[Interview|Trans] Midnight Play with Lee Jungshin in Elle Girl November 2012

EG: Today you changed your hair style. You look good with short hair! Don’t you feel any regrets? Since you have kept long hair for so long.

Jungshin: I had my hair this short after 5~6 years. My hair was really long till I started drama ‘My Daughter Seo Young‘. My hair was down to the collarbone, and I cut it when I started filming. It was as much as one year length. My hair was still long even after I cut it, but I felt most regretful at that moment.

Actually I was getting comments like  ‘I want you to have your hair cut. You look stuffy‘. So I was talking to myself, “It’s OK, I will cut soon.” Finally I could cut my hair today. I feel happy. And I hope to hear (people said),  ‘You look cool, You look good.’

EG: Don’t you get hurt by such comments or bad responses?

Jungshin: I‘m not the kind of person who easily gets  hurt and worry by myself  thinking ‘What should I do…’. I enjoy watching what people talk about me. Of course I can hear both good words and bad words. Those are all interest toward me. Being a prey for them is not that bad. (laughs)

EG: Not long ago, Minhyuk and Jonghyun’s drama ended successfully. You are succeeding them with acting, don’t you feel burdened? 

Jungshin: The ones who would feel burdened are the lead actors, staffs and writer. This is my first drama. I just hope I will not do harm to ‘My Daughter Seo Young‘‘. I also hope that different from CNBLUE Lee Jungshin, I would get familiar to any scene on TV. Of course I hope my acting skill gets better.

EG: Acting is the first challenge for you, what is different from music?

Jungshin: Jonghyun Hyung once said at an interview that acting and playing music are the same because both are arts. So I asked him what is same between those two. I can’t seem to find any similarities between them. Music is me being  myself when I play the musical instruments. But acting is what I express about the character, which can be different from myself.

EG: It seems like the members monitor each other, even the interviews.

Jungshin: After ‘A Gentlemen’s Dignity’, Jonghyun Hyung had many interview schedules. I read them all at fan sites. I thought, “Me and him and CNBLUE have grown up a lot.” Actually Jonghyun Hyung and I talk to each other face to face everyday, but we never have such embarrassing conversation. But I could see his thoughts which may make him embarrassed. Although sometimes I thought “Why did he say it like that~” but at some points, I was happy I could learn his inner feeling.

EG: ‘Yonghwa’s love toward Lee Jungshin’ is well known to fans. You two always share room at hotels.

Jungshin: My real brother who is doing his military service now is the same age as Yonghwa Hyung, born in 1989. Maybe because of that, and Yonghwa Hyung and I have similar personalities, our way of talking. We match well when we are talking about clothes or girls.

We play tricks on each other, and both of us are very noisy. ‘Today’s target is Minhyuk’, then we would bother Minhyuk. Then Minhyuk would bother me and Yonghwa Hyung. I think Yonghwa Hyung may feel more comfortable towards me than Minhyuk. Ah I should have not said that. Haha anyway, we suit each other well.

EG: Then aren’t you closer to him than to your real brother?

Jungshin: No, I am very much close to my real brother. That’s why the members are jealous to us (Jungshin and his real brother). They say they’ve never seen a guy who Kakao Talk to his real brother. I think I am blessed. Actually I thought we could even live together till one of us gets married. But since I am living separately ever since my debut, so that’s why we miss each other more, think and care about each other more.

EG: I heard members feel most comfortable in your room.

Jungshin: Haha. I need one more bed in my room. When I come home after my schedule one day, Jonghyun Hyung is sleeping on my bed, and another day it was Yonghwa Hyung sleeping on it.

EG: I want to know how your room is.

Jungshin: Just an ordinary room. Clothes hanger, desk, cosmetics, books, CDs, computer, bed, stand etc. The funny thing is, the members say they feel warm in my room during winter and it’s cool in summer.
When I was a kid, we had an expensive, thick blanket embroidered with golden fish and microfiber blankets. I couldn’t sleep without it. Our member were fascinated by that microfiber blankets, so my mother changed (bought) Yonghwa and Jonghyun Hyung’s blankets. (laughs)

EG: These days the hot key words are ‘Music of 90s‘, and ‘Anipang’. This question first, who were your favorite singers in the 90s?

