Recap Korean Drama "Crash Course in Romance 2023" Episode 5

Episode 5 of Crash Course in Romance starts with Chi-yeol and Haeng-seon trying to work out a tutoring arrangement for Hae-e. Before they get into the financing of the whole ordeal, Chi-yeol points out that as this is off the books, they’ll have to come to another agreement away from money. And that eventually materializes itself in Chi-yeol requesting the lunch boxes from Haeng-seon twice a day – once at lunch and another at dinner. She’s essentially going to be his personal chef.

Chi-yeol is quite strict with timings and demands she keep this deal a complete secret. If word got out that the great Chi-yeol is private tutoring, it would turn college admissions upside down – and jeopardize his business too.

With all of that sorted, Chi-yeol gets down to the most important part of this whole meeting – eating. After, Chi-yeol heads home and Haeng-seon ends up rekindling her bonds with Hae-e again, as the pair lie in bed together. Hae-e admits it’s like a dream and she makes a promise to herself, deciding to study hard given what a big opportunity this is.

Young-min’s death is a devastating blow for the community, especially as it happens at the academy. Chi-yeol immediately feels guilty given the last lesson Young-min had was with him, where Chi-yeol booted him out the lesson.

Predictably, detectives call him in for a statement, where Chi-yeol admits he dropped by the Side Dish restaurant after school. For now it seems he’s in the clear but this could come back around in the future. For now though, the investigation is an open and shut case, with little sign of struggle while the higher-ups have hurriedly concluded that the whole thing was a suicide. But why the rush? It definitely seems suspect.

Meanwhile, the love triangle continues to develop at school as Hae-e decides to help Geon-hu with his tuition. Just before discussing things with Sun-jae, word of Young-min’s death makes the rounds and all classes at the academy are cancelled for the day. Of course, the All Care mums aren’t happy about this, only caring about their own children’s education. They all decide unanimously to continue classes like normal, despite Chi-yeol not being in the right frame of mind. Still, he understands the value of time here and agrees to go ahead.

When Haeng-seon finds out, she’s shocked and believes that Chi-yeol must be distressed and worries how he must be dealing with this, especially as he has to teach. Haeng-seon messages him and offers to postpone their private lessons for his own mental health but Chi-yeol, ever the professional, agrees to continue on.

The next day, Chi-yeol heads for a jog in the morning before using the company printer to get his tutoring gear in order. Of course, Hae-e’s big lesson is coming up, and Geon-hu immediately makes his case, moving his desk up next to Hae-e’s to shadow her during the lesson. It’s here where we find out both he and Sun-jae both have a crush on Hae-e. The love triangle is a-go!

After the Academy class, Haeng-seon lets Chi0yeol over to his for the evening tutoring class. Haeng-seon has got the whole place prepped for his arrival, including meticulous cleaning and with Jae-woo on his best behaviour too. However, Haeng-seon fussing around him causes Chi-yeol to immediately put her in her place, amusingly constantly getting her name wrong in the process.

Eventually he puts some serious boundaries between them, pointing out they’re not friends and she should stop trying to make that happen. At school the next day, word of Hyo-won (one of the faculty’s workers) is blamed for using the printer that morning. As we know it was Chi-yeol, so he covers for her and decides to let all the faculty use his card for an expensive meal that night.

Meanwhile, Jae-woo runs into trouble at the local waffle house. He has a crush on one of the workers there (Ms Kwon) and he shows up during her changed shift that evening. However, he ends up in trouble when he touches her over the till, eventually leading to a big misunderstanding with her boyfriend who happens to work with her. He squares up to Jae-woo, who pushes him over.

Haeng-seon receives the call and heads straight for the police station, where Jae-woo happens to be in handcuffs. Chi-yeol also wanders in too as Haeng-seon speaks to the two workers from the waffle house, telling Ms Kwon that he has Aspergers and poor social skills. She apologizes and even offers to pay for the dry cleaning as long as they drop the charges.

Ms Kwon eventually agrees as long as Jae-woo never comes back again, while her boyfriend is less understanding. All the while, as Haeng-seon pours her heart out, Chi-yeol happens to be listening,

Chi-yeol has more than a few enemies against him though, namely that of the online group ‘Chiyeolsucks’. We heard about these guys a few episodes back but it had just been online trolls until we actually put a face to them.

The trio of men sit together at a restaurant and discuss Chi-yeol’s shady past, where he worked at Tenten Academy (which no longer exists). He was close to a female student who actually jumped to her death. Right after, it was Chi-yeol who got fired for an unknown reason. Now, as he clashed with Young-min just before he jumped, they believe he’s the culprit connecting both of these cases together.

That night, Chi-yeol passes Haeng-seon who happens to be out drowning her sorrows with alcohol. He parks up and decides to sit with her. Eventually they agree to split the bottle and finish the alcohol. Once they do, they’ll be able to leave and go home.

Only, Chi-yeol ends up drinking way too much and passing out Naturally, he ends up staying at Haeng-seon’s for the night and with his car parked up outside the cafe, he takes his chances and rushes outside. Only… in doing so Dong-hui and Yeong-joo are right there. As Haeng-seon hurries out her house, telling Chi-yeol he’s forgotten his belt to go along with his shoes, a massive misunderstanding ensues. Uh oh!

The Episode Review

Crash Course In Romance delivers a huge dollop of misunderstanding right at the end of this episode as both Dong-hui and Yeong-joo spot our protagonists together leaving the same building in the morning. This is inevitably going to cause all sorts of problems going forward but the tone of this series has been quite impressive so far.

The balance between darker slice of life drama and more lighthearted romantic elements has actually been surprisingly effective. There is always the danger that this could veer too far one way or the other but so far Crash Course hasn’t crashed and burned, which is always good to see!

The two leads have great chemistry too and from the opening of the episode right the way through, the pair really work well together on-screen. Hopefully that continues throughout the rest of the show as this is turning into a solid and highly enjoyable series.

The drama involving Hae-woo is another nice inclusion and unlike with something akin to Extraordinary Attorney Woo, where Woo is the central focus and everything centers around her, Jae-woo is simply a part of Haeng-seon’s world and allows for more of the slice of life stuff to shine throughout from a slightly different vantage point.