but i still love it

This is my first webtoon, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to read one that was this long. At some point I couldn’t put it away, because I wanted to know what everyone was thinking, and I wasn’t disappointed. I love the character development throughout the series, and especially the Seol/Inha-relationship was quite funny at times.
There’s a lot of relatable incidents, but also wtf-moments. Still, there’s something with the way all characters are flawed in their own way, some for a reason, some without any real excuses. I laughed, I cried, I loved it. Especially season 4.

I started reading this webtoon in 2013, it's been a long ride. I reread it a few times throughout my twenties, each time I read it I was a different person, but one thing stayed the same. I never stopped loving it. I just binged it hard the past few days, so it will be a long and haphazard ramble. It will also contain spoilers that I will not mask!

I don't remember how I heard about this webtoon, I knew that I was not really into webtoons at the time, but I think the art drew me in. Drama, mystery, serious issues, it was not the usual set of tags I have chosen when I was searching for a good read. As a side note I should add if there was ever a webtoon that would have pushed me to learn korean, this would be the one. I wanted to know every nuance, every double meaning, every flavor of every word. In 2013 the story was barely unfolding and I did not have access to the translation, sometimes the only thing that was available was a good soul making summaries on a forum. I appreciated those times a lot, exactly because of over analyzing of every word, gesture and look.

