Destined With You 2023 Episode 5

Episode 5 of Destined With You starts with Sin-yu and Hong-jo eating together at a local restaurant. She tells him how she was in town for her father’s death anniversary and Sin-yu tries to keep the mood light to cheer her up. Hong-jo is shocked to learn that Sin-yu doesn’t drink and he explains how he tried to save himself from drinking because of his genetic illness.

Sin-yu asks Hong-jo about her father’s death and she refrains from answering the question. The night ends with Sin-yu dropping a drunk Hong-jo home after she ends up drunk. Hong-jo ends up resting on Sin-yu’s shoulder during the cab ride and he finds it hard to hold back his feelings for her.

The next day, Seo-goo and Sae-byeol rush with Hong-jo when she gets a call about blood stains in the park. When the trio inspect the blood stains on the signboards of various trees at the local park, Seo-goo concludes that it wasn’t human blood but that of a chicken. He claims that someone had defaced the signs on the trees as a joke and asks Hong-jo and Sae-byeol to clean it up.

Hong-jo decides to report the case to Sin-yu and tries discussing its details but Sin-yu ends up flirting with her instead. Hong-jo is annoyed by the interaction and leaves the room when she learns that Sin-yu does not want to take any action on the case anyway. A flashback shows Sin-yu’s conversation with Wook from the night before.

After getting a strange call from Na-yeon’s friend, Sin-yu rushes to see her, assuming she is in danger. When he arrives at the location, Na-yeon ends up proposing to Sin-yu, asking him to marry her.

Present-day, Sin-yu thinks about ignoring the memory and gets ready for his team dinner with Nayeon’s father and the mayor, Yoon Hak-young, as well as his parents.

At the dinner, Sin-yu’s mother, Yoon-joo, ends up making funny comments about marriage, embarrassing his father. After dinner, Sin-yu and Na-yeon take a walk around the park while Hong-jo visits Shaman Eun-wol. Hong-jo narrates the events of her father’s death anniversary and tells Eun-wol that both she and Sin-yu have decided to fight their fate.

During their walk, Sin-yu notices a girl dressed in a hanbok who looks like Hong-jo. Leaving Na-yeon behind, Sin-yu follows the girl and ends up in the Gyeongbok Palace. Later that night, Sin-yu shows up outside Hong-jo’s house and asks if she is at the palace but is shocked when Hong-jo claims that she hasn’t visited the location.

Sin-yu blames it on the love potion and asks him to reverse the spell as soon as possible. He asks her to avoid coming in contact with him and claims that he no longer wants to leave Na-yeon and rush to see her instead. Hong-jo goes back home and ponders on Sin-yu’s comment about being compelled to see her instead of his “beautiful” girlfriend Na-yeon.

A flashback takes Hong-jo to her high school days when Na-yeon started bullying her due to a fallout after a misunderstanding.

Present-day Hong-jo decides to let Sin-yu suffer the consequences of marrying a bully. The next day, Seo-goo is nonchalant at work and maintains a distance from Eun-young. Eun-young talks to Seo-goo in private and apologises to him but the latter is upset with his manager and refuses to forgive her.

Meanwhile, Sin-yu and Hong-jo end up taking the same elevator down for lunch. Given their conversation from the night before, Hong-jo tries to maintain her distance but Sin-yu asks her to see him in private. He argues with Hong-jo and pleads for her to have lunch with him one last time before they try to reverse the spell.

During the meal, Hong-jo ends up confessing that Sin-yu is too tall and handsome for her liking, which makes Sin-yu proud. Later that night, Hong-jo plants a few flowers and other plants in her garden. Jae-kyung shows up after work and ends up inviting Hong-jo to a dinner party.

Hong-jo is very excited about the dinner and tries to flirt with Jae-kyung, but the latter is curt towards Hong-jo’s advances. The dinner goes by with Jae-kyung and Hong-jo learning more about each other. At the same time, Sin-yu is curious about Hong-jo’s new approach towards his roommate and starts calling her nonstop, interrupting her dinner with Jae-kyung.

Jae-kyung leaves Hong-jo to answer the call with Sin-yu where he learns that she was drinking alcohol with a guy. The next morning, Sin-yu is restless when he learns that Hong-jo is avoiding his calls. Just then, Na-yeon calls him and tells Sin-yu that she was at the City Hall to see him. Instead of going out to see Na-yeon, Sin-yu focuses on his phone and wonders what Hong-jo is up to.

At the same time, Yoon-joo shows up at Law & High Law Firm where she meets Wook and tells him that she is filing for divorce. Sin-yu meets Wook later that evening and starts drinking hard liquor for the first time. Sin-yu indirectly talks to Wook about his present romantic situation and claims that he was with Na-yeon but attracted to a nobody like Hong-jo.

That night, Hong-jo goes back home and finds a bouquet at her door and assumes they were from Jae-kyung. A flashback shows Hong-jo with her head on Sin-yu’s shoulder from the night of her father’s death anniversary. She narrates the story of her father’s death and blames herself for taking her father to the beach.

Hong-jo claims that she was being bullied at school and wanted to go out one day when her father took her to the beach. She also adds that her father ended up losing his life while he was trying to save two kids. She also adds that his body was never found and she blamed herself for what happened.

Instead of going back to his own house, a drunk Sin-yu shows up at Hong-jo’s house and asks to be let in. He forces Hong-jo to stay with him and is shocked when he runs into Jae-kyung. Sin-yu is appalled when Jae-kyung claims that he is Hong-jo’s roommate and Sin-yu gets territorial over her. Jae-kyung retorts that he has no right to be so when he has a girlfriend of his own. 

Sin-yu tells Jae-kyung that he is going to her but Hong-jo decides to drive Sin-yu home instead. On their drive back, Sin-yu is nauseous and the two take a break to rest and chat for a bit. Sin-yu tells Hong-jo that he wanted her to pick him instead of Jae-kyung because he too was lonely on the inside.

Hong-jo tells Sin-yu that she is going to perform another ritual to cast a new “disaster nullification” spell. Sin-yu is disappointed to learn that Hong-jo thinks him to be a disaster and starts flirting with her. The episode ends with Sin-yu teasing Hong-jo as he draws close to her, going in for a kiss.

The Episode Review

Sin-yu’s character is the ideal toxic guy which is a complete red flag. It’s a grace that this couple is intentionally trying to be this toxic. Had Sin-yu’s behaviour towards Hong-jo not been justified as a reaction to drinking the love potion, I am not sure how the audience would see his toxic on-and-off / yes-and-no attitude towards her.

Hong-jo claims that the reason why she did not want to fall in love with Sin-yu was because he was tall and handsome but it looks like our girl has gotten it all wrong.

It is clear that his personality towards her is what makes him a big no. On the other hand, Sin-yu’s mother is an odd character who usually puts her foot in her mouth with the kind of things she does.