Cheese in the Trap

[frubam]

Genre: Comedy, Josei, Mystery, Romance, School Life, Slice of Life
Author/Artist: Soon Ki

Synopsis:
Hong Sul is an ordinary college student. Yoo Jung is the most popular upper-classman. He's good looking, rich, smart - and even nice. However, Hong Sul thinks there's more to Yoo Jung than what meets the eye...


Don't let the stupid title fool you. As silly as it sounds(imo at least), this is one HELL of a good story. Its all about the main heroine, Hong Sul, and how she gets a bad feeling about one of her upperclassmen, Yoo Jung, at her college. She doesn't quite know what it is, but it makes her feel rather uncomfortable around him. It doesn't sound like much, and plot-wise, it really isn't, but the execution of it is highly interesting. Sul is a remarkable heroine; she is the farthest from stereotypical as you can possibly get. She feels very realistic in her actions and emotions, even if it's drawn comically(no pun intended). The big draw is how Sul interprets Yoo Jung's actions. From the beginning, she says how she feels uncomfortable around him, and as the story progresses, we are treated to several flashbacks to show multiple instances of why she is suspicious of him(hence, the 'Mystery' tag). The flashback moments are just as(if not more) interesting than the present moments and I really liked the way the author integrates them into the current story so seamlessly. The story also avoids many of the highly annoying pratfalls of regular shoujo stories(well, this IS labeled as a josei).

I really like the way the chars are drawn, even if it does come off amateurish at times, but it may not be to everyone's liking. Plus side, its all in color, so that might help make it easier on the eyes =03. For some reason, Sul reminds me of Aisaka Taiga in the looks department (>.>).

Spoiler for up to chp 24:

Young Gon(why must their names be so darn similar?) I felt bad for. Well, that whole stalker arc was great. I KNEW when Sul was nice to him, he would start to cling onto her, but I wasn't expecting him to stalk her D0=.

Yoo Jung does seem pretty devious, blackmailing the asst. professor. I can't really tell if he's plotting some evil scheme, or whether he earnestly likes Sul. He clearly used the blackmail so that Sul would get the scholarship mentioned near the beg of the story, so he can't be all that bad. However, because Sul has been constantly thinking of him from a negative perspective and seeing why see thinks that way, I can't help but to think that he has underlying intentions other than simply liking/loving Sul. At least, there's no basis for him liking her, esp if you take Sul's past perspectives of him into account.

And I never would have guessed that the "Honey" Sul's next-door neighbor was referring to was the asst prof (O.o). Thinking about it.... ugh （　ﾟ Дﾟ）

Anyways, I greatly encourage you to give this a shot. While it does generally have a 'slice of life' feel that might give you the impression nothing is happening, the meticulousness of how this story pieces Sul's present and her past occurrences makes this quite the enjoyable read =03.

Ah yeah, i do make these threads in the heat of the moment whilst I'm most excited, so if things are a bit exaggerated, my apologies =03

[frubam]

fyi, this webtoon was discontinued[by WtL] because the author did not want scanlations of his/her work, but a new group found a very ingenious and "legal" way of translating this series; by using some kind of javascript function to 'overwrite' the text on Naver's webpage for this webtoon with english text, both respecting the author's wishes and supporting him/her by visiting the Naver page. Why go through such lengths for this series? Because it's that damn good.

Spoiler for to 29:

I was quite surprised with how quickly things progressed with Jung and Sul. It was only a few chapters ago she thought he was some devious, subtly pompous guy who was hiding something. Now it's like Jung is closer to Sul more than anyone who's been shown thus far. It almost feels like all of her suspicions were her paranoia caused by her initial impressions gone too far. Jung really seems like a stand-up guy. He comforted her when in her moment of deep depression, offered sound advice, and helped her with the english situation. Then he took her on a date(under the notion that it's research for their class).

I guess that flashback in chp 26? was when Jung finally took notice of Sul for the first time. I wonder what he was thinking at the moment Sul was about to go off on him. I'm sure he felt bad about the situation, but I wonder did he also feel a sense of pride in her for being so forward, yet dignified in asking him about it(unlike how Young Go asked for an apology annoyingly)(and kudos to Sul being awesome once again =03). I lol'd when he facepalmed after Joo Yeon started to convince Gon that Sul likes him . It's a rare expression I don't get to see in such a serious tone in manga/manwha/webtoons, I just found it really funny. Strange how this quick event snowballed into all the stalker stuff Sul had to go through.