Jungshin: Jo Seong Mo and Yoo Seung Joon. And when I was younger, it was Seo Taeji! If I listen to those songs, I would be reminded of my elementary school days playing computer games. I used to play games listening to music endlessly from Bugs Music. Now if I listen to those songs again, I can remember what game I played, what I thought.

EG: How about ‘Anipang’? Who is the best at it among the four of you?

Jungshin: All we four played it really hard. We sent hearts to each other. Private ranking is, Minhyuk is the top with 200,000 points. Yonghwa Hyung and I are about 100,000 points. Jonghyun Hyung is the poorest.

At first I wondered how people get 500,000 points, but I made it. With big screen tablet PC, Minhyuk played at the left side, I would play on the right side, we got 560,000 points and felt like a hero for a week. But we got bored soon.

EG: It seems Minhyuk is the best at playing games.

Jungshin: He is good even with a game he plays for the first time. He studied the manual book of Play Station Football Game and mastered all the strategies. People hardly read such manuals. When I looked into his room to see what he’s doing in the early morning, he was studying ‘How to Play – Winning 101′. So I thought ‘he cannot help but to play well.’

EG: Do you have anything you can do specially better than others?

Jungshin: Actually no, I don’t. I have anything that I could do well originally, but things I accomplished by practicing. But if I have to choose one, maybe it’s lighting up the mood, encouraging people. My close friends say that I often give them confidence.

EG: Your drama character ‘Seongjae’ is called idiot, but he has dream toward fashion. Did you have those days when you worry about your future?

Jungshin: When I was in middle school, actually I didn’t study, I liked to play more. My mother never told me to study, she always told me do what I want to do. That’s my parents’ rule of education. But when I entered high school, I started to feel the crisis. One by one, my friends started to prepare for college entrance. I felt frightened.

At that time, I was into photography. My uncles on my mother’s side are all good with camera. When I was a kid, my other friends had just sloppy photos taken by their fathers. But I could get real professional photos taken by my uncles.
When I was in high school, DSLR camera has just spread, I could use one. And I even took photos with my uncles’ film cameras. At that time, I liked to take photos more than being taken.

I loved to listen to music a lot but I never thought I could be an entertainer. But one day I took an audition, and while others practice 6 years for debut, I did it in short period with overnight practice.

EG: How was your parents’ response when you said you become an entertainer?

Jungshin: They like it. Back then, when we were watching TV together, my mother used to joke “Heww~ if anyone let us do that, it would be nice.” I used to be a son who acted like a daughter to her, we used to sit on sofa side by side and chat about lots of things.

EG: You must be very popular in your school, have you ever had a one-sided love?

Jungshin: Of course I have. But it didn’t last long. Because I was young, I fell in love easily and felt bored easily too. I have dated a girl friend for some times during high school, but after debut, I don’t have time to do so (date). I feel bigger satisfaction with my work and I am quite busy to think about that. Of course I still want to date though.

EG: If you date, what do you expect to your partner?

Jungshin: I hate immature person, such as the kind that does luxurious shopping, who speaks low class words. And I hope my partner speaks less, so I myself can entertain her. One who listens to my story well, who is nice, a ‘matured kid’. I don’t think I am immature, but I hope she is more matured than me.

EG: Recently when was the happiest moment and when was the hardest moment?

Jungshin: We are performing for our Japan tour now. After the concert, when we go out to greet to audience to the left end, right end, and main and center stage, I feel the happiest. I feel happy getting claps of audience from their heart. I also feel happy when I am praised about my good acting.

I don’t have any hard moments. I always think I am not good enough at anything yet. I know I am not good enough, I always try to work harder to make it better.

EG: It’s 1000th day since your debut. Do you have any plan of party after schedule?

Jungshin: Jonghyun and Yonghwa Hyung are in Osaka, Japan. Minhyuk and I came back for short time because of our schedules. We have to spend our time separately today.

We already chatted a lot in our group chatting room. We never said cheesy words like ‘It’s 1000th Day, Hwaiting!’, they disregarded my new hair style so much… Minhyuk said it looked good with me, and hyungs say, “Just so so”. After I laughed and talked loudly with them, I get the energy. And I feel good that to commemorate my new hair cut, I shoot photo with Elle Girl. (laughs)

Scans credit: BOICE @paris0915 (Parishin)
Kor-Eng Translation credit: BOICE @saturnKR
Edited by: fizzy @ cnbluestorm