Make Me Tingle Episodes 5 & 6 Recap and Review: A Love Triangle, a 22-Floor Climb, and a Connecting Door

Yeon-su asks Dal out, Ji-o asks Yeon-su out, and Busan turns the whole thing up a few degrees. Here’s the full recap of Make Me Tingle episode 5 and 6, plus my review and score.

If Episodes 3 and 4 were where Make Me Tingle found its rhythm, Episodes 5 and 6 are where it starts to run. Nam Ji-hyun (Gong Yeon-su) and Kim Jae-young (Dokgo Dal) now have a third point in the triangle, Kang Tae-joo as the sweet, steady Ji-o, plus a pop-up store in Busan, a staircase that Dal would rather not climb alone, and a hotel room with a door that should have stayed locked. This recap covers Episode 5 (“A Love Triangle Kicks Off”) and Episode 6 (“Adventures in Busan”).

Spoiler warning: both episodes are covered in full, including the final scene.

Quick Facts

Catching up? Read the Episodes 3 & 4 recap first, since Episode 5 opens right on Yeon-su’s date offer.

Episode 5 Recap: A Love Triangle Kicks Off

“Do you want to sleep with me?”

Episode 5 starts with Yeon-su’s invitation still hanging in the air. Dal asks if she’s fallen for him, and she admits she has, a little. His answer is to ask whether she wants to sleep with him, because that’s what dating means to him. She balks. He adds that he doesn’t date people from work anyway.

At the office, the team celebrates the mystery box becoming a hit, and the news gets better: JC Investment is interested in the company. Over coffee, Yeon-su tries to laugh off her proposal by saying she falls for people easily. Dal responds by asking her to join the investor meeting. Later, while Dal and Ji-o are driving somewhere, Ji-o mentions that Yeon-su is cute. (Hold on to that detail. It pays off.)

Nam-su’s problem

Elsewhere, Nam-su has been calling Si-eun with no luck, so he catches her outside her class. She tells him she’s pregnant, and he jumps straight to marriage. She doesn’t want to keep the baby, because she dreams of joining a dance crew. He offers to give up his own career path for their family, but she points out that becoming a civil servant was never his dream.

The meeting with Seung-jun’s firm

Dal and Yeon-su arrive at the investor meeting and discover it’s at the company where Seung-jun works. They present to him and his boss, Jang Yu-jin, who loves the mystery boxes and says the firm will sponsor a Loand pop-up store in Busan. Afterward, Seung-jun lectures Yeon-su that this isn’t her kind of work.

Back at the office, Yeon-su pitches limited-edition, Busan-themed products for the pop-up, and everyone loves it.

At a family lunch, Nam-su tells his grandfather he wants to stop studying and get a job. His father says to pass the exam and become a civil servant first. Later, Nam-su takes the bus to his academy, and Yeon-su hops on beside him. They talk about dreams, and she admits she likes marketing but it isn’t really her dream. She slips him some cash and gets off.

Twenty-two floors

Back at his building, Dal finds the elevator out of order again. He heads for the stairs, but the lights aren’t working. The guard tells him they won’t be fixed until 10 p.m.

Dal picks up Yeon-su to visit the shop that makes their scented candles. Ji-o suddenly joins them and says the shop is running behind, so he suggests a meal first. At the restaurant, Dal and Yeon-su start fighting again, this time over one-night stands versus relationships. Then Ji-o’s skin breaks out in a rash, and he’s sent to the hospital. The other two go on to the candle shop and try different scents. Dal spills an oil on his jacket and ends up smelling very strongly of it.

On the way back, Ji-o sends Yeon-su photos from the hospital and they text for a bit. Dal, meanwhile, doesn’t want to go home, since he knows the stairwell lights are still broken. Yeon-su realizes he’s afraid to go up alone and offers to climb with him. When they pass the 20th floor, her back gives out again, and Dal carries her the last two floors.

The apartment, the dream, and the question

While she rests on the sofa, Dal goes to shower. Ji-o calls and says he’s coming over with chicken and beer, and Dal tells him not to. Yeon-su drifts off and has a steamy dream about Dal trying to kiss her. Dal wakes her up and puts a heating pad on her back. They chat, and she reminisces about her father.

