main gist.
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u/teddyeatsyourface Jul 29 '26
The author of Let's Play was another person who had to fight with WT about publishing. Mongie took an extended hiatus because WT tried to cheat her out of some profits of her physical books while also making demands of her story. She went on hiatus and finished out whatever legal contract she had left with the company. Her Webtoon just came back for season 4 on a whole new platform, tapas.
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u/Rallen224 Jul 29 '26
I was loosely following Mongieās debacle so I didnāt know about the publishing dispute, just her content preferences and what she was comfortable hinting at on certain pages. Itās really unfortunate to hear that so many authors have been in that position.
There was a large wave of creators decrying the publishing deals available for similar reasons because the contractual structures cut them out of their earnings and ability to consent to certain opportunities entirely when that wasnāt what they agreed to.
It resulted in a lot of other issues that even went beyond the bounds of their contracts, so Iām surprised to hear she was one of the creators who was impacted! Her change in platform makes a lot of sense.
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u/teddyeatsyourface Jul 29 '26
The only WT creator from that era who found success under WT was Rachel Smythe, the creator of Lore Olympus. Even then I still think they interfered with story content, schedule, and art but not as much as they did with other creators. But she sure as hell didn't stick around to create any new projects on the platform.
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u/Rallen224 Jul 29 '26
I had the same feelings in regards to her work tbh, itās really rare to find another reader not only from the same era, but who also takes notice of these things! I feel like this happens a lot once series go big
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u/teddyeatsyourface Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
It is rare. I think most of the readers who used love and live on the WT platform left once WT policies started to change and once they started importing more and more popular Korean series instead of nurturing their canvas program.
WT was the place to go for upcoming artists and writers to get their work out there on a professional level, but the more popular and well-known WT got, it abandoned it's original core audience and original purpose.
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u/SwaggiiP Jul 29 '26
This was just the author gaslighting readers. It absolutely was a romance when she first published it. Iād have more respect if she just admitted she changed her plans instead of saying she got deceived into listing her drama called āI Love Yooā as a romance.
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u/scarred_crow Jul 29 '26
I personally don't like it, and I started back in 2018 or do then dropped it during the hiatus.
Can someone spoil me where the story is now? It feels like it was going nowhere.
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u/ObiSkies Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
Pasting this from another comment cause it's spot on - and adding more other points myself. This is just SOME of whatās happened
Shin-Ae had an extended flashback that went into detail about her life and her horrific injury as a kid, and Alyssa who betrayed her.
The backstory of Rand and Nol's mother was explained. They were actually married so Nol isn't illegitimate. Yui's the one Rand cheated with. The details of how Nol came to live with Rand is still under wraps but it's pretty easy to guess what happened there.
Yui is a psycho, like criminally so. Like, Epstein level criminally insane. Eg. Alyssa isĀ being sex trafficked by Yui as she rises the ranks in her idol career and she's one victim of MANY (ie. like how Shin-ae NEARLY became a victim during the black and white formal 50s eps into the story). But Rand and a reporter named Yu-Jing are actively working to bring Yui down.
Turns out Yui's been drugging Kousuke's deserts since he was a child, hence his addiction to them. He's so high on them that he could die if he stops taking them for a few weeks. This may be why his cognitive/social development was stunted, memories repressed and so on.
Shin-Ae's sister is back, unbeknownst to Shin-Ae, and her entire backstory along with her and Shin-Ae's mother has been revealed. They're HALF sisters since their mum used to jump from man to man to take their money.
Yu-Jing needs Kousuke's help. Kousuke doesn't trust Yui anymore and deep down he's on Nol's side now. The reporter and Kousuke's cousin (a doctor) are gonna have to slowly work him off the drugs in secret. Shin-Ae's sisterĀ is also working with/for Kousuke in secret as he's dealing with a huge identity crisis and needs people to trust.
Nol isĀ in jail because of Yui but will be released in 6 months.
Turned out that when Nol asked Shin-ae to be his friend, it wasn't genuine. He didn't see her as a friend at the time. He needed others to take care of to get rid of his own past guilt (his mental state is so bad that during the black and white formal 50-ish eps in, when he fell in the water, he actually tried to drown himself). But obviously over time he did see her as a friend without his knowing. Shin-ae, Dieter and Soushi are all trying to help Nol now in whatever way they can. Also, Nol and Shin-ae are aware that they like each other now. But neitherās ready to admit it to themself yet let alone the other.
