Cheese in the Trap (TV series)

Plot

The drama focuses on the life and relationships of a group of university students, particularly the difficult relationship between Hong Seol (Kim Go-eun) and her senior Yoo Jung (Park Hae-jin).

Jung is the rich heir to Taerang Group and seemingly has the perfect life, but also displays psychopathic tendencies, which causes Seol to take time off school to get away from him. When she returns through a scholarship that was intended for Jung, he is unexpectedly nice to her and asks her on a date. They begin an awkward relationship which is further complicated by the arrival of Baek In-ho and his sister Baek In-ha, childhood friends of Jung who were both adopted into his family after running away from their abusive aunt as children. In-ha is in love with Jung, but he dismisses her feelings. She leads an extravagant lifestyle funded by other men's money, and often behaves antagonistically. In-ho moves into the area while he is being pursued by gangsters, but strikes up a friendship with Seol and begins to work at her parents' restaurant.

As well as managing her conflicted feelings towards Jung and In-ho, Seol tries to cope with everyday struggles in her school and work life, such as unwanted advances and classmates that make her do their work for them. She is helped by her two best friends Jang Bo-ra (Park Min-ji) and Kwon Eun-taek (Nam Joo-hyuk), who begin to date each other. Meanwhile, she also tries to find out the reason why Jung and In-ho hates each other, which was revealed later that Jung looked on as In-ho damaged his hand in a fight that ruined his dreams of becoming a concert pianist. In the end, In-ho gets back on track with piano lessons, having been helped by Seol.

The drama escalates towards the end of the series, when In-ha, who at this point has become emotionally and mentally unstable and filled with rage, jealousy and resentment, physically attacks Seol and pushes her into the street. Seol is then run over and injured in the process and becomes hospitalised while In-ha is put in a mental institution for her actions and instability. Jung realising that Seol has been suffering during their relationship, breaks up with her. After giving In-ho a piano score that he had intended to gift him years ago, before they had fallen out, and settling In-ho's debts with the gang, Jung leaves the country for three years.

Three years later, Seol is working at the company job that she wanted, and has realised that she still has to deal with the everyday problems of her school life, only in a different setting. Her friend Bo-ra now owns a clothing store and is still with Eun-taek, who is a model. In-ha has been released from the mental hospital and changed her ways, falling in love with a humble, nerdy character. While the absent Jung has not responded to Seol's emails to him, the open ending reveals one of the email statuses changing to "read".

Main Character

Hong family

Yeon-yi university

Other

Original soundtrack

The soundtrack of "Cheese in the Trap" was released in six parts.

Ratings

In the table below, the blue numbers represent the lowest ratings and the red numbers represent the highest ratings.

Note: This drama airs on a cable channel/pay TV which normally has a relatively smaller audience compared to free-to-air TV/public broadcasters (KBS, SBS, MBC & EBS).

Reception

Cheese in the Trap was a success in both South Korea and China. It won praise for its realistic depiction of the life of university students, but was criticised for diverging from the source webtoon by placing undue focus on the second male lead and including an original ending "that was rushed and left many viewers baffled".

International broadcast