‘Never accept food from strangers’: Lea Salonga reacts to Jungkook’s request to fans

May 5, 2023 - 6:36 PM
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Composite photo of Lea Salonga and Jungkook (msleasalonga, bangtan.official/Instagram, Facebook)

Lea Salonga, who’s also a fan of BTS, joined the call of other fans to respect a member’s preference for food deliveries.

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Jungkook, the youngest member of the group, asked the fans, collectively called ARMY, to stop sending food to his house. He made this request on the Weverse App on May 4.

Weverse is a fan-oriented platform with over eight million users.

RELATED: BTS fandom tech firm Weverse reaches beyond K-Pop 

Jungkook’s message was originally written in Korean. Weverse has an English translation of it.

“Don’s send home delivery food. I won’t eat it even if you give it to me. I’m thankful, but I eat well. You can buy it yourself. I beg you,” he said.

The chart-topping artist also warned about taking legal action against these fans.

“If you send it one more time, I will check the receipt order number you sent and take action. So stop it,” Jungkook said.

Screenshot of Jungkook’s message to ARMYs via Weverse

Some translator fans also uploaded English-translated versions of Jungkook’s Weverse post on Facebook and Twitter.

ARMYs respected and supported Jungkook’s request.

A freelance writer named Jae-Ha Kim, also a BTS fan, recalled that a Korean performer named Yunho, who was a member of the Korean group TVXQ, was poisoned after drinking a beverage he thought a fan had given him.

Yunho himself talked about this incident on national television in 2014.

Jae-Ha emphasized that such accidents are reasons why Korean idols like Jungkook don’t like receiving food deliveries from unknown senders.

“Idols asking people not to send them gifts of food shouldn’t be taken as a negative. Would you trust food from a stranger? I wouldn’t,” she said.

Lea reacted to this tweet. In her post, she also recalled an important lesson from her mother about receiving gifts from strangers.

“This is one of the things my mother trained me to do: NEVER ACCEPT FOOD FROM STRANGERS. Even if the giver’s meaning is well-intentioned, there are those out there whose intentions are to harm or even to kill,” she said.

The multi-awarded artist also encouraged other fans to read Jae-Ha’s Twitter thread.

“Read this full thread. Jung Kook has already posted on Weverse for people to stop sending him food deliveries, and if it happens again, he’ll take legal action. Does it really need to get that far?” Lea tweeted.

In the comments section of Jungkook’s Weverse post, several ARMYs also slammed the people who are disrespectful of BTS members’ privacy.

Jungkook and sasaeng fans 

In Korea, obsessive or toxic fans are called “sasaengs” or sasaeng fans.

In 2022, during a live broadcast, the “My Time” singer received multiple calls from strangers. Each time he picked it up, however, no one was responding to him.

It reached the point that Jungkook got spooked.

He addressed the callers before the camera and asked them to stop calling.

Prior to this, in 2019, Jungkook also received a call from a stranger while on a live stream.

Instead of taking the call, he blocked the number. He then turned to his viewers and informed them that he has been receiving a lot of these calls from “sasaeng fans.”