The best manhwa school romance to start with is True Beauty: it's finished, it's free to sample on WEBTOON, and its makeover-and-a-secret premise is the easiest way into the genre. If you'd rather be unsettled than charmed, go straight to Cheese in the Trap. Every series below has a finished story, so nothing here leaves you waiting on a hiatus.
"School" stretches a bit. Four of these are high school romances, two are set at university, and the seventh, Weak Hero, is a high school story with almost no romance. We've grouped them by the problem the romance is built around, because that tells you more than the setting does.
The seven picks at a glance
| Series | Setting | Length (AniList) | Read it in English | Drama |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| True Beauty | High school | 257 chapters | WEBTOON | tvN, 2020 to 2021 |
| My ID is Gangnam Beauty | University | 84 chapters | WEBTOON | JTBC, 2018 |
| Orange Marmalade | High school | 120 chapters | WEBTOON | KBS, 2015 |
| Love Alarm | High school | 211 chapters | Tapas | Netflix, 2019 to 2021 |
| July Found by Chance | High school | 55 chapters | Tapas | MBC, 2019 (Extraordinary You) |
| Cheese in the Trap | University | 299 over four seasons | WEBTOON | tvN, 2016 |
| Weak Hero | High school | 268 chapters | WEBTOON | Weak Hero Class 1, 2022 |
One warning before you pick: Tapas ends its service on March 31, 2027, and anything you've unlocked there goes with it. Love Alarm and July Found by Chance are on Tapas, so read those two first or plan around it. Our Tapas shutdown explainer has the details.
When the romance is about how she looks
True Beauty
Platform: WEBTOON | Status: completed | Creator: Yaongyi
A shy comic book fan learns makeup from online videos and becomes the prettiest girl at her school overnight, then has to keep her bare face a secret, while one boy already knows it. That's WEBTOON's own pitch, and it's the whole engine: how long Lim Jugyeong can keep her real self hidden, and what to do about the boy who's seen it.
It ran from April 2018 to June 2023, and AniList's 257 chapters include a prologue and 33 side stories. The English edition has passed a billion views on WEBTOON. tvN's 2020 drama, with Moon Ga-young and Cha Eun-woo, is a fair preview of the tone. If it hooks you, the True Beauty review goes deeper, and the manhwa like True Beauty list has eight follow-ups.
WEBTOON's trailer is a quick way to see whether the art style works for you:
*True Beauty official trailer, WEBTOON (YouTube).*My ID is Gangnam Beauty
Platform: WEBTOON | Status: completed | Creator: Maenggi Ki
Same question, older and harsher. Mirae has major plastic surgery before starting university, and instead of a fresh start she gets labelled a "Gangnam beauty": pretty, but obviously done. All she wants is a normal campus life where nobody judges her face. Where True Beauty is about hiding, this one is about being found out on day one.
It's short at 84 chapters, and WEBTOON's English edition began in September 2021. JTBC's 2018 drama starred Im Soo-hyang as Kang Mirae and Cha Eun-woo as Do Kyungseok.
My ID is Gangnam Beauty, Korean print edition, volume 1 cover. Cover via AniList.
When someone's hiding something bigger
Orange Marmalade
Platform: WEBTOON | Status: completed | Creator: Seokwoo
Vampires live openly in this world and people still look down on them. Mari Baek is one, and she falls for a popular boy at school who hates vampires. The romance runs on whether she can keep that from him.
Fair warning: readers split on it hard. Asked whether it's good, one r/webtoons commenter answered "Not really. It's basically 'creepy guy won't take "no" for an answer'", and another called it "a little overhyped." It's 120 chapters, and KBS adapted it in 2015; the drama's second part moves the story to the Joseon era.
Orange Marmalade, Korean print edition, volume 1 cover. Cover via AniList.
Love Alarm
Platform: Tapas | Status: completed | Creator: Chon Kye-young
"Someone within a 10 m radius likes you." An app called LoveAlarm tells you when someone nearby has feelings for you, and high schooler Kim Jojo's rings for the school's it-boy, Hwang Sunoh. Then the app starts dragging up the ugly side of everyone's feelings too.
Tapas lists all 211 episodes and marks the series completed; the latest 63 are left out of the free-wait system. Netflix ran two seasons, from August 2019 to March 2021, with Kim So-hyun, Song Kang and Jung Ga-ram. Remember the Tapas closing date above.