Dal calls it a messy day, and she says she had a good time. She then clarifies that she didn’t ask him out because of the kiss. She did it because she thought it might lead her down a new path. Since they’ve already done the ordinary dating things today (a meal, time in a park), Dal asks whether they can have the kind of date he wanted, meaning sex.

Cut to Ji-o walking into Dal’s house and finding Yeon-su trying to crawl across the floor. The two men drive her home. At her door, she pulls away from Dal and asks Ji-o to walk her in. Her grandparents grill Ji-o with questions, as they did with Dal.

Dal outside, Ji-o inside

Dal waits in the car and runs into Nam-su, who spills his Si-eun troubles because he has no older man to talk to. Dal tells him the only thing he can do is respect his partner’s decision.

Inside, Ji-o is asked about marriage and says he wants to build a life with someone he loves. Even Yeon-su smiles. Before leaving, he asks her out for the following weekend and lists everything she likes. She hesitates. Dal is standing right behind him. After a pause, she says yes.

Episode 6 Recap: Adventures in Busan

A train, a bad mood, and a connecting door

The whole Loand team takes the train to Busan, with Dal sitting apart and clearly in a mood. Se-ra decides to come along too, and Loand employee Min-hyeong is on her train. At the hotel, Yeon-su discovers her room and Dal’s share a connecting door. She says it makes her uncomfortable, and Dal offers to change rooms. The team then heads to see the pop-up store.

On the train, a couple asks Se-ra and Min-hyeong to swap seats. Se-ra claims they’re a couple too, so they don’t have to move. They get talking, and both say they only do casual relationships.

Seung-jun, again

Yeon-su is working at a café when Seung-jun sits down across from her and asks her to have a drink that night. She refuses.

Mang-na’s side story

At a department store, Mang-na sees a young student, Dong-woo, considering buying a condom, and hands him one of Loand’s. He later meets a girl named Ha-neul, who turns out to be Mang-na’s daughter. When Mang-na spots the two of them while shopping, she gets angry and chases them, but they run off.

“You can’t sell it if you haven’t tried it”

At the pop-up, Yeon-su shows Ji-o that she’s memorized every product detail. Dal points out that details alone won’t sell anything, and that she should have tried the products herself. They argue, and Dal tells her to do whatever she wants, since she changes her mind so easily. It’s a clear dig at her agreeing to date Ji-o.

Later, Ji-o tells Yeon-su not to take it to heart, and she admits she feels at peace around him. Ji-o then tells Dal to get along better with Yeon-su, says they’re going on a date, and talks him into switching rooms later.

Locked out

That evening, Se-ra calls to cancel dinner because she’s spending the night with the younger man she met on the train. When room service arrives, Yeon-su locks herself out of her room without her phone, so she knocks on Dal’s door to use the connecting route and offers to share her food.

They have dinner and patch things up, with Dal saying he never meant to invade her privacy. Then she brings up Ji-o, Dal gets annoyed, and they argue again. Yeon-su points out that Dal hasn’t used the women’s products either, which makes him no different from her. At that moment, Ji-o knocks on the door. Dal tells her to stay quiet, and neither of them answers his calls. Once Ji-o leaves, Yeon-su goes back to her own room, but both of them are still thinking about each other.

Mang-na finally sits down with Ha-neul and Dong-woo. Ha-neul argues that her mother was the one who told her to be safe and use condoms, and adds that Mang-na lied to her about where she works.

The pop-up

The next morning, the pop-up opens. Se-ra complains to Yeon-su that the man she slept with ran off in the morning, then is surprised to see Min-hyeong when they arrive at the event. During the pop-up, Yeon-su sees that Dal sells better than she does. When a girl asks her about the difference in sensation between two products, Yeon-su is stumped. She says she hasn’t used them because she’s still figuring out what she likes, but she’s curious.

After the event, everyone else cancels, so Ji-o and Yeon-su go to dinner.

Seed hotteok and a creaky bench

In his room, Dal gets a call from Nam-su, who wants advice on interpreting one of Si-eun’s social media posts. During the call, Nam-su mentions that Yeon-su likes seed hotteok. Se-ra and Min-hyeong are having dinner as well, and she convinces him to give them another try, since he feels he failed the night before. She promises to heal him, and he agrees.

