🎶 A Confession about Lies and Longing: Lee Young Hoon's "One Confess" – Lyrics Translation & Emotional Reflections

“True gold fears no fire.” Some songs don’t find their audience right away — but when they do, they leave a mark that lasts. Today, I want to introduce a quiet gem released eleven years ago by Korean indie singer-songwriter Lee Young Hoon: One Confess.

Song Snapshot

Artist: Lee Young Hoon (이영훈)

Song: One Confess (일종의 고백)

Album: Singing My Picture 2 (내가 부른 그림 2)

Release Date: February 5, 2015

Composer: Lee Young Hoon (이영훈)

Lyricist: Lee Young Hoon (이영훈)

Language: Korean

Official Audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHMIJxHk4zQ

From Obscurity to Hidden Gem

One Confess was originally known only to a small circle of devoted listeners. In 2022, singer-songwriter Kwak Jin Eon covered the song as part of the OST for the Korean drama My Liberation Notes, and its popularity surged. A string of well-known Korean artists followed with their own versions, including beloved ballad singer Jung Joon Il and emerging singer-songwriter Choi Yu Ree. Yet even then, many listeners had no idea who had written and originally performed the song.

Years later, in 2025, Lee Young Hoon appeared on the Korean singing competition Sing Again 4, performing the song as its original artist. The clip quickly gained significant traction on YouTube. His understated delivery — unhurried, conversational, warm — paired with a spare guitar arrangement, allowed every word of the lyrics to land with quiet force. Many listeners noted that just a few lines were enough to capture the particular loneliness and ache that love can leave behind. Among the many versions that now exist, a large number of listeners still return to Lee Young Hoon’s original. They call him a “poet of music,” an irreplaceable presence in today’s music scene, and some have drawn comparisons to the late Korean musical legend Yoo Jae Ha.

Lee Young Hoon appeared on the Korean singing competition Sing Again 4, performing One Confess as “Contestant No. 55” and its original artist.

Official music video of Kwak Jin Eon’s cover version of One Confess (OST of the Korean drama My Liberation Notes).

Choi Yu Ree performed a cover of One Confess on the KBS music variety show The Seasons.

A Note on the Title

One Confess is the song’s official English title. While the Korean title 일종의 고백 might be more literally rendered as “A Kind of Confession,” I have used the official title throughout this article out of respect for the artist’s choice.

Lyrics Translation

The following translation is based on my self-studied Korean, reference to Korean dictionaries, some brainstorming with AI, and my own interpretation of the lyrics. I welcome any discussion or corrections.

이영훈 – 일종의 고백

Lee Young Hoon – One Confess

사랑은 언제나

Love

내 마음대로 되지 않았고

Never goes the way I want it to

또 마음은 말처럼 늘

And my heart

쉽지 않았던 시절

Was never as easy as the words I spoke

나는 가끔씩

Sometimes

이를테면 계절 같은 것에 취해

I lose myself in something I can’t quite name — like the seasons

나를 속이며 순간의 진심 같은 말로

Deceiving myself with words that feel almost sincere

사랑한다고 널 사랑한다고

I say I love you, I love you

나는 너를

I love you

또 어떤 날에는

And on other days

누구라도 상관 없으니

It doesn’t matter who —

나를 좀 안아 줬으면

I just want someone to hold me

다 사라져 버릴 말이라도

Even if every word fades away

사랑한다고 날 사랑한다고

Say you love me, you love me

서로 다른 마음은

As our hearts

어디로든 다시 흘러갈테니

Will drift apart in the end anyway

마음은 말처럼 늘

My heart

쉽지 않았던 시절

Was never as easy as the words I spoke

Translator’s Note: A Choice to Stay Close to the Original

In the line “As our hearts will drift apart in the end anyway,” I chose to preserve the original imagery of flowing and drifting, rather than translating it more loosely as “fall out of love” or “move on.” The Korean original evokes the image of water — of hearts moving like currents, naturally and inevitably. To replace that with a more idiomatic phrase would be to lose the poem inside the lyric.

