"Girl Friend" is a ongoing manhwa new chapters are uploaded every wednesday on webtoon. The genre of the manhwa is high school romance, comedy, friends to lovers. In the beginning of the story we see Taeu and Jieun are friends and have a platonic relationship between them. They are currently in the 9th grade and both of them have no interest in each other. Taeu is shorter than Jieun so she doesn't like him and Taeu is always busy with his gaming world so he doesn't think of any love angles.
Later on they got graduated and it was time to join high school. Both of them coincidentally joined the same high school and Taeu was surprised to see Jieun, because she completely changed her appearance. In Taeu's point of view Jieun had gotten beautiful than before and he was mesmerize by her beauty but he didn't say it on her face instead he had shown no interest at all. Taeu also grew taller than Jieun. Suddenly few guys fell on Taeu and there was a handsome guy along them. The name is that guy is Jaehyeon, he had caught the attention of Jieun. On the other hand Taeu was feeling jealous of this situation. Things started to change for Taeu as he started to fall for Jieun and he wanted to move out the new guy and end their platonic friendship to grow it into something else....
The relationship between Taeu and Jieun is gradually evolving and forms the heart of the narrative this is a great thing to keep readers emotionally engaged. The this that captured this webtoon’s charm is their realistic portrayal of young love. Also, the challenges of understanding oneself and others.
Taeu is slowly learning to steer his sentiment and confront his insecurities. To be honest his growth felt very authentic throughout the series, the story really does reflect the real-life struggles which many young people suffers in building meaningful connections. On the other hand Jieun is empathetic and vibrant. Her genuine personality and compassion makes her a relatable character also her interactions with Taeu is much better than expected. To be honest their dynamic captures both the complexity and sweetness of young love.
In my opinion the romance in "Girl Friend" is very impactful. The relationship between Taeu and Jieun’s develops naturally, not very quickly but with meaningful conversations and small gestures which has revealed their growing feelings for each other. Unlike other webtoons stories where you will find the couples are dealing with dramatic misunderstandings or exaggerated tension. But this webtoon is very different from the others because the story mainly focuses on authentic emotional connection. Their moments of liability, fun side, quiet intimacy and everything makes their bond feel relatable and genuine, this truly gives encouragement to the readers to root for them as they navigate the ups and downs of love.
The thing plays an important roles is the Friendship and social interactions in the story. Well, love is shaped by the broader social environment and it does not exist in isolation. Visually, the art style is expressive but I am not a big fan of it, it does perfectly grab the gestures, facial expressions and beautifully designed backgrounds. The soft, less vibrant color palette has enhanced the both introspective and romantic moments. I have laughed a lot when I was reading this webtoon because sometimes the face expressions of Taeu is way too funny and I couldn't focus on staying serious. I think they have done the best part in drawing funny faces which makes the webtoon more enjoyable.
In conclusion, it is really a heartfelt webtoon. Which beautifully portrays friendship, self-discovery and young love. The main leads relationship is authentic and so engaging, this makes the story relatable for readers of all ages. If anyone is looking for a romance related manhwa to read then "Girl Friend" is a good choice because it balances depth, realism and charm. I would say it's an excellent choice.
But I must say this story is not that special because this type of stories are very common I can read many other stories with same plotline but I feel the personality of the characters make it different from the others. If there was something supernatural or some mind bending twists then I would have rated it 10 out of 10 but because it is a normal story I don't feel that it should be getting that much of hype. I do like supernatural stories the most for that reason maybe I am not into simple stories anymore. But still I would recommend people to read this story because it is very simple and slice of life is enjoyable. But I wouldn't read it twice as I have done with webtoon's.
The images are screenshots from chapter 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 on Webtoon. Images are edited with Canva.
Ratings: 7/10
Thanks for reading 🌷
