The second death of the novelist K brings together two women—one who found fame as a best-selling author by lending her name and face to K and the other who became a writer through K’s influence but seeks to escape his shadow and forge her own path—to confront their identities and explore the true meaning of freedom and existence in this thought-provoking story.   

“This story begins with K’s death and ends with K’s death. Which is impossible. Because no one can die twice.”

And so begins K’s Funeral, a novella with an intriguing premise that explores the themes of freedom and existence through the intertwined lives of three characters. The narrative opens with the death of K, a reclusive ghost writer who has confined himself to a small apartment for fifteen years. The narrator, whose name we eventually learn is Jeon Heejung, discovers his lifeless body and is immediately transported back to the time she first heard about K’s death fifteen years ago—a renowned author found dead in a shipping container, an apparent suicide.

“If we can trade our lives, wouldn’t that be a rather fair transaction?” – K

Fifteen years earlier, Heejung had a brief encounter with K on a train, which seemed insignificant until she received a phone call from K after his (faked) death. K, seeking true freedom from his past, proposed a peculiar deal: Heejung would lend him her identity, allowing him to continue writing under her name, in exchange for fame and money. Wanting to continue her aimless existence, Heejung agreed, and thus began a new chapter in both their lives.

“Despite my lack of will to lead a proactive life, I believed that the choice he gave me would grant me freedom.” – Jeon Heejung  

Fifteen years later, K's death forces Heejung to confront the reality of her borrowed life. Did her choice to become writer Jeon Heejung grant her true freedom, or did it erase her true self? Can or should she go back to the life K gave her even after his death? Where can she find the meaning of her existence now that K was dead?

Wishing to unburden herself of guilt and confusion, Heejung prints out the file K kept for his thoughts and memories of his family and drops it off at the university where K’s daughter is employed.

“The fact that I reject the surname I inherited from my father, and that I chose a new name for myself to create a world untouched by my father’s achievements, ironically brought his name to the surface at times.” – Sohn Seungmi

The novella then shifts to Sohn Seungmi, K’s daughter whose literary career began after K’s death fifteen years ago. Now a successful writer, she has distanced herself from her father’s legacy by completely changing her name and refusing to be associated with him. Yet, when Seungmi receives a manuscript of what appears to be her father’s journal addressed to her by her birth name, she finds herself thinking more and more about the man she has long wished to forget. Discovering that it was the best-selling author Jeon Heejung who sent her the journal, Seungmi is driven to uncover the connection between her father and Heejung.

As Seungmi and Heejung’s paths converge, they seek answers to their questions about K's life and death. This encounter leads them to confront their own struggles for freedom: Heejung’s quest for a meaningful life independent of K and Seungmi’s need to break free from her father’s shadow by acknowledging the impact he had on her life.

In the end, each character finds closure in their own ways. K dies twice, first socially, faking his own death to escape his past, and then physically, having lived the freedom he longed for in his past life. Heejung ties up loose ends in her life as a best-selling author and reclaims her true identity as Han Youngju, ready to start anew. Seungmi, finally at peace with her father’s memory, writes a commemorative piece on the fifteenth anniversary of his death, thus concluding her turbulent relationship with him once and for all.