Other than explaining the situation with Joo Yeon and what happened to her between their last year and this year, I guess the situation will start to head into a bit about Jung's past with In Ho and his sister, which I feel will be quite interesting =03. In Ho and Jung seem like they dislike/hate each other, though it seems In Ho's sister still talks to him some. She sounds like a money-grubbing bitch, but I hope there's more to her than that. It's possible this could reveal some kind of 'other' side of Jung that Sul has been subconscious of this whole time. I do think there's got to be something behind that generous persona he has; he's just too perfect to not have some skeletons in his closet (>.>).

[frubam]

I can't believe no one is reading this goodness! Here is a blog post with a bit more in-depth analysis of why it's so damn good(the excerpt about the baka-update synopsis is particularly very true =03).

Anyway

Spoiler for chp 35 - 37:

I feel sorry for Sul, being put into the uncomfortable position of having to help Ah Young with Yoo Jung =0(. She even inadvertently excited Yoo Jung, making him think she was actually asking him out somewhere. I found it amusing though that very shortly after getting together, Yoo Jung didn't take long to figure out what was going on. Then to find out about the whole blind date thing, sure made him pissed off .

To see him so cutthroat with In Ho was kinda a surprise, since we've only seen glimpses of this aspect of his personality(even if that glimpse was Sul's shrewd perception of him ). Certainly he was still pissed off, but, despite this, he was still considerate enough to take Sul home after that disaster of a date she had. This was the first time I can remember him not taking the humble approach talking(being overly nice, saying he doesn't mind, etc.) and speaking Sul so straightforwardly, I started to get the impression he was more disappointed than pissed. It almost kinda felt like Sul unintentionally took advantage of him emotionally, so I feel bad for the guy.

About Yoo Jung, maybe people have been taking advantage of his good nature [financially/emotionally] so much, people expect it out of him. I think that one of the things he saw in Sul was that she never really tried to exploit him this way, which may be why it seemed like he was falling for her in the first place. I still can't quite place when he started liking her, and that shows that the author did a stupendous job with the relationship her.

I hope In Ho isn't going to do something as stupid as use Sul's phone to piss off Yoo Jung =0\. I must be hoping pretty big too, because it's right up his ally to do just that. As supposedly the 3rd main char of this story, they seem to be setting him up as using Sul as a proxy to get at Yoo Jung, and I hope that's all he becomes. I really don't want any love triangles or crap like that, cuz that's when things start to go downhill.

[custardpie]

I was pleasantly surprised to see the Girls of the Wild's thread here and immediately searched for other manhwa forums, but it seems that for some mysterious reason it is the only manhwa thread with a decent amount of posts. I mean, as much as I enjoy reading it, it's not something I would have expected to be one of the most popular among manhwas, or Korean webtoons.

That said, I've read a lot of Korean webtoons and this one is among the best I've read so far. This isn't your typical dose of romance. Fans have coined the term "romance thriller' to describe its genre, and the expression is quite apt. Readers are constantly set on edge, wondering whether Yoo Jung is after Hong Sul in a nice way or a really bad way. Neither of them are typical characters. But one of the most impressive things about this manhwa is how the minor characters are all fleshed out realistically and how they are related to each other in ways you'd never have expected. The plotlines are woven meticulously, so that scenes that may have seemed unimportant at first glance turn out to be surprisingly relevant.

Anyhow, there seems to be scanlation problems as the poster above mentioned, but this one is really worth checking out. You don't even have to be a fan of josei to enjoy it, although it is likely that you'll enjoy it even more if you've enjoyed but is kind of tired of repetitive romance mangas.

[frubam]

Originally Posted by custardpie

I was pleasantly surprised to see the Girls of the Wild's thread here and immediately searched for other manhwa forums, but it seems that for some mysterious reason it is the only manhwa thread with a decent amount of posts. I mean, as much as I enjoy reading it, it's not something I would have expected to be one of the most popular among manhwas, or Korean webtoons.

