SM artists, including EXO, Girls' Generation and Super Junior, were planning to enjoy their Hawaii trip in privacy, away from public and media. But a group of stalkers, who are popularly known as sasaeng fans in Korea, reportedly followed them and took several photos of the celebrities.
The obsessive fans released the images on various social networking sites and it immediately captured the attention of Kpop fans. While some of them were happy to watch their icons, others criticised the stalkers for invading the privacy of the celebs.
The fan messages ranged from, "It looks more like a sasaeng rally..." and "That's a vacation?" to "It's a shame they won't have a proper vacation and rest."
The celebrities travelled to Hawaii to attend a unified conference that was organised by popular South Korean record label SM Entertainment as part of its 20th anniversary celebration. The event, which began on Aug. 28, was planned by the agency as a reward to its artists.
Although the agency decided not to disclose any details of the program to protect the safety and privacy of the attendees, Kpop fans criticised the label for revealing the date and location of the trip to the media.
Here are some of the criticisms made by the followers of SM artist on various social media platforms (Via Allkpop):
I heard Red Velvet even went with their hair all tied up and that they hid tightly under their hoodies but they are going to be exposed all the same. If [SM] were really planning to give them a break, then they would have left more quietly.
I didn't realize it was a trip SM jointly planned with fans loool I never got to apply!
