Actor Lee Junyoung, 29, posted a handwritten letter on social media (SNS) and said directly that he will enlist on July 21. While gaining popularity with the JTBC Saturday-Sunday drama Reborn Rookie, he informed fans first of his military enlistment.
Lee Junyoung said in a handwritten letter posted on his SNS on the 14th, "I will enlist on July 21." According to agency Billions, Lee Junyoung will enlist as an active-duty soldier in the Army, receive basic military training at a recruit training center, then be assigned to a unit and serve.
In the letter, Lee Junyoung said, "I have been thinking and thinking for months about where to start the story, and I ended up writing this myself," adding, "I'm already on my 10th revision." He continued, "Rather than delivering the news through an article, I thought it would be better for me to tell you directly, so I am leaving this message."
He also shared how he feels ahead of enlistment. Lee Junyoung said, "Until I learned the enlistment date, I lived thinking, 'Well, what's the big deal. I'll just go,' but once I actually received the date, I started having a lot on my mind for the first time in a while." He added, "I thought a lot about how to tell teachers this news first," and wrote, "I will stay healthy and come back well, in my own way."
Lee Junyoung is meeting viewers as Hwang Jun-hyeon in the currently airing JTBC Saturday-Sunday drama Reborn Rookie. In episode 6, which aired on the 14th, the drama set its own ratings record with a 9.5% nationwide paid-household rating and 10.2% in the Seoul metropolitan area, based on Nielsen Korea. The minute-by-minute peak in the metropolitan area climbed to 10.7%.
Reborn Rookie tells the story that unfolds when the spirit of Chairman Kang Yong-ho enters the body of new employee Hwang Jun-hyeon. Lee Junyoung plays Hwang Jun-hyeon in the drama, handling the soul-change setup. In recent broadcasts, as the succession structure at Choiseong Group and the conflict over the lithium mining business intensified, the ratings continued to rise.
Born in 1997, Lee Junyoung debuted in 2014 by joining the group U-KISS. He has since pursued acting in parallel, starting with tvN's Buam Dong Avengers, and appeared in Netflix's D.P., Mask Girl, When Life Gives You Tangerines, Weak Hero Class 2, and KBS 2TV's Pump Up the Healthy Love.
Projects slated for release will continue even after enlistment. Lee Junyoung has confirmed roles in the new tvN drama Four Hands, the Netflix series This Effed-up Love, and the film Autograph, among others. During his military service, he plans to meet viewers through works already filmed.