That said, I've read a lot of Korean webtoons and this one is among the best I've read so far. This isn't your typical dose of romance. Fans have coined the term "romance thriller' to describe its genre, and the expression is quite apt. Readers are constantly set on edge, wondering whether Yoo Jung is after Hong Sul in a nice way or a really bad way. Neither of them are typical characters. But one of the most impressive things about this manhwa is how the minor characters are all fleshed out realistically and how they are related to each other in ways you'd never have expected. The plotlines are woven meticulously, so that scenes that may have seemed unimportant at first glance turn out to be surprisingly relevant.

Anyhow, there seems to be scanlation problems as the poster above mentioned, but this one is really worth checking out. You don't even have to be a fan of josei to enjoy it, although it is likely that you'll enjoy it even more if you've enjoyed but is kind of tired of repetitive romance mangas.

I'm so glad at least one person sees eye-to-eye with me here (T,T)! I was thinking I'd be the only person here who had the chance to enjoy such a wonderfully crafted story and heroine(which would be sad ).

Anyways, after like 6 months, they finally released the 2nd chap

Spoiler for s2 chp 2:

I have to admit, those group-mates of Sul's still piss me off, so I don't blame Sul for still holding a grudge, since it impacts her scholarship ability. Hell, I'm sure many people could relate to having a group and someone in said group didn't do the responsibilities s/he was assigned(I know I have), but the WHOLE team? Yeah, I wouldn't be able to look Sul in the face if I was them.

As for Bo Ra, I can feel where she's coming from. She seemed to tell Mona(Sul's senpai, s1, chapter 39) everything about what was going on with her life, even her suspicions of Yoo Jung. I wouldn't expect Sul to tell Bo Ra about Yoo Jung, but the other stuff, if they were good friends, should have been fair game. Well, in regards to Young Gon(Sul's stalker near the beg chaps), maybe Sul did try to point out something odd about him to Bo Ra, but Bo Ra just kinda shrugged it off like it was no big deal or something. Some re-reading is in order for that one.

And I STILL can't believe Sul suspects something 'off' about Yoo Jung, even after all they've been through and all he's done for her(which wasn't THAT much, but still...). At this point, even considering his personality with In Ho and his sister, it's hard to see him with any ulterior motive with Sul other than wanting to help her out, befriend her, and/or possibly even seeing her as dating material. Women's intuition? Well, I'm sure SOMETHING is up with him, more than he lets on, but really, is there any reason for Sul to feel that way at this point in the story? At least she sees him as an outstanding guy though, so I suppose all is forgiven in that respect.

[frubam]

Spoiler for s2 ch12:

That bastard In Ho >=02. Trying to get back at Jung by intentionally befriending Sul. Fortunately, unlike the denizens of shoujo and even josei tropes, Sul's sharp womanly instincts tell her that In Ho's sudden compassion isn't sincere. I was very impressed she was able to pick up on this, despite the helpful advice she got from him earlier that helped her stand up to Asst prof Huh. Seeing how her instincts kick in like this, it makes me wonder if her intuition is also right about Jung?

It's obvious Jung has two modes, the one that we see with In Ho and In Ha, and the one he has when he's with Sul. It feels like the impression she originally had about Jung holds true when he's with the Bak siblings. However, considering the Bak siblings' personality, I can sympathize with him at being fed up, esp when In Ha is practically telling Jung that she's using him and his dad and has no intentions of stopping(a "money-grubbing bitch", as I said in my 2nd post). Anybody would be pissed off; yet he somehow retains his "I'm superior", calm and cool demeanor, even though you can tell he hates it.

Still, no doubt that the side of him that we see with Sul is just as genuine as what we see with the Bak siblings. He continually, subtly, advances into Sul's life, to the point where he is specifically altering his life to be around her; taking classes he doesn't need, using his free time to help Sul at her assistant job(that he subtly helped her get), talking to her about her problems...hell, even a year prior to current events when he make Asst prof Huh "lose" those document/reports so Sul can get the scholarship. It's clear that he wants to slowly make himself an important aspect in her life, but not for any negative intentions; simply because he likes and respects the woman she is. This is def one of the most realistic flow towards a potential relationship I have ever read in a manga/manwha/webtoon/whatever. It just feels that every chapter slowly creeps at such a possibility, but within the natural course of one's life as opposed to some instantaneous event that creates those feelings.