A Grand Collection of Korean Rice Cakes

"The person who gives cake doesn't even think about it, but you drink the kimchi soup first." This is a line from the popular 2006 Korean drama "Gong," where Crown Prince Shin teasingly says this to Chae Kyung. It's also a well-known Korean proverb. The first time I heard this line on the TV drama, I was completely confused, but after getting guidance online, everything became clear. The general meaning of this saying is that there was no intention of giving you cake, but you ran off to drink the kimchi soup first. It’s used as a metaphor for acting without others having any such thoughts, ultimately leading to self-inflicted emotional investment. In the past, Koreans would drink kimchi soup before eating rice cakes (tteok), so when people saw the kimchi soup, they knew there would be rice cakes to eat. Here, the rice cake refers to Korean tteok.