When the romance pushes back on the genre
July Found by Chance (Extraordinary You)
Platform: Tapas | Status: completed | Creator: Muryu
Dan-oh, an ordinary high schooler, works out that she's a character in a popular romance comic. Worse, she isn't the heroine: she's an extra with a terminal heart condition, engaged to a childhood friend who'll dump her. So she sets out to find her own first love before her time runs out.
In English it's on Tapas as July That I Randomly Discovered, 55 episodes, completed. MBC's 2019 drama, Extraordinary You, starred Kim Hye-yoon as Eun Dan-oh. It's the pick for anyone tired of the formula, because Dan-oh is tired of it too.
Cheese in the Trap
Platform: WEBTOON | Status: completed | Creator: Soonkki
Back at college after a long break, model student Seol gets tangled up with Jung, a senior everyone calls Mr. Perfect, and starts to wonder whether he's turning her life upside down on purpose. That doubt is the series. It runs four seasons, 299 chapters on AniList, so it's the longest commitment here.
Readers who stick with it don't regret it: "It's a long build up, but worth it," one wrote when someone asked for a university romance. One caveat from a recent reread thread: "the translation on Webtoon leaves a LOT to be desired," said one reader. tvN's 2016 drama, with Park Hae-jin and Kim Go-eun, wrote its own ending, so the webtoon is the only place to get Soonkki's.
Cheese in the Trap, Korean print edition, season 3 volume 1 cover. Cover via AniList.
The wildcard: school without the romance
Weak Hero
Platform: WEBTOON | Status: completed | Creators: SEOPASS, Razen (Kim Jin-seok)
This one's here for readers who want the school setting with real stakes. Bullies run the school, and then a small new student, Gray, starts taking them apart with calculated, brutal fighting. It's 268 chapters, and the drama Weak Hero Class 1 premiered in 2022 with Park Ji-hoon. Don't come for a love story; come for what happens when a school's pecking order breaks. The Weak Hero review covers it properly.
Weak Hero, Korean print edition, volume 1 cover. Cover via AniList.
Our master manhwa reading list covers the top 30 titles across every genre for 2026.
Best Manhwa to Read in 2026 →
Our Take
True Beauty first, no contest. It's the cleanest version of the genre's favorite premise, and it's on the platform that won't disappear next spring. After that, pick by mood: My ID is Gangnam Beauty if you want the same idea with sharper edges, July Found by Chance if the clichés are wearing on you, Cheese in the Trap if you want a romance you'll argue about. Do the two Tapas series before March 2027. And skip Orange Marmalade unless the premise really grabs you; plenty of readers bounced off it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best manhwa school romance to read first? True Beauty. It's finished, it's on WEBTOON in English, and the tvN drama from 2020 lets you test the premise first. If you want something less comfortable, start Cheese in the Trap instead.
Which school romance manhwa have K-drama adaptations? All seven on this list: True Beauty (tvN), My ID is Gangnam Beauty (JTBC), Orange Marmalade (KBS), Love Alarm (Netflix), July Found by Chance as Extraordinary You (MBC), Cheese in the Trap (tvN) and Weak Hero as Weak Hero Class 1.
Is Extraordinary You available in English as a manhwa? Yes. The source webtoon is on Tapas as July That I Randomly Discovered, 55 episodes, completed. Tapas is shutting down on March 31, 2027, so finish it before then.
Is Cheese in the Trap a school romance? It's a university romance: Seol is a college student and Yoo Jung is her senior. It runs four seasons, and the tvN drama gave it a different ending.
How we checked this: on October 16, 2026 we read each series' WEBTOON or Tapas page, its AniList entry, and the Wikipedia pages for the dramas, and pulled reader comments from r/webtoons. We didn't re-read the series for this update. Last reviewed: October 16, 2026.
Related Reading
- Best Romance Manhwa 2026: couples-focused picks across school and adult settings.
- Manhwa Like True Beauty: eight follow-ups sorted by what kept you reading.
- Best Manhwa Coming-of-Age: growing-up stories where romance is one thread among several.
- Manhwa Like Your Lie in April: school stories with music and grief in the mix.
- Best Completed Manhwa: finished series across every genre.
