SEOUL, Oct 13 — Korean Nobel Prize for Literature winner Han Kang now has huge queues for her books since her win but her success has also become a boon for popular sibling duo AKMU.
In a previous interview about her 2021 novel I Do Not Bid Farewell she mentioned songs that had “accompanied” her as she wrote it and one song she mentioned was AKMU’s hit How Can I Love the Heartbreak, You’re the One I Love.
She had just finished the draft of the novel and as she got into a taxi, the song was playing.
“I listened to it thinking, “I know this song, it’s a famous song.”
As she listened to it, the song touched her in a different way — in particular, the endling lyrics.
“How could I, to you/Our love so deep as the ocean/Waiting till it runs dry will be our farewell.”
The imagery in the lyrics touched her to the point she found herself crying unexpectedly in the taxi.
An interview in which Nobel Prize-winning novelist Han Kang mentioned AKMU's song "How can I love the heartbreak, You're the one I love" (2019) is being re-visited."All of a sudden, at the end, the lyrics came to me in a whole new way, and I shed tears without even knowing."... pic.twitter.com/DkD51QVViX
— AKMU Updates (@akmu_updates) October 11, 2024
At the time the song was released on September 25,2019 it topped all seven of Korea’s realtime charts: Melon, Genie, Bugs, Mnet, Naver, Soribada, and Flo.
Thanks to the resurfacing of Han Kang’s interview, the song has started ascending up the charts again from 34th place on Korea’s daily music chart to 27th place.
Watch the song’s music video below:
