Love in Disguise Explained: Cast, Release Date & What the Korean Title '나의 유죄인간' Really Means

🎬 Official suspect teaser via tvN DRAMA (YouTube)

Love in Disguise premieres October 19, 2026 on tvN, with Prime Video streaming it worldwide — and the English title is hiding the best joke in the whole show. The Korean title is 나의 유죄인간 (naui yujoe-ingan), which literally means "My Guilty Human." Sounds grim. It is not grim. It is a flirting line.

Here's the thing: in Korean internet slang, calling someone a yujoe-ingan is a compliment. And this drama stacks that slang on top of an actual murder case. Let me unpack it.

What Is Love in Disguise About?

Yim Si-wan plays Yun I-jun, the third-generation heir of Taegang Group — arrogant, sheltered, and suddenly the prime suspect in the murder of his former female secretary. Seol In-ah plays Kang Jae-hee, a detective from a special forces background who cuts her hair short, dresses as a man, and goes undercover as his new personal secretary to catch him.

So: she's investigating him. He doesn't know she's a cop. He doesn't even know she's a woman. tvN calls it a "close-contact thrill romance," which is a very Korean way of saying rom-com with a body in the first act.

The official suspect teaser above sets the tone fast. Thunder, a woman collapsed in a cabinet, I-jun standing over her. Jae-hee snaps a cuff on his wrist and says the evidence is already enough. Then he flips it — clips the other cuff onto her wrist and tells her she's the one who committed the crime. The crime of making his heart race. I literally rewound it twice.

Love in Disguise Release Date, Episodes & Where to Watch

The first episode airs Monday, October 19, 2026 at 8:50 PM KST on tvN, with new episodes every Monday and Tuesday. It runs 12 episodes, so expect the finale around late November. Outside Korea, it streams on Amazon Prime Video — not Netflix, which is the first thing half of you will search. In Korea it also streams on TVING.

It takes over the Monday–Tuesday slot from The Ordinary Jackpot. Writer Moon Soo-jung and director Park Dan-hee are behind it, and it's adapted from a Kakao Page web novel and webtoon.

Love in Disguise Cast & Characters

Yim Si-wan as Yun I-jun — Taegang Group's next-in-line heir, sharp-tongued and cynical, accused of murdering his secretary. Yes, the Misaeng and Squid Game actor. His first proper rom-com lead in a while.
Seol In-ah as Kang Jae-hee — an ex-Army special warfare NCO turned detective. Korean press lists her at judo 5th dan, hapkido 1st dan and taekwondo 3rd dan: nine dan combined. Business Proposal fans, this is a very different Seol In-ah.
Kim Jung-hyun as Kim Si-hyun — I-jun's friend of 16 years and a lawyer on Taegang's legal team.
Yeonwoo as Lee Hye-jeong — secretary to the Taegang chairman, and apparently the most mysterious person in the building.
Hong Eun-hee plays I-jun's older sister, her first TV drama in about three years.

What "나의 유죄인간" Really Means

Break it down: 나의 = "my." 유죄 (yujoe) = "guilty," the exact word a judge uses in a verdict. 인간 = "human" or "person." Dictionary version: "My Guilty Person."

But nobody under 40 in Korea hears it that way. Since roughly the early 2020s, 유죄인간 has been slang for someone so charming — so casually sweet, so unfairly good-looking — that it should be illegal. The "crime" is stealing your heart, usually without even trying. Fans throw it at idols who do one soft thing on a livestream. Friends use it on the guy who texts "get home safe" to everyone.

Now look at the drama. The male lead is literally a murder suspect. He is, legally speaking, potentially guilty. And the whole romance runs on him being emotionally guilty. That's the pun: the title asks, is he guilty of the crime, or just guilty of being a heartbreaker? tvN leaned all the way in — their YouTube title for the teaser spells out "the crime of making my heart race" letter by letter, and the posters call the leads "guilty people."

"Love in Disguise" keeps the cross-dressing part and throws out the courtroom joke entirely. Which, honestly, is understandable. There is no clean English word for "a person whose charm is a felony."

The Original Title Is Even Blunter

The source web novel is called 여자인 걸 왜 모르지? — roughly, "Why Doesn't He Know I'm a Girl?" That tells you exactly where the comedy lives: a detective with nine dan of martial arts, hiding in plain sight, and a chaebol who notices every speck of dust in his office but somehow not that.

🇰🇷 THE KOREAN SIDE

On Korean communities, the title landed instantly because the slang is already everywhere. When someone on Instiz asked what yujoe-ingan actually means, the replies were perfect: one fan boiled it down to "guilty of stealing my heart," another explained it as "he flirts with me even though he's never going to marry me." On Blind, a user's coworkers kept calling him a yujoe-ingan, and the top joke reply was basically: "so they're saying you're an ex-con." That's the energy of this title — half swoon, half roast.

🌍 THE GLOBAL SIDE

English-language listings mostly describe it as a gender-bending office rom-com with a murder mystery attached, and fans on TikTok are already counting down to October 19. What I haven't seen in the English listings I checked is any mention of the pun. The handcuff teaser makes perfect sense once you know it — and reads like a slightly random line if you don't.

📊 THE GAP

Korean viewers get a double meaning from the title alone: legal guilt vs. romantic guilt. International viewers get "Love in Disguise," which only covers the disguise. Keep "yujoe-ingan" in your back pocket for episode one. Every time I-jun does something unfairly smooth, that's the title talking.

Why It Matters

This is a drama built on a pun, and that's not a small thing. Korean rom-coms love titles that work as a wink — the Korean audience is supposed to smirk before the first scene. When that wink gets lost in translation, the English title makes the show look like a generic cross-dressing comedy. It's actually a suspect-and-cop story where the "verdict" is the love line. Knowing that changes how you read every handcuff scene.

FAQ

Is Love in Disguise on Netflix?
No. It airs on tvN in Korea and streams internationally on Amazon Prime Video, starting October 19, 2026.

How many episodes does Love in Disguise have?
12 episodes, airing Mondays and Tuesdays at 8:50 PM KST.

What does 유죄인간 (yujoe-ingan) mean?
Literally "guilty person," but as slang it means someone so charming it feels like a crime — usually someone who makes your heart flutter without trying.

Is Love in Disguise based on a webtoon?
Yes — it's adapted from a Kakao Page web novel and webtoon whose Korean title means "Why Doesn't He Know I'm a Girl?"

📌 Key Details

Korean title: 나의 유죄인간 ("My Guilty Human")
Premiere: Monday, October 19, 2026, 8:50 PM KST
Schedule: Mondays & Tuesdays · 12 episodes
Network / streaming: tvN · Amazon Prime Video (global) · TVING (Korea)
Cast: Yim Si-wan, Seol In-ah, Kim Jung-hyun, Yeonwoo, Hong Eun-hee
Writer / director: Moon Soo-jung / Park Dan-hee
Source: Kakao Page web novel & webtoon

💬 Jamie's Take

I'll be honest — "Love in Disguise" as a title made me expect a 2010s She's-the-Man remake and nothing more. Then I read the Korean title and laughed out loud on the subway. Yim Si-wan playing a murder suspect who is also, by Korean slang standards, a yujoe-ingan? That's casting and wordplay working together. Whether the mystery holds up for 12 episodes is the real question. But the premise? Guilty. Very guilty.

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