Singer and actor Park Jin-young graced the cover of the 2025 New Year‘s issue of fashion entertainment magazine The Star.

In this cover pictorial, Park Jin-young completed a unique winter pictorial with his mysterious charm that borders between a man and a boy, using dry tree branches and eating bright red apples.

Park Jin-young, who recently completed his military service, said, “It’s not easy to wait for someone for a year and a half. Nevertheless, I wanted to say thank you again for consistently sending me messages of love. Everyone said that I must have had a hard time. Of course, there were difficult moments, but I had such a happy time with my peers that I wondered if I would ever have such a healing moment in my life. I was also touched by the thought that I had successfully ended a chapter as a Korean man,” expressing his feelings after being discharged.

Park Jin-young, who said that his military service was a time for him to grow a lot, said, “I learned that there are many types of people in the world and that it‘s okay not to live as they are set in stone. In the past, I was rigid and had rigid thoughts, but now that I’ve served in the military, I‘ve realized that there are many different aspects to life. I don’t have to stick to just one thing, and I‘ve learned to think flexibly about life.”

Park Jin-young, who has been very busy since his discharge, said, “I’m filming a drama and preparing for our GOT7 album at the same time. Also, the drama I filmed before my enlistment will be airing soon, so I‘m having a busy time.”

Park Jin-young, who said that the drama “The Witch” he filmed before his enlistment is his comeback project, took on the role of protecting his loved one from the law of death by risking his life. When asked if there was something he wanted to protect with his life, Jin-young said, “Family and my people.”

When asked what love is, he said, “Love is air. You can’t see air or touch it. But don‘t we think we’ll die without it? There are also many forms of love. Love between family, love between friends, love between the opposite sex. “I think we can survive because of all these invisible but connected love links,” he said honestly.

Regarding GOT7, who will be reuniting as a full group for the first time in about 3 years, he said, “It’s been a while since we last met, and the members seemed to send me back to my early 20s. It’s just exciting when we meet, and seeing them grow so much and each doing their own music makes me so proud. In fact, group activities are finite, so at some point we’ll have to do our own activities, but I’m really excited because I think we’ll make fun memories with our fans until the end.”

He added, “To put it jokingly, it feels like we’re not gathering to release an album, but releasing an album to gather,” showing his special affection. He also dropped a strong spoiler by saying, “All of our members wrote the song.”

Lastly, he chose “’freedom” as the word he wanted to include in “Park Jin-young is OO”. “A free person with a passion to do anything. He then called himself ‘an an infinite person’. “I want to keep changing and live well in any way I can, and I want to live well.”

Jeon Hyo-jin, Donga.com Reporter jhj@donga.com