Virgin by choice and a total novice in love, 30-year-old Juyeong has zero interest in dating whatsoever. So when she gets tasked with creating a steamy adult webtoon, she hits a total creative wall. Her solution? Ambush her long-time guy-bestie who lives upstairs, demanding a one-night stand. The only problem is that Doyoung has long been suffering from his crush on her since forever. As she relentlessly tries to seduce him for the sake of art, Doyoung's fighting a losing battle. Can they stay friends forever…or not?

Friends Forever-Not has a story and art by leewooyeon. Localized by Lezhin. Published by Lezhin (September 7, 2026). Rated M.

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

There's no drama like a Kdrama, whether that takes the form of TV, novels or comics. Friends Forever – Not, aside from its astoundingly 90s title, is a perfect example of why. Juyeong, who is almost certainly somewhere on the demi end of the ace spectrum, is a webtoon creator whose publisher wants her to write a smutty title. But she's got zero interest in sex and even less experience, so her brilliant plan is to ask her childhood friend Doyoung to sleep with her once. Naturally, Doyoung has had a crush on her since forever and resists because he wants more from her…at which point their other childhood friend Jiwon comes back to Korea and proposes to Juyeong. It is levels of messy that even soap operas can't compete with.

What makes this so much fun is that Juyeong is still her same demisexual, demiromantic self throughout. Being proposed to and having sex don't change who she is at all. The baseline idea here seems to be that if either of the men want things to work with her, they're going to have to accept who she is – and that it's who she's always been. She's not going to suddenly become a gushingly romantic person. She's not going to start being ultra feminine. And if they really, truly love Juyeong, they're going to have to accept that or understand that they loved a phantasmal version of her who never existed.

This is a Lezhin title, so it's very explicit and minimally censored. The sex is only part of the point of the story, though, although I could certainly see someone reading it for that part. To a degree, this also feels like it's making fun of all of those silly plots where someone tells a romance author that they must fall in love to write about love (funny how no one tells mystery authors that they need to commit a murder to write about murder), because it's entirely Juyeong's own idea and it doesn't seem to be doing much for her work. It's a self-aware romance story, and while those don't always work, this one does. But either way, if what you're craving is a total mess filled with men who can't get out of their own way, definitely check this out.

Bolts
Rating:

It's very interesting how casual sex can be seen. Some people put a lot of emotional stock into engaging sexually with somebody else, while others just see it as something to do. This little love triangle present in Friends Forever-Not tackles that idea from an interesting angle. What happens when you have a girl who is about as inexperienced and naïve as a typical shounen protagonist asking her best childhood friend just to sleep with her so she can see what it feels like? What you end up getting is quite a few misunderstandings, trepidation, lines being crossed, and an interesting slow-burn romance that feels surprisingly realistic despite the rather unorthodox setup.

Juyeong is a young woman who has never had any sexual encounters with anybody but wants to experience what it's like primarily for research purposes. So she just casually asks her childhood friend, who always looks after her, if he can just do this for her, as if she were asking if they could go on a walk to the park. Obviously, her childhood friend does have feelings for her and doesn't fully know how to navigate this difficult situation because he knows that crossing that line could fundamentally change their relationship, but he also doesn't want her to be taken by anybody else. I was originally unsure of the story given just how casually everything was being treated, especially by the main character Juyeong. But as the story went on, things got progressively sweeter as the nature of the setup got talked about more by everybody. The whole setup for sex between the two leads ended up going from one of the more questionable elements of the story to one of my favorites in a couple of chapters.

My least favorite element of the story is just how much padding there is. If the story just focused on the two leads navigating this interesting circumstance, the story would wrap itself up relatively quickly. It would also lead to a more emotionally fulfilling arc. Instead, there are chapters that divert attention away from the main relationship in ways that don't feel organic at best and feel downright generic at worst. Whether it's a love rival asking Juyeong to marry him or an office worker being thrown in for the sake of a love square, I don't care about these additional characters the same way that I care about the leads. This isn't a good sign considering how long the chapters are. Still, there was an addictive quality to reading the story cause I did genuinely want to see what the buildup was leading towards. This is a solid romantic comedy that has just a little bit more fat than I think it needs.