Reflections

I. “A Kind of Confession” — But a Confession of What?

When we hear the word “confession,” we tend to think of a declaration of love. But at its core, a confession is simply an act of honesty — of saying aloud what we have kept inside. In this song, the confession is something far more uncomfortable: I have said words I didn’t mean. And I have wanted someone to say those same words to me, even knowing they didn’t mean them either.

The object of this confession is deliberately unclear. It could be addressed to a past lover, to the singer himself, or to anyone who has ever loved or been loved. And the word “a kind of” — 일종의 — is doing quiet but important work. It gently insists that love is not only tenderness and certainty. It is also pretence, and the longing to be deceived.

II. The Space Between the Lines: What Else, Besides the Seasons?

“Sometimes I lose myself in something I can’t quite name — like the seasons.” The singer does not tell us exactly what draws him in. The seasons are offered as an example, not a complete answer — and that incompleteness is intentional.

In Korean literature and song, the seasons carry a particular weight. They represent the passing of time, the turning of feeling, the things we cannot hold onto. By choosing the seasons as his example, the songwriter quietly signals that everything “I” becomes lost in is, by nature, temporary.

The deliberate vagueness here is not a gap in the writing — it is an invitation. Each listener is left to fill in the blank with their own version of that unnamed feeling: a mood, a moment, the particular light of an afternoon, the warmth of being near someone. The blurred edges of the lyric are what make it feel so personal.

III. Repetition, Contrast, and Circular Structure

The phrases “I love you” and “love me” appear in both the second and third verses — but they carry very different weights each time. These declarations, which should sound like the strongest words a person can say, are quietly undermined by everything surrounding them. They become a kind of irony: the louder the words, the emptier the feeling behind them. This echoes back to the opening line — my heart was never as easy as the words I spoke.

The second and third verses also form a subtle mirror image of each other. In the second, “I” am the one saying words I don’t fully mean, caught up in a feeling I know will pass. In the third, the roles shift: now “I” am the one who wants to be held and told “I love you,” even knowing the other person may not mean it either. This reversal deepens the self-awareness — and the self-reproach — at the heart of the song. It is not just that love is difficult. It is that we are all, at times, both the deceiver and the one who longs to be deceived.

The song opens and closes with the same lines: my heart was never as easy as the words I spoke. This circular structure gives the song a sense of quiet resignation — not bitterness, but a kind of clear-eyed acceptance. Love has always been this way. It will always be this way.

IV. A Personal Reflection: Change Is Constant; Constancy Takes Work

I’ll be honest — I don’t have much personal experience with romantic love. But I do know that people change. Hearts change. And I think this song understands something true about all close relationships, not only romantic ones: staying close to another person requires effort that is easy to underestimate.

It requires honesty — the kind that means saying difficult things out loud rather than letting them quietly shift the shape of how you feel. It requires the small, deliberate acts of choosing someone again and again: a trip taken together, a shared interest nurtured, a conversation that goes somewhere real.

This song made me think of an old idea: to know what love requires is one thing; to do it is another entirely. The knowing is easy. The doing is where most of us quietly struggle.This song made me think of an old idea: to know what love requires is one thing; to do it is another entirely. The knowing is easy. The doing is where most of us quietly struggle.

And perhaps that is why this song resonates beyond the boundaries of romantic love. The desire to be held and told that we matter — even imperfectly, even temporarily — is not unique to any one kind of relationship. It is simply human.

Further Reading: AKMU’s Lee Chan Hyuk Recommended This Song Back in 2019

Long before A Kind of Confession found its wider audience, AKMU member Lee Chan Hyuk — one half of the acclaimed sibling duo often described as the most musically gifted act of their generation — recommended it on the tvN programme Wednesday Music Playlist in 2019, a show dedicated to introducing overlooked or underappreciated songs. The hosts and guests responded with immediate warmth.

After Lee Young Hoon’s appearance on Singer Again 4, the clip resurfaced on YouTube and the view count climbed sharply. Commenters were quick to praise Lee Chan Hyuk’s taste — noting that he had recognised something remarkable in the song years before the rest of the world caught up.

AKMU’s Lee Chan Hyuk Recommended One Confess on tvN programme Wednesday Music Playlist in 2019.

🎶 A Confession about Lies and Longing: Lee Young Hoon’s “One Confess” – Lyrics Translation & Emotional Reflections

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