Love in Disguise Episode 5 delivered the kind of chaotic hour that makes this tvN romantic thriller hard to look away from. Aired on November 2, 2026, the episode picked up right after the drunken garden kiss between Yoon Yi-jun (Yim Si-wan) and his “male” secretary Kang Jae-hee (Seol In-ah), then added a fiancée, a jealous sober kiss, and a hidden phone that could crack the whole murder case open. The result was an episode that kept the comedy sharp while quietly pushing the mystery toward a much more dangerous suspect.
What Happened Before Episode 5
Episode 4 ended with Yi-jun and Jae-hee sharing an accidental kiss after a drinking game. Jae-hee, a former special forces officer working undercover as Yi-jun’s male personal assistant, was heavily drunk and had no clear memory of what happened. Yi-jun, on the other hand, was fully awake for it — and fully confused, because he believed he had just kissed a man.
The murder investigation also escalated. Jae-hee saved Yi-jun from a falling chandelier and hurt her own arm in the process. Investigators found that the chandelier chain had been deliberately cut, and tests on a suspicious milk delivery revealed herbicide, confirming that whoever killed Secretary Han was also targeting Yi-jun. Yi-jun admitted to Jae-hee that he felt guilty about Secretary Han’s death but did not kill her himself. A second phone belonging to the dead secretary became the central clue, and multiple parties — including lawyer Kim Si-hyun (Kim Jung-hyun) and Yi-jun’s sister Yoon Na-jung (Park Ah-in) — were suddenly interested in finding it.
The Morning After the Drunken Kiss
Episode 5 opened with Yi-jun trying and failing to wake a deeply asleep Jae-hee. She eventually stirred, saw him sitting beside her, looked down at her clothes, and immediately began apologizing without knowing exactly what she was apologizing for. Yi-jun spent the entire night replaying the kiss. Every time he moved closer to her, his heart raced, and he could not settle himself. Jae-hee, meanwhile, remembered almost nothing of the previous night — only a vague worry that she may have tried to handcuff Yi-jun while drunk, which raised a separate fear: had he figured out she was a police officer?
The awkward morning was interrupted by a woman walking through the door. Lee Si-a (Choi Hee-jin), Yi-jun’s fiancée and childhood friend, had arrived without warning. Si-a is the director of the Naon Art Centre and the daughter of a presidential candidate, which gives her presence a political weight beyond the usual romantic-triangle friction. Her first question to Yi-jun and Jae-hee was blunt: had the two of them slept together? Both denied it immediately and loudly.
Lee Si-a Arrives With Her Own Agenda
Si-a did not behave like a jealous fiancée. She treated the situation with relaxed amusement, then asked Yi-jun to cover some of her shopping bills because she had switched off the CCTVs at the art centre for him. The bigger complication came when Si-a met Jae-hee properly. She showed immediate interest in the “male” secretary and boldly asked for Jae-hee’s contact information during their first meeting. Si-a has no idea that Jae-hee is a woman, which turns the fiancée into an unexpected source of romantic confusion rather than a straightforward obstacle. She also brought up stories about office romances and boss-secretary relationships while talking to Yi-jun, leaving him with Jae-hee on his mind for the rest of the day.
Yi-jun’s Very Bad, Very Obvious Jealousy
Yi-jun tried to reestablish control by ordering Jae-hee to walk ten steps behind him at the office. The distance lasted about as long as it took him to notice her expression and privately find it cute. He then swung in the opposite direction, nitpicking everything she did and telling her not to argue back. Secretary Jang, who has watched Yi-jun long enough to read him, heard his complaint that Jae-hee was “playing with his heart”.
The jealousy became impossible to miss when Yi-jun returned to the office and saw Jae-hee talking to Kim Seok-jin (Nam Hae-jun), her senior colleague at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency. Seok-jin gently touched Jae-hee’s hair, a gesture Yi-jun could see even though he could not see Seok-jin’s face. What Yi-jun did not know was that the conversation was about the hidden phone. Jae-hee was handing evidence to her police team and telling Seok-jin she worried Yi-jun would find out she had betrayed him.
