What Is Nerd Project? Meet Luke, Andrew, and the College Romance Fans Still Talk About

College can wreck a person. One breakup, one empty wallet, and one assigned roommate later, a theater kid named Luke decides the only way out is to study the man who wrecked his last relationship. That plan becomes the nerd project, and it does not stay academic for long. If you came here asking who Andrew and Luke are, or where chapter 1 and chapter 44 sit, this page answers those questions in plain language.

This is a people-first guide. You will get plot context without a full spoiler dump, character facts, chapter structure, legal reading options, and honest notes on tone. The book is a completed Korean manhwa by G jyeo. Stores also sell it as a webtoon, a BL title, and a yaoi romance, depending on the app you open.

What Is Nerd Project?

The nerd project is a full-color Korean manhwa that first appeared in 2023. G jyeo wrote and drew it. Polar Fox published the original work. Tapas carries the official English editions in both a mature line and a milder line.

The premise is simple. Luke Mikael Davis is a college student whose girlfriend, Stacy Louise, is obsessed with a quiet campus genius named Andrew Cain Young. Luke ends that relationship. Then housing puts him in the same dorm room as Andrew. Broke and stuck, Luke treats friendship with Andrew as a job. He watches, copies, and tries to get close. The English title comes from that plan.

People also search nerd project manga. English readers still type “manga” out of habit. The work is a manhwa, not a Japanese manga. It sits in Korean webtoon stores and in global comic apps at the same time.

Primary source for the official English store listing: Tapas.

Why Do People Search So Many Versions of the Title?

Search traffic around this series is messy on purpose. Some people want free chapter dumps on aggregator indexes. Others want a genre tag. Character fans want Andrew Cain Young, Luke Mikael Davis, height notes, and cast lists.

That scatter tells you what a first-time reader actually needs:

• A clear plot in under a minute
• Names spelled the right way
• Ages, majors, and height facts
• Season and chapter counts
• A legal place to start chapter 1
• A warning about mature scenes and heavy themes

This page maps those questions to one hub so you do not bounce between pirate indexes and half-finished wikis.

Quick Facts Table

Primary catalog source: MangaUpdates.

What Happens in the Plot (No Season Two Spoilers)

Luke is having a rough semester. His girlfriend Stacy will not stop talking about Andrew, the tall, glasses-wearing biotechnology student who sits at the top of his class. Luke breaks up with her. Money is tight. He works at his father’s diner. Housing then pairs him with Andrew.

Luke decides he will win Andrew over. He treats that goal like homework. Early chapters play this as comedy. Luke tries to decode Andrew’s schedule, clothes, and silence. Andrew is polite, distant, and hard to read. He also notices more than Luke expects.

The tone shifts after the roommate jokes settle. Andrew carries old fear and a habit of watching people for danger. Luke is loud, social, and trained for the stage. Their contrast is the engine. Friendship turns into care, then into a romance neither of them planned in the opening episode.

Season 1 covers the meeting, the dorm, the first cracks in Andrew’s armor, and the move from a scheme to real attachment. Season 2 tests that attachment with family, public attention, and the cost of fame around Luke’s acting path. The author closed the book at chapter 63. There is no announced side story.

Who Created It and Where It Ran

G jyeo is the credited author-artist. The work ran as a serialized webtoon with both an R19 cut and an R15 cut in Korea. That dual rating matters. The same story exists in a version with explicit sex scenes and a version with those scenes reduced.

English readers who want the mature cut should open the Tapas mature listing. Readers who want the relationship and the comedy without the explicit pages should open the standard Tapas listing.

The series also has official editions in Japanese, Thai, French, German, Spanish, and Chinese. That spread is why you will see the title under several scripts.

Who Are the Nerd Project Characters?

The cast list is short on paper and loud on the page. You spend most of the runtime inside two heads.

Andrew Cain Young

Andrew is the so-called nerd. His full name is Andrew Cain Young. Search boxes also show Andrew Young and “Andrew from” plus the series title.

Fan wikis list him as about 23, a biotechnology major, top of his incoming class at Hopson University, born 24 December, and about 6’6″ (often cited near 198 cm). Green eyes and glasses are part of the visual brand. His father is Arthur Young. An older brother, Noah Young, appears in family talk.

Andrew is not a joke nerd. He is brilliant, socially careful, and shaped by a past that taught him not to trust praise. A lot of the comic sits in his point of view. That choice makes him feel intense. Readers split on that intensity. Some call it romantic. Others find it heavy. Both reactions show up in public reviews.

If you wanted the “hot genius in plaid” pitch, you will get that look. You will also get a character who scans rooms for exits.

Luke Mikael Davis

Luke Mikael Davis is the theater lead. People also search Luke Davis plus the series name when they want his job, his family, or his height.