Shin-ae caught Yui's eye early on in the story and that hasn't changed. Now that Shin-ae has a stronger understanding of just what she's gotten into by being involved with the brothers, Yu Jing wants Shin-ae to act as a spy for her and Rand. Once Shin-ae turns 18, she wants Shin-ae to let Yui THINK she's controlling her.
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u/Mara_Uzumaki Jul 30 '26
Umm, they got divorced before Nol was born and he married Yui but kept go back to his wife, so Nol is still illegitimate, he's younger than Kousuke.Ā
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u/kiircsaki Jul 30 '26
Divorces didn't become legal in Ireland until 1996, so no they most likely didn't get "divorced". The story also doesn't tell you that they did, so this was an assumption on your part.
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u/Mara_Uzumaki Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
Even if you say that, he still married Yui and had Nol after that fact, in a whole other country, so he still was the child of an affair, because Rand does say they were "separated", meaning Ex, no longer together. And Nol doesn't even carry his father last name, even chairman Hirahra acknowledges and calls Nol a "bastard", in the recent episode. So he is legally tied to Yui, and had a child outside of that union, making him still illegitimate, to this current marriage union, and y'all would then, say well, his marriage with Yui, isn't legit but, in the story verse it is, Rand and everyone else acknowledges it as a marriage, despite of.
And mind you this is still a fictional story not completely based on real world events. And I would honestly like to assume, Yui and the chairman, would've already been 100 steps ahead and made Rand get a divorce, or else he wasn't getting the Hirahra name.
But honestly this is exactly why this webtoon sucks because you fans suck out all the life and reality from it by painting everything involving Nol is some pure light, even his cheating dad, and clueless mom gets Kawaified, and thought as "no, he's special, he was born, out of love", rather than seeing it as him being born of a woman desperation and a greedy cowardice man. Sigh.
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u/kiircsaki Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
No one is saying that it wasn't an affair or that his marriage to Yui isn't legit. Also, the idea of it being a fictional universe with its own laws doesn't exactly land when Nessa went to Wales to get an abortion. Because again, they weren't legal in Ireland until 2018. Just because you don't find merit in reading into what the story implies, doesn't mean the readers are wrong for doing it.
And I really don't get why you constantly have to fight the ghosts in your head shaped as the readers, because Rand is so hated for neglecting his wife and then cheating on her. Nor is Nol a character who gets no flack, his reaction to Alyssa in 243 or those towards Kousuke during his spiral showed it plenty. Nol as a character is someone who sees when he is being victimized but fails to see when others have been as well ā so he puts his own pain above them. It's a serious flaw of his but that doesn't quite fit in your gary stu narrative now, does it?
Frankly, I know having these discussions with you leads to nowhere. You're unwilling to engage with the cues given to you, you're unwilling to acknowledge any nuance in characters unless they're Kousuke, you don't even view the story nor its readers highly, so you shoot anything in discussions down (not very fun, I'll tell you that). So in the end, what readers like about the story is clearly something that doesn't speak to you. Kousuke's arc can't be all that for you to keep reading when I don't even see you participating in discussions about his arc. Your input in the community is all about oh how x and y suck as characters, how the readers suck, yadda yadda..So really, I don't understand how you can keep reading something that clearly fills you with so much bitterness, when you can just..spend your time elsewhere with a story that does speak to you, instead of trying to sour people's fun even inside their own community. Does it genuinely bother you so much that not everyone is hate reading it?
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u/soyfritter Jul 29 '26
I would say that this is good. The story is quite complex and there's so much to unpack because the author cares about the details. One night in the story can stretch into multiple chapters. I don't recommend you to start reading now because the author is known to take long multiple hiatus and we are not in season 2 yet, gosh. You can read later when it's about to end which is.... I don't even know when. Just marinate it son š
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u/teddyeatsyourface Jul 29 '26
Yes, it's a beautifully crafted story that had some external misfortunes like interference from Webtoon which caused the author to reformat a chunk of their story in the middle of it, and some health issues and online drama with the author and her family getting doxxed by fans. That's why the series had multiple hiatuses and why it's been taking so long to progress.
But the series has been running fairly smoothly since the author returned. At most a week is skipped for a new release if there's technical issues with an episode upload, or if the art wasn't completed in time.
Overall this is a pretty great series because it's not what you would expect. It's very character focused and the plot serves the character, and currently the plot is ramping up like an old school James Patterson novel.
