True Beauty Ep 5 RECAP: Joo Kyeong realises that Suho was her savior, Seojun & Suho face off

Episode 5 of True Beauty finds both our male leads, Suho and Seojun,  fight to win the heart of Im Joo Kyeong who finally realises that Suho was the one who saved her at the rooftop.

True Beauty is a romantic comedy K-Drama that recently started premiering on tvN for Korean fans and Viu or Rakuten Viki for international fans. Based originally on a webtoon of the same name or alternately, Goddess Advent, this drama will explore the life of a young high school student Im Ju Kyung (played by Moon Ga Young) who suffers from issues of self-worth and confidence stemming from her appearance. However, she learns about makeup on online forums and gives it a try. Make-up works wonders for her self image and she can now confidently start her life anew in a new school with new people. She meets two men, Su Ho (Cha Eunwoo) and Seo Jun (Hwang In Yeob) who complicate her feelings but also help her come out of her shell and embrace her true beauty.

Episode 5 starts out with Seojun trying to get closer to Joo Kyeong, only to fail while Suho takes up the chance to impress her instead. Joo Kyeong is all heart-eyes about Suho and it is clear that she’s starting to fall for him.

We’re also introduced to Gowoon, who’s going through something Joo Kyeong used to go through in her previous high school. Gowoon is bullied for being talented without the looks to go along with it. She’s the best singer in class which makes others bully her out of insecurity. Joo Kyeong is immediately sympathetic and helps her out with the right type of makeup which will help her get rid of her appearance complex and give her the confidence to go on stage. While it is nice that Gowoon can now face the world with the help of makeup, one cannot help but wonder that this kind of solution places the burden of change on the victim rather than the perpetrator. Gowoon has to change herself to be accepted rather than the other way around.

Suho wants to get closer to Joo Kyeong as well and calls her at home. After panicking and hanging up once, Joo Kyeong calls him back where they have a cute conversation and decide to meet. Once outside, Suho keeps making excuses to hold Joo Kyeong back so that they can spend more time together. They grab a basketball laying around and play hoops and while doing so, Joo Kyeong trips over her feet, Suho grabs her and they end up in a close embrace. Suho is incredibly flustered and makes up a bizarre excuse that he just pulled her closer so she could smell the new detergent he’s been using on his clothes. To make his point further, when he spots the comic book guy, he pulls him into a hug as well. Eventually, Suho walks Joo Kyeong back to her house where he notices Seojun’s motorcycle.

Next day at school, a basketball tournament is creating all the buzz. Suho has joined the tournament so Seojun feels the need to as well. However, he makes a big deal out of it, saying that if Joo Kyeong tells him to join, he’ll join. Joo Kyeong couldn’t care any less but everyone else hopes that Seojun will join so that they can win. Later, Joo Kyeong notices Gowoon being bullied again and for the first time, stands up for her and throws a big bucket of water on the bullies. She tells Suho about the incident later and expresses how she wants to help Gowoon with makeup so she can feel pretty but Suho tells her that she thinks Joo Kyeong is pretty without makeup. Joo Kyeong gathers her courage and eventually messages him asking him out to the movies.

However, Suho’s happiness is crushed when Seojun tells him that he doesn’t deserve to be happy because he thinks Suho was responsible for their friend’s death. Suho himself starts to believe that he doesn’t deserve happiness and backs off from Joo Kyeong. He’s super mean to her the next day and tells her that he was only saying nice things to her because he pitied her.

At the basketball game, Suho wins against Seojun and tells him that he won’t be happy if that’s what he wants but he warns Seojun not to mess with Joo Kyeong. At a music festival later that day, a song plays which Suho and Seojun’s friend had sung. Suho immediately has a panic attack and he breaks down, unable to breathe. Joo Kyeong finds out that the original singer of the song used to be their friend and that he sadly passed away. Joo Kyeong is upset to not have known any of this about Suho and leaves, only to find Suho crumpled over, unable to breathe. Suho however, tells Joo Kyeong to leave and the whole scene is witnessed by Seojun. Seojun has a disappointed look on his face but the disappointment is directed towards his own self because he wasn’t having as strong of a reaction to their friend’s song as he was.

Joo Kyeong goes home and grabs Suho’s jacket that she was supposed to return to him. It is now that she notices the jacket closely and remembers that this was the same jacket with the same initials on the guy that saved her on the rooftop that day. She puts two and two together and finally realises that it was Suho. Recalling everything he said to her that night, Joo Kyeong has a revelation and realises just how much pain Suho must be in right now. She immediately runs to where she thinks he is and finds him crying. For the first time, Suho feels the need to open up and be vulnerable and Joo Kyeong reassures him that she understands.

Episode 5, therefore, ends on a beautiful note where Seojun is potentially rethinking the way he’s been treating Suho and Joo Kyeong and Suho get closer than ever before.

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