I feel like I could either go and write a book about this story or can just limit myself to very broad statements. It's so hard to pick where to start. Maybe let's go with what I did not like and work from there. My biggest annoyance was In Ho. When I was younger I could barely stand In Ho's pushy behaviour and Sul's complacent response to it. I found her laughs and inability to say no very annoying, probably because I knew I would do the same or way worse if I were in the same situation. I was not buying him being her friend when he was constantly leeching off of her, asking to be fed when she barely had money for herself. I grew up a bit and now I know a bit better, although this part of In Ho is still a bit icky to me when I reread the beginning of the story. I was taking his antics much better this time around, especially when In Ho wanted to push Sul away, and I knew she should not take his words to heart (and she did not). On the other hand I still do not condone that rough, aggressive, violent behaviour while at the same time being told the person has a heart of gold. Certain behaviour should not be accepted, no matter the intent. Anger issues are anger issues. That said, the thrill of In Ho beating up Stalker Boy gave me this, a bit disgusting, primal pleasure of violence committed in a "good" cause. I don't like being violent, but with all the pacifism I preach most of the time, the violence committed in a good faith gives me pleasure and cathartic feeling. I do not think of myself as a sociopath and that's part of the reason sometimes I really wish I could be one. Let's finish off with In Ho before moving on to Jung. It was so painful to see him experience so many things he should not have. Abandonment, abuse, witnessing the abuse and the learned helplessness. While also being stabbed in the back by both his caretaker and his resentful son. I think adults fucked up royally in this webtoon. Jung's father should have been under supervision and constant therapy to keep him in touch with humanity, since he was clearly a socio/psychopath himself. It always hurts my heart to read flashbacks from In Ho's perspective. He definitely did not understand what his mere presence was doing to Jung, and to be honest, he shouldn't have to, another failure of adults. I'm listening to Yiruma as I'm writing this, I think it's my personal OST for this webtoon. Let's move on to Jung. The amount of time I spent analysing and trying to get into his head and what was he thinking... As for probably every single reader, it was the most exciting part of the whole story. Trying to figure out whether Jung was a "good guy'. I was on the fence here, I almost always took his side dealing with problems. I could even understand where he was coming from with his treatment of Sul. The flashbacks made it clear what he was thinking and how he was perceiving her. I don't think I was ever truly creeped out by Jung. Admiring and in awe, yes, scared? Nope. I could not shake the feeling that I wish I could be more like Jung. I remember trying to figure out what made Jung attracted to Sul in the first place. The author made that discovery very satisfying, giving us crumbs and showing different perspectives of the same events. It could keep you glued to the screen for long hours. The mystery, the uncertainty and how it affected Sul. To be honest I always found myself quite lenient towards Jung's behaviour, sympathising with him way too much, but without the blind adoration. That human is dangerous and there is no doubt about that. I just personally would love to be dangerous in such a way, and I have no issue with him doing what he was doing. I could watch him get to people all day long. Afterall Jung rarely ever was doing the evil deed himself. He knew what made people tick and he was putting them on the crossroads, anticipating and predicting with astonishing accuracy the direcion people would go. But I do not agree with blaming him for things other people did, it was never him actually lifting the finger. I do not agree with many readers who keep labeling Jung as the worst person. No matter how riled up, other people were making conscious decisions to do underhanded things. At the end of the day, it was not him making questionable decisions (well, you could argue here, but really let's stop with blaming other people for your own actions). He was putting people in the way of temptation but if their moral compass was in the right place, he was not going to make them do anything. I also think this is exactly what annoyed and drew him to Sul. She was just not reacting the way he expected her to. Which brings us to the wonderful reversal at the end, when In Ho basically served him the same pill and that left Jung quite traumatised. Someone attacked his weak point, the need to be accepted by Sul. The way he broke down completely afterwards was shocking, I really did not anticipate this kind of personal growth. I hated In Ho pushing Jung so far, but at the same time it was perversely pleasant to see Jung react to what he has been doing to people for years. It also was the last push towards the fully developed relationship of Sul and Jung. They needed to air all the grievances. I also loved small details like the fact her own parents let him sleep in her room afterwards, how sweet was that... I think it was quite cruel to leave what happened after such a big event to Epilogue but I should not complain, I came back to this story when it's finished so no real annoyance was there.
What else did I not like? In Ha. I hated her so deeply from the very beginning, and as a soft sucker for redemption, I was eating her and Sul's relationship with a spoon. I think that one might have been a wasted opportunity. The growing friendship between those too, the fact that Sul had the upper hand for once, could stand up to In Ha and threaten that crazy whirlwind of issues. That felt really good to see. I was so proud of Sul and loved how she did it secretly, never told anyone about it. She could be the one person to bring In Ha stability and independence. I would have never thought this to be plausible at all, but I bought it instantly the moment it happened. Which brings me to the most beautiful part of this webtoon (after Jung) which was character development. Sul from the end vs Sul from the beginning are so different. It would have been enough to make the webtoon exceptional, but the author was not satisfied. Pretty much all of the characters we see, some really marginal, have their stories fleshed out. Sul's character development is magnificent. She is such a different person at the end. It was sad to see her more jaded, even if reacting better to other people giving her a hard time was probably a good trade off. I'm not a fan of "toughening up", I think not enough people are brave enough to be kind nowadays. The message that you should grow thick skin and give as good as you get is not appealing to me as a moral of the story. Sure, I adore Jung and what he was doing, but he was not a totally innocent nice kid when we met him, which makes me think what would have happened if he got proper treatment and a mentor/guide when he needed them, instead of his abusive father. Still, tougher Sul is better than the Sul we have at the start of the journey. It made me laugh when Jung was actually horrified a little, when he realised how much she started resembling him. She did not intend for some things to happen but she recognised that they felt good. It was a nice wake up call for Jung, I think. The fact that he was capable of that discovery and self reflection in the first place made me hope for good things in the future for them both. Their relationship was such a delight to observe. I was at the beginning annoyed at Sul and her lack of confidence, but the closer they got the less issues she had with closeness, boundaries and intimacy. I still did not like her getting all embarrassed most of the time, but it made sense. She was always trying to be fair and approach things that needed clearance, confronting him about everything that bothered her. Their bond was really strong even if at the beginning it was not sure they would end up together at all. At some point even I was thinking she should dump them both and lead some peaceful life with someone else. But in the end I could not resist the pull of Sul being a saviour. It's a bad trope, to save someone and root for some kind of codependency, but I think Sul was the person to bring the best out of Jung. I believe both of them had a really good influence on one another. 
I loved the story, the characters, the pace, the unchanging quality and pretty much everything about this webtoon. It's a forever 10 in my personal ranking. I know I will reread it many more times.

