
not into kpop so i'll ask, does this happen for real in real idol groups? why would you spend so much money to ignore a member? poor ahyeon

This does in fact happen…. A lot of groups have extreme solo stans too where they love one member and dislike or ignore the rest.
I also see this for survival show groups bc they’re delusional and believe the evil editing they see lol or maybe their original fav was kicked and someone else debuted :/ sometimes they just hate bc an idol doesn’t meet “beauty standards” too so it’s not uncommon to see videos of fan signs where “fans” are friendly to everyone except one member or vice versa
Basically they’re just no lifers that spread hate

It does happen very common, especially this one where it's more subtle, some have bigger reactions and more rude ones. There's even compilations of it, I remember Joshua from Seventeen having a fan throw down merch she wanted him to sign, my blood boils every time I remember it, lmao. Ignoring/going past other members are also common for groups with only one or two popular members, some don't even sit down and just walk past them without even greeting them.

Yup, a common situation you'l see is a fan who gets into the fansign only really likes one or two of the members so they'll sell off the other member "slots" to other people before the fansign.
So just for context, groups will usually interact with a fan and answer one post it note question per member and will also autograph the photobook with your name and a short sentence (on separate pages). Solo stans will usually sell that time to other people to make back some money. Later, they'll rip out the page that was signed with the answered post it note and mail it to the person that bought it for them.
This is a lot more rare but some really rude solo stans give attitude all the way. They will only mark pages for their favorite (usually fans will tab the page they want to be signed by each member and it helps because otherwise the idols will need to flip to a page with their picture which might take a while if the group is big and you only get a couple minutes of interaction), are really cold in answering and interacting to other members (just say ah really, oh is that so, etc.) and only prepare gifts for their favorite. The worst is if they actively insult the other members or tell them that they've gained weight and they need to slim down, etc. It's super awkward and hella rude but I think this happens more rarely since every second of the fansign is being filmed by other fans in the crowd.
*Fun fact, when I mean every second is being recorded I mean it literally. Fans will make deals with other fans to film them specifically while they are talking to the group and will wear apple/samsung watches that are recording the interaction the whole time (almost every fan will bring a dslr camera so the crowd is a sea of cameras). Some of those fans will later release the video with the audio added for other fans to watch but others will keep the entire thing hidden for themselves to enjoy only and/or only post it to groupchats.
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