The Last Song Kim Kwang-seok Sang on TV, the Night Before He Died

Part 16 of 16 in Kim Kwang-seok: The Dead Singer K-pop Can't Let Go

No. 1, “It’s Not Love If It Hurts Too Much,” is the song Kim Kwang-seok sang on his last broadcast, the night before he died, and by far the most-sung of everything he left behind. Its combined views come to about 251.4 million, three times No. 2. While writing these sixteen parts, I didn’t let a single day go by without his songs. This last part is also one fan’s goodbye to a man I’ve loved for a long time.

Kim Kwang-seok – “It’s Not Love If It Hurts Too Much” (Official Audio) — 1.08 million views

The poet Ryu Geun wrote the words, Kim wrote the music, and it appeared in 1994 on his fourth and last studio album (Kyunghyang Shinmun, Sept. 22, 2019; Melon).

The night of Jan. 5, 1996

On Jan. 5, 1996, Kim appeared with his friends Park Hak-ki and Jang Pil-soon on HBS’s Park Sang-won’s Winter Days. That night he sang “It’s Not Love If It Hurts Too Much” and “The Day She First Cried.” It was his last broadcast, and before dawn the next day he was found dead (Money S, Jan. 6, 2025). Critic Oh Kwang-su wrote that Kim “loved this song so much he sang it on stage until just before he died” (Kyunghyang Shinmun, Sept. 22, 2019).

As laid out in Part 1, police ruled his death a suicide in 1996 and confirmed the same conclusion when they looked again in 2018. The reporter who pushed the murder theory lost a defamation suit that Korea’s Supreme Court upheld in 2020.

Also read: The Song a Bandmate Gave Him on His Way Out

The broke poet who wrote 29 lyrics in a day

Ryu Geun, who wrote the words, is known today as a poet for his collection Wounded by Nature, but around 1991, when he wrote these lyrics, he was nobody. He had finished his military service, but his family had gone broke and he couldn’t pay the tuition to go back to Chung-Ang University’s creative writing program. A younger friend suggested he write lyrics as a side job, and he wrote 29 songs’ worth in a single day. They were meant for an album by singer Yoon Sun-ae, but the label went under and the songs never came out (Kyunghyang Shinmun, Sept. 22, 2019).

The person in these lyrics was Ryu himself. He wrote them unable to get over a girlfriend who left him while he was in the army. A few years later, Kim called. He wanted to set these words to music for his new album (Kyunghyang Shinmun).

너무 아픈 사랑은 사랑이 아니었음을

A love that hurts too much was never love.

— Lyrics by Ryu Geun, music by Kim Kwang-seok (1994), excerpt

He comes back from letting her go and sits crying over a glass. He watches the stars fade and thinks of everything he didn’t get to say. On a rainy street he becomes a lonely man, and when he bows his head he hears her voice. When the wind brushes his wet shoulders, he even hates her a little. And at the end he makes a promise: let’s never come into this world as love again, and let’s bury even the words “I miss you.”

“I was really disappointed, but after three listens”

The first time Ryu heard the song in the studio, he was disappointed. He had written about his own breakup, and he couldn’t hear the sadness. “When I first heard this song I was really disappointed, but after about three listens, something felt extraordinary” (Financial News, Dec. 16, 2014). In a voice that seemed to push sorrow away, singing it calmly, he heard a sadness that ran the other way. He was paid 500,000 won, about $620 (Kyunghyang Shinmun, Sept. 22, 2019).

Ryu says Kim explained the song this way. “Pain makes you love more, and pain makes it hurt more. You want to believe a love that hurts too much isn’t love, but I put in the feeling of wanting to deny it precisely because you loved too much” (Financial News).

The two later worked together on a fifth album in Kim’s studio near Hongdae. The fifth album never came out (Kyunghyang Shinmun). Kim told Ryu to join the Korea Music Copyright Association, but Ryu couldn’t afford the membership fee of 100,000 won (about $125) and didn’t register the song until 17 years after it came out. Ryu says, “Kim Kwang-seok is still buying me makgeolli” (Kyunghyang Shinmun; Financial News).

Kim Feel’s 39.72 million, Suga, Ailee

The single video that built this song’s numbers most is Kim Feel’s performance on JTBC’s Begin Again 3, at 39.72 million views. Back in 2014, Kim Feel had also sung it in front of Ryu Geun at a listening event for the remastered LP of Kim’s fourth album. “I always wanted to take part in one of his concerts at least once. I’m more nervous than I was on the live finals of Superstar K6” (Financial News, Dec. 16, 2014).

Kim Feel – “It’s Not Love If It Hurts Too Much” (Begin Again 3, JTBC) — 39.72 million views

BTS’s Suga strapped on a guitar and sang it, and Weverse’s official channel posted the moment as its own clip. Ailee’s performance on KBS’s Immortal Songs has 6.67 million views.

SUGA of BTS – “It’s Not Love If It Hurts Too Much” (Weverse) — 520,000 views

Ailee – “It’s Not Love If It Hurts Too Much” (Immortal Songs, KBS) — 6.67 million views

On Begin Again, Highlight’s Yang Yo-seob and Son Dong-woon sang it as a trio with DAY6’s Wonpil (370,000 views). Jung Seung-hwan sang it on SBS’s K-pop Star 4 in 2015 (3.89 million), and Lee Mu-jin and Ha Sung-woon, formerly of Wanna One, sang it on Immortal Songs (3.14 million and 110,000).

Yang Yo-seob, Son Dong-woon (Highlight) and Wonpil (DAY6) – “It’s Not Love If It Hurts Too Much” (Begin Again, JTBC) — 370,000 views

Jung Seung-hwan – “It’s Not Love If It Hurts Too Much” (K-pop Star 4, SBS, 2015) — 3.89 million views

Lee Mu-jin – “It’s Not Love If It Hurts Too Much” (Immortal Songs 2, KBS) — 3.14 million views

The end of the 15

Of the 15 songs in this countdown, only three have both words and music by Kim: “With the Heart to Forget You,” “Where the Wind Blows” and “Stand Up.” Even the No. 1 song has someone else’s words. As Kang Seung-won put it, he was “a friend who didn’t insist on only singing his own songs,” with “an outstanding ability to make other people’s songs his own” (JoongAng Ilbo, Jan. 4, 2026). The singing style that Han Dong-jun, Kim Chang-ki and Kang Seung-won all disliked is what turned their songs into his.

Ryu Geun wrote about his own breakup, and Kim sang that song on his last night. “Let’s never come into this world as love again.” For thirty years, the people who have sung that line along with him the most have been calling him back into the world. Thank you, Kim Kwang-seok. Your songs are still here.

Previous: Part 15 — The Song IU Gave Him on the 22nd Anniversary of His Death · Start from the beginning: Part 1 — IU and BTS’s Suga Both Sang Him. Who Was Kim Kwang-seok?

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Sources: Kyunghyang Shinmun, Oh Kwang-su (Sept. 22, 2019); Melon (Kim Kwang-seok 4, June 25, 1994); Money S (Jan. 6, 2025); Financial News (Dec. 16, 2014); JoongAng Ilbo (Jan. 4, 2026). Investigation and court sources as in Part 1: YTN (July 3, 2018), iNews24 (May 29, 2020). View counts as shown on YouTube, Oct. 25, 2026. Exchange rate: 1994, $1 ≈ 805 won.