Two Months After He Died, BEAST Sang His Love Song With His Band

Part 8 of 11 in Shin Hae-chul: The Demon King K-pop Keeps Bringing Back

No. 4, “You, Deep Inside My Heart” (Nae Maeum Gipeun Gosui Neo), is the song of a man who never managed to ask the woman he loved to share his uncertain future. Two months after Shin Hae-chul died, the idol group BEAST sang it for him, with his band N.EX.T behind them.

Shin Hae-chul – “You, Deep Inside My Heart” (KBS) — 640,000 views

Its combined views come to about 10.4 million. That the man they called the Demon King wrote a love song this shy is, to me, Shin Hae-chul’s most lovable twist. It appeared on his second solo album, Myself, released March 20, 1991, with words and music by Shin (Melon). If “A Letter to Myself” (Part 3) from the same album was the question he threw at society, this was the love song that sold the album. When he died in 2014 it was one of the songs that climbed the charts again (Financial News, Oct. 29, 2014), and it was used in tvN’s drama Reply 1994 (Melon).

The one thing he couldn’t say

The song begins at a telephone. The narrator picks up the receiver to call her, then puts it down. For a moment he had forgotten she isn’t there anymore. At their last goodbye he knew exactly what she wanted to hear, but he didn’t say it. The reason is in two lines.

너에게 내 불안한 미래를 / 함께 하자고 말하긴 미안했기에

I couldn’t bring myself to ask you / to share my uncertain future.

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

So he decides to wait. He won’t leave her alone again when she comes back, he tells himself, and the joy of meeting and the sadness of parting are each just a moment in a long stretch of time. The lyric fits the situation of a 22-year-old singer who had bet his whole future on music.

Also read: IU, DAY6 and Squid Game All Brought Him Back. Who Was Shin Hae-chul?

The year-end festival two months later

On Dec. 26, 2014, two months after his death, the KBS Song Festival set aside a memorial stage for Shin. N.EX.T played, and BEAST’s Yang Yo-seob and Son Dong-woon sang this song. MBC and SBS also put “To You” on their year-end stages with N.EX.T that winter (Part 11).

N.EX.T with Yang Yo-seob and Son Dong-woon (BEAST) – “You, Deep Inside My Heart” (KBS Song Festival, 2014) — 130,000 views

Six years later Yang Yo-seob would sing “When Our Lives Are Coming to an End” on King of Mask Singer (Part 5).

The boy from the summit

Oh Yeon-joon, the boy who sang Kim Kwang-seok’s “Where the Wind Blows” at the inter-Korean summit dinner in April 2018, sang this song the next year on MBC’s Now No. 1. That clip has 730,000 views, the most of any cover of the song.

Oh Yeon-joon – “You, Deep Inside My Heart” (MBC, 2019) — 730,000 views

Tei, 4MEN, Son Seung-yeon

On the first-anniversary Shin Hae-chul special of KBS’s Immortal Songs, Tei and Son Seung-yeon sang it, and 4MEN sang it in 2017. On the 10th-anniversary special, Kim Dong-hyun and Lee Byung-chan sang it together.

Tei – “You, Deep Inside My Heart” (Immortal Songs 2, KBS, 2015) — 140,000 views

4MEN – “You, Deep Inside My Heart” (Immortal Songs 2, KBS, 2017) — 70,000 views

The narrator of the original never got to say “let’s be together,” and now younger singers say it for him over N.EX.T’s playing. Whenever I watch that stage, I believe he’s somewhere in the audience, watching with a proud smile.

Next, No. 3: “Invitation to Everyday Life.” The nine-time King of Mask Singer champion chose it.

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Sources: Melon (Myself, March 20, 1991; Memory, Nov. 29, 2013, marked as a Reply 1994 song; credits and lyrics); Financial News (Oct. 29, 2014). 2014 year-end memorial stages: official KBS, MBC and SBS YouTube videos (QORK6guyzCI, LA0ph710bpU, vRFomHHXWtg). View counts as shown on YouTube, Oct. 25, 2026.