On Spotlight: A special post where I feature some of my favorite reads! Apart from my occasional “great rec post! ” I’m also keen on giving full or in-depth posts on series, may it be graphic novels or, in the future, books that I truly loved. And perhaps you might pick this up and read it, too!

I’m gonna start this rec post with a confession—it took me five tries before the enjoyment sank in. I tried the first but didn’t like it. The second went the same, and so did the third and fourth. On the fifth try, I decided to jump to chapter 15. Yeah, no kidding. This is how I roll; if the series I adamantly like to try doesn’t go well, I skip a hella lot of chapters. I’m quite good at patching things up, so if I miss details, I’ll probably pick them up in the middle of the story arc, and oh boy, did it finally work! Don’t worry, I read it the third time already, so the chapters I missed, well, I know them all too well this time. And yeah, I reread it twice already, which evidently meant I freaking fell in love with it!

The second paragraph I always save for summary, but for this month’s edition, I’m just going to give you the gist. 치즈인더트랩 (Cheese in the Trap) by 순끼 (Soon Kki) is about Hong Seol, an ordinary college student who, in its four-season run, witnessed the ups and downs of her college life, her personal life, her, of course, love life, and something in between. There’s no fancy schmancy start-up, and I dig all those realistic flares Soon Kki focused on. Don’t expect shoujo manga clichés here; that’s not how it grooves. It’s different; it was a breath of fresh air to see how fixated it was on its characters’ inner struggles.

Yes, it’s a very (very) character-driven story. I think it’s safe to say that I haven’t read anything like Cheese in the Trap out of the bajillion pieces of literature I have consumed in the past decade. And that was pretty cool. There were so many instances that it honestly mirrored my college life (sans the love life, oh poor me!). So the connection was there, and it made it all too easy to get absorbed in (after the rocky start). I really can’t explain how Cheese in the Trap works because I honestly found the premise to be just ordinary. It was plain, but magnificently and organically executed. The heroine, Hong Seol, is a lady you can find anywhere, a hard worker, with some family issues she dealt with. It was so ordinary, but that made it genius! In some ways, she was like me. There was this incident where she was so like me, like when Seol removed a groupmate from their group because he didn’t do his part! That’s me; I was Seol—it’s funny how exact it was! I freaking removed the person who didn’t participate in our group work! The nerve of that person to get sympathy out of my classmates! But I stood my ground and explained to our professor how things went, and it proved that my decision was right all along. In some ways, I was laughing and cheering on Seol—a demonstration of how closely I can relate to Seol on academic issues she experienced.

타인과 서로의
차이를 인정하고
간극을 줄이는 것은한 사람이 아닌
두 사람 모두의
노력이 필요한 힘든 일임을
나는 숱한 경험을
통하여 알고 있다.
— Seol Seol (치즈인더트랩, Season 4, Chapter 76)

* English Translation: Recognizing each other’s differences reduces the gap. So one person can’t do it alone; it’s a hard work that requires both people. I learned it through my experiences.

Now let’s go to the love life of hers—where the similarities unfortunately end (I don’t have an Inho and Jung…what a sad life…) because every time I rec this series, I was always asked about the romance. Romance is there, but it isn’t shoujo type. I liked it. There’s a love triangle, but it wasn’t actively played. In the very beginning, the author solidified who Seol would end up with. And unlike those shoujo mangas I read where the heroine goes ga-ga too fast for comfort to their love interest, Seol wasn’t like that. Sure, she was interested in him, but for me, it went slow. Even if Seol and Yoo Jung were an item, there were many instances in which Seol questioned Jung’s motives and reasons. She didn’t completely trust him from the get-go, given the start and history they had prior to dating.

My favorite character was Baek In-Ho; he fell in love with Seol, but he never had a chance, and for some reason, I love that Soon Kki decided to tackle their relationship as best friends and family! Sure, it was romantic for Inho, but those moments they shared together were precious to me. Did I ship them? Yep, but my shipping game here wasn’t as active as in the other series because, in all honesty, I found Inho’s character not another option for Seol—he’s more; they had a solid bond, solely his and Seol’s. That said, Inho, to be quite honest, gave more importance to Jung’s development than Seol. In the end, the way the relationship between these three unfolded was frankly reasonable given each person’s circumstances.

Cheese in the Trap has already ended this month! I found the ending to be a little lacking. I’m not asking for cliché weddings, futures, or whatves. I just felt like I needed more Jung exposition, but since the author managed, at the last minute, to tie loose ends in an untypical way, this series was very memorable! I recommend it, but I’m always discreet about it, especially for those who think it’s another K-drama love fluff. Nope, this ain’t it. Soon Kki put so much effort into these characters to pass off just as fluff; it’s more than that—and that “more than that” is something you should all find out for yourselves!

Note: I’m no way affiliated with anyone from the series I rec! I just love them so I spread the word on my own volition! English translation provided by me, it’s very awkward I know. Please support your fave series! Banner feature by freepik!)