Wiki notes put Luke near 6’2″, with cadet-blue eyes, a July 20 birthday, and a job at his father’s diner. He is a theater student, not a lab student. That major is not flavor text. Stage work explains his charm, his people skills, and later plot pressure around roles and public image.

Luke starts the story angry at Andrew and still somehow hungry for Andrew’s attention. He is the warmer lead. He shuts down homophobia when it shows up. He also makes messy choices when money, pride, and attraction collide.

Readers who ask about Luke Davis height are usually comparing the two men. Community notes put Luke shorter than Andrew, around 6’2″ against Andrew’s 6’6″. Official pages do not always print a number in the first episode, so treat those figures as fandom consensus, not a government ID.

Stacy Louise and the Wider Cast

Stacy Louise is Luke’s ex. She is the reason Luke even notices Andrew’s “dorky” look as a type. She is not the villain of the whole book, but she is the spark.

Other names you will meet:

• Malcolm Miller, a close friend in Luke’s circle
• Jonas Mcdonald
• Derek Taylor
• Charlie Jones
• Luke’s father and younger sister
• Arthur Young, Andrew’s father

These side figures keep the campus feeling occupied. They also give Luke a social world Andrew does not automatically share.

Character list cross-check: Nerd Project Wiki.

How Are the Chapters Organized?

People land on this topic through very specific chapter queries. Here is how those queries fit the book.

What Happens in Chapter 1?

Nerd project ch 1 is the setup. You meet Luke after the breakup energy is already high. You meet Andrew as the object of Stacy’s fixation and then as a real person in Luke’s path. The title joke starts here. If the first chapter’s art and roommate tension do not click for you, the rest of the series will feel long.

Early Campus Chapters

Chapters 2 through the first dorm stretch stay lighter. Titles on reader indexes include lines such as “Your Usual Breakup Duet,” “And So the Shenanigans Begin,” and “Dorm Room Frenzy.” This is the stretch where Luke treats Andrew like homework.

Mid-Series Shift

By the late teens and twenties, the comedy shares space with desire, jealousy, and Andrew’s distrust. Chapter titles on public indexes get more intimate. If you are reading with someone else in the room, check the rating of your edition before this block.

Where Does Chapter 44 Sit?

Nerd project chapter 44 sits in season 2 (chapters 35–63). By this point the “befriend the nerd” joke is no longer the point. Season 2 spends more time on the relationship under stress: family, work, and the way other people talk about the couple. If you jumped to chapter 44 from a social clip, go back. The fight or tender beat you saw is built on dozens of smaller choices.

How Does It End?

The book ends at chapter 63. The author cited medical reasons and did not announce extra side stories. That is a complete ending, not a cancellation cliff with a promised return date.

Is This Series BL or Yaoi?

Yes on both labels, with a small language note.

English webtoon readers usually tag nerd project bl. Older Japanese-market tags still say yaoi. The story is a male/male romance. Luke has a girlfriend at the start, so some databases also mark a bisexual uke pattern. The romantic endgame is Andrew and Luke.

Content notes you should see before you buy:

• College-age leads
• Explicit sex in the R19 cut
• Trauma and hypervigilance in Andrew’s past
• Homophobia from outside the couple
• Jealousy and control themes that some readers praise and others dislike

This is not a fluff-only campus comic. The art can be soft and funny in one episode and raw in the next.

Where Can You Read It Without Feeding Scrapers?

Official English lives on Tapas. Official Korean lives on RIDI, Bomtoon, Lezhin, Naver Series, MrBlue, and BookCube. Other languages have licensed apps listed on MangaUpdates.

You will still see nerd project bato and Batoto in autocomplete. Those aggregator sites rank because they are free and fast, not because they pay G jyeo. If the author had to stop at 63 chapters for health reasons, the least a reader can do is use a store that actually licenses the work.

A clean reading path:

1. Open the Tapas series page.
2. Pick R15 or R19 on purpose.
3. Start at chapter 1. Do not start at a viral chapter 44 panel.
4. If money is tight, use the platform’s free unlock windows instead of a scrape site.

What Themes Give the Series Its Bite?

The surface pitch is “theater sunshine roommates with campus nerd.” The actual book is about who gets to be seen.

Luke is used to being watched on stage. Andrew is used to being watched as a threat or a trophy. The story begins as Luke watching Andrew to copy him. It becomes Andrew deciding whether being seen by Luke is safe.

Other ideas the story keeps returning to:

• Money and pride (diner shifts versus elite-student polish)
• Performance versus private self
• How an ex can turn a stranger into a symbol
• Care that looks like control when fear is driving it
• Friendship as the first honest language the couple shares

If you like enemies-to-lovers with a slow thaw, this pairing fits. If you need both leads to be emotionally even from page one, Andrew’s suspicion may grate.

