Warning: The following rant is going to be excessively long. Don't read if you can't take it. 

In writing this post, I am not stating that I’m the best fan in the k-fandom, nor am I trying to enforce my beliefs of what a fan should do on the rest of the fandom.

It’d be a lie to say that fans aren’t the pillars of idols. Sure, we’ve got huge companies debuting and backing up our hundreds of girl and boy groups but without the fans, these idols can never attain “international popularity” like they all aim to. Honestly, without popularity, they are nothing. Idols are only idols when people idolize them and hence, fans play a huge part in an idol’s career. Fans can directly topple an idol’s career – I don’t need to list examples, I’m sure you have all heard of anti-fans or haters with their anti-fan cafes defaming and causing grievous hurt to our idols’ careers.

Fans are really important in idols’ lives. Of course, we’ve got the really supportive fans (and fan sites), buying albums where it counts into their music shows, helping them clinch championships and winning them trophies. Those triumphant moments where your favorite idols are tearing up from the joy of receiving an award and you cry along with them; those are feelings that are pretty much unique to the K-Pop fandom. But you know what else is pretty much unique to our fandom as well?

Sasaengs.

I don’t need to define what is a sasaeng, do I? They’re basically out-of-whack fans that go to ridiculous extremes to see idols. They do ing weird stuff like leave used sanitary napkins in the letterboxes of idols. I’m not lying; they’ve really done that. They don’t process what they are going to do and they don’t care about the consequences of their actions. The only thing the matters to them is whether they can collect another hair follicle of their oppas and/or touch their oppas in a hundred and one inappropriate manners. Engaging in activities such as pursuing vans of idols at high speeds, sleeping outside idols’ dorms and causing disruption at fan meetings, they overlook the safety of not only themselves but the general public as well. Their actions have no objective at all; everything’s just done in pursuit of having their oppas recognizing their faces maybe. They claim to love the idols more than normal fans do and are willing to sacrifice everything just to be near them.

(Side note: I’m not saying that only boy groups have sasaengs. I’m pretty sure girl groups have them as well, just that they aren’t talked about as much as boy groups’.)

These fans we labeled sasaengs have practically no control. How many times is it that you’re not as willing to talk about your fandom because you have a schoolmate who has heard about sasaengs and deem the entire k-fandom as crazy stalkers, including you? How many of you have private twitter accounts specifically for the fandom that your friends and family don’t know about? And why is it we have to keep mum about what we love? Because of this minority group in our fandom that sullies our name to no end. Though not their intended effect of their actions, this minority causes so much damage till many of us dare not voice out our adoration of these idols that make us laugh and cry along with them.

Sasaengs do ridiculous things. JYJ’s incident with sasaengs probably still horrifies the fandom, what with breaking into their homes, trying to kiss them and steal articles of their clothing. Some even obtain and sell idols’ phone numbers.

Seriously? Making a business deal out of the people you idolize and apparently love to death’s privacy? Wow, I really do see your love for them.

Their business deals don’t just stop there. When they said they were willing to sacrifice everything, they really meant it. It’s a costly occupation to be a sasaeng, especially when you need to buy information like the pass code to your idol’s apartments, hire vehicles to stalk idols around the clock, purchase hi-tech equipment to track your idols’ transport, etc. And how exactly do they cover all those costs? Most parents don’t even condone their children’s habitual buying of albums off the racks in music stores, much less fund their children’s obsession to stalk and invade entertainers’ privacies. Some sasaengs still possess a shred of humanity and conscience and obtain part-time jobs at their young ages; some turn to illegal activities to obtain money quickly.*

With the emergence of SM’s newest boy group EXO (is it me or are SM’s groups sasaeng-baits?), the term sasaengs has come up more than ever. The boys have spoken up on multiple occasions about encountering sasaengs and their shock at what this overly passionate minority of the fandom does.  

Many would remember that Kai was injured at airports by fans that didn’t follow safety measures (along with minor injuries sustained by other members). Members of EXO even got yelled at to “move out of the way, you’re in the way of my camera’s view” of so-and-so oppa. Pictures surfaced of Chanyeol and D.O’s shocked and angered face. Images of Baekhyun helping up his fallen and injured group member, shooting a glare at these unruly people trended all over social networking sites. And our dear sasaengs response?

Leaving chrysanthemum flowers at SM’s building for the only one who dared stand up to them this strongly.

It is extremely disrespectful; you only leave chrysanthemum flowers on the graves of the deceased. By doing this, they are expressing wishes for him to die. This is where the line has been crossed too far, but yet, it does not end there.

Many of us woke up to the news of sasaengs crashing the wedding of Baekhyun’s brother, Baekbeom.  First of all, Baekhyun never once mentioned anything about his brother getting married. It’s through invasion of privacy that sasaengs obtained this information, along with the location of the private event. Secondly, if they sat down and behaved themselves, wishing Baekbeom and his wife a blissful married life, fans and the public wouldn’t get as mad. They caused trouble and there are reports of sasaengs injuring Baekhyun, aiming especially for his throat to destroy his career as EXO’s main vocalist.** The situation was extremely bad, even his cousin spoke up about it and Baekhyun had to profusely apologize to his brother and sister-in-law for the commotion caused.*** I’m pretty sure nobody in Baekhyun’s family was pleased to see sasaengs crashed what was supposed to be a happy day. Can you imagine what Baekbeom and his wife will recall about their union? They’ll remember calling for help to security, throngs of unknown people attending their wedding and causing disruption. For a fleeting moment, Baekhyun probably regrets his career and attained fame for the trouble caused.

At this point, I seriously hope sasaengs stop and start thinking, maybe even do a little bit of soul searching. Idols are still humans. Sure, the moment they signed on for a career in the entertainment circle, their privacies are pretty much gone, but it is never right to hurt them physically and mentally. They worked hard to debut because they had a passion to perform, not because they want to get stalked around the clock, have their privacy invade, be harassed, cause unhappiness and trouble to their families.

I seriously worry about the day we see our idols perform without the same twinkle of passion in their eyes when they first debuted.

*This was read from a report of the dark lives sasaengs lead here.

**It was trending on twitter. I cannot confirm their authenticity. Here are some images of fans at the wedding.

***Baekhyun’s cousin’s translated post here.