Written on a Melodica Under a Blanket, It Ended Up in Squid Game: “To You”

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

No. 1, “To You” (Geudaeege), was designed from the start to win a prize, and that calculation hasn’t missed once in 38 years. The 1988 College Song Festival grand prize, the anthem of college festivals, a Squid Game Season 2 insert song and the song his children sang in 2025 are all this one track.

Infinite Track – “To You” (MBC Documentary Special, 2014) — 2.22 million views

Its combined views come to about 77.1 million, almost twice No. 2, “Lazenca, Save Us.” Infinite Track sang it at the 1988 MBC College Song Festival and won the grand prize, with words, music and arrangement all by Shin (Melon). The original festival video alone has 22.76 million views. While writing these eleven parts, I had to stop more than once because I missed him too much. This last part is one fan’s reply to him.

A melodica under the blanket

That year Shin was a second-year philosophy student at Sogang University. A few months earlier he had won nothing at the Riverside Song Festival (Part 7), so he engineered a song for the contest. The goal was to “hit in one shot, stand out from the very first note and grab the audience” (Korea Economic Daily, Oct. 11, 2026). To hide from his father, who opposed his music, he spent three months in bed under a blanket writing it on a melodica he’d bought at a stationery store (Korea Economic Daily, Oct. 11, 2026; Busan Ilbo).

The result was a 45-second intro. At a festival dominated by folk singers and soloists, Infinite Track, a joint band of students from Seoul National, Yonsei and Sogang universities, poured out synthesizers from three keyboards, with nothing on top but Shin’s wordless “whoa-oh.” They went on last, and when the intro started, the head judge, Korean pop legend Cho Yong-pil, worn out from a long night of judging, is said to have sensed “grand prize” right away (Korea Economic Daily, Oct. 11, 2026; Hankyoreh, Oct. 24, 2024). Years later, at Shin’s memorial altar, Cho said, “He was my junior, but I respected him.”

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

Even if I lose everything

The song opens with a confession: even in the middle of a breathless life, we miss each other. He wants to share all his remaining days with her, and then the chorus bursts open.

내가 사랑한 그 모든 것을 다 잃는다 해도 / 그대를 포기할 수 없어요

Even if I lose everything I have ever loved, / I can’t give you up.

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

The promise repeats: he can feel her breath anywhere in this world, and he’ll stay by her side until the day his life ends. It’s a love song, yet college students sing this chorus as a fight song, waving their arms side to side. It works whether “you” is a lover, our school or our team.

The three-legged race in Squid Game

In Squid Game Season 2, released Dec. 26, 2024, the song plays as the cheer for a race in which five players run with their legs tied together. The music director said it was an insert song the director had written into the script, and that he arranged it with electronic sounds to bring out warmth inside the tragedy (Nocut News, Feb. 9, 2025). In March 2025 a “Squid Game Season 2 version” came out as a single (Melon).

Buzz, Crying Nut, LUCY, and his children

On Dec. 31, 2014, two months after he died, the MBC Gayo Daejejeon opened its memorial stage with Shin Sung-woo, N.EX.T and younger singers performing “To You.”

Shin Sung-woo, N.EX.T and others – “To You” (MBC Gayo Daejejeon, 2014) — 90,000 views

In January 2015 the band Buzz sang it on the New Year special of KBS’s Immortal Songs, and in October 2024, the 10th anniversary, Crying Nut took the same stage with Shin’s son Shin Dong-won (Hankyoreh, Oct. 24, 2024).

Buzz – “To You” (Immortal Songs 2, KBS, 2015) — 510,000 views

Crying Nut – “To You” (Immortal Songs 2, KBS, 2024) — 50,000 views

The band LUCY sang it on Mnet’s Livewire in August 2025, and two months later, at the MBC College Song Festival revived after 13 years, they sang it again with Shin’s daughter Shin Ha-yeon and son Shin Dong-won. Their father’s voice, restored with AI, was mixed into the stage. On the stage where their father won the grand prize, his children sang the same song 37 years later (JoongAng Ilbo, Oct. 25 and 27, 2025).

LUCY – “To You” (Livewire, Mnet, 2025) — 140,000 views

Shin Ha-yeon, Shin Dong-won and LUCY – “To You” (2025 MBC College Song Festival) — 530,000 views

After the stage, his son said, “More than 10 of my father’s death anniversaries have already gone by, and I’m grateful to the fans who still remember him” (JoongAng Ilbo, Oct. 27, 2025). The song IU, DAY6 and Xdinary Heroes sang (Part 1) still rings out at college festivals across Korea every fall.

His gravestone carries the title of a N.EX.T song: “Here, I Stand For You” (Korea Economic Daily, Oct. 11, 2026). The promise a 20-year-old wrote under a blanket, to stay by her side until the day his life ends, is being kept by the song instead. Thank you, Demon King. We’re still right here beside your songs.

---

Sources: Melon (“To You” credits and lyrics; “To You (Squid Game Season 2 version),” March 14, 2025); Korea Economic Daily (Oct. 11, 2026); Busan Ilbo (Aug. 4, 2016; Oct. 21, 2015); Hankyoreh (Oct. 24, 2024); Nocut News (Feb. 9, 2025); JoongAng Ilbo (Oct. 25 and 27, 2025). The original 1988 festival video (22.76 million views) is not embedded because its channel owner could not be confirmed. View counts as shown on YouTube, Oct. 25, 2026.