A Sasaeng Reveals The Process Of Becoming One, Starting Out From Being A Normal Fan
A sasaeng revealed on a community site what the exact process of turning from a regular fan to a sasaeng was.
She shared that one starts off waiting for hours in line, just to see the idols they love perform for a few songs. After those few minutes end, it’s likely that you would feel a sense of emptiness when reality hits as you make your way home. However, when you see fansites’ photos of the day online, you’d start to think about going to the next schedule again.
The next step is when one spends hundreds to thousands to enter a fan sign, but there are too many limitations on what you can do with the idol. Recently, many groups have begun banning post-it notes on albums as well as touching the members. The time you have with each member is also only a few seconds long each. However, as your feelings for the idol are renewed, you cannot leave the fandom.
One then begins to wonder about what their idol does on days off and why they are not uploading anything to social media. The sasaeng shares that you begin to miss the idol to the point of wanting to see him every day.
The slippery slope begins here when fans start going to public spots such as the airport, music shows, recordings and even the company just to catch a glimpse of them on their way to work. As one becomes familiar with the regular crowd, you begin to hear bits and pieces of information from more well-informed fans or even other sasaengs themselves.
As one naturally gets to interact with the idols more due to them being present at most schedules, these small interactions begin to take importance in one’s head. Slowly, one gets greedier in order to become a well-known fan to the idol. As they interact with other similar fans, naturally an “elite” group is formed to exchange information with each other, even ones that invade the idols’ privacy, such as the dorm or salon address.
Through following idols to unofficial schedules, these fans then get addicted to being able to see the “real selves” of the idols rather than the face they put on for fans. Managers also begin to recognize these fans.
The sad truth is that according to the OP, such fans enjoy when idols personally address the issue of sasaengs as they treat it as special one-on-one conversations.
Despite general disgust against sasaengs, by the time these “fans” get addicted to knowing private information and sightings of their idols, there’s no turning back.