The Song a Bandmate Gave Him on His Way Out

Part 4 of 16 in Kim Kwang-seok: The Dead Singer K-pop Can't Let Go

No. 13, “Please Wait for Me,” was the best-loved song on Kim Kwang-seok’s first solo album, and it was written by a friend who stayed behind in the band he left. The man who walked out to make it on his own got his first hit from the man he left. Of all the stories behind Kim Kwang-seok’s songs, this is the one I love most. A friendship that sent him off with a song instead of a grudge.

Kim Kwang-seok – “Please Wait for Me” (Official Audio, 2022 Remastered) — 350,000 views

Its combined views come to about 12.6 million. Kim Chang-ki of Dongmulwon wrote the words and music, and it appeared on Kim’s first album, released Sept. 20, 1989 (Melon; Busan Ilbo, July 1, 2015).

The one who left and the one who stayed

After Dongmulwon’s second album in 1988, Kim left the band to become a full-time singer. His friends graduated and took jobs, and Kim Chang-ki stayed in Dongmulwon while he kept studying medicine (Part 2) (Busan Ilbo, July 1, 2015).

Kim Chang-ki still gave songs to the friend who had walked away. Six of the ten tracks on Kim’s debut album were his own, and two of the remaining four were Kim Chang-ki’s. One of them was “Please Wait for Me.” In its classic-album series, the Busan Ilbo wrote that the debut “sold not badly,” and that “Please Wait for Me” was “loved almost as much as the hits of his Dongmulwon days.” Kim himself is said to have had regrets about that first album.

기다려 줘 기다려 줘 / 내가 그대를 이해할 수 있을 때까지

Wait for me, wait for me, / until I can understand you.

— Lyrics and music by Kim Chang-ki (1989), excerpt

He starts by confessing that he doesn’t understand her yet. He wants to be an unchanging love that can shine on her sad heart, but he’s still searching for the way into it. So instead of a promise, he makes a request: wait for me, just until I can understand you.

It’s a love song. Put it between two friends who had just gone separate ways, though, and it sounds different. The friend who stayed handed the friend who left a song that says “wait until I can understand you.”

Also read: The Song a Korean Newscast Closed On the Night the Sewol Was Raised: "Fly, Chick"

Singing his debut song again

In 1993 Kim released Dasi Bureugi I (“Singing Again I”), an album of other people’s songs. On an album of remakes, he re-recorded this track from his own debut (Melon). The same album carried “A Letter from a Private” (Part 6) and “Writing a Letter on a Cloudy Autumn Sky” (Part 2). He also sang it at the Madang Cecil Theater in July 1991.

Kim Kwang-seok – “Please Wait for Me” (Madang Cecil Theater, July 30, 1991) — 22,000 views

Lim Young-woong’s 3.47 million, Kim Feel’s 2.28 million

Two singers built this song’s numbers. Lim Young-woong’s “Please Wait for Me” on TV Chosun’s Love Call Center has 3.47 million views.

Lim Young-woong – “Please Wait for Me” (Love Call Center, TV Chosun) — 3.47 million views

Kim Feel’s performance on the 2016 Kim Kwang-seok episode of KBS’s Immortal Songs has 2.28 million. Kim Feel would later hit 39.72 million views with “It’s Not Love If It Hurts Too Much” on JTBC’s Begin Again 3 (Part 16).

Kim Feel – “Please Wait for Me” (Immortal Songs, KBS, 2016) — 2.28 million views

Singer-songwriter Ha Hyun-sang posted a live clip on his own channel (700,000 views). Shin Yong-jae of 4MEN sang it on Immortal Songs in 2012, and Younha sang it on KBS’s Open Concert in 2020.

Ha Hyun-sang – “Please Wait for Me” (Live Clip) — 700,000 views

Younha – “Please Wait for Me” (Open Concert, KBS, 2020) — 210,000 views

Jeong Sewoon, who came out of the audition show Produce 101 Season 2, picked up a guitar and sang it on tvN D’s Jeong Sewoon’s Starlight Live.

Jeong Sewoon – “Please Wait for Me” (Starlight Live, tvN D) — 10,000 views

Kim set off alone, and the friend he left kept giving him songs, “Those Days” among them (Part 10). The man who was handed a song asking him to wait stopped at 32. The man who wrote it still plays small stages with the Kim Chang-ki Band (Munhwa Ilbo, Dec. 11, 2020). Whenever this song rings out on one of those stages, the fan in me wants to believe the two friends are still singing together.

Previous: Part 3 — The Kim Kwang-seok Song Gen Z Found on Its Own

Next, No. 12: “The Day She First Cried,” one of the two songs he sang on his last TV appearance, the night before he died.

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Sources: Melon (lyrics and music by Kim Chang-ki; Kim Kwang-seok, Dasi Bureugi I, 1993); Busan Ilbo (July 1, 2015; debut album released Sept. 20, 1989); “Answer Me, Dongmulwon” interview (Dec. 22, 2015); Munhwa Ilbo interview with Kim Chang-ki (Dec. 11, 2020). View counts as shown on YouTube, Oct. 25, 2026. Other songs with similar titles, such as g.o.d’s “Wait for Me,” were left out of the total.