Cheese In The Trap

Chapter 3

Jung's face is stony as he tells Seol she's "just like everyone else" for approaching him with an ulterior motive, leaving her feeling bad for springing the set-up date on him.

The next day in class, Jung ignores Seol entirely, and she notes that he's back to being as cold as he was last year. She approaches him and apologizes for the night before, and he acknowledges her with pleasant indifference, as though nothing happened or mattered.

Their professor announces that team projects will be their next assignment, and warns that team cooperation is crucial—nobody had better coast by on their teammates' efforts. She directs that at Seol in particular.

The reason becomes clear when we see Seol's team, which includes bossy sunbae Sang-chul, who's eager to foist things off on her. The other members are just as happy to name her leader.

Seol leaves class preoccupied with Jung's chilly reception, telling herself everything should be settled since she apologized and he acknowledged it. Recalling his words about Seol being like everyone else, she thinks, "Was he expecting me to be different from other people? Why me?"

She has lunch with hoobae Ah-young, who describes how strange things got after Seol left them—Jung got silent and withdrawn, and she'd felt for the first time that he was cold and scary. Ah-young shares her hunch that Jung likes Seol, explaining that his demeanor changed after she'd mentioned Seol's blind date. Seol immediately laughs off the thought, but Ah-young is pretty sure she read him accurately as jealous and angry.

Seol can't shake off the thought, even as she tells herself it's ridiculous. Her buddies Bora and Eun-taek assume her mood is directed at them because they pushed her into the blind date, and while she is annoyed about that, it's not as bad as they'd feared.

Seol explains about losing her phone and uses Bora's phone to call her own, then heads over right away to meet the person who answers—In-ho, who insists she join him at dinner before handing it over. He makes her spit-take by asking point-blank if she's dating Jung, but her reaction confirms that as a no, and he supposes she's not Jung's type anyway, calling her hairstyle "dog hair" and her bangs "pig tails."

But when Seol asks what In-ho's relationship is with Jung, he has to think and can only reply, "I don't know."

In-ho sticks her with the hefty dinner bill (adding that she owes him two more meals) before returning her phone, then comments that her glare hardly seems like a grateful enough response. He throws in an extra tip: "Be careful of Yoo Jung. He's not all he seems."

As she walks home deep in thought, Seol is mulling over how In-ho knows Jung well enough to say that about him. She makes a frustrated sound, and it's only now that she and In-ho become aware of each other—she's been trailing behind him all this time. She asks in surprise if he's been following her, while he points out who's in front and who's behind.

He guesses she lives on the same street, and she lies and hurries off in the opposite direction. She sneaks into her room, not thrilled to be living nearby the guy who seems determined to weasel more money out of her, and is further alarmed when he texts her: "See you again, Dog Hair."

The next day, Seol meets with her group for the class project, and already it looks like she'll be doing more work than she should: sunbae Sang-chul is hungover and half-asleep, another classmate asks Seol to reduce her workload, and mousy Min-soo doesn't even know where to start with the research.

A group of sunbaes walks in, not realizing a group was already in there, and their leader, Do-hyun, introduces himself to Seol. Jung is with them and continues ignoring Seol and her offer to give up the room soon.

Jung offers to do much of the preparation work for his own team, and his sunbaes appreciate having their time freed. Do-hyun expresses his interest in Seol, saying that model student types like her can have a really hot hidden side. Spoken like a true douchebag.

Jung remains silent despite being bothered by the leering, and his other teammate comments that Seol and Jung are actually very alike, busy taking care of other people to their own detriment. Jung is one thing, he says, but how is Seol going to manage Sang-chul, knowing his personality?

As expected, Sang-chul wastes no time trying to get out of doing his work, telling Seol she'll get an A if she does more. The rest of the team is no better, and Seol finds herself moaning, "Why am I doing everything?!"

Then everybody flakes on their team meeting, hitting her up with excuses. Sang-chul even posts pictures of himself drinking with his buddies, which sends Seol charging over to the nearby bar.

Sang-chul is infuriatingly flippant about missing the meeting, while Douchey Do-hyun sizes her up and insists she stay for a drink. Sang-chul goads her with soju, offering to work extra hard if she drinks it up. Fuming, she grabs the glass and chugs it down.

Jung is working on his project when he realizes he and Douchey Do-hyun have mixed up their papers. Upon calling, he hears the guys chanting in the background for Seol to drink, and offers to go to Do-hyun to exchange papers. He acts indifferent to news of Seol being there, but can't hide his unease when his friend calls it a "dangerous" situation for her—Do-hyun has a reputation of getting girls drunk and taking them to motels. Jung heads out in a hurry.

