K-pop fandom has been known for its extensive versatility. You have fans from everywhere, and by that we mean literally EVERYWHERE. From age groups to races, nationalities to ethnicity, we have k-pop stans from every area of life. Most of the fans we encounter in our daily life are loving, kind, and so so loving; not only towards normal people but idols too, especially their favorites.
But there are some fans who go to extreme levels to gain the attention of their fans and to gain their “love” from the idols, even resorting to criminal and threatening activities. These fans are called Sasaengs. The activities by sasaengs are not only dangerous but also very traumatizing for the idols, which only adds to the damage to their mental health. These incidents are highly terrifying for k-pop idols and, unfortunately, are very high in frequency. But idols; our brave, brave idols have opened up and shared their scary encounters with their sasaengs.
Thus, we have compiled 5 scary sasaeng incidents experienced by k-pop idols/groups which have scarred them forever:
1. BLACKPINK’s Jennie
K-pop has fans and supporters in the celebrity circle too. There have been lovely collaborations between k-pop artists and other musicians, social media posts, and selcas of support and appreciation by many well-known celebrities. BLACKPINK, being one of the biggest girl groups right now, is no exception. But along with all this support, fame, and love, comes a bit of a creepy display of the fans’ adoration.
Self-proclaimed No.1 Jennie fan, Christian Albert Gaza, is a Filipino social media influencer who placed a $30,000 billboard near the YG Entertainment, BLACKPINK’s agency building, reading, “Kim Jennie Ruby Jane, you are my ultimate crush. Can I take you out to dinner and make me the happiest man alive?” in both Korean and English.
That’s straight-up harassment. BLINKS, BLACKPINK’s fandom, was obviously very worried and trended the hashtags #protectjennie and #leavejenniealone to point out Gaza’s actions. But what was more infuriating and disturbing? His reaction to it. All he said in his Facebook post was “Same thing with your balloons, flowers, and other stuff. It’s just the same thing. The only difference is that you can’t afford a house and a lot gifts.”
Not cool, man. Not cool AT ALL.
2. BTS’ Jungkook
The youngest member of the world’s most popular boy band, Jungkook from BTS has an uncountable number of fans. While most of them adore “The Golden Maknae”, there are some sasaengs too. One such toxic fan slipped into the audience of the 2019 Golden Disc Awards and was spotted in the crowd by Jungkook. The said sasaeng goes by the name of Carrot Nuna and had been harassing Jungkook and the other members so much that his company, HYBE Labels, then called Big Hit Entertainment, has blacklisted her. Judging by his reaction after seeing her, it is obvious that she makes him very uncomfortable, or rather, really scared.
3. Stray Kids
Sasaengs’ most favorite activity is lurking around the dorms of their idols and creeping on them. In early 2021, Seungmin took to the platform LYSN to express his frustration at sasaeng fans waiting outside the group’s dorm building. He said.
“What is with these sasaeng fans who wait in front of our dorms and invade the members’ privacy until this hour…?” JYP did release a statement. Threatening to take legal action against such fans. The agency said “the artist’s psychological suffering has been severe” when fans invade stars’ privacy, and that fans who violate its policy will be placed on a “permanent black list for Stray Kids fan club activities”, according to Soompi.
4. Twice’s Nayeon
Now those who are ONCE, I.e. from TWICE’s fandom, would know about the Twitter handle @Josh1994, but those who aren’t, let us inform you that this is actually a German sasaeng fan who has been harassing Nayeon from TWICE since 2019. The girl group’s agency JYP Entertainment has filed several lawsuits against him for constantly coming into the company’s headquarters and even leaking another TWICE member Chaeyoung’s phone number, according to Kbizoom. He even left his contact number everywhere she visited, shoot locations, stores, LITERALLY EVERYWHERE. But the ban on him has been lifted and the security around Nayeon has been tightened.
….…..seriously, JYP? J-WHY-P??
5. EXO
One of the scariest sasaeng incidents must be EXO’s being almost kidnapped. While they have had many such dangerous encounters with these creepy fans, this one definitely takes the cake for the most disturbing and spooky incidents. Back when EXO was still pretty new in the k-pop scene, they had a schedule for their work, after which they had to head back to their dorms in their van. But one time, stalkers had rented another van to abduct the group by parking the fake van where the real van parks. The members were clueless and almost got in, but their manager, (bless him)m felt something amiss and immediately stopped them from getting in.
While loving them is no crime, it should be done at a reasonable limit. We have been told countless times to take care of the idols’ well-being, especially their mental health because everything they do is not only for themselves but for us, too. They are humans and they too, deserve the basic human right to privacy. We ALL should take care of them.