On the exciting first day of school, the freshmen’s minds are full of campus love stories. They are expecting romance stories between students from all classes to unfold in front of them. In fact, malicious school project team members and worries about future are those actually awaiting freshmen.

  

Pure romance comics tend to ignore everything other than love. If there’s an exam, it’s only an excuse to get the protagonist couple to study together in a room. They don’t put too much effort to explain how the characters study usually. These omissions don't necessarily mean the comics is not solid. This is simply because it doesn’t help with telling what the comics is trying to tell. Romance readers only want to know how the relationship of the protagonist couple will progress. They are not interested in the characters’ grades. 

  There could be exceptions where auther could put some significance to the characters’ school grades. For example, the female character might study really hard to go to the same university as the male character, or there can be relationship problems if one has the set career after the high school while the other doesn’t. If this is the case, the readers will worry about the characters’ grades and futures together. Will he be able to go to the dream college as he studies harder? I also don’t know what to do later in future, what should I do? 

  [Cheese in the Trap] seems like it follows the same principle of the other romance comics. The female protagonist Seol Hong studies hard to win scholarships because of her family struggling financially. The male protagonist Jung Yu, who is from a rich family, became interested in Seol Hong through their coincidental encounter. This webtoon is about the convoluted love-or-not relationship of this couple.

  The description makes you expect the webtoon to be about triangular relationships and happy campus lives, but it’s not. [Cheese in the Trap] upsets our expectations since the very beginning. In the opening scene, Seol Hong feels something is off about Jung Yu, who is widely respected and admired by other students. The reason was simple. He was too generous to freshmen even when he was supposed to feel upset, and in the meanwhile, he strangely kept distance with them as well.

   [Cheese in the Trap] asks readers to focus on human relationships in the comics through such opening. As Seol Hong wants to know more about Jung Yu’s personality and relationships, readers get interested in these as well. They wonder if Jung Yu is actually kind or somehow twisted inside.

  [Cheese in the Trap] depicts how romantic relationship starts from the acquaintance in social circumstances like this. A Social life is a part of a college life, so complains about too much studying and worries about grades naturally follow. The characters are introduced as situations happen due to the grades, and these characters are spotlighted followingly. The world in the webtoon was limited to Seol Hong and Yu Jung at first, and then it widens naturally to the whole university. The focus is set because the stories are told as Seol Hong as the center. Meanwhile, surrounding characters come into her sight appealing themselves. Through this process, the college in [Cheese in the trap] feels like the typical college we might know somewhere in real life.

  I want to say this was a smart concept. Story of [Cheese in the Trap] revolves around the encounter between Seol Hong and Yu Jung; the whole story is the extension of romantic relationship between the two. It’s such a typical story of a tomboyish girl moving a rich boy’s frigid mind. On the other hand, the webtoon also focuses on convoluted social relationships of characters, which adds vitality to the story. The relationship between the two protagonists seems likely, but the story isn’t too obvious because the character Yu Jung is unpredictable. Yu Jung is from a rich family, but it’s not overly exaggerated. Such boundaries the author set allows the webtoon to show the traditional romance appropriately integrated with realistic elements.

  These reasons might be why this webtoon has been liked by so many readers. It took the concept of conventional romance comics while focusing on different aspects. Having a different perspective, we see the picture differently. Through this webtoon, we could experience much more thrilling romance. The characters, Hong Seol and Yu Jung carved into our memories as the webtoon keeps its balance between the reality and fiction. Two characters who were trying so hard with social relationship and grades will have bright future from now on. We hope the author’s next webtoon will come back to us with an even brighter light.