In fiction, he met ‘K’ roughly a moment before the end (2,3,4,2,4)
I believe the answer is:
in the nick of time
'a moment before the end' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'in fiction he met k roughly' is the wordplay.
'roughly' indicates anagramming the letters.
'fiction'+'he'+'met'+'k'='fictionhemetk'
'fictionhemetk' is an anagram of 'thenickoftime'.
'in'+'thenickoftime'='IN THE NICK OF TIME'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for in the nick of time that I've seen before include "at the eleventh hour" , "almost, but not quite, too late" , "not a moment too soon" , "at the critical moment" , "at last possible moment" .)