Cheese In The Trap is the new tvN sensation which is gaining public interest and love week after week. It is based on a webtoon with a huge fandom and I think it has found its place in everyone’s heart. I haven’t read it so I’m glad I don’t have to take the original as a yardstick to measure how good Cheese In The Trap is but for now I’m finding it really good, very quirky, different and unpredictable. This first impressions post is based on 4 episodes.

The drama narrative is mainly from our female lead Hong Seol’s (Kim Go Eun) point of view. She is studying business management in college and Yoo Jung (Park Hae Jin) is her senior but they attend same class (as he went for the military duty in between). We also have Baek In Ho (Seo Kang Joon) in the picture as he seems to be an old friend-turned-enemy for our hero. Then there are our heroine’s best friends Kwon Eun Taek (Nam Joo Hyuk) and Jang Bo Ra (Park Min Ji).

The drama perfectly captures the college feel which I can totally relate to — subject selection, group assignments with social loafers who never wanna contribute anything and who don’t even bother to read your messages, presentations, seniors, professors, exams et al. The tone is very different and you know it is not going to be your standard rom-com. Our hero is very mysterious and we see very little of what he is thinking but then his actions are almost always good. So maybe we are all paranoid, just like our heroine? Kim Go Eun is doing a fantastic job as Seol and I like the character already. Yes, I do cringe when she doesn’t always say what’s going on in her mind but I just love how she thinks and questions other’s actions if she has to. She looks very hard-working but in a grounded and realistic sort of way.

Yoo Jung is definitely a hard nut to crack. From what I can deduce, he is good towards Seol and only her and doesn’t give a damn about anyone else. They are dating already. I’m usually a fan of slowly developing romances but then from the drama’s context, it feels okay as now we’ll see how Seol faces the consequences of being in a relationship, especially when she hasn’t been in one before.

My liking for second lead Baek In Ho is growing more and more and I simply love his interactions with Seol. Maybe because she is so carefree with him, unlike with Yoo Jung, where she keeps on feeling awkward and is not in her true self mode. I like that the misunderstandings do not remain for long. I enjoyed the moment when we all were totally thinking Yoo Jung as a mean person after the first episode when the drama surprised us with the real truth behind everything. I like that I can’t predict what will happen in the upcoming episodes. I wonder what happened between Baek In Ho and Yoo Jung that they are at such sour terms but Yoo Jung looks too indifferent and bitter about everything that I find it creepy on his character. If he did cause some accident to result in In Ho losing the ability to work with one of his hands, then there should be some tinge of guilt. But there is none.

I do have a complaint — In Ho’s sister Baek In Ha (Lee Sung Kyung). I don’t know if it’s the actor or the character, but it looks out-of-place and over-the-top in all sorts of ways. I hope she tones down her acting and eye expressions — my head literally spins when she does that.

Overall, Cheese In The Trap is quirky, breezy, unpredictable and has a heroine you can easily root for.

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