Super Junior‘s Leeteuk showed his love for the group’s fandom, known as ELF, by personally taking care of them after a series of mishaps during a recent recording for ISAC.
On January 7th, the Idol Star Athletics Championship (ISAC) filmed an episode at the Samsan World Gymnasium in Incheon. The program will air over the Korean Lunar New Year which will span from February 4th to February 6th.
Many idols from various groups came to compete in different events, and along with them came their respective fandoms to wanted to cheer them on.
One of the idols that appeared in the filming was Leeteuk ,who was assigned to be an MC for the event. As expected, fans wanted to show their support even though he wouldn’t be participating in the games.
What happened next was reportedly a series of unfortunate events for the people who came to see him.
According to reports from various fans and fanbases, neither SM Entertainment nor MBC advised ELF about how many fans would be allowed in to the filming until the night before. They were told only 50 fans would be allowed in for the Super Junior section, but due to the last-minute notice, many fans were not able to attend.
When they showed up in the early morning, various ELF said that they were made to wait to enter the gymnasium without any notice of what was going on. When they finally were allowed to go in, they were reportedly taken around the venue by a staff member to find seats as MBC had evidently forgotten to save ELF a designated area like the other fandoms. In the end, they were made to sit in an place with a partially obstructed view of the happenings.
Fans are normally provided with food twice during the long hours of filming. Most of the food comes from the entertainment companies themselves in exchange for supporting their idols. However, ELF were not provided with food despite fans of other SMTOWN groups receiving food from the company.
Shortly thereafter, fans were soon handed food by staff members. Upon investigating where the food came from, the fans found out that Leeteuk had noticed the problem and paid for both their lunch and dinner with his own money. He also made sure to let fans he appreciated their support by taking a picture of the ELF section and posting a picture of it later on his Instagram account.
After the event, one fan even stated that MBC had even given gifts to all fandoms, except for ELF.
The events of the day started making the rounds on SNS, leading ELF to state how true the saying is that Super Junior and ELF only have each other, leading many to question why the fandom and the senior group they support seemed to be forgotten by both SM Entertainment and MBC.
With his sweet actions, Leeteuk once more proved that he is always thinking of ELF and looking out for Super Junior’s fans!
Thanks to the various tips that were sent in for this story, along with the translation help from WWE (WorldwideELFs) of the Chinese fan accounts and articles.
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Katherine has been an ELF since 2011. She reads just about anything and is a parent of eight demanding cats. She likes to stay home and worry about Heechul’s imminent balding during her free time.
MEDIA: SMTOWN
Sources & Translations: Star ET Today, WickedRyeonggu, WorldwideELFs