Baek Se-hee (Korean: 백세희; 1990 – 16 October 2025) was a South Korean author best known for her memoir, I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki (2018), and its sequel, I Want to Die but I Still Want to Eat Tteokbokki (2019). These works related details of her treatment for chronic depression and her conflicted thoughts about it and associated issues such as comfort eating, self-harm and suicide. == Life and career == Baek was the second of three sisters born into a humble background in Goyang in the Seoul metropolitan area. As a child, she witnessed her abusive father beat her mother. She studied creative writing at Dongguk University. She then worked as a social media director for a publishing company for five years. While working, she developed dysthymia (persistent depressive disorder). She underwent psychiatric therapy for a decade, writing about the experience on her blog. Someone with similar feelings commented on this and this inspired her. In 2018, she published a memoir about her experiences with the condition and therapy. It was titled I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki, referencing her experience of still wanting to eat her favourite food, tteokbokki: a Korean dish of rice cakes commonly served with a variety of sauces and toppings. Her desire to keep eating tteokbokki stopped her from killing herself. First self-published and then acquired by Munhakdongne, the book was quite successful: it sold over a million copies and was translated into 15 languages, including Anton Hur's English translation in 2022. A sequel, I Want to Die but I Still Want to Eat Tteokbokki, was published in 2019, with an English translation following in 2024. The sequel focused especially on the themes of self-harm and suicidal ideation. Baek Se-hee died at a hospital in Goyang, on 16 October 2025, at the age of 35. According to the Korea Organ Donation Agency, her heart, lungs, liver and kidneys were donated. == Publications == === Memoirs === I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki (2018; ISBN 978-1-5266-4809-9) I Want to Die but I Still Want to Eat Tteokbokki (2019; ISBN 978-1-5266-6365-8) === Short fiction === "A Will from Barcelona" (2025) === As collaborator === No One Will Ever Love You as Much as I Do (2021) I Want to Write, I Don't Want to Write (2022) == See also == Suicide in South Korea == References == == Further reading == Talking tteokbokki and therapy – Interview with Baek Se-hee and translator Anton Hur. The Straits Times. YouTube. 4 December 2024. "Author Baek Se-hee of I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokbokki saves five lives through brain death organ donation before passing away" (in Korean). Korea Organ Donation Agency. 17 October 2025.