Office relationships are a common trope in romance webtoons, where the line between professional and personal relationships can become blurred. As such, the subgenre typically plays on the power dynamic between boss and employee, acting as a form of forbidden love. As these co-workers spend more time together both inside and outside of the office, their professional and personal relationships are deepened.
For those looking to get a little hot under the collar, here are five of the best office romances available to read on Webtoon right now.
Age Matters
In Age Matters, Rose Choi needs a job to help financially support her mother. Struggling with her recently broken engagement, she dreads turning 30 and feels uncertain about her future. She stumbles into being the secretary for Daniel Yoon, the CEO of Lime Corp while living in the apartment next to his. Daniel is a successful and famous businessman who's a billionaire at only 23-years-old after being raised as a boy genius in a rich family.
Daniel is distrusting of others due to past betrayals, so he acts cold and guarded toward Rose when she firsts starts working for him. Rose wants him to open up and treat her better, successfully breaking down his walls as the series progresses. They soon discover that they make a great team, tackling important business matters together to create a better Lime. Rose and Daniel fall for each other despite their age difference, proving that age doesn't matter when it comes to love.
Let's Play
Sam Young is the daughter of the CEO at Young Technologies and she's expected to take over for her father in the future. She currently works as a software programmer at the company while working as a game developer in her free time. Charles Jones is her manager at Young Technologies, and he worries that Sam's lack of confidence will hurt the company when she becomes CEO in the future.
Charles appoints Sam as his assistant so she can learn the business side of running a company while also improving her self-esteem, actively pulling her out of her comfort zone. He encourages her to pursue what she desires and supports her dream to become a game developer, even if that prevents her from taking over as CEO in the future. As the two spend more time together, their relationship gradually shifts from professional to romantic.
Dating With a Tail
Yunha is the tenth reincarnation of a fox, which means she must find and marry the reincarnation of the woodcutter before her 30th birthday or she'll be turned into a fox forever. As her birthday approaches, she grows a foxtail and emits a sweet odor that attracts male suitors. The legend states that the woodcutter is the only one who can still smell her scent if she masks it with garlic. Once she hides her scent with garlic, she is surprised to find that her boss, best friend and priest can all smell her unique scent.
Not knowing which of the three men is the real woodcutter, she must kiss them to see if the fox's pearl appears on their chest. Yunha is convinced that her boss, CEO Go, is the true reincarnation of the woodcutter and she's excited by the prospect of marrying him. Her boss falls for her and agrees to marry her, but Yunha hasn't seen the pearl to prove he's the one.
She Would Never Know
She Would Never Know is about a brand manager who secretly dates her boss, only to end up involved with her junior marketer. After dating Mr. Lee in secret for several years while working at Klar Cosmetics in Seoul, Songa wants to go public with their relationship. However, Hyeonseung, her favorite junior marketer, informs her that Mr. Lee is secretly engaged to be married to another woman.
She retaliates by getting into a fake relationship with Hyeonseung in order to avoid Mr. Lee's attempts at winning her back, despite his betrayal. However, Hyeonseung actually likes Songa and Mr. Lee is willing to exploit his managerial power to keep her and Hyeonseung apart.
Let Me Stay Over Tonight!
Let Me Stay Over Tonight! opens with Gyuri recalling the previous night when someone from her company dinner asks her out on a date. She's a 28-year-old screenwriter at HBS TV who's never dated but suddenly finds herself with three potential suitors who were at the company dinner.
She believes her co-worker and closest friend at the office, Seunghu, is the most likely to have asked her out because they're the same age and have a great relationship. However, she can't rule out her boss, Mr. Gye, although his stern attitude makes Gyuri think he hates her. She also can't rule out Leo Oh who was also at the dinner, despite being a famous actor starring in the show her TV station is producing.
