We were looking forward to reading more BL webtoons like Love Bites, and if you are one of us, you are certainly going to enjoy The Egg Project. Unlike the vampire x werewolf clan conflict, this is a high school romance. And, just like Kieran and Mason, Riku and Cherry’s story is that of enemies-to-lovers. Not the two top students having conflict for a girl like Operation True Love, it’s about two ‘friends’ who were born in the same hospital but could never get along, no matter how hard their mother tried. We are excited to know how these two will find love in each other. Before that, let’s meet our main characters and the titular project in The Egg Project Chapter 1-5.
The Egg Project Chapter 1: Meet Riku And Cherry
Riku’s senior year is already off to a tense start. He’s drowning in assignments, obsessing over flashcards, and trying to keep everything perfect because, in his head, anything less than a flawless GPA is failure. He’s lost in those anxious thoughts when he bumps into Cherry, and just like that, his entire mood derails. From there, we’re thrown into Riku’s backstory with Cherry, and it’s not a sweet one. According to him, they’ve been enemies since diapers. Their moms met during a prenatal class and became instant friends, dreaming their sons would be just as close. They even dressed them up as a kitty and a puppy for photos. But little Riku immediately yanked Cherry’s hair, and that pretty much set the tone for everything that followed.
As the years went by, their so-called “friendship” was marked by one mishap after another. In elementary school, Cherry would clumsily knock over things and apologise with a guilty smile, while Riku silently burned with frustration. Middle school? No better. Cherry’s book report once ended up soaking wet in the sink thanks to Riku. In high school, things turned more theatrical, with dodgeballs to the face, petty fights in the hall, and constant borrowing of homework without permission. The tension between them is unrelenting. Cherry knows exactly how to poke at Riku’s nerves, and Riku, while trying to keep his cool for the sake of his “record,” is constantly boiling under the surface.
Getting On Each Other’s Nerves
After yet another squabble, this one about missing homework and Cherry’s habit of using Riku’s notes, Riku storms off, trying to hold it together. He mumbles to himself over and over: “Think of the record. Think of the record.” But it doesn’t end there. Cherry sees him brushing past and steps in, blocking his path. “You got a problem with me?” he asks, not even hiding the irritation in his voice. Riku plays innocent, saying nothing. Cherry presses harder, and suddenly, they’re trading accusations and eye-rolls like it’s second nature. A nearby friend watches them, unfazed, clearly used to their public arguments.
Just as it seems like things might cool down, Riku throws out a final dig: he warns Cherry about finals coming up and makes a not-so-subtle threat to tell his mom he’s been skipping classes. “You might not even graduate at this rate,” he says flatly. Cherry stands frozen, taken aback. As Riku walks off, cool and unbothered, Cherry seethes quietly: “Who the hell does he think he is?”
ALSO READ: Love Bites Chapter 20
The Egg Project Chapter 2: Another Fight
Cherry opens this chapter with a question he’s sick of hearing, one both his and Riku’s mothers always ask: “Why can’t you two just get along?” After all these years, he still doesn’t have an answer. Flashback to when they were 15, Riku is trying (and failing) to tutor Cherry, who can’t get a single answer right. Riku, being his usual blunt self, starts losing patience. “Are you doing this to mess with me, or are you actually this hopeless?” he asks. Cherry, obviously annoyed, fires back Maybe Riku could try explaining things better instead of just showing off how smart he is.
The exchange quickly turns personal. Riku accuses Cherry of being lazy, of relying on luck instead of effort. “Just knowing how to hit a volleyball isn’t going to get you into college,” he says. Cherry bites back with sarcasm, pretending not to care. But it’s obvious: they’re both irritated and too stubborn to back down. Riku even says he only agreed to tutor Cherry out of pity, which pushes things even further off the rails.
Fast forward to gym class in the present day. Cherry surprises everyone by showing up early, maybe Riku’s lecture about taking school seriously hit harder than expected. Riku notices him from across the field and rolls his eyes, unimpressed. A girl flirts with Cherry nearby, laughing at something he says, and Riku watches from a distance, wondering again what anyone sees in this guy.
Uh-Oh, Back to the Office
As the class begins, the teacher tells Riku to collect the warm-up sheets. While doing so, he notices Cherry’s paper lying on the floor. He calls out, tells Cherry to pick it up. Cherry shrugs it off and tells him to do it himself. After a brief back-and-forth, Riku loses it. “I’m not your damn servant,” he snaps. “Pick up your trash.” Then it happens as Riku tries to walk away, Cherry casually sticks his leg out and trips him. Riku crashes face-first onto the floor in front of everyone. The class goes silent. Cherry immediately regrets it. “I just wanted to mess with him a little… not smash his face into the ground.” But the damage is done. Riku gets up, bleeding from his nose, eyes blazing. Cherry tries to apologise, says it was an accident, but Riku’s already done listening.
