An essay collection honoring the late author Baek Se-hee, best known for her international bestseller "I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki," has been published a year after her death.
Titled "Buttermilk Way," the book was released last week by three people who were among the closest to Baek: Kim Gang-to, her partner of seven years; Lee Su-hyun, a friend of 20 years; and her younger sister, Baek Da-hee.
Baek died on Oct. 16, 2025, at age 35. The three contributors said they had never before experienced the loss of someone so close to them.
In the year following her death, they began meeting once a month to read aloud writings they had written about their grief and their lives without her. The memoir eventually became the collection, published with the consent of Baek's family.
The project grew out of a wish Baek had expressed during her lifetime: that someone would write something for her, according to her sister. Five percent of the book's cover price will be donated to the Korea Foundation for Suicide Prevention for every copy sold.
In an Instagram post last week, her younger sister reflected on the year since Baek's death.
"It still hasn't quite sunk in that a year has already passed. So much has changed, while other things have remained strangely the same," she wrote.
She thanked readers who had continued to remember Baek and revisit her writing, saying their messages had brought comfort to the family by showing that the author remained part of people's everyday lives.
"Rather than trying to speak for my sister or draw conclusions about her life, we wanted to capture how each of us spent the past year as someone who loved her."
Baek made her literary debut in 2018 with "I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki," an account of conversations with a psychiatrist as she sought treatment for dysthymia, a persistent depressive disorder. The book drew widespread attention, including a recommendation from RM of the K-pop group BTS.
Together with its 2019 sequel, the original book has sold more than 1 million copies at home and abroad. The two books have been translated into about 25 languages.
Baek donated her heart, lungs, liver and both kidneys after her death, saving five lives.
If you’re thinking about self-harm or suicide, contact the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s helpline at 109, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Please request a translator for English-language services.
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