Trope: Social Gap
These works feature an evident difference in social ranking between two people, whether that be class level, financial standing, or otherwise.
Manhwa Review | Who’s Your Daddy? by Anko
Royal Blood = Ability to Impregnate Anyone, Including Your Social Enemy
Manhwa Review | Unintentional Love Story by PIBI
Man is Trying to Find Sculptor, but Falls For Him Instead
Manga Review | Saving My Favorite For Last by Tsutako Tsurusawa
Title: Saving My Favorite For Last
Humanity has evolved from cats. To expand their population, they have also developed the ability for all sexes to give birth, if they so choose, and can lure in potential mates with pheromones. Kazui is an expert in using his pheromones, as he spends every evening going out and trying to find someone to inseminate him. Why? Because he desperately wants children of his own that he can raise and love. He was abandoned as a child, and he has always longed for a genetic connection with someone.
No matter how many partners he tries with, his body won’t get pregnant. Undeterred, he continues working extremely hard to scrape and save every dime he can to care for his future children. When the contracts for his jobs start to run out, he is offered a position as a manager for a model, which pays way better than many of his jobs combined. He jumps at the chance. On his first day, he meets some of the hottest purebred cats out there, and the particular model he is assigned to is the top Maine Coon model, Noah.
Kazui would love it if a purebred like Noah would help him get pregnant, as purebreds are guaranteed to inseminate their partners, but there’s no way someone as sought after as Noah would go for a plain mixed breed like him… right?
Manhwa Review | Gold Gray by Lee Green
Title: Gold Gray
Lee Rain has dreams of becoming an actor. He can sing, dance, and act, but having grown up poor and under mysterious circumstances, he’s had to claw his way up to achieve the bare minimum, much less his dreams of stardom. Along with the daily struggle of surviving, Rain has an odd ability to smell what he calls “perverts.” They smell so good; unfortunately, they are drawn to Rain like flies. Frustrated, Rain has finally saved up enough for a hail Mary. He plans to drop everything and travel to the United States, hoping to make it onto Broadway or die trying.
On the other side, there is Won Lukas. He’s a perfect alpha, bred and raised from the finest stock to take over Roenjoy industries one day. Unfortunately, following his father’s death, Lukas learns of a disgusting stipulation left in his father’s will for the company. The next president will be the child that can produce an alpha heir. The only way to create a perfect alpha is by an alpha having a baby with an omega, but due to a pandemic that swept through the world, omegas went extinct.
But Roenjoy has a seedy underbelly. Hidden from the public eye, they have managed to create artificial omegas, which they raise from fetuses to adulthood, and upon giving birth, they die within a week to prevent the secret from getting out. Lukas is prepared to artificially inseminate an omega to take his role as company president. Unfortunately, the building where all of the omega research took place is destroyed by none other than Joshua, a subpar alpha and Lukas’ half-brother. With his brother vying for his position, Lukas is desperate to find an omega and make an alpha heir, but with all of the known omegas gone, there is little to no hope until Lukas meets Rain.
Manhwa Review | Wish Me Love by once
Title: Wish Me Love
Yijin has always dreamed of opening his own restaurant. In order to learn the business and get in on the ground floor, he ends up landing an awesome position in a company under the prolific Joohyuk, a famous restaurant franchiser. Yijin has idolized Joohyuk for so long that, finally, being in his presence is a dream come true. While Joohyuk’s accolades are well-known, something else that is very well-known around the office is his sexual orientation. Apparently, the prolific bossman is gay. Yijin refuses to believe it until he catches Joohyuk kissing another man in the hallway at work.
As much as Yijin loves Joohyuk, he despises homosexuality more and begins to distance himself from the president he once adored. Yijin just can’t understand why such a successful man couldn’t find a woman he liked. His boss’s sexual preferences, though, become the least of Yijin’s worries when he gets a call from his parents. As it turns out, his parents own a restaurant and recently got a loan to upgrade their business. Unfortunately, while they were doing that, the property value skyrocketed, and the moneylenders, seeing a perfect opportunity, disappeared.
Without a way to make payments, Yijin’s parents could lose their building to the moneylenders, which is all they have in the world. Yijin needs a solution and fast, but the only person with the resources and power to help him is none other than his boss. Yijin is willing to do anything to support his family, and Joohyuk will ask for the most.
Manhwa Review | Addiction by JIRAC
Title: Addiction
Kim Ho is on the prowl. He may look like a human, but he is far from it. He is actually part of a species of foxes that once owned large swaths of territory that humans have since taken over. To survive, the foxes have integrated into human society in the areas they once ruled and go on the hunt for mates in clubs. Ho is doing his duty for his species by mating with someone in the club bathroom, but a wolf breaks down the stall door just before he can complete his mission.
As it turns out, wolves also used to own territory in this area and had to fight for the same territory as the foxes. The alpha wolf Han Sirang happens to be the one to come upon Ho in the throes of passion. As soon as he figures out what Ho is doing, Sirang, to gain the upper hand, takes a photo of Ho mid-coitus and threatens him with the image. Unable to do anything else, Ho goes along with Sirang’s demands, primarily sexual in nature, all the while trying to figure out how to get rid of the image so he can be free of Sirang’s influence.
But what started as a game for Sirang appears to be becoming something more.
Manga Review | Adorable And Impossible by Owal
Title: Adorable And Impossible
Tatsuya has decided to take a part-time gig teaching graphic design at an art college. He doesn’t have a passion for teaching or anything like that, but he needs money to help support the business he wants to start, so he accepts the dreaded task of educating the youth. One such youth he finds himself teaching is a particularly bubbly young adult named Tsumugi. Tsumugi wants to be a fashion designer, but he is often late to class, is quick to play around, and often comes in hungover or buzzed, which doesn’t convince Tatsuya that Tsumugi is all that serious about his goals.
That is, until one day, after a class training students on a program that allows people to design things, Tsumugi ends up begging Tatsuya for personal training after hours. While Tatsuya isn’t fond of working for free, he can’t help being moved by this serious Tsumugi he’s never seen before, so they stay after and train on the program together. Once again, Tatsuya is surprised by how serious and diligent Tsumugi is about this. He’s really drawn to his student for the first time… until Tsumugi decides to reward him with a sexual favor.
Tatsuya, though he is swept up in the heat of the moment, knows just as well as anybody that this can’t happen again, but after the first time, Tsumugi seems to be obsessed with getting him back in bed by any means necessary.
Manhwa Review | Escape into Oblivion by Gawee
Title: Escape into Oblivion
Woojin is willing to do anything to escape. Escape from what? His family, school, his lovers, and life in general. He’ll do whatever it takes to escape, whether through sex, alcohol, moving away, hiding from school, or anything else. It’s almost like a game to Woojin, and it’s one that he wins often. That is until he meets Hwon.
Hwon does anything Woojin asks, even when Woojin does everything he can to either run from Hwon or hurt him. This intensity of love is new to Woojin, and it scares him. What scares him even more, though, is who Hwon might be. Part of why Woojin feels the need to escape is that when he was a child, his friend was beaten by a homeless boy they would occasionally pick on and whom Woojin would confide in. Rather than save his friend, Woojin ran away, never to see the friend again.
Could Hwon be that friend seeking revenge? Or could he be the homeless boy, finally back to take what belongs to him, Woojin? Woojin’s not sure which he would prefer, but he knows one thing for sure. No matter who Hwon ends up being, Woojin has fallen hopelessly in love with him, which is something he can’t escape.