My Lovely Liar (2023) Episode 5

My Lovely Liar episode 5 starts with a flashback to when Do-ha was in high school. He was an active student who loved playing football and had a crush on Eom-ji (a classmate who he was later accused of killing). It started as a sweet high-school romance but somehow switched to an unsolved true crime documentary.  We will find out more in due time! 

 She seemed too obsessive and fixated on keeping him in Hakcheon. Another flashback shows her throwing his car keys into the ocean to prevent him from leaving for Seoul. Remember, she and her brother thought Do-ha was cheating on her with another woman in Seoul.  Another flashback shows Detective Kwak intensely interrogating Do-ha about Eom-ji’s bloody shoes the night she went missing. 

This is what Do-ha dreamed about when he started speaking in his dreams and Sol-hee heard him saying, “I didn’t kill her.”  Immediately, Do-ha said that Sol-hee heard the bell ring and was surprised to hear his lies. Does this mean Do-ha killed Eom-ji, or is Sol-hee’s lie-detector ability faulty when it comes to him?

She slowly wakes him up and he seems startled to see her so close. He asks about Syaon and she reminds him that Syaon is okay. She shares with him that Syaon never meant to kill herself and she is safe. Do-ha seems out of it, sweating profusely and walks slowly to his apartment. Sol-hee notices he seems too weak and touches his forehead. She notes he has a fever and offers to give him fever-reducing pills but he turns her down. 

Not one to give up, Sol-hee gets the pills from her apartment and takes them to him. She finds his door is not fully locked and announces herself before entering. She finds him still burning up, seated on the floor and resting his head on the bed. Besides him, there are some sleep-inducing pills which she deduces he took. 

With good intentions, she helps him and tries to get his fever down. She is about to leave when he pulls her close and refuses to let her hand go. By this point, she has managed to put him on his bed and he keeps apologizing. She ends up falling asleep in his bed while taking care of him. Since he refuses to let go of her hand, she has hand cramps the next morning. 

Once Do-ha is awake, she explains the situation, fearing he might misunderstand. Do-ha is fully aware that she only meant to care for him and not seduce him. He, however, asks her to keep her distance from him and treat him like he doesn’t exist. She is offended by his words and agrees it is for the best they stay away from each other. 

She thought he was keeping his distance because she discovered his identity as a songwriter, but that is not his reason for kicking her out. It is most likely because he is trying to protect himself and has started caring for her.

Meanwhile, at J Entertainment, Syaon threatens to expose Do-ha’s new place if Deuk-chan won’t make him leave. She is scared that Do-ha is getting too close to the woman next door. Deuk-chan, however, has no time to entertain her tantrums, especially after the stunt she pulled the night before. He tells her as much and asks her to get a grip on her feelings for Do-ha as she is starting to act like his ex, Eom-ji. He warns her that won’t be good for her or Do-ha. Sadly, Syaon misses his point. 

Elsewhere, a frustrated Sol-hee talks to Cassandra and Chi-hoon about Do-ha. She feels he is acting strange but doesn’t know why. She is not sure if the spirit works when it comes to Do-ha or if Do-ha only lied to her once. Nonetheless, she doesn’t tell him what she thinks he lied about. 

Later, Do-ha meets up with Jae-chan and receives money to keep Do-ha’s identity a secret. He shamelessly asks Do-ha to keep it from Deuk-chan.

On the other hand, Sol-hee’s mom, Hyang-sook is on another scam. This time she is trying to seduce an old man and win over his two daughters. She lies that she has no kids and her husband died. Unfortunately, one of the girls notices that Hyang-sook pulled away from her dad’s hand a little too fast. Hyang-sook must be slipping because she forgets her fake name and that raises more suspicions with the girl. 

Night rolls by and Do-ha visits the Oasis Jazz Club but starts having hand tremors. He is unable to play and asks Joong-kyu if he can stay at the restaurant for a while. Joong-kyu is happy to help him and allows him to stay. Do-ha is avoiding his apartment since he doesn’t want to run into Sol-hee. 

Speaking of Sol-hee, she runs into Gang-min, who is on night duty around the area. He saves her from almost being hit by a motorbike but they don’t talk much. Given the longing stare he gave her, he seems to miss her. Will he ask her to take him back? Gang-min heads back to the station and his partner shows him an investigative channel doing an exposé on ghostwriters in the music industry. His partner also informs him the channel covered the Hakcehon case but didn’t paint the police in good light. 

On the other side of town, Deuk-chan sees the exposé and tries to talk to Moo-jin. Deuk-chan is aware that the exposé is on him. Moo-jin has been stealing other people’s songs and plagiarizing work from ghost songwriters. He is despicable but the fact that he has no remorse makes it worse. He fails to heed Deuk-chan’s warnings. 

The following day, Do-ha visits his therapist and admits he still has severe insomnia. The therapist asks him to stop sieving his emotions and speak up more about how he feels. On his way out, Do-ha trips and a woman helps him. For a moment, he sees Eom-ji’s face before coming back to his senses and quickly walking away. On the other hand, Sol-hee gets more worried as he fails to come home. She figures he moved out and went into hiding somewhere else. 

