CLON Kang Won-rae Recalls Sobbing at Barbie Hsu's Grave with DJ Koo: "I Couldn't Take a Single Bite Our Lunch"

CLON’s Kang Won-rae shared a deeply personal story about marking the first anniversary of Barbie Hsu’s passing, revealing that he met DJ Koo in Taiwan to visit her grave.

Posting on social media on the 4th, Kang said he flew to Taipei after reading reports that Koo had been visiting the cemetery every day. “I felt guilty for missing both the wedding and the funeral,” he wrote. Unsure of the exact location, he texted Koo on a whim ― and the two agreed to meet in the cemetery parking lot the next morning.

Kang recalled that Koo helped carry him up a few steps to the site, then returned to the car to bring three lunchboxes ― one for Barbie Hsu, one for Kang, and one for himself. Inside was egg-and-rice, a simple dish Koo used to make for Kang “back when we were kids, 40 years ago.”

The moment overwhelmed him. “He said, ‘Won-rae, say hello ― this is Hee-won,’ and ‘Hee-won, it’s been a while. Won-rae’s here. Let’s eat together.’ I burst into tears and couldn’t take a single bite,” Kang wrote, adding that Koo sat beside him, quietly sobbing.

In a separate post, Kang shared a photo from a waiting room, where Koo had been listening to Korean songs on repeat and scribbling on a slip of tissue. After Koo was called to the stage, Kang noticed the paper covered with the words “Seo Hee-won” and “Hee-won-ah” ― Barbie Hsu’s Korean name ― and kept it so it wouldn’t be thrown away.

Kang said witnessing Koo’s devotion underscored a love that even death couldn’t dim. Kang and Koo rose to fame across Asia as the duo CLON, while Hsu first met Koo as a fan before they fell in love. The two separated amid their careers, reconnected two decades later, and married in 2022 ― but less than three years on, Barbie Hsu passed away on Feb. 2, 2025.

(SBS Entertainment News | Kang Kyung-youn)