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u/CopicColors Jul 29 '26
I think it is worth reading. This has one of the best characterizations and depth of character development in any webtoon I've read. It's not being dragged, but the story is still being drawn out since it has many complicated and intertwining arcs and plots.
The issue with so many chapters was (I think) due to an issue with webtoon itself, so that the chapters had to be broken down more. Correct me if I'm wrong. But overall, this series has no filler whatsoever. The author is totally dedicated to the plot and does her best not to make anything too cliche.
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u/aleipp Jul 29 '26
I was obsessed with it years ago, then I took a two year break before recently picking it back up and binge reading from where I left off. I still like it a lot, but I don't have the patience for weekly updates, so I'm already taking another break until there are more chapters available. I do hope it ends soon, though. As much as I enjoy the story, it's taking way too long to reach a conclusion.
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u/punkwillreign Jul 29 '26
It's not being dragged as hell. How would you know if you stopped reading it during the pandemic. You're part of the same group of people that want Romance in a drama when the author clearly wrote this as a drama. People now in days have short attention span which explains why they like slop than good storytelling. This webtoon is dealing with grief, bullying, peer pressure, hiding one's sexuality, abandonment, betrayal, sacrifice, etc.Ā
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u/ShinYoo-Yeonggi Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
Yes, but if you donāt want the slow pacing, then read Purple Hyacinth instead (itās really good too).
Personally, I really like this comic because of how character driven it is, how it explores certain themes, and so much more. I personally recommend it, but unfortunately, many people here are saying the opposite, and they seem to really dislike the webtoon. Too bad, because I feel like they missed out on a lot, but I canāt blame them. Iām new and binge read it, so maybe thatās why I donāt feel the same way ?
I really love this webtoon so much šš and people are hating on it. I knew some people would hate it anyway because I was literally sighing before coming here lol š
But to each their own. Everyone has different tastes, and itās clearly not for them, and thatās fine.
Just that itās not what people are thinking about ( love triangle rom-com ) because well, many already explained. Itās a drama but with romance subplot.
I just hope some people donāt dismiss our opinions by saying, āDonāt listen to their long paragraphs explaining how good it is,ā because damnā¦ š
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u/edgiest_ Jul 30 '26
yes, it started off light and now itās sort of darker and even as someone who doesnāt typically enjoy series like that itās so good itās hard to turn away from.
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u/Foxfire_vixen Jul 30 '26
Honestly the plot is alright. I think thereās enough that you can read it and get into it. There are some episodes that break up the drama and feel drug out but I think itās alright. Been reading it since day 1
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u/KB-2000 Aug 02 '26
Normally, I never leave comments, but I saw all the negative ones, and honestly, it broke my heart a little to read so much negative stuff about this comic.
Thats why I wanted to chime in and say that this comic alone has gotten me through my workweeks for the past several years because I've been looking forward to every Friday update.
Personally, I'm not a huge fan of the romance aspect, especially in the beginning, but it's a rather small part of the story and the current drama has been absolutely delicious. The tone of the comic now is also completely different from what it was when it first started and you can really see how much care and planning went into this story now that everything is unraveling.
I love it a lot!
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u/e_castille Aug 03 '26
If you like character-drivers psychological thrillers with a tinge of crime than yes
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u/kitsunecola Jul 29 '26
i love yoo is one of my favorite series' that im reading at the moment. i started reading it thinking it would just be another romance, which i do love even if clichƩ, but its a lot more than that. i guess the average reader who is incapable of deep thought would probably not enjoy the series. there are some small romantic aspects and things building up but its not the entire plot. it touches on real world heavy topics and it actually does a pretty good job of it. if you want a more "fast-paced" romance, this isn't the story for you. but it's still very interesting. themes of trauma, mental health struggles, corruption, s/a and im sure a lot more are mentioned throughout the story. i personally appreciate the writing quality and how "drawn out" things are because it doesn't just breeze over those topics. the issues going on in shin-ae's world are very real things people deal with, or things we see in the world today. the fact that there's so many episodes and it's still ongoing is giving it that space to dive deeper into these problems.
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u/roughbroccoli79 Jul 29 '26
def read purple hyacinth!!
i love i love yoo but it might take you some time to get into it but despite that itās so funny and it gets sad sometimes so you canāt help but root for them
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u/NutShellShock Jul 29 '26
Yes definitely. The layers of intricacies and details and relationship (not romance) drama pulled me in.
