Jae-eun has one very specific type: hot, fit, nerdy guys. Too bad they're as rare as shooting stars. Three years deep into single life, she's focused on her studies until her totally transformed ex Hui-jun and her ideal type in the flesh, Seonwu, both walk back into her life.

With Seonwu's built chest and flawless nerd vibes, Jae-eun is instantly drawn in. But Hui-jun won't stop hanging around, and after one of his provocations, Jae-eun blurts out that she's dating Seonwu right in front of him.

Flustered, she braces for disaster, but Seonwu surprises her with a calm reply: "Didn't you say that because you have feelings for me too, Jae-eun?"

The Nerd Formula has story by and art by homel1ss. Translation and lettering by Lezhin. Published by Lezhin (September 21, 2025). Rated R.

Bolts
Rating:

Yeah, it's perfectly fine to have a specific type that you're attracted to. But when you have a story that is selling itself on the idea of a girl caught between two nerdy guys, it feels like a little bit of a cop out when the only thing that's really nerdy about them is that they have glasses and a little bit of a “Clark Kent” look. Our main character Jae-eun kind of goes out of her way to explain in the early chapters that what she really wants is a really muscular guy with a bit of a nerdy disposition, but the premise is so vague that it just ends up becoming an excuse to write a rather bland and rudimentary love triangle between one college girl, her pretty conventionally attractive ex boyfriend, and a pretty conventionally attractive librarian.

There isn't really a conflict in this story, or at least these early chapters take an excruciatingly long time to establish one. There are some miscommunication issues that arise between Jae-eun and her librarian interest, but the whole thing gets resolved in a rather bland way. The two just end up properly communicating their feelings after an accident that she herself creates for herself. So in the end, she gets rewarded for trying to lie because she's not emotionally mature enough to handle situations.

I think the best way to describe this story is to compare it to the rather spicier sex scenes that happened in them. Most of the sex scenes in the story aren't actually real. Almost all of them are fantasies that the main character just thinks up whenever certain things don't go her way. As hot as they are, they grind the pacing to a halt and kind of make me yearn for a story that is more interesting than what I'm reading. The chemistry among all the characters is solid, but there isn't actually anything interesting going on. Plus, our lead keeps tripping over her own feet in a way that doesn't always make her come off like a great person. She comes off as very shallow, lies about situations when she arguably doesn't need to and the strongest conflict in the story is that she wants to have sex with a hot guy. I appreciate some good smut, but I'm gonna need a little bit more than that.