“Don’t Bother With Those Who Mock Your Dream”: The Song PSY Sang Back to Him

Part 4 of 11 in Shin Hae-chul: The Demon King K-pop Keeps Bringing Back

No. 8, “From the Sun to the Boy” (Haeegeseo Sonyeoneges), tells a boy about to become a man not to fight the people who laugh at his dream, just to fly. The boys who grew up on it sang it back to him at his 10th-anniversary concert in October 2024. I was one of those boys. I’m still drawing, little by little, on the courage this song gave me the first day I heard it.

N.EX.T – “From the Sun to the Boy” (MBC, 1997) — 100,000 views

Its combined views come to about 6.7 million. It appeared on N.EX.T’s fourth album, Lazenca: A Space Rock Opera, released Nov. 30, 1997, with words, music and arrangement by Shin (Melon). It shares the album with No. 2, “Lazenca, Save Us” (Part 10), and the album was the soundtrack of Lazenca, a Korean animated series that began airing on MBC in November 1997. This song was its opening theme (Sports Kyunghyang, Feb. 1, 2016). Shin went all the way to Metropolis Studios in London to record the album’s orchestra. The story goes that he asked the band where the best studio and orchestra in the world were, then talked the producer into paying for it (JoongAng Ilbo, Oct. 20, 2024).

The stars are the tears of those who left first

The song begins with a voice from beyond the sun. Get up now, it’s time to grow up, you have to set out. The tears you will shed will become a magic spell that makes your tender heart grow. Then comes the chorus’s most famous advice.

너의 꿈을 비웃는 자를 애써 상대하지 마 / 변명하려 입을 열지 마 그저 웃어버리는 거야

Don’t bother with those who mock your dream. / Don’t open your mouth to explain. Just laugh it off.

(Words and music by Shin Hae-chul; key lines quoted)

After the command to never look back and fly straight ahead, the song ends by explaining the stars in the sky. They are the tears shed by people who left before you, frightened as they came to know the world, and those tears guide the ones who come next. Now that line sounds like a description of Shin himself. On nights when the stars are especially bright, I want to believe one of them is him, still lighting the way for us.

Also read: Fifty Years In, Han Young-ae Took the Medal and Then Took the Stage

Ha Hyun-woo’s remake

Ha Hyun-woo of the rock band Guckkasten, the singer behind the masked “Music Captain,” calls Shin “a musician who influenced me hugely and gave me comfort and courage” (Hankyoreh, Oct. 28, 2024). In 2018, on tvN’s travel show Road to Ithaca, he sang this song in his own way.

Ha Hyun-woo – “From the Sun to the Boy” (Road to Ithaca, tvN, 2018) — 530,000 views

Ha Hyun-woo – “From the Sun to the Boy” (Road to Ithaca, Ep. 5, tvN) — 80,000 views

The 10th-anniversary stage

On the second night of “Demon King 10th: Ghost Stage,” the tribute concert at Inspire Arena in Incheon on Oct. 26 and 27, 2024, N.EX.T’s original members Kim Se-hwang, Kim Young-seok and Lee Su-yong reunited as “N.EX.T United” and opened with “Urbanian,” “Hope” and this song. The guest vocalists were Hong Kyung-min, Ko Yu-jin and Shinhwa’s Kim Dong-wan (Hankyoreh, Oct. 28, 2024). On the first night, PSY started his encore with this song and went on to “A Letter to Myself” and “To You” (according to audience-shot video; Newsis, Oct. 4, 2024). The junior who got scolded learning sound in Shin’s studio gave the song about flying back to him.

The 10th-anniversary tribute album that year included an orchestral rearrangement, “From the Sun to the Boy 2024,” and in January 2026 a classical version went onto a live album from the Black Desert game festival (Melon). A cartoon theme recorded with a London orchestra became part of a game orchestra’s repertoire 29 years later.

Next, No. 7: “When Our Lives Are Coming to an End.” At 21, Shin asked what you’ll say on the last day of your life.

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Sources: Melon (Lazenca: A Space Rock Opera, Nov. 30, 1997; Requiem for Himself – A Symphonic Tribute, Oct. 24, 2024; Festival Anthology: Black Desert (Live Deluxe), Jan. 25, 2026; credits and lyrics); JoongAng Ilbo (Oct. 20, 2024); Hankyoreh (Oct. 28, 2024); Newsis (Oct. 4, 2024); audience video of PSY’s encore (not embedded); Sports Kyunghyang (Feb. 1, 2016). View counts as shown on YouTube, Oct. 25, 2026.