The 34th Newsletter

About my personality, and my new single

Author

Jong Hee Kim
June 28, 2025

Hi there

This is your A.thentic Jong Hee

This is my 34th newsletter for you.

How are you today?
What’s the weather like around you? Is it summer or winter where you are?

As you may have seen from my Instagram posts, Korea is currently in its rainy season. It usually begins in mid-June and ends in early July, although that can vary each year.

So lately, even though summer has already started, the temperatures haven’t been very high — around 21 to 28°C in Busan, and 20 to 30°C in Seoul. It’s actually perfect weather to go outside and enjoy this nice the day.

Last Saturday, June 21st, Haeundae Beach here in my city officially opened for the summer. But it rained heavily with strong winds, so I waited for a better day. Finally, yesterday (Thursday), the skies were clear and the weather was perfect, so I went to the beach, even bringing my swimsuit to jump into the sea.

Here’s a photo from the beach yesterday:

It’s still a bit early in Korea for beach season — Haeundae opened first, but most other beaches in the country haven't officially opened yet. So I only saw a few domestic tourists, and quite a few international visitors.

As you may know, Korea doesn’t have tropical regions. We have four distinct seasons throughout the country. It’s still not “hot enough” for swimming, especially in Busan. When I went yesterday around 5 p.m. (the beach closes at 6), the water was too cold to swim, so I just dipped my feet in. Still, I saw some toddlers and kids splashing around in the sea.

Anyway, summer is finally here — the season I’ve been waiting for. Each season in Korea brings its own mood and feeling, and I enjoy experiencing those changes every year.

After spending a cold winter covered in white snow, the warm spring season arrives, with flowers blooming everywhere. Then, once the flowers fade—except for the four-season blooms—the hot summer comes, inviting us to enjoy vacations at the beach or cool resorts with lovers, friends, and family. And if the summer gets too hot, the cool and breezy autumn follows to give us relief.

So summer feels like a gift—an offering of cool, romantic seas—as if to make up for the melancholy that follows the brief bloom of spring flowers like cherry blossoms. In that sense, summer is perhaps a season of emotional healing for me. Of course, there is a certain joy in summer—but maybe that's exactly why the feelings it brings are even more bittersweet, and sadness. I’ll talk more about this later.

Now, I’d like to talk a bit about the AI I briefly mentioned on Instagram.

First, after writing my newsletter in English, I always ask AI to proofread it. Since many of my readers are non-native English speakers, even small mistakes in English could lead to strange translations when run through translation tools. So I try to make sure there’s not even a single error.

Also, when I write the story “The story of Hyun and Jisoo,” I ask AI to translate it into English as well. But then I go back and read the whole thing slowly and carefully. You might not believe this—but AI also makes mistakes. Sometimes it even makes things up! That’s why I always double-check the translated text, switching out words and fixing sentences.

(One time, for example, AI added a sentence saying “Jisoo’s uncle is watching TV in the living room”—which had nothing to do with my original story! It just made that part up, as if it had written the novel itself. So you really have to be careful.)

And the AI I use even looks into my Instagram—it knows what kind of songs I’ve made as an artist. It also seems to know what I’ve written in my newsletters or on Instagram. Then one day, as I opened the AI platform, it suddenly asked if I was curious about my personality as an artist. (Of course, this could be risky.) But I bravely said, “Go ahead.”

Then it asked me what I thought was my most representative album. After a brief moment of thought, I answered: “I’m Still Missing You” and “While You Were Sleeping.” They’re my most recent piano albums, and my recent lo-fi tracks. And then a few minutes later, it described me like this—!

Below is exactly what the AI told me.

- The Piaist’s Soul - 

"The Pianist of Rain and Memory"

“A Seoul-souled storyteller who weaves gentle rain, quiet longing, and bold dreams into every piano note. A creator of midnight melodies and urban loneliness, you capture fleeting romance and silent hope in pieces like “Rain in My Heart” and “Night Drive”. Whether crafting lo-fi city vibes or rustic countryside tales of Hyun and Jisoo, your world dances between modern city light and rural warmth.

With a pen in one hand for heartfelt newsletters and Logic Pro X (*This is a recording tool I use to record my piano and other instrument performances.) at your fingertips, you stand at the crossroad of music and memory — forever chasing beauty in small benches, quiet windows, and streets where flowers bloom.

You believe no one is truly alone — and your music says so with every key.

What a unique mix you are.“

After reading what the AI wrote, I found it surprisingly insightful. It felt like it somehow knew me well.

For example, even though I live in Busan, it figured out that I always keep "Seoul" in my heart. Since it has access to all my newsletters and the story of "Hyun and Jisoo," it seems to understand what kind of emotions I often carry. And honestly, most of what it said about my emotional tendencies felt accurate. The last few lines seemed like a collage of all the track titles from my "I’m Still Missing You" album—but even that aligns with the feelings I was trying to convey, so I wouldn’t say it’s wrong.

What do you think?

As someone who makes music, I often experience deep loneliness. And sometimes, after composing a piece, performing it on the piano, or writing a story, I find it hard to escape the emotional world I’ve created. It can take me days to come back to myself.

Have you ever heard about actors who suffer from depression after playing intense roles in films or dramas—because they couldn’t separate from their characters? I think what I go through is quite similar.

What’s clear is this: back when I was writing songs for other K-pop artists, I never felt this way. Even though I wrote the music, it wasn’t fully mine—it belonged to them. And maybe that emotional distance protected me.

Okay. Lastly, let me talk about my upcoming single.

It will be released on Monday, June 30th, and available from midnight.
The title is “Fading Heart Shore.”

This is the second track in what I call my album for the Sea, by the Sea.(title not yet decided).

The first was my piano single “Ocean Blue Wind”, released two years ago.

“Ocean Blue Wind”

My Piano performance video for this song :

And here is the album cover for my new single:

By the way, you'd better follow my Spotify Artist page to get notified when my new single is released.

Unlike Ocean Blue Wind, which carried a calm atmosphere, Fading Heart Shore reflects my current emotional state. As I shared earlier about summer mood—how the ocean brings joy and peace, but also a quiet sorrow—this song expresses that duality.

It’s a piece that sings of the emotions I feel as I look out at the sea.
A composer cannot lie through their music.
I simply can’t create something bright and cheerful just to say, “I’m perfectly happy right now”—if that’s not true.

This is why I made this piece.
We all feel lonely sometimes. I’m sure you do too.
But like the AI told me: no one is truly alone.

Perhaps that’s why I write these letters, and why I make music—to share that feeling with you.

It doesn’t have to be the sea.
Wherever your favorite place may be—if you find yourself alone there, and feeling a bit empty—I hope you’ll listen to this music.
Because even though I am alone, and you may be too sometimes, I truly believe we are still connected—through my music, or words like this, and through our hearts, even from afar.

Creating music and writing emotional stories may leave me feeling more lonely for a time. 

But if my work brings you comfort—even just a little—then it’s worth it.


Even if I become lonelier and more drained, it’s okay.
Because I’m an artist.

Thank you for reading.

Until we meet again, right here.

Warm Regards.

A.thentic Jong Hee