The Hidden Phone Finally Surfaces
Jae-hee’s path to the phone ran through her own desk. She intentionally collapsed it, then learned from Secretary Jung how to file a replacement request. On the office portal, she noticed that someone else had already requested a new desk. A maintenance worker confirmed the earlier request came from Lee Hye-jung (Yeonwoo), the secretary whose shoes had earlier matched those of a person following her.
With help from Wan-gu, the undercover officer posing as a maintenance worker, Jae-hee slipped into the locked maintenance room. She matched the product number and found Secretary Han’s old desk — and inside it, the second phone. Seok-jin’s separate research added another piece: the herbicide used on Yi-jun came from Bowoon Chemical, a subsidiary of Taekang Chemical, which is run by Na-jung. The murder investigation, which had started with Yi-jun as the prime suspect, was now pointing directly at his sister.
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Na-jung and Lawyer Kim Make a Quiet Deal
Yoon Na-jung spent the episode behaving like someone who already knows she is untouchable. At a Taekang Cultural Foundation event for former prisoners, she casually described how she had drugged a classmate’s lunch in school so she could take the top academic spot. The anecdote landed as both a character detail and a warning. A flashback showed Na-jung telling Si-hyun to bring her Park Min-hwan in exchange for information she claimed he wanted. Si-hyun, Yi-jun’s longtime friend and Taekang’s in-house lawyer, then asked Yi-jun about Park Min-hwan’s whereabouts while also revealing that he knew about Secretary Han’s second phone. His loyalties look increasingly split between Yi-jun, the company, and Na-jung.
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The Second Kiss Changes the Equation
Episode 5’s final scene tied the romantic and investigative threads together. Yi-jun stormed up to Jae-hee after seeing her with Seok-jin. He said he needed to check something, pointed out that she had started it in the first place, pulled her close, and kissed her. This was not the drunken accident of Episode 4. Yi-jun was sober, deliberate, and visibly jealous. The moment Jae-hee’s lips met his, flashes of the drunken garden kiss rushed back. She finally remembered what really happened that night.
TheReviewGeek’s recap noted that the episode used the contrast between Yi-jun’s full awareness and Jae-hee’s blank spot to build both comedy and romantic tension. Yim Si-wan’s performance drew particular praise for showing Yi-jun’s confusion shift into open attraction without losing the character’s prickly edge.
How the Episode Landed With Viewers
Nielsen Korea data showed Episode 5 earning a nationwide average rating of 5.0 percent, down from Episode 4’s all-time high of 6.0 percent. The drop came despite the episode’s major romantic development, though ratings for the show had already swung between 4.7 percent and 6.0 percent across its first four episodes. The earlier accidental kiss had pushed a peak rating of 7.1 percent during Episode 4, suggesting that the audience responds strongly to the show’s romantic spikes.
Online discussion around the episode focused on the double-kiss structure. One MyDramaList reviewer wrote that the first few episodes had not fully landed for them, but “ep 5-6 won me over,” citing the leads’ chemistry as the reason. TheReviewGeek’s recap described the final kiss as “an unexpected but welcome development” and a strong closing beat for the hour.
What to Expect From Episode 6
Episode 6 is scheduled to air on November 3, 2026, at 8:50 p.m. KST on tvN, with streaming on Prime Video for international audiences. The immediate fallout from the sober kiss is the episode’s central romantic thread. Jae-hee now remembers the drunken kiss, which means she can no longer treat Yi-jun’s behavior as simple boss eccentricity. Pre-episode spoilers indicated that Jae-hee will feel embarrassed and try to maintain professional distance at work, while Yi-jun will be amused by her reaction.
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The bigger threat may be to Jae-hee’s cover. Soompi reported ahead of Episode 6 that her secret identity is at risk of being exposed when police ask for her ID. The hidden phone is now with Seok-jin and headed for forensic testing, and the herbicide trail leads to Na-jung’s Taekang Chemical. Yi-jun’s sister has already shown she is willing to remove obstacles, and Si-hyun’s divided loyalty gives her an inside channel. Episode 6 has to manage a heroine whose disguise is fraying, a hero who has stopped pretending he is not interested, and a murder plot that has quietly moved its crosshairs onto the person Yi-jun is supposed to trust as family.
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For more episode breakdowns, character deep dives, and K-drama recaps that stay factual and easy to follow, keep reading on VvipTimes — where the drama stays on screen and the analysis stays clear.
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