So, if you guys haven't heard already, Kris is leaving SM through a contract termination, and in turn, EXO as well. 

Before, I comment on the conspiracy theories, I just wanted to tell a little bit of what I had been thinking about this entire issue altogether.

I don't blame Kris for leaving, and no one else should either (except maybe if you are a member of EXO). The fact is, is that working in the entertainment agency is hard. You have to deal with a lot of and so does everyone else around you. What changes from person to person is exactly how much they can handle. Thus, as an outside party, no one should judge when people can't handle it anymore since its different from everybody.

With that being said, everyone in the entertainment agency has different contracts as well. SMent plays favorites, like a lot. This means that everyone really has two contracts, they have their group contract along with a "secret" individual contract which may differ dramatically from each one. That being said, its not like the other members of EXO can just terminate their contract as well, since all their contracts are different. Some of them might even not want to change their contracts because they might get more benefits than the other members. My main point is that everyone is different, and thus no one should say that Kris shouldn't leave because the rest of the members aren't leaving. Do you guys get what I'm trying to say?

That being said, I would like to start at the beginning of it all. 

On May 16th 9:32 am, Sina Entertainment was the first to report that Kris was terminating his contract with SM. At 9:50, a second report came in. There are two things that seem, well, interesting about this entire scenario. Sina Entertainment, a Chinese company, was the first to report a contract termination with a well-known Korean entertainment company. Another issue is the follow-up was only released 20 minutes afterwards. It takes a long time for a newspaper company to actually read articles, comment, edit, etc. Doing it in such a short time would not have been possible.  Thus, a likely conclusion would mean that both these articles were pre-written and were waiting to be released. I personally believe that Kris's new company was the one that sent out those articles. 

After Sina posted this article, SM responded as they had no notion what was going on (which is why people thought it was a rumor at first, since SM had denied knowledge) and the Seoul District Court denied getting a request. Around 2 hours later, Seoul District Court commented that they had received Kris's request (under Wu Yifan) to a contract termination with SM Entertainment. So, Sina knew about this even before Seoul District Court had received the request? Doesn't make much logical sense, which means that the entire ordeal was carefully planned out.

Kris dropped the bomb during Overdose promotions and only a couple of days before EXO's first concert. Why? Because it would make the biggest impact. We already saw the fact that SM's stocks dropped 6% and they ended up losing approximately 60 billion won. But this also catapulated him into popularity in China, and he became more well-known, like the second Hangeng. Popularity of EXO in China is dropping and EXO-M is basically on a cliff right now in China. SM is a mess, This is exactly what the new company wanted. Because at the height of his popularity, they were able to throw SM completely off-guard, and create even more publicity for Kris, even well into the future. 

The people I feel most bad for during this entire ordeal? The Chinese members: Lay, Tao, and Luhan. They are being called traitor in China for not following Kris and thus are losing fans and popularity. And they are most likely going to see tons of ill-treatment in the future in Korea and within SM because of what Kris has done. It's a bad situation for everyone.

Regardless of what choices Kris had made when he decided to terminate his contract with SM, his actions brings about consequences and its rather disheartening to see some of the members being left completely in the dark and didn't have enough time to even protect themselves? The entire media play in Korea is pitting Kris aganist SM and EXO in favor of SM and EXO whereas in China, SM and EXO are the bad guys. Who actually wins in this situation? Relationships are undoubtedly broken whereas both parties get hurt from the malicious comments on the Internet.

I'm not taking a side in this situation, because both parties are hurt. I just want to raise recognition to both sides of the situation.

For those of you who think that the EXO members shouldn't have unfollowed Kris and they should've supported him, think about what the rest of the members are thinking. Their leader, at one of their peaks in popularity, dropped a bomb so big that they all ended up danging off of a cliff. Is it fair for the other members to be called names when they are undoubtedly one of the ones that will be effected the most? 

For those of you who think that Kris is at fault and he shouldn't leave SM or EXO, think about how much pain he had to go through to actually seek termination? It wasn't an accident that he did this and planned this out nor was it some sort of implusive decision. There are reasons on why he couldn't keep doing this. Don't you think if he could handle it, he wouldn't have left? He couldn't, and he had to. 

In response to the situation, I would like to point out this quote by Ian Fleming: Once is an accident, Twice is a coincidence, and Thrice is Enemy action. SM has had a long pattern of lawsuits, and I believe its wise to take that into account.

My final bidding words would be to fans, is to support all of them. Regarless if your bias was Kris or some other member, you liked EXO for multiple reasons. The world is gray, no one is completely black and no one is completely white either. Please kept that in mind. 

Anyways, have a nice day everyone! I answer questions at kpoptraineequestions.tumblr.com, feel free to check it out! If you have something you want me to discuss, feel free to leave a comment below! Subscribe if you want more :)