Mouse In A Cheese Trap is an absolute underrated webtoon that needs more recognition.
To summarize it, the webtoon is about this girl called Seol, She's in her first year of university. And we go on to see her pass through all of her years and semesters until her graduation.
You'd think it's just one of those 'slice of life' webtoons. I thought so too.
But the impact this webtoon had on me is unreal.
As we go on to see seol struggle to maintain her scholarship and keep up with her friends and relationships around campus, we meet Jung.
A perfect student with both looks and money.
Jung ends up surpassing seol, and she loses the scholarship.
You can already tell that Seol doesn't like jung, and with the start of his actions its obvious the feeling is mutual. With the scholarship out of her hand this results in her thinking of taking a semester off. However, a turn of events happen and Jung's paper gets lost. Thus by default, Seol takes the scholarship back.
From there on, we are stuck trying to figure out Jung's motives.
A mysterious boy, what does he want from Seol? What's his real motive. What is he trying to accomplish?
Seol being just as confused as we are, makes it her job to avoid him. However, as she is a push over unable of declining, she only ends up getting closer to him.
The path is long (it is after all 4 seasons-301 episodes in total) But as the path goes on, you still never know jung's motive. You'd think you've gotten closer to it, but you haven't!
What does the title mean? What does jung want from seol? Who are all these people that know jung?
Spoiler, click to view
She even ends up dating him
On the contrary, my least favorite character is Inha. Which ironically is the twin sister of Inho.
She is a selfish brat, who doesn't think of anyone but herself. She reaches rock bottom and still thinks she can be in a worse state. She always blames others for her downfall, and with that mindset she goes on ruin people's life.
Ofcourse, her entire character was a facade to hide all her trauma and scars. But it does not justify her actions.
I know this doesn't justify the reason it's a good webtoon, after all the art looks tacky (I personally find it unique) , and it's just a series of frustration.
Nevertheless, the way we relate to seol is absurd (in a good way). The pressure she feels, not knowing what to do, the stress, the doubt and hesitation. It's so realistic. I've seen many characters that i relate to through webtoons, but Seol was on another level. And I mean it. I really do.
Her everyday worries,money,studies,relationships. Not wanting to make anyone upset but also not wanting to accept. The way that people react is so realistic to people around you.
A good example would be Sangchul, He is a student at A university
At some point Seol was assigned with him on a group work.And he always gave excuses to why he couldn't come to help. She warned him that she won't put his name if he doesn't show up.And she was definitely hesitant once he actually didn't show up. But she ended up not putting his name, which made him very mad
The realistic reactions, the hesitant decisions. The frustration and confusion.
All that we feel through our daily life is displayed so well. The author did an amazing job at expressing each character. She put so much work in every single one of them, the detail and work is immaculate.
So in the end, what does the title represent? what are jung's motives?
As the story went on many theories were put out, in each episode the comments were filled with theories and thoughts over these two things.
To start off, the meaning of the title was only ever found out at the end of the season, in about the 5th to 6th last episode. Jung was explaining to Inho in alley near Seol's house, that he was always there for Seol. He always held her hand through-out everything, when Inho didn't.
And because of that Seol will always want to hold his hand and rely on him.
Seol was infact listening to their conversation from the side, and once she heard jung she had realized that the reason she always longed for Jung, or for holding jung's hand. Is because he always made it feel like he was her safe space. She felt deceived.
In my mind, I felt like the mouse was seol, the cheese was jung.
The mouse held onto the cheese, until the mouse realized they've been holding on to a trap.
And now that they realized, they ran away.
Never wanting to be near the cheese again.
But again, this is my thoughts about, I'm sure many others had other good theories as to what it meant.
As for Jung motives. You'd think after hearing him say such things, its obvious he's only deceiving seol. To start off, he never liked her from the beginning, and his sudden confession was odd too.
In spite of that, Jung's true intentions were revealed in ONLY and I mean ONLY, the last episode.
As we see jung crying, explaining to Seol Spoiler, click to view
that he never meant to deceive her, that was never his intention. He grew to become curious of her at first, he felt like they were alike (push overs,wanting to be accepted by everyone, working hard to maintain their grades) and Seol never treated him like others, never used him for a free round of drinks (like the rest of students) This resulted in him growing curious of her, so he decided to become nice to her. So that they grew to both like each other. But jung was never the type to want anyone, so he was very bad at expressing it. (i felt like this was cute in a way) He took it as if he should be slowly catching a rabbit that's scared of him. Not thinking of the misunderstanding he is causing. And because of all the misunderstandings and mystery that grew with them as they dated, he was starting to get scared that Seol will leave him at any moment. So he made himself a safe space for her, so that she always relies on him.
It was the first time (and last) we see Jung cry, so it was quite sudden and somewhat refreshing.
And with that, We are finally able to sleep knowing that all is well.
After that, seol graduates, and she'sSpoiler, click to view
still dating jung
The impact this webtoon left on me, is surreal. I recommend this webtoon to everyone, and I hope you find it in you to go check it out, if you do, please come back and lmk what you think!
The way the author remembers all the small details from the first episode, until the end. It's astonishing! Unreal, so confounding. Her ability to make you relate, the ability to make you confused or frustrated, and the ability to make every little detail important later on (no matter how many episodes later)
301 episodes and she didn't forget to explain every single detail and mishap.
The author has actually started another webtoon with the name 'After school lessons for unripe apples'
It's really good, it is yet to be on the level of this webtoon, but it's still really good.
I really hope I explained this webtoon well, because it's too complicated to justify. And for that, the only way for you to understand is by reading it yourself.
I hope you enjoyed reading my review! Have a good day
P.S English is not my native language, please excuse any mistakes I made.