If I did take that route, after I was done bulking, would I lose some muscle mass while cutting? Is there some secret to it?

Its really simple. To put on SIGNIFICANT muscle, you need 10-20% more calories per day than you need to maintain current weight.
to lose SIGNIFICANT fat, you need 10-20% fewer calories than your daily maintenance.

So right there you have a paradox...

However, you can sacrifice the SIGNIFICANT part and pull of fat loss while gaining muscle mass. Its call body recomposition, and its painfully slow. you put on very little muscle, and burn very little fat.
Only the strong willed can do it, because you don't really see results in any decent amount of time, so people get discouraged and quit, or change to a pure cutting phase, or bulking phase.

can you tell me more about body recomposition? I have the patience for it I think, i've lifted weight on and off for about 8 years, and hardly any results.

I would just purely bulk right now, but I don't have the time to go to the gym as much as I would need to I think (just have time on Tuesday Thursdays, and possible saturdays, but I only go on TH at this point). And on top of the time issue, I don't have a lot of good food, more like lack of money to buy good food. I plan to go all out bulking this summer when I am home from college, i'll have plenty of time, and there'll be a lot of good food there (plus I always eat too much at home anyway).