College Life: Thoughts on Cheese in the Trap
Cheese in the Trap (치즈인더트랩)
(Webtoon 2010-ongoing)
By Soonkki
If you are looking for commentary on Nicki Minaj’s song, “Beez in the Trap,” you come to the wrong place. Today I will be talking about my new obsession, the South Korean webtoon, Cheese in the Trap, created by Soonkki. This webtoon is going to be a live-action South Korean drama in the fall, so I decided to read it right now to see what all the hype is about.
Hong Sul is a hard-working overachiever. She returns to college after a year-long break and encounters a senior from her business department, Yoo Jung, who has suddenly started to be nice to her. He offers to help her with her assignments, and takes her out to eat. Hong Sul is skeptical and suspicious about the way Yoo Jung is acting because her first impression of him wasn’t that great. In fact, she considers him superficial and judgmental when she met him a year ago.
(Left: Hong Sul, Right: Yoo Jung Via MyAnimeList)
First of all, I want to say that I enjoy the art style, especially when it comes to the characters. I also enjoyed the characterization of the two main protagonists, Hong Sul and Yoo Jung. Hong Sul is a strong, independent female character. She kind of reminds me of myself. When it comes to education, she works hard to earn the grades she receives. As for Yoo Jung, he is a difficult character to categorize because he seems to have a hidden agenda when it comes to hanging out with Hong Sul. From the stories Hong Sul tells the readers, Yoo Jung seems to be two-face. He acts all kind and considerate towards others, but then he has this cold and rude personality when he isn’t in front of a crowd. So far, it is hard to detect his feelings and true intentions. I am not sure whether he really does like Hong Sul, but I guess I will have to continue reading to find out.
Cheese in The Trap depicts student life in a university well. Some of the topics that the characters experience is the affordability of college tuition, the stress of getting good grades in classes, and maintaining a social life. These are all issues that every university students goes through, and I can honestly say that I have been through these troubles too. Although it isn’t an accurate depiction of university life, Cheese in the Trap is a relatable webtoon for college students.
Furthermore, the storytelling structure of the webtoon goes from the present-day to flashbacks. As a result, the reader is slowly piecing together the answers to why Hong Sul and Yoo Jung feel uneasy with each other as well as what is happening in the daily lives and drama of the other students that they are surrounded by. By switching between present and past time, we get an interesting narrative and as readers, we are trying to figure out what is going on.
Overall, I would definitely recommend this webtoon to readers. I was instantly hooked at the end of the first chapter.
(Via MyAnimeList)
5/5
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Just Something About LynLyn 
Hey, it’s been a while 🙂 . Going through the whole ‘study hard but trying to make time for having a life’ thing myself at the moment! Bringing it on myselfto be honest, especially seeing as I’ve picked up a few different hobbies at the moment. How’d you get through it?
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Hello, it has been a while.
The key to everything is balance, really. I was a double major, so I had to take a lot of classes that were letter-grades and couldn’t do a lot of “fun” pass/no pass classes. So I mainly focused on my studies. However, I did pick up a few hobbies and activities along the way too. IT is all about how you manage your time really. If you have good time management skills, I am sure you would be fine.
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Thanks, and you are right I think I should be alright for the most part if I manage my time this year.
What did you double major in? I’m thinking of double-majoring or doing a modular course for uni so I can do loads of different subjects (not happy with just one 😀 )
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I double majored in Comparative Literature and Japanese. Both subjects that I love. 🙂
What are you thinking of studying?
Yeah, I am the type of person that likes a mixture of classes. There was so many classes I wanted to take, but didn’t have enough time
Luckily, my majors were flexible.
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I was thinking of taking Japanese as well, but I figured that perhaps doing a language course outside of school would give me some more flexibilty (I currently attend sixth form college, which is basically the two years prior to university). I was going to take Liberal Arts, but it has a somewhat bad reputation as being a subject that lacks depth, plus the name is the kind of name that an employer is likely to dismiss when looking at my CV haha.
So I want to do a joint degree of philosophy and perhaps statistics or chemistry.
To be honest I have yet to find a path that I feel a burning passion for, and it is something I’m struggling to find. It’s actually the reason why I’ve picked up the hobbies that I’m doing, i.e. to find my niche. I love humanities and art, but I am a little better at maths and sciences because they’re pretty straightforward and I feel like emplyers like maths/science quite a bit.
Your joint degree looked like it was a blast though. Did you go abroad for Japanese by any chance?
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I didn’t get the chance to study aboard in Japan because of time constraints. If I did, I would have probably taken a fifth year, and that wasn’t in my budget (tuition is pretty high here in the U.S.). However, I did go to a small summer program for about a week in Japan, which was worth it 🙂
Haha, well it depends on what you are looking for. Do you want a degree that is hot on the job market, or get a degree in something of your interest. I picked my interest over the money, and I don’t regret it even though right now I am still searching for employment lol. But what I learn so far in my life is that I really enjoy writing, and that is why I have this blog and I am testing my limits in it. I am sure you will figure it out. I actually didn’t want to major in Comparative Literature at first, I was going to major in Linguistics (a more practical major) but I changed my mind because it was the professor/teacher that made the class interesting, and I wanted to explore the department more.
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Yeah, I’d love to do just stuff I love but I think I’ll go halvsies for each 🙂 . My dad’s pretty adamant about me doing something that will pay or produce a job, and family pressure counts for a lot in my family haha. I guess not being able to calculate my future so easily makes me uneasy about throwing myself wholeheartedly into doing what I love. Thanks for the advice btw. I’m getting a ton of pressure about this atm, and it’s always good getting second opinions on stuff like this.
Did you have a career path in mind when you got your degree?
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I see. Yeah, you aren’t the only one on that boat. All young people have to face family pressures. I think it is natural.
I kind of wish I could calculate my future too. It would give me a sense of security and relaxation because I don’t have to worry about it. Yet, if we know everything we do, then wouldn’t life be boring? Life is a mystery because you get choices to do whatever you want. Failure is something we greatly fear and is inevitable, but if we do fail, you just have to get back up and go back to the drawing board. Plus when you fail, you don’t leave empty handed. You learn something along the way.
You are welcome. My friends says I am a great listener and give some good advice. I am considering extending these services to my blog lol
I have so many career paths when I got my degree, and I still do. I kind of didn’t want to just stay on one path. I want to do a lot of things: novelist, professional blogger, professor, etc. I think my major in comparative literature is a reflection of my personality because I want to be flexible and dabble in to everything, and in that degree, I got to do that.
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Yeah, I’m a bit of a dabbler too haha. One thing I know is that I need to lose my fear of making mistakes. Everyone tells us to do what we want but it doesn’t feel like that’s what they mean for us to really do.
I see how you had lots of flexibility with your degree.
I’m actually currently looking at ‘arts and sciences degrees’. They look pretty great because they include learning a language and well as being able to major in something, which gives me a good amount of flexibility in what I do.
Yeah I’d love to write novels too, I just wish I was better at coming up with ideas and stuff lol. Honestly, that would be my dream job if I was good at it and could be satisfies with my own work 🙂 .
Good luck with getting a job btw 😉 and again cheers for the advice.
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Haha, yeah I need to lose the fear of making mistakes too.
I felt the same way too about writing. I didn’t think I was creative or good at coming up with ideas. I never thought my thoughts are worth sharing, but then I started to just write whatever I wanted, and look where it got me. lol
Thanks, and good luck with picking an area to study 🙂
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I just found out that there is gonna be a drama adaption of this (in December 2015). I hope they don’t ruin it:)
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Yeah, that is why I read it. Well… live action dramas have so many limitations. So I am not sure what it will be like.
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