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u/Tired-Soft Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
Not againā¦well, in my opinion, itās worth it. But if you really despise slow pacing, and expect romance ( um maybe fast burning one ), well I donāt think it will be your cup of tea.
Itās not a love triangle romance, itās a drama with a romance slow burn subplots. And since you already read a good amount of chapters, I think you quite know that it was never really a romance ( what webtoon actually marketed at first). So um yeah maybe if you read it as a drama it will be more interesting.
Edit: damn yāall clearly hate this webtoon. Well I guess itās only interesting for some.
Itās alright, not everyone has the same taste. I really like this webtoon š¹
Good luck for those who might try š·šøšø
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u/AgonistPhD Jul 29 '26
Truthfully, no. Too many plots at once, too much skipping between them for any momentum. It's a shame; many of the plots are very good.
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u/Strict-Explorer-9566 Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
I've been reading this and unordinary since grade 9, and I'm in uni rn. I love it so much that I still wait for weeks just for an episode to come out. I'd say let it marinate, then binge-read it. It focuses on quite a lot of things, and it has a bunch of twists as well. You might like this one.
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u/PICKAP_ Jul 29 '26
no. this thing has been going on for ages ( i think it's still not finished?) and the story's been dragged for so long that I lost the plot. But overall it was boring.
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u/Weird_Vegetable_4441 Jul 29 '26
No. Starts well, adds tons of unaddressed or dragged out drama for the sake of it
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u/Legal__Drug_Dealer_ Jul 29 '26
I'm reading it out of spite at this point coz I wanna know what will happen.
I've invested time reading till now so I must know
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u/_TooManyDreams_ Jul 29 '26
I only stopped because this is one of those series you have to binge. It was difficult to read through and got overly dramatic. I got the sense there were reasons but so much was held back that it just feltā¦stale. Like I was being baited for gold but all I was getting were dustānot even gold dust
Now I KNOW the gold is there. But itās a complicated story. And I dislike having to
Go back and reread episodes to understand.
Itās like backtracking in a video game, it just feelers redundant and monotonous
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u/Delevian Jul 30 '26
To me, when the comedy decreases, it is not worth it after that. Idk if it picks back up though
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u/me_and_qui Jul 29 '26
Iām still enjoying it. Iāve stuck around for the years long hiatus.. and the constant out of the blue hiatusesā¦ but it still has me reeled in. I want to know what happens. Iāll just have to reread from the start to refresh my memory
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u/Logical-Cockroach-25 Jul 29 '26
In the beginning, it was almost gonna be one of those love square. I was kind of hoping for but it took a Jurassic change to a drama which focus is too much on like on their backstory
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u/Legitimate-Boss3182 Jul 30 '26
I remember when I started this webtoon, just released, it seemed fun and I was ready for some romance. Time passed and in one of the Q&A, the author mentioned she expected the entire series to be like 200 episodes or something like that and I kinda did my calculations, and said, oh it's gonna be like two years. Anyway, almost 10 years have passed because there were so many hiatuses, that lasted almost years, then the pace got super slow and plots got super dark, romance is not the primary focus anymore.
Story is close to 300 episodes and from what I have seen from people who still reads it, it still have a long way to go. I stopped reading in 2024. Maybe it will be finished in 2017, marking a 10 year anniversary haha, who knows. Then I will read it, when it's complete.
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u/slummy_dum Jul 30 '26
It was good in the beginning when I started reading 10 YEARS AGO.
Thank god I missed the ābackstory arcā of the female lead bcuz that took months before it went back to the current timeline..
Im waiting for it to finish so I can just binge read it.
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u/Connect_Version_1560 Jul 31 '26
Can anyone tell me the plot or spoil it because when I read the first of chapters,it seemed to be leaning towards a romance and people were actively rooting for the brown haired guy more than the orange one.Now ,I am not even sure about the story anymore but the brown guy reputation is like not the greatest.What happened?
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u/ShinYoo-Yeonggi Aug 02 '26
So, the comic has always been a drama, but Webtoon marketed it as a romance/love triangle when it first came out. Because of that, many people went in expecting a fast paced romance, when in reality it was always meant to be a character driven drama with slow burn romance sitting in the back ( like itās really not so rampant per episode). Thatās why the first 50 or so episodes have more of a rom com vibe. It also came out in 2017, so some of the humor and tropes feel more typical of that era.