Why Does the Art Make Both Leads Look So Tall?

The art is full color, clean, and built for phone scrolling. Faces stay expressive. Comedy panels lean on Luke’s physical acting. Romance panels linger on hands, glasses, and the height gap.

That height gap is a fandom sport. People compare Luke Davis and Andrew because the comic draws both men as large, and readers want the exact split. Use the numbers as a visual aid. The storytelling point is simpler: Andrew takes up space and still tries to disappear, while Luke takes up space and enjoys it.

Tone moves in waves. Early episodes feel like a campus sitcom. Later episodes ask you to sit with Andrew’s inner monologue. That mix is why review scores stay high while comment sections still argue about who hurt whom.

How Does It Sit Next to Other Campus BL Books?

If you have read other school-life BL manhwa, this one stands out for two reasons. First, the “project” framing makes Luke’s early behavior a bit predatory in a comic way, then the script turns that back on him. Second, Andrew’s genius is not a cute accessory. His academic life and his fear share the same root: stay useful, stay alert, stay hard to hold.

Readers who finish this often look for other slow-burn roommate romances, actor and ordinary pairings, or stories where the quieter lead is the more intense one. Treat those as “if you liked the pairing” lists, not clones.

Related entities you will see next to this title in stores and wikis include Tapas, Polar Fox, Hopson University, G jyeo, Bomtoon, Lezhin, RIDI, and Naver Series.

What Is the Right Reading Order?

Read in publication order. There is no alternate timeline you need.

• Season 1: chapters 1–34. Meeting, dorm, first real bond.
• Season 2: chapters 35–63. The relationship in public and under family pressure.

If you only have time for a sample, read chapter 1, the first dorm chapter, and one mid-season episode from Andrew’s point of view. That trio shows the joke, the chemistry, and the darker voice.

Which Search Myths Should You Ignore?

A few queries need a straight correction.

Andrew Young in this comic is not the American politician. Searches that pair his name with the series refer to Andrew Cain Young, the student.

Luke Davis is not a real celebrity attached to the book. He is the theater-major lead.

“Manga” is a habit word. The work is a Korean manhwa.

Bato listings are not official. A tap that says “official” on a scrape site is still a scrape site.

Age numbers drift between Anime-Planet character cards and fan wikis. One public database lists Andrew at 25 and Luke at 24. Fan pages often list both men near 23–24. The story treats them as senior-year college adults. That is the fact that matters for content warnings.

Who Will Like This Book?

You will probably stay through season 2 if you want:

• A campus setting with real classes and jobs
• A tall, awkward, high-IQ lead who is not comic relief
• A warm, messy theater lead who talks with his whole body
• Romance that starts as a scheme and has to become honest
• Full-color manhwa art

You may bounce if you want zero jealousy, zero explicit pages, or a lead who never watches his partner too hard.

How Should You Talk About It Without Spoiling Friends?

Share the premise, the names, and the fact that it is complete. Do not lead with season 2 family scenes or the exact shape of Andrew’s past. The pleasure of chapter 44 and the late chapters depends on watching trust form in order.

If you write recs, name the rating. “Cute roommate BL” is only half true.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is nerd project about?

Nerd project is a completed BL manhwa about Luke Davis, a broke theater student who gets assigned Andrew Young as a roommate after a breakup, then tries to befriend the campus genius on purpose.

Is the manhwa finished?

Yes. It ends at 63 chapters. Season 1 is 1–34. Season 2 is 35–63. The author stopped there for medical reasons and has not announced side stories.

Who are the main characters?

The leads are Andrew Cain Young and Luke Mikael Davis. Stacy Louise, Malcolm Miller, Jonas Mcdonald, Derek Taylor, Charlie Jones, and both families fill out the campus.

Where can I read chapter 1 legally?

Start chapter 1 on Tapas in English, or on RIDI, Bomtoon, Lezhin, or Naver Series in Korean. Skip aggregator mirrors if you want the creator paid.

How tall is Luke Davis?

Fan wikis list Luke near 6’2″ and Andrew near 6’6″. Official episode text does not always print those numbers, so treat them as community measurements.

Is nerd project yaoi, and is it explicit?

Yes. BL and yaoi both describe the same male/male romance. The R19 edition is explicit. The R15 edition keeps the romance with less sexual detail.

Start Chapter 1 Today

You now have the names, the chapter map, the rating split, and the legal doors. Open Tapas, pick the cut you actually want, and read the nerd project from chapter 1 with both eyes open. If the roommate plan makes you laugh and Andrew’s silence makes you curious, keep going through season 2 and then tell another reader where you bought it.

If this guide helped you choose an edition or stop a spoiler jump to chapter 44, share it with the friend who only knows the pair from a short clip. The story is better in order, and the people who made it are easier to support when you use a real store.