Whenever I think of an amazing webtoon I ALWAYS think of this one. It's so good I read through it twice and I don't do that often, if ever.

Of course, it isn't flawless but it's as close to being one I think we'll get for a long while. A huge problem a lot of weekly webtoons have is maintaining a good momentum/being consistent in quality. Not only was it consistent in quality on virtually all boards (art, characters, etc.), the amount of quality that is delivered is mind-blowing.

This webtoon made me go through all the emotions-- laughter, happiness, sadness, anxiousness, you name it. There were twists and turns, yes, but they made sense (eventually). It all pieced together so perfectly I wonder if it was all planned out before any drawing was done. Even years later, many of these characters have stayed with me and I constantly compare them to others from different stories. Kudos to the creator for making something as extraordinary as this.

I have nothing but praise for Cheese In The Trap. I love this webtoon dearly and I only urge you to read and see for yourself.

I followed Cheese in the Trap for years, even watching the TV drama and movie, but the webcomic is the best and having now finally finished it, I feel bereft. The author captures depth and nuance among all its central characters, expertly capturing the internal conflict of its central character as she navigates through the hardships of life. Few works of fiction can capture the complex interior space of its characters, but the author brings extraordinarily relatable to them and captures their emotions with careful choices in facial expressions, framing, and color.

I had always seen this webtoon on various sites recommending it so highly, but it was still ongoing and looked too long. I will say that I’m glad that I waited until it was completed, because binge reading this from the beginning to the (beautiful) end was a journey.

This is labeled as “psychological” for a reason, so if you’re looking for a perfect male lead, then this isn’t it. Jung is an enigma throughout the majority of the story. We don’t know his intentions and we know he has a dark manipulative side. Despite this, you can’t really hate him. You see his genius as well as his sociopathic tendencies.

The story itself is always thrilling and entertaining. It is told during two timelines, the past and the present. The pacing is incredible that when these two timelines meet up- it’s perfect. It never felt too long- every piece in the puzzle was necessary. We see seol change as a person and we see jung change.

And the CHARACTERS. Oof don’t get me started on the characters. The development of each one is phenomenal. You truly cared about them. Not only do we get to see the romance between seol and jung, but we get side character relationships as well. You root for their happiness. Ugh this isn’t as well written as I would like it to be, but this story really left me feel emotionally numb. And I miss all the characters. I will definitely reread this one again.

*update* literally reread it from start to finish after writing this review- and I recommend everyone does that. Knowing the whole story it’s like you go in with a new perspective, and you notice the smaller details. Also really gives you time to think about the characters and what drives them to do what they do. If I could erase this from my brain so that I could read it again for the first time, I would. Yes it was that good.

... Last updated on May 20th, 2020, 11:14pm

The plot, fantastic. And how the author manage to make all the character connect with each other, is very impresive in my opinion. Never have i read a manga or a manhwa where i remember all of the character's name where i could remember all of the names, this one manage to make me remember all of it. And as long as i remember there's nothing abusive in this manhwa whatsoever, people need to wake up and realize that the world is not all rainbow and sunshine.

A narratively intricate magnum opus of a romance manhwa.

I just finished Cheese in the Trap. Oh man its so beautiful. Everything just ties together so incredibly well. Genuinely its a long series. Yet i wish it was longer. It did too many things right and the things that were wrong were just minor issues in comparison to the overall quality of the webtoon. The only issue i have is that constant backstory of there first year as the story starts in the second year. The webtoon i feel like should've started in first year but overall its a minor issue to the quality of this webtoon. The manipulation, Psychology romance was all done so incredibly well. My only genuine gripe with this series is how the sister kinda got off scott free especially considering how horrible her personality was.

I have never in my life read anything better than this series.