The two main leads of the Korean drama series shared insights on their first leading roles and revealed their aspirations for the new year

Jung Eun-ji: We have heard stories from other idol groups but fortunately, nothing crazy happened to me

Reply 1997 explores the extreme fan culture that surfaced in the 90s when K-Pop was at its infancy and first generation idol groups such as H.O.T and Sechs Kies were the biggest names in the industry.

While Eun-ji plays an obsessive H.O.T fangirl in the drama, she admitted that she has never been that "crazy" for anyone. However, she cited singers Yoon Mi-rae, Gummy and Kim Gun-mo as her inspiration and hopes to "be like them" in future.

As an idol herself, the 19-year-old is thankful that she has not experienced any radical fan behaviour, though she has "heard stories from other groups", and she is especially grateful for the fans that have been with A Pink since their debut.

Having collaborated with In Guk and BEAST's Yang Yoseob previously, the starlet now dreams of working with some of the legends in South Korea's music industry, namely Kim Gun-mo and Kim Bum Soo.

"Just thinking about it gets my heart beating (fast)," she quipped.