As the story became darker, many readers thought Quimchee had ālost the plotā or was dragging the story because the romance wasnāt progressing the way they expected. Even now, nearly 300 episodes later, the romance is still a slow burn ( no kiss so far, not surprising after knowing the true genre). Personally, I like it because the story is primarily a slow paced drama with mystery and psychological genre, while the romance is only a subplot.
As for Kousuke (the dark haired guy), he was promoted as one of the love interests because of the marketing, but in the story itself he was never really written as ShinAeās romantic match. Their relationship is much closer to a boss-and-employee or mentor/friend dynamic. Meanwhile, ShinAe and YeongGiās relationship develops much more naturally over time. It takes a very long time before either of them even begins to acknowledge romantic feelings, but now the situation is lux more complicated so while they do feel attraction towards each other, they never express it due to SPOILERS Nol being in jail and Yui who is starting to mess with ShinAeās life
As for why Kousukeās reputation changed (I personally like him), later chapters reveal that he treated Nol poorly for years, including belittling and verbally bullying him.
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u/thayyarsaadham Aug 03 '26
Started reading this when I was in middle school I think I gave up by the time I was in uni.... It just gets boring... I'd suggest waiting for it to end before you start.
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u/Mara_Uzumaki Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
It's just suffering, sadness and more sadness. In the beginning it was quiet lively and fun, but author decided that Nol must become a tragic gary stu, that everything has to revolve around him and how sad he is and how the whole world is against him. What gets me about this series is everything involving Nol is justĀ reactivate, instead of active. Because he's the poor tragic prince, he's never done anything wrong rather he's always a victim of circumstance from others around him and it's so lame, all this self sacrificing crap.
Maybe you'll like it if youĀ love that crap but I hate it. Shinae, character also, has taken a turn for the worse because she has not a brain and truly she has no character outside of being concerned and being in Nol's business. Yui, Kousuke and his cousin, Rand, Dieter and Minyuk carry this webtoon hard, because the two main character, are the blandest pair I've ever seen, they lack versatility, and are not entertaining to read. And I would forgive that if, the characters were supposed to be written like that, simple characters like Naruto, Tanjiro, Shinra etc exist. B ut the author tries to portray the mcs like something their not, she tries to make them out as complex characters and it's just comes off as pretentious, because they're not, from what we're getting. These characters don't think, Shinae is always screaming and only cares about Nol. Nol big arc is him, being afraid and isolating himself to protect his friends... I just can't man.Ā
I only continue to read this webtoon just to see what happens with my boy Kousuke but, my eye literally be hurting from rolling so hard everytime Shinae and Nol are on the pages. And I used to love this webtoon in it's early chapters but somewhere along the lines, things shifted and it just became off. And yeah, if you don't like long flashbacks and drawn out conversations that lead to nowhere you won't like this, with the "foreshadowings" that takes forever to come to realization, because it's not just a "drama, that's totally not a romance, it's also a mystery/investigative webtoon, in which the "intellectual" fans have to piece together and analyze everything down to Nols underwear to make sense of everything"... I just... I can't bro!!!!
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u/ShinYoo-Yeonggi Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
Damnā¦I disagree with so much and I feel like we are reading a different webtoon.
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u/Mara_Uzumaki Jul 29 '26
Yeah, because the average audience love a good "woe is me" trope, I couldn't care less for it.
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u/ShinYoo-Yeonggi Jul 29 '26
Thatās fine, I disagree with you and you disagree with mine. Really nothing to care about
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u/AmeeratAlDjaizair Jul 29 '26
At some point it became boring and you just lost it, really disappointing
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u/barker2017 Jul 29 '26
No. I am currently reading it and itās so god damn dragged out, and been on so many breaks, Iāve forgotten half of whatās happened.
You might fair better being able to binge a lot of it but nothing is really happening at the moment I feel.
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u/Kwon_seri Jul 29 '26
I dropped it recently but I donāt have much memory of the story. It was kinda like a lot was happening but I didnāt know what direction they were planning to take the story in
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u/HugeRaisin7833 Jul 29 '26
Long-time ILY reader here.
At the moment, the series is updating regularly. Historically the author hasn't been great at communicating with her following; she'd disappear for months or even years with no updates, so that was frustrating. Several webcomic authors have this issue, unfortunately.
That said, I have enjoyed the story but it's EXTREMELY slow-paced. And while you first think it's going to be a romance, it evolved into more of an intense drama and the romance aspect takes a back seat. I'm hoping the romance aspect will eventually return, but I'm still content with the direction the story is going at the moment.
