Frank Kogan

Well, it was just a theory, I'm not saying that's what Hyungseung's actual problem was. But as far as fans getting up in arms when their chosen idol has too much chemistry with an opposite-sex performer (singer, actress, another fan at a fanmeet etc), this is a real thing that really happens. It's why idols constantly talk about having to "secretly" date, why they can only ever date each other (which makes Kpop even more of an incestuous circle), why there's only ever one *symbolic* girl or guy to which all of the members of a group address their attentions in music videos, etc etc.

As far as why it happens, it's probably because the fans are young? Like middle school aged - at least the most active and vocal ones are? And it's probably because Korean fans of idol groups are really pandered to, even at the expense of the performers' mental health or artistic credibility. So this kind of bad behavior, throwing tantrums when your favorite gets too close to "another woman" or is too sexy with some ugly dude, threatening the interloper or punishing the performer by leaving the fanclub, is - if not encouraged - also not discouraged.

No one stands up to the (young) fans and tells them they should be able to keep a sense of perspective about their fantasies, basically. The closest would probably be the unspoken agreement between industry and fan, "I acknowledge that these people might have dating lives I don't know about, however I don't want to hear or see anything about it and it's your job to make sure I don't."

Same-sex fanservice within a group is totally other thing, though... presumably it's not as threatening, or maybe it's just that both parties are in the group and so the relationship also belongs to the group and hence to the fans. Male-male pairs are also a known popular thing with women in Asia and elsewhere (e.g. BL manga), and there's lots of literature about why this might be the case. I dun wanna site anything, but maybe the appeal is that it's a relationship that could plausibly happen yet also "can't exist," meaning it's either an imagined perfect relationship between people who spend 16 hours out of every day together, or it's a messed up dysfunctional secret taboo thing which illustrates their psychological problems. Or maybe it's popular with gay fans because they can relate to having to keep that kind of secret or having those kinds of "not okay" desires. Anyway.