At the bar, Seol is pretty drunk and Do-hyun eyes her lecherously, waiting to make his move. When she gets up to leave, he offers to take her home—just as Jung arrives and volunteers himself for the errand instead.

He holds her firmly by the arms and leads her away, berating her for not being able to say no and not taking care of herself. She's more bewildered than anything by his behavior, unable to protest as he pushes her into a cab and pays the driver. He sends her off with the warning to come to her senses.

Do-hyun confronts him outside, peeved at the c**k-blocking, not to mention the follow-up lecture. But when Do-hyun starts to challenge him, Jung gets steely, making a veiled threat to ruin the internship Do-hyun has lined up. Do-hyun asks if this is because of Seol, and Jung merely replies, "It makes me sick to watch. If you've understood me, you'd better be careful—unless you want to spend your whole life an unemployed loafer."

Do-hyun's the bigger asshole, but Jung... there's real menace behind those words, and what's scarier, a sense of power. Do-hyun gets the message.

Seol makes it back home and stumbles into bed, where she mumbles sleepily, "Come to my senses? What did I even do?"

At school the next day, Seol rushes for the closing elevator and barely makes it, only to make eye contact with Jung inside. Instead of getting on, she quietly turns and walks away.

Jung receives a call from his father the chairman, who then also calls In-ho. Dad addresses In-ho warmly, wanting to see him after so long, and despite In-ho's reluctance to go, he agrees to drop by the house to see him.

In-ho and noona In-ha arrive at the mansion just moments before Jung pulls up in his car, and the air is immediately tense between the boys. In-ha grabs each boy by the arm, talking brightly, but they both shake her off and head inside separately.

They keep up appearances for the sake of Chairman Yoo, who looks fondly on the siblings and is pleased to have In-ho back in the fold. He offers his help to the siblings and encourages Jung to do the same, and In-ha chatters about how she'd love living with the Yoos forever. (In-ho hisses at her to shut it.)

Chairman Yoo speaks to In-ho individually, telling him he understands why In-ho would feel upset, and encourages him to forget the past and start up with piano. In-ho tells him, "I have no interest in the piano anymore, so you don't have to worry about me."

He says he's young and can figure out what to do with his life, and is grateful that the chairman took care of him all this while. He politely but firmly declines the chairman's offer of assistance, says he was happy to see him again, and excuses himself.

Even so, he can't stop himself from pausing at the sight of the piano on his way out the door.

In-ha is pretty shameless about her place in this family, and isn't fazed when Jung asks how long she's going to mooch off his family, which can't happen forever. She fires back, "This is all I can do—do you think I'll quit? If you don't like it, you should treat me well. If you just do that, everyone will be more comfortable."

In-ha takes off in a taxi alone, stranding her brother at the house. Jung scoffs at In-ho showing up when he acted like he'd never see them again, and In-ho retorts that his father seems to feel differently from Jung: "After his well-to-do son ruined someone's life, he must be feeling sorry."

Jung replies, "It's someone else's fault through and through, is it? And it's Father's fault for saving you two from that terrible place. And your hand being messed up is my fault. But if you really want to blame somebody, shouldn't it be you, who disappeared when I offered to pay for rehab?"

That makes In-ho angrier: "Rehab? You can even say that word to me?" Jung's cold response inflames him more, and In-ho launches himself at Jung's car, kicking off the side mirror.

He asks how Jung dares to look down on others: "Do you think everything will happen in this world the way you want it?!" Is it such cause for anger and outrage that some pitiable kids took a bit of food they were given? He goads Jung to hit him: "Don't manipulate people from the back like a coward and hit me now, you bastard."

Jung kicks him in the shin, calls it payment for the car, and drives off coolly, ignoring In-ho shouting furiously after him.

Seol's team doesn't turn in their parts or respond to her messages, with only one night before their group presentation. She gives up with a sigh, figuring they can all fail together... for all of two seconds, before she turns back to the project, telling herself that anger won't do anything when it's the grade she needs. She resigns herself to just doing it all herself.

She stays up all night, slaving away, and even prepares her team's parts of the presentation. She's peeved but gives them their parts, and when the presentations begin, she finds them all promising for being messy and flawed—maybe their group isn't tanked, then.

Jung does lead his team in a professional presentation that earns applause and awe, but Seol feels optimistic about her chances of an A as they take their places to start.