REVIEW · Music & Albums
Lee Ki Chan’s “Cold”: An Old Breakup Song Finds a Pharmacy
The pharmacy-busking pun opens a door to a 2002 ballad. “Cold,” its 2026 remake and a singer finding his own stage reveal more than a nostalgic publicity idea.
Karaoke numbers
When a title becomes a location
Go to a pharmacy to sing “Cold.” Lee Ki Chan’s pharmacy-busking idea needs little explanation. A title that likens heartbreak to illness enters a space that sells medicine, giving an old ballad a new setting. A familiar singer in an unexpected place catches attention before the first musical argument begins.
The project accompanied the September 19, 2026 release of “Cold (2026),” a rerecording by the singer twenty-four years after the original. The pharmacy provides an entrance to the promotion. Listening to the music brings back the original question: why does a feeling still hurt when time was supposed to heal it?
Lee Ki Chan · official pharmacy-busking episode
이기찬 LEE KI CHAN · Watch on YouTube ↗
A heart that does not recover on schedule
Lee wrote and composed “Cold,” included on his sixth album, New Story II, in 2002. Its everyday title belies an unsettled state. Understanding that a relationship has ended and making feelings obey that understanding are different tasks; the gap holds the song together.
The narrator keeps calculating whether the other person might return. No promise to wait has been made, yet time is counted and resolutions to forget repeatedly fail. A cold suggests the expectation of eventual recovery while naming pain that refuses to end on command.
The distance before the chorus
The song does not reveal all its feeling immediately. Lower phrases begin conversationally, leaving a distance for the chorus to cross. As the melody opens upward, an emotion previously contained comes into view. Remembering only a high note misses the hesitation that makes its arrival matter.
The decisive event is not simply singing loudly. A sentence reaches the point where it can no longer end calmly. Breath extending toward sustained notes and a returning melody bring attachment back to the same place. After the climax there is little sense of a problem solved: the song is still awaiting recovery.
Lee Ki Chan · “Cold” original music video · 1theK reupload
1theK (원더케이) · Watch on YouTube ↗
Arranging his own song again
For “Cold (2026),” Lee also took the arranging credit. The album introduction supplied through the distributor describes a modern-rock sound and a plainer vocal approach, with guitar by Heo Seok and bass by Yoon Jin-won. Its stated focus is a change in musical texture and delivery around a recognizable melody.
A singer revisiting his own work need not recreate the old voice exactly. The more interesting question is how to give present weight to a melody already embedded in other people’s memories. Choosing restraint rather than simply enlarging the emotion invites a hearing beyond the restoration of nostalgia.
Lee Ki Chan · “Cold (2026)” official audio
KiChanLee - Topic · Watch on YouTube ↗
Finding a stage instead of waiting for one
On the October 14 broadcast of tvN’s You Quiz on the Block, Lee discussed the idea and the work of promoting it. The old route of releasing a record and appearing across television had changed, he explained; he needed to move himself to let people hear his music. The link between title and setting came from that practical decision.
Lee Ki Chan · official You Quiz interview · broadcast October 14, 2026
유 퀴즈 온 더 튜브 · Watch on YouTube ↗
Past the pharmacy, back to the song
An old hit need not rely only on a large stage to find another audience. The pharmacy is the first thing a short clip makes visible. What invites a comparison of the original and remake is the familiar melody and the unresolved feeling within it.
The title now supports a joke about location, but the song itself still cannot easily put a breakup in order. That distance makes the busking more interesting than a simple nostalgia event. When curiosity about a title turns into time spent hearing a song again, an old recording begins another life.
Next stop: MIYU’s Seoul concert
Lee Ki Chan will appear as a guest at KANO MIYU’s Seoul concert, “1999 ep 2026,” on November 1. The voice drawing renewed attention through pharmacy busking will next be heard in a concert setting.