I'd say go for it, buuut there's no telling when this story is going to wrap up.
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u/tsunami_693 Jul 29 '26
Oh wow this brings back memories. Honestly no, not worth it. For me I gave up and got bored with it cause I got so tired of the drama coming out of no where.
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u/wewillreigns Jul 29 '26
The first chapter literally had Shin-ae and her sister split up by their parents. The webtoon has always been about drama.Ā
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u/ShinYoo-Yeonggi Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
It was always about drama tho.
Edit: I mean many reader fall for the early love triangle marketing tag webtoon put against the author choice
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u/Hot_Type_1582 Jul 29 '26
No. Starts off good, but you can tell the author has no road map for where they want the story to go because it starts going completely off the rails, and becomes an overly serious drama that feels the need to give every single character a long winded back story/ character arc, while also keeping the main story at a stand still. Not worth the time.
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u/fuckofffairy Jul 29 '26
Very boring personally and way overdrawn for a series that should of ended years ago.
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u/Mamobee Jul 29 '26
I dropped it after 9 episodes. I couldnāt get into it, I wanted to like it since itās so popular but I donāt see the appeal
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u/Ilovewendyschili Jul 29 '26
No. I was very invested initially, but then it went on hiatus, and I just couldnāt get back into it. It seems to drag, I lost interest in the slow ass drama.
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Jul 29 '26
[deleted]
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u/ShinYoo-Yeonggi Jul 29 '26
It never was a romance unfortunately or may I say fortunately ( but it does have subplot romance )
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u/Redbedhead3 Jul 29 '26
I was bored.
I think when she starts going to work in an office, I was like... omg WHY am I going to work with her.
I think other people like the slow burn. But when I dropped out, there was no burn. Just her being tired from work and school
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u/lennylensla Jul 29 '26
Lowk no, it was interesting at first but then it loses the plot š
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u/ShinYoo-Yeonggi Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
It never lost the plot. May I ask you, what is the plot you are looking for ?
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u/Windsweptredwood Jul 30 '26
The plot is better than itās ever been and more consistent than it was in the beginning. Even so it never lost the plot. Iām really curious what makes you think that?
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u/12Katia Jul 29 '26
I started reading it a while ago, then dropped it. Recently I just dropped into some of the more recent chapters, and found practically the same misunderstandings/drama but now theyāre adults. Or something like that. I donāt really remember. Rereading purple hyacinth would be a better use of your time lmao (peak webtoon, nothing beats it in my opinion)
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u/sanguine-rose_ Jul 29 '26
I didn't start it for romance and didn't like it anyways. I wanted to read about a relatable protagonist who is struggling with things many people irl understand, but it turned into a drama about rich people very fast, and I didn't bother reading past that. It's probably just not for me. And also, in my opinion, the mc turned into a typical self-insert fanfic character of that time and it felt like I've read all of that before.
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u/Ok_Manager_3126 Jul 30 '26
STRAIGHT DOG WATER!
This is where my hatred of love triangles started lol
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u/SokkaHaikuBot Jul 30 '26
Sokka-Haiku by Ok_Manager_3126:
STRAIGHT DOG WATER! This
Is where my hatred of love
Triangles started lol
Remember that one time Sokka accidentally used an extra syllable in that Haiku Battle in Ba Sing Se? That was a Sokka Haiku and you just made one.
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u/Yuna_Hudson Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
Nah it broke my heart. I wanted the other brother being the ML. He deserves better. With this one and Let's play joined, we don't have a whole coherent thing together. Better read something different.
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u/ClaudiaWeckl Jul 30 '26
I've dropped it 1204 days ago, chapter 209, It became to me very boring and I've lost interest innot since it just looked to me to adding drama over drama like a telenovela.
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u/Rubix_Qb Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
As someone who reads it, I do like it, however, I think it might be worth it to let it marinate and binge read alot of episodes at once, because in my personal opinion, some episodes feel like "nothing burgers" and really short to me, as in, I waited a week for this? type mentality. Like to me, it feels like its meant to be a really long continued story line, but it suffers from it being split up and having to wait weekly to read, but thats just me. With all that being said I still really like it.
Edit: Think of it like wanting to watch a 2 and a half hr movie but you can only watch 10 seconds of it each Friday. Of course one is bound to get bored and lose the plot having to wait like that.