The ugly side of KPop: JYJ’s Kim Jaejoong & the horrifying sasaeng experiences he’s had to deal with

Sasaeng is a Korean term for an obsessive fan who doesn’t think twice before invading a celebrity’s personal space. Their notion is that the idol is solely made for them and should only be with them, talk to them. They can go to any heights to make themselves get closer to a celebrity. In one case, a sasaeng slapped Yoochun in public and later uploaded a post justifying it, saying that she did so so that she would “stand out” and he will always remember her.

A rather shocking yet mostly avoided (or ignored) news broke out today on May 16. The news is about JYJ’s Kim Jaejoong, the richest and one of the legendary idols in South Korea, recently revealed his shocking experiences with toxic fans. Although this isn’t the first time he has revealed them in public. He also isn’t the first or the last K-Pop idol to go through this. There are countless many.

Even though agencies are increasingly trying to take better steps and amp up security when it comes to dealing with sasaengs, there’s still a long way to go. In a recent case, EXO’s Sehun revealed that he gets around 100 calls a day from toxic fans on his Instagram live. Coming back to the former TVXQ member Kim Jaejoong, he’s had extremely horrifying instances. Read some of them below. 

Being sexually harassed in his sleep 

In a Japanese TV show back in 2019, a host explained how uncomfortable he felt when three middle-aged women hugged him. Kim Jaejoong then said that he understood the feeling and sympathized with him as he had gone through similar experiences. He then went on to state that once he found multiple sasaengs in his room while he was sleeping. When he woke up, they “were doing things to him” that he couldn’t have said out loud on public television, leaving everyone shocked. 

Invading privacy not just in the house, but in a sauna too

By some weird luck, toxic fans found out about Jaejoong’s sauna visit and while he was sleeping, invaded his privacy by clicking photos of him. In addition to this, a sasaeng even entered his house while he was fast asleep, climbed on top, took a photo and later uploaded it by claiming that she even kissed him in his sleep, as if it was some heroic task and not an illegal, horrifying action. 

Clicking photos of him in the house and sending him 

In the latest reveal, he talked about the times when he was promoting in a group and the experiences he had on Naver NOW’s show called ‘Nighttime Workshop’. He shared that the obessive fans would enter his house, click pictures of the kitchen, his room, him and send him to his mobile phone, while he was in the house. It was just one of the many creepy expreiences the idol has had. He even wondered where they got a hold of his mobile number!

One of the most horrifying incident 

Back then, just catching a sasaeng didn’t hold much importance if the police wouldn’t take any charge. In ‘Nighttime Workshop’, he shared a story about the time when he caught a toxic fan. He shared that he heard a doorbell late at night and when he opened the door, he saw a person’s leg. He got so surprised that he banged the door shut. He opened it again and saw no one but could hear someone running down the stairs. He chased them at full speed and when he got a hold of them, he realised it was a sasaeng. He thought to himself that this wasn’t it and called the police. The police came over and instead of arresting the sasaeng, blamed Jaejoong for his “narrow-mindedness.” He apparently told him, “They’re your fan. Of course they can come to visit you. Why are you reporting them? You’re very narrow-minded, Kim Jaejoong.”

When he ended up suffering sleep paralysis

In the same show, he also shared that he suffered sleep paralysis for the first time after his debut because of these sasaengs. It was when the Korean movie ‘Hide And Seek’ came out and closer to the day of the incident mentioned above. Instead of just knocking, the sasaeng became extremely violent and started getting aggressive with his door knob. He had recently watched the thriller movie ‘Hide And Seek’ and had sleep paralysis that night due to how scared he was. 

These were just some of the many innumerable moments the idol was targeted by his so-called “fans”. These instances even got so severe that he developed a habit of moving his house every two years and buying multiple cars, just so they wouldn’t be able to chase him. 

He concluded the topic on the Naver NOW show by saying that now, after 12 years, it has ended for him. He said that he is finally free and no longer has to move. It might be over for him, but not for the many idols out there currently.