Kang Hodong: What about the comments at that time?
Sakura: The comments? It was amazing(?) because a lot of people are watching me...
Kang Hodong: You once said in an interview that you'd rather have no lines because the hate comments were too scary for you
Sakura: After receiving a lot of hate comments saying that I can't sing, I became scared even before entering the recording room. I'm scared I'll get hate for the same reason again. When I'm not fully prepared, I'd rather have no lines so that it wouldn't harm my team in any way. But I know they won't be saying such things if I do a great job. So when I entered this company, I made up my mind to not hear that type of comment anymore. So I practice a lot. I was born with no talents, I only acquired them with my effort.
Kang Hodong: So you're making the hate comments as your motivation?
Sakura: It was really tough for me to read the comments back then. But I no longer care about them now, as long as I did nothing wrong. I mean, people only see what they want to see. So what?
Kang Hodong: So what?
Sakura: Yes, so what?
Of course, no one wants to hear bad things about them. But we're in a field where popularity is one of the aspects of it, so there's nothing I can do about it. Even if what they say is not true, they will only acknowledge it if I show them. Therefore I just say, "Please look forward to us in the future!". Regardless of what they say, it's always better than having no attention at all. As a fan of an idol, I really like it when the idol updates their fans a lot through their SNS account. Therefore, I update my SNS account every day with no exceptions so that they can always talk about me. I'm pretty sure my fans know everything about me! If there's something that I haven't told them about me, it's probably things that I don't even notice about myself.
Q: What are the things you could say to your teammates that are based on your experience?
A: I'm sure once we debut, they will be going through the same hardships and concerns that I've been through before. Therefore, I want to tell them what they can do to overcome that. When you gain attention from the public, there are going to be various stories told about you. When I first debuted, I had a hard time because of the people who told stories about me when I have never even seen them in the first place, regardless the stories are facts or hoaxes. So I created this 2:6:2 Rule. 20% of people will like you no matter what you do, 60% of people will decide whether they like you or not after the result comes out, and 20% of people will dislike you no matter what you do. Do not listen to people who dislike you no matter what and focus on showing your best to the people who decide whether they like you or not after seeing the result. You can't change your past, but you can change their perception of you by doing your best.
Kang Hodong: There are people who prefer to look up things on Naver, Google, or Youtube.
Sakura: I prefer to look up things on Twitter!
Kang Hodong: So you don't use Naver?
Sakura: I do, I do!
theqoo
-The hate comments Sakura received are seriously no joke... Anyway, she seems to be on Twitter a lot. I remember she says she remembers fans' Twitter accounts back when she was still in IZONEㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-The thing that confuses me is... Sure, you can dislike her for what she did in the past. But her name is clearly mentioned in the title. If you dislike her that much, why bother clicking this post and leave hate comments? I just don't understand it at all. Shouldn't you be scrolling away if you dislike her?
-She's very entertainingㅋㅋㅋㅋ She's really cool. Fighting!
-Who cares about the hate comments, anyway. Fighting, Sakura! She's really cool for always putting effort into whatever she does.
-I just discovered her, she has a really amazing mindset. I just watched her performance of Antifragile and she seems to be really good, it seems like she has worked really hard for this comeback.
-I'm not a fan but I personally think she's really cool. She's such a hard worker, it's really great to see her improving as time passes by.
-I don't like Sakura, but she's spitting facts hereㅋㅋㅋㅋ If you don't like her that much, stop paying attention to her.
-I love that 2:6:2 Rule she created...
-I've been watching Sakura since she was in AKB48. It really amazes me how improved her Korean is right now.
-I don't like Sakura, but I think people make mistakes and it doesn't matter as long as they don't make the same mistakes in the future.
-I don't like IZONE, but I like Sakura and I think she's an amazing person. It's not easy for an already-debuted idol to put that much more effort and improve like her.
-I'm on her side because she always tries to become a better person, unlike the hate commenters.