Riku kicks him not hard, but enough to make a statement. Cherry glares back, unbothered. “That’s all you’ve got?” he taunts. “Didn’t even hurt.” From there, the fight spirals out fast. They throw insults, then fists. Neither wants to back down. Classmates start pulling out their phones, laughing, filming, and yelling. It’s chaos until the teacher bursts in, furious, and orders both of them to the office immediately.
The Egg Project Chapter 3: Not Getting Suspended
After their classroom scuffle, Riku and Cherry are dragged back to the office for their third visit this year, and the teacher has had enough. She scolds them harshly, clearly furious that things have escalated to physical violence. Cherry tries to point fingers, saying Riku kicked him, but the teacher quickly shuts him down, reminding him that he tripped Riku first. Both boys squirm under her glare, realising how close they are to getting suspended. They immediately start begging: Cherry reminds her he’s the volleyball captain headed for nationals, while Riku panics over what a suspension could do to his university applications.
Just when they think they’re doomed, the teacher surprises them. Instead of suspension, she gives them a different punishment, one that might be worse. Their psychology class is beginning a two-week final project known as “The Egg Project,” where students are paired up to act as caregivers for a fragile egg. The assignment is meant to teach patience, teamwork, and responsibility. Since they missed class during their fight, they weren’t able to pick partners. So now, the teacher has assigned them to each other.
Riku And Cherry’s Co-Parenting Project
Both Riku and Cherry are stunned. Of all the people in the class, they’re now being forced to “co-parent” an egg together. The idea of spending time every day with someone they can’t even talk to without arguing is almost laughable. Riku silently curses his luck, thinking how he’d managed to avoid Cherry in most classes until now. Cherry, on the other hand, can’t believe he’s stuck doing something so delicate and personal with the most uptight guy he knows. Neither of them takes the news well, but they’re left with no choice. Their grades depend on this.
As they leave the office, the tension hangs between them like a storm cloud. Riku is already dreading every second of it, wondering how he’s supposed to survive this disaster without losing his mind. Cherry, still annoyed, can’t stop thinking about how stupid the whole thing sounds. But whether they like it or not, for the next two weeks, they’re in this together, sharing the same grade, the same egg… and maybe, just maybe, learning something neither of them expected.
The Egg Project Chapter 4: Cherry’s Parental Duty
Cherry and Riku were still reeling from being paired together when the teacher laid out the ground rules of their new “egg parenting” project. No breaking the egg, no leaving it alone, and most importantly, working together. She emphasised that they’d share both the credit and the blame, whether they liked it or not. Cherry immediately warned Riku not to mess this up for them, already anticipating sabotage. Riku, in turn, shot back that maybe this would finally teach Cherry a thing or two about responsibility. Their forced politeness barely masked their irritation.
After being dismissed, the two begrudgingly walked back to class, late slip in hand, flipping through the packet of activities they’d be expected to do as “co-parents.” Ideas like movie nights or park walks were floated, but neither seemed very enthusiastic. Cherry was too lazy to write things down, and Riku, drained from the morning’s chaos, just wanted to get through the day. As they trudged forward, Riku received a text that visibly annoyed him. Cherry, noticing his mood shift, pressed him about the project, only to be brushed off. That quickly escalated into another mini-argument right in the hallway.
Cherry Customizes the Egg
Back in class, Cherry sat with the egg in front of him, grumbling about math formulas and how ridiculous the whole project felt. But then he noticed something: a few other students had drawn faces on their eggs. As silly as it was, it sparked an idea. With a smirk, Cherry decided to do something bold. Meanwhile, outside school, Riku waited impatiently in the cold rain. Cherry was late again. Texts were flying, Riku growing more frustrated by the minute, convinced something had gone wrong.
Then Cherry finally appeared, dramatically holding out their egg now decked out with lipstick, huge drawn-on eyes, lashes, and eyebrows. “Surprise!” he grinned. Riku froze, wide-eyed in horror. “What the hell is that?!” he practically shouted, staring at the overly glamorised egg. Cherry just laughed, clearly amused with himself, while Riku couldn’t believe he was stuck doing this project… with this guy. The chaos had only just begun.
The Egg Project Chapter 5: Warning from Parents
The Egg Project Chapter 5 begins with Cherry excited about the customization he did to the egg. Unlike him, Riku is shocked to see it and blurts out, “It’s…so…ugly.” Not in the mood to put up a fight, Cherry says he knows Riku is better, but whatever. Upon asking why he is all wet, Cherry says he forgot his umbrella and had to run in this weather because Riku was blowing up his phone. Riku refuses to take the egg home. On the other hand, Cherry has volleyball practice, and the rule is not to leave the egg alone. Seeing no other way, he grabs Riku’s hand and hands over the egg, asking him to take over the ‘co’ part of the co-parenting project.
Back at home, Cherry’s mom gives him an earful for fighting with Riku. She says they are old enough to act in a better way and warns him that she will take away his car if this behavior persists. And Riku sees that his mother is sleeping peacefully and decides to order takeout. The Egg Project Chapter 5 ends with Riku denying her father’s call and receiving a text from him saying he received a call about his fight with Cherry in school and will discuss it when he has time.
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