When we asked South Korean singer-actor Lee Jun-young what he wants to be if he could wake up in someone else’s body, he paused for a solid 20 seconds to think. His answer did not disappoint.
In an interview with AsiaOne on May 28, the 29-year-old, who will be going for his mandatory military service this year, told us he wants to be a “Pokemon card collector or trader”.
He explained: “For a long time, I’ve enjoyed collecting things – including Pokemon cards – as my hobby.
“But these days, it’s getting difficult to trade Pokemon cards, so I think it would be easier if my job is to just collect them.”
The U-Kiss member was speaking to us to promote his upcoming K-drama Reborn Rookie, where he plays protagonist Joon-hyun, a young football player who gets injured in a hit-and-run accident involving chairman Kang Yong-ho, who oversees the 10th largest conglomerate in the country.
Their souls subsequently get swapped and Yong-ho now must live in Joon-hyun’s body. He becomes a new hire in his own company, quickly making waves as a rookie employee with the instincts of a seasoned veteran.
We posed the same question to his co-star, actress-model Lee Ju-myoung, who replied she wishes she could be a “pop star like Rihanna”.
In Reborn Rookie, she plays Yong-ho’s youngest daughter Bang-geul, who quietly joins his company after finishing her studies abroad. Under the new identity of Casey Kang, she aims to prove that she can rise from a lowly intern to the top without support from her family.
The 32-year-old told AsiaOne during the interview: “Although Bang-geul has been hidden away from the public by her father all these years, she’s still got a wide variety of emotions and facets of herself to show everyone. At first, you might ask, ‘What is it that she can do?’, but she’s really got something that [only] she can do.”
When asked about challenges they faced portraying their characters, Jun-young admitted that his struggles didn’t come from playing dual roles as Joon-hyun and Yong-ho, but rather, handling the corporate jargon.
“The terminology and jargon that they use for CEOs and different companies in the series was very new to me,” elaborated Jun-young, who recently gained recognition for his roles in the dramas D.P. (2021), When Life Gives You Tangerines (2025) and Weak Hero Class 2 (2025).
“But I would look around and Joo-myoung and everyone else were doing so well memorising all those lines, so that was inspiring and made me determined to do a good job. I worked my hardest and I think I managed to pull it off.”
If anything, his own personality helped him settle into the role of Yong-ho. He shared that many of his peers tell him he tends to be “more mature” than his age, much like the “ahjussi” (Korean for uncle) archetype.
In contrast, Joo-myoung, who has also starred in series Kairos (2020) and Like Flowers in Sand (2023), described herself to be a bit more childish for her age with her “vibrant” personality, which led to a good, balanced chemistry between the duo.
Remarking that she had a hard time keeping in her laughter on set, Joo-myoung said: “Firstly, my role is already an uplifting character.
“Additionally, from my own perspective, I know Jun-young plays two different characters, so he appears as a very comical and funny figure.”
Reborn Rookie will premiere on Viu on May 30.
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