Cha Geonwu spent years nursing a hopeless crush on his classmate Lee Taejun, ever since middle school, all the way into college. Tired of dragging around a first love that never went anywhere, he escaped into military service just to reset his heart. But the moment he's back on campus, destiny laughs in his face, as a required course throws him right back into Taejun's orbit. Soon, one run-in turns into another, and somehow Geonwu ends up trapped in a new cycle he never saw coming. One where Taejun isn't just the crush he tried to forget…but the person he's suddenly sharing a bed with.

High School Salty Heart has story by MOSCARETO and art by Sue. English localization is done by Lezhin. Published by Lezhin (December 17, 2025). Rated M.

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

I'll give MOSCARETO this – despite having read so many of their works, they always manage to come up with at least a mild twist. High School Salty Heart is one of their omegaverse works, but that's not a major influence on the story. Or rather, it exists only as a plot device to get Geonwu and Taejun into bed together; beyond that, the Korea the story takes place in is fairly similar to any other webtoon version of the same. Geonwu being an omega has no bearing on his required military service – in fact, he enlisted right after high school rather than going to college for a bit. That was an attempt to forget his high school crush, Taejun, which, naturally, failed miserably. But their relationship has very little to do with being alpha and omega and more to do with Taejun being afraid to jeopardize his friendship with Geonwu by bringing sex into it. And since one of the only other markers of this being an omegaverse story is that there's much more acceptance of same-sex relationships, his concern feels more grounded than it otherwise might. Also, as a side note, “same-sex” in this story means both what we think of as queer relationships as well as, for example, two alphas dating. MOSCARETO thought about all angles of this.

The first eight chapters of this series are an interesting combination of porn-world logic and a friends-to-lovers romance. The former comes in when someone who hates Taejun for plot reasons decides to spike his coffee with a special drug intended to interact hornily with the suppressants athletes and educators are required to take. Since Taejun is a world-class swimmer and Geonwu is an education student, both of them have a reaction to the meds (the enterprising poisoner just spiked all the coffee). Naturally this leads to them having sex – something they're both freaked out about for different reasons. But the key issue is that they're both worried about the state of their relationship: Taejun is afraid to lose the one friend who's always felt real and Geonwu has been trying to get over his crush. To say that things are now very messy may be understating the matter.

It's not a brilliant story, but it is one it's easy to read. MOSCARETO has put enough thought into the world that it works and Sue's art is very nice and uncensored. Even if you don't care for omegaverse, this seems – so far – to be pretty light on that front. It might not be my first BL recommendation this guide, but it's also far from the worst.