The beginning of 2014 was a huge shock for the EXO fans. As much as they were excited for the comeback, things didn’t go the way it was planned. After a week or two the music video was released and the group started promoting ‘Overdose’ it all went down hill when it was all over the news that Kris had filed a lawsuit against SM for not giving him fair choices and taking advantage of him. His reasons were that when he was sick, he couldn’t take time off to rest, money wasn’t given fairly, etc.
I understand his point of view, but he was very selfish to file the lawsuit at the last minute when he knew they were having a comeback. The members kept performing without Kris and some members even cried when they went on a variety show to discuss about Kris leaving. Just when the fans thought everything was going back to normal, another member filed a lawsuit against SM. Luhan, had similar reasons as Kris and this was a bigger shock for the fans because Luhan had always had an innocent image, so for him to turn back on the team members was just too much. In my opinion, their biggest reason for leaving the group was because of money. They grew up in China in wealthy homes, so I guess they didn’t realize how hard it was to make money from being an idol in a different country. I do understand their decision, but at the same time I don’t. I mean, why would you go through all the tough training years just to quit? It just shows they didn’t care about the team members because they would not have backstabbed them if they cared about the group. Since they gained enough fans through EXO, they thought they would be able to gain success in China as well.
The rumors say that Kris and Luhan have met with some big companies in China but no one really wants to sign a contract with them because they know what they did was wrong and many people look at them negatively. It wasn’t hard to notice the struggles the remaining members were going through because they hardly participated in variety shows during their promotion. Since EXO is divided into EXO M for promoting in China and EXO K for promoting in Korea, I wonder if they will be promoting their next comeback song in China after losing two Chinese members. They still have two more Chinese members remaining in EXO M but it won’t be the same. Maybe SM will combine the two groups and have the 10 members promote together instead of dividing them equally to balance out the team.
I feel like their comeback would have been a lot more successful if these incidents hadn’t happened, but there is nothing we can do now. Maybe it’s for the better because it seems like the members have a stronger bond between them. You know what they say, the more difficulties you go through in life it will push you to become more successful. After all the struggles the other members have gone through, they are stronger than ever. The 10 members performed at 2014 SBS Gayo Daejun and you couldn’t even tell someone was missing. Their performance looked amazing and they are way better off without the two members. With all the past pushed to the side, SM released a teaser for EXO’s comeback in January 2015 on their YouTube page. Hopefully nothing will go wrong this time and I wish them the best of luck.
—-Juyeon Oh