Lucas, a member of the WayV group, wrote about his disappointment with Sasaeng on Monday, January 18. The group rapper shared briefly via the feature message Bubble, that when he was shooting for a program, several people followed him.
Apart from Lucas, other members such as Xiaojun and Kun also uploaded posts about the presence of sasaeng. According to them, the activities they do should not be followed, let alone still in winter.
The hashtag #ProtectWAYV began to reverberate on the internet. Fans ask SM Entertainment as the WayV agency to provide protection for its members. Even though the agency has not responded to anything, fans have not stopped writing their protests on social media.
Sasaeng fan (사생 팬) is a term for an obsessive fan.
The word sasaeng consists of sa (사), which is personal and saeng (생), which is life. The goal of sasaeng is to get the attention of the idols they are pursuing in the wrong way.
This term was first pronounced by the Korea JoongAng Daily in 2001 during the first generation of K-pop careers. Like other fans, they follow their idol deeply until they break through informal schedules or idol life outside of their career.
These people will do various things, such as work at an agency to find out personal information about their idols. Some information such as flight schedules, phone numbers, and application IDs to send messages are busy being traded online to fans.
Not only that, the sasaeng were also determined to follow idol activities unofficially. For example the case with WayV. They are currently shooting but the sasaeng are following the shooting process by waiting in the middle of winter.
There is also a taxi sasaeng, a term for an obsessive fan who follows an idol all day by hiring a taxi. In fact, they do not hesitate to break traffic rules. A large number of taxis has made various idols involved in accidents. Super Junior had an accident that injured Heechul’s leg, one of the members. As a result, until now Heechul can’t dance anymore.
Entering the idol’s house is also done by many sasaeng. A number of idols such as Chanyeol EXO, Henry, Block B, GOT7 and others wrote via social media because many sasaeng were waiting or trying to enter their homes.
The sasaeng also followed the idols on the plane.
In 2019, V BTS shared his experience of continuing to meet sasaeng on the plane. “We want to get on a regular flight, but when we travel long or short, some people find what plane we are on and take seats in front of or beside us.”
“Because of that, we can’t rest comfortably. Very uncomfortable. To be honest, I want them (sasaeng) to stop doing it. It’s creepy. “
Sasaeng, who found the idol’s phone number, tried to call his idol in the middle of public activities. EXO’s Chanyeol and GOT7’s Youngjae are some of the idols who often ask sasaeng not to contact them in the middle of live streaming or regular activities because it is very annoying.
EXO’s DO also revealed, ever since his personal belongings were stolen by sasaeng and sold on the internet, he had a victim mentality.
“It’s so bad that my feelings change even when I look at the ordinary fans. My character changed. I became shy and wary but because of sasaeng, I became more like that. “