Concurrently, a man releases a video claiming to be Kim Do-ha and criticises J Entertainment for taking advantage of ghost songwriters. The video goes viral leading J Entertainment to scramble to clean the mess. Thankfully, the paparazzi don’t believe the man in the video is Do-ha. Unfortunately, the general public is eating up the new scandal with a big spoon. Even some people at J Entertainment think the man is Kim Do-ha. They have never met Do-ha, so their suspicions are valid.

Sol-hee also doesn’t believe the man is Do-ha and tells Chi-hoon that the real Do-ha would never post such a video. As they talk, Gang-min drops by for coffee even though he dislikes it. He lies to Sol-hee that he will be stopping more often to pick up the coffee. She immediately picks up on the lie but says nothing.

Meanwhile, the true villain Moo-jin summons his ghostwriters trying to find out who took the video. He slaps a few of them around and records a video of them denying the allegations of taking the video. He later barges into Sol-hee’s cafe and demands she watches the video and find the culprit. She tries to ask him to leave but he is drunk and demanding. Chi-hoon steps in and kicks Moo-jin out.

In the meantime, Do-ha stays at the Jazz club doing menial work. Joong-kyu tries to find someone else to replace Do-ha on the piano since the latter is indisposed.  Back at the apartment, Deuk-chan is unable to find him.  He, however, runs into Sol-hee and comes clean about who he is. He asks Sol-hee what happened the day she drove him to save Syaon. Sol-hee explains that Do-ha got sick and then went MIA soon after. 

Deuk-chan opens up more about Do-ha and shares that he has had a hard past. It is why he is unable to sleep well or live a normal life. Sol-hee realizes that Deuk-chan cares a great deal for Do-ha. He confides in her that Do-ha is a close friend and he is worried for him. He gives her his card and asks her to contact him if she sees Do-ha. 

After hearing from Deuk-chan, Sol-hee becomes more worried about Do-ha. She drops by the Jazz club and Joong-kyu asks her to wait to see Do-ha. Once the club starts closing down, she sees Do-ha cleaning up and he is startled to see her. He drops the plate he was holding and she rushes to help him. 

They bicker for a while about why she is there and Joong-kyu leaves them alone. She shows him the viral video and asks him why he is staying quiet. She argues that all he has is music so he shouldn’t take the video lightly. She says that he is always running, leaving others to clean his mess. This statement hits Do-ha hard and he asks what she knows about him. She lashes out at him saying he never says anything so how is she supposed to know? She asks him to make up his mind and fight for his dream. Before leaving, she also asks him to call Deuk-chan. 

The conversation stirs something deep in Do-ha. It takes him back to the days when he was still a suspect and his mom was lying about him leaving for German.  He started playing the piano to keep his sanity. The following morning, he tracks down the fake Kim Do-ha and gets to hear his side of the story. 

The man didn’t have bad intentions, he only wanted to be heard. His method was lacking but his heart was in a good place.  It turns out Moo-jin stole one of his songs and fired him. He thought Do-ha was faceless and thus shady too. Do-ha decides to help him and they head to J Entertainment together. The songwriter only used Do-ha’s name to shed light on Moo-jin’s behaviour. It turns out Moo-jin stole one of his songs and fired him.

The staff is shocked to see Do-ha even though he is in a mask. However, Moo-jin tries to get him to take off his mask. Do-ha is about to comply but Deuk-chan stops him and pulls him aside. On the way to the office, they run into Ethan. Hopefully, we will know more about Ethan soon. 

Back to Do-ha, Deuk-chan calms him down and points out that revealing his face won’t help the situation. He promises to fire Moo-jin and compensate the victims.  Syaon interrupts the conversation and Do-ha asks Deuk-chan for some privacy. He proceeds to tell Syaon that he has no feelings for her and she seems taken aback. Later, the fake Do-ha makes a public apology and outs Moo-jin for his exploiting behaviours. 

Do-ha heads home and Sol-hee is happy the controversy has been put to bed. She is also shocked to receive a text from Do-ha inviting her to his concert at the Jazz club later on. 

Meanwhile, Eom-ho sees a newspaper story on the ghostwriter controversy and recognizes Do-ha’s masked face from the blurry photo. He immediately leaves his job, and most probably, he is on his way to Seoul. 

On the other hand, Sol-hee attends Do-ha’s lovely concert and is shocked when he takes off his mask and reveals his face to everyone.  She can’t help but smile back at him as he looks at her before continuing his concert. 

The Episode Review

It finally happened, Do-ha took off his mask and we can enjoy his handsome face with no obstructions. It is a pity he has been hiding such a beautiful smile under his mask. All these happened thanks to our girl Sol-hee. She gave him the courage to live again. It is a beautiful thing to watch. Our main leads are getting closer and we can’t wait to see how the chemistry between them deepens. 

As much as we are happy with Do-ha’s face reveal, we hope he is ready for the storm Eom-ho is about to bring into his life. Things are about to get interesting and we are so here for it.