Ji-o asks Yeon-su why she agreed to the date. She says it’s because he’s kind, understanding, and a good person. He says he likes her just as she is, clumsiness and boldness included. He confesses and leans in to kiss her, but the bench creaks loudly. Yeon-su makes an excuse and hurries away.

On her way back, Yeon-su calls Se-ra, who’s busy with Min-hyeong. Then she bumps into Dal, who is holding two portions of seed hotteok. He offers her one, and they stroll for a bit. Back at the hotel, she tells him there’s no need to change rooms.

The wedding invitation

In the shower, Yeon-su thinks about Dal and wonders how she’d like to be touched. She takes out the vibrator again, but doesn’t use it.

Around 1 a.m., a drunk Seung-jun knocks on her door. She lets him in, and he apologizes for everything. Dal listens from the other side of the door and is about to step in when Seung-jun grabs her hand. Then Seung-jun reveals he’s getting married and is going to be a father. He’s been with this woman for two months, and he’s sure about her.

Afterward, Yeon-su sits alone with the wedding invitation. Dal knocks and asks if she’s okay. She says she never wanted to sleep with Seung-jun during a year and a half together, yet she keeps thinking about the kiss with Dal even though she’s known him for two months. She says she’s going to be honest, then kisses him.

The episode ends with the two of them heading toward Dal’s bed.

My Review: Jealousy Looks Good on Dal

Two episodes, one clear winner: the push-and-pull. Here’s what I tracked.

• Dal’s jealousy tells: Ji-o calls Yeon-su cute while Dal’s driving (Episode 5), Dal sits apart on the Busan train, he snaps at her for “changing her mind so easily,” and he stands silently outside her door while Seung-jun talks. The show lets him show it in small ways instead of speeches.
• Staircase callback: Dal’s fear of the dark from Episode 4 returns when the stairwell lights fail, and this time Yeon-su is already on his side. That’s a smart way to show how much their relationship has shifted.
• The arguments evolve: Episode 5 is one-night stands versus relationships. Episode 6 is whether you can sell what you’ve never tried, and Yeon-su’s counterpunch that Dal hasn’t used the women’s products either. Neither argument repeats an earlier one.
• Ji-o’s two big moments: his answer about marriage at her family’s table (Episode 5) and the near-kiss on the bench (Episode 6). Yeon-su admits she feels at peace with him, but she never says she feels a spark.

What Works

• The push-and-pull. The leads keep bickering, keep finding each other attractive, and keep tripping over it. Kim Jae-young and Nam Ji-hyun make it feel natural.
• The 22-floor climb. The elevator-is-broken setup, her back going out, Dal carrying her the last two floors, the dream, the heating pad. It’s funny, tender, and it ends on the question Dal has wanted to ask all along. This is the best sequence in the pair.
• Ji-o. He’s sweet and he has a speech about marriage that makes it easy to see why Yeon-su’s family loves him. Episode 6’s bench scene lets us see why he isn’t right for her without making him a villain.
• The two-month vs. year-and-a-half contrast. Yeon-su’s line about Seung-jun is a quietly effective way to show her what she’s been missing.
• Se-ra and Min-hyeong. A lighter B-plot that’s actually fun, helped by the running-away twist.

What Doesn’t

• Ji-o’s rash. It conveniently clears space for Dal and Yeon-su at the candle shop. It works, but I could see the strings.
• Mang-na and Ha-neul. The mother-daughter conflict has potential, but it’s unclear why Ha-neul is in Busan at all. I’m hoping a later episode explains it.
• Seung-jun’s reappearance. He turns up again in Busan, and the writers use him as a catalyst for the final kiss. It’s effective, but a little too tidy.
• Nam-su and Si-eun are given only a few minutes, and the pregnancy storyline still feels separate from everything else.

My Score

8.5 out of 10.

A half point up from Episodes 3-4. The leads finally lean into the chemistry, the third corner of the triangle is likable, and the final scene earns its heat. I’m holding back the last point for the side plots, which still feel half-connected.

What I’m Watching For Next

How Ji-o reacts when he learns what happened in Busan, how Yeon-su’s family reacts to Dal after the lunch, and whether Dal’s “I don’t date coworkers” rule survives the morning.

Make Me Tingle episode 3-4 | Make Me Tingle episode 7-8