Chapter 28

Onew sighed heavily and he placed some paper down on the table.

A somber SHINee, and their manager looked before reaching out and grabbing the document that had been placed there.

*****

Sasaeng fans.

This issue has raised its head again and again over the past few years.

Celebrities are breaking their silence about the fans that seem to get a free pass to stalk them.  Yes, stalk them.  It's one thing for a fan to notice that a star is going to be near where they are and head over to that location to catch a glimpse.  It's another to hire a taxi to follow the object of your affection around all day.  To stand outside their home, and bribe people to know the combination so that you can sneak in and take photos in their bed.

All of these things have happened to me. 

I have been followed and tugged and grabbed.  I have had gifts of menstrual blood given to me.  I have had to change my phone number time and again because fans keep tracking the number down and calling and texting me non-stop.

As a celebrity I know that I forfeited the right to a completely private life, but my status should not give supposed fans an open ticket to stalk me.  Sasaeng fans are stalkers with a new name.  They use money and technology to keep track of and expose every minute detail of the lives of the famous.

Sasaeng fans will do anything to be remembered.  If an Oppa knows their name, they are satisfied.  I have had fans threaten me before, just so I would remember who they are.  I have seen fans strike out at stars, just to be remembered.  These people that they claim to love become the sasaeng's own victims. 

It has now gone too far.  It has been reported that Lex Green, an actress with whom I am close, was attacked in her home a few days ago.  She was attacked by sasaeng fans.  They were not her fans though, but my own.  We have been working together on a show called We Got Married! where we pose as a married couple. 

As the show has progressed we have gotten closer, and a legitimate romantic relationship has evolved.  Yes, you can take that as an official announcement.  Lex Green and myself are dating. 

Sasaeng fans, following me everywhere, despite my best efforts to give them the slip, had captured a photo of us kissing.  They tried to blackmail us with it but we would not be swayed – They threatened to release the photo, but we ignored it. I knew that they wouldn’t anyway, "because that would hurt Oppa," in their eyes.

They did however seek to dissuade Lex from seeing me.  They bribed and hacked their way into her phone and emails.  They sent her threatening emails, letters and text messages.  Some coming at three in the morning and threatening her very life.  She switched phone numbers multiple times but her new number was always discovered within weeks of the change and the cycle would start all over again but even more threatening than before.

But recently they had a new target - they had worked out where she lived and managed to weasel their way past the security in the lobby of the building.  She was getting threatening messages posted right to her door - but she was told that they were just sasaeng fans and it was something that came with the territory of being involved with a Kpop idol.  I told her that sasaengs were nothing to be worried about, and I could not feel more horrible for saying that on that day. 

They must have figured out the code to her combination lock - because when she came home from work a few days ago, it was to find a group of strange girls in her apartment.  They were tearing the place apart and writing threatening messages on the walls.  They had not expected her to arrive home and in their desperation and their sick drive they lashed out and attacked her.  She lay unconscious and bleeding and alone on the floor of her home, where she was supposed to be safe, for hours before, being late for a filming with me.  I asked two of my friends to check on her and they found her there and called for help. 

People cannot keep looking at sasaengs as fans.  They are not.  Fans do not fill the nightmares of those that they idolize.  Fans do not hurt and terrorize those that they care for.  Sasaengs are stalkers and need to be treated as such.  What they are doing are crimes.  If they exhibited this kind of behavior towards someone who was not famous – they  would be arrested and held for a psychiatric evaluation.  The same should happen to these people who stalk celebrities, these sasaengs. 

This needs to stop. 

SHINee's Onew

Lee Jinki 이진기

Minho put it down, being the last member of SHINee to finish reading the editorial that Onew was writing for the newspapers.  Lex had been there while Onew had written it, he felt she should be since he was telling her story as much as his own, and she had approved of this if only as a cathartic release of pressure and tension for him. 

The rest of SHINee, and the manager, read through the piece for him. 

"It's good."  Key said quietly, hugging himself.  "And it's true, fans don't scare me.  Sasaengs do.  We never know what they're capable of – because just when you think you know their boundaries and what they are willing to do, they go and do something like what they did to Noona."

"People always let it go because they are fans..."  Minho started, "But we're people too...the law protects us too."

"I like it Hyung," Taemin added.

"It has a lot of feeling..." Jonghyun said.

Their manager nodded, "Send it off to the publishers."  He paused, "I have a feeling that this is going to be huge news tomorrow."