Someone requested that I write about the Baekhyun issue since I had written about the Kris incident. 

As a disclaimer, I am not Baekhyun's fan, nor will I ever be and its simply because of personal preference (because come on, have you seen Lay/Luhan?) and even though I generally like Taeyeon, she's not one of my favorite members (heh, Sunny~). Thus, this is written simply from a very nonpartisan standpoint. I like both SNSD and EXO, around the same level too; thus, I will try and make this post as unbiased as possible, and simply throw in my opinions and why you shouldn't follow in their footsteps. I'll break this section up into 3 parts: The Story, The Reprecussions, and My Opinion. I did some extensive research on this, but if I'm messing something, please let me know! [Photo Credits to Dispatch, @exo-ho.tumblr.com, and Daum site]

THE STORY

Dispatch released the news of EXO's Baekhyun and SNSD's Taeyeon dating to various news outlets complete with pictures. Most of the released images contained the two in a car (Taeyeon's car because Baekhyun apparently doesn't have his driver's liscence. Tumblr has made fun of him countless times) in the front row. There were a couple of pictures that stood out to me though, which were the kissing one, the Taeyeon-seemingly-looking-at-the-camera one, and the cellphone light one. I'll go through each of them because I'm so nice :).

What I found weird or strange about this one - and many other people have as well - is why if they are "secretly dating" would they purposely have the car roof off and make it all that much easier to spot them? I mean, if I was in a secret relationship and I was trying to hide from paparrazzi's flashes, I wouldn't roll down the roof so the paparrazzi can confirm that it was me. I dunno, seems counterintuitive. Also, why aren't they wearing disguises either? I've seen tons of pictures of celebs caught dating and they are almost always wearing face masks and sunglasses. I'm not saying that they should be wearing ridiculous wigs but a simple sunglasses and face mask would've served better aganist the paparrazzi, than their bare face.

The next one (surprisingly I didn't notice this one that much until I saw other people on Tumblr commenting about it) is where Taeyeon is supposedly looking straight at the camera, as if she knew that the paparrazzi was there. However, I don't have much faith in this one being a dealbreaker, since it could've just been caught in the moment kind of thing. Like the camera just so happened to catch that (maybe she was turning her head, idk, I wasn't there). Also, I'm sure that we all have had times where we are looking at something and never notice that its there. But for the sake of certain conspiracy theories, I've decided to add it in.

The last one is the photo where Baekhyun has his cellphone light on, so you could clearly see that it was him. In all the other photos, whether or not it was him was still under discretion. But by shining the cellphone light straight on his face, netizens and pretty much anyone who looked at the photo would know that it was him. Take this what you will, I mean, who hasn't looked at their cellphone on a date or during some sort of social gathering? But you make up your mind.

However, and I think a lot of people are misunderstanding this, a lot of fans are mad at the couple, not because they are jealous (well, they are but you know) but the fact that they were playing with their fans and getting a kick out of it. I'll explain this a little further.

Instagram

The reason why fans are pissed was that a lot of what the two were putting on IG, words that seemingly were for the fans, were actually for each other. And I know what you guys are thinking, the two are not entitled to dedicate their IG to anyone but themselves. I'm just putting this in because this is what the fans are feeling right now and people need to understand that its not really a jealously issue, but rather because the fans felt as if they were being laughed at (and no one likes that no matter who it's from, even if it is their idol). To keep this short, I won't put pictures, but some examples include:

1. Baekhyun's "This is a New Beginning" --> Fans thought that this was referring to the Kris issue, sort of like a reassurance to the fans during this time, but it was actually for Taeyeon.

2. Taeyeon's "Oreo" --> Oreos placed in the exact same way as Baekhyun's birthday cake with the words (paraphrased) "Without fail, I'm once again going crazy because of you. #oreo"

3. Taeyeon's Plushie IG --> "Is it okay to like you?" (paraphrased) Fans thought that she was referring to the plushie. Nope.

These are a couple examples. I'm sure you can find some more over the internet.

Re-Gifting

Basically, people are saying that fan gifts that were once given to Baekhyun were actually regifted as he gave them to Taeyeon. Some examples include a fan hat, sunglasses, etc. Picture proof below (both from @exo-ho.tumblr.com).

The L Sign

The L sign that Baekhyun did during the time where they won 1st at MuBank is being under discretion and many fans think that it was kind of like a secret message to Taeyeon at the time. EXO fans are angry because while the other members kept mentioning their fans in their thank yous, Baekhyun's secret message was kind of like a disregard to his fans and was more of a "Thank you, Taeyeon." Fans are also speculating that's why Chanyeol did the L sign right after in order to sort of, cover-up, their dating scandal. Gifs/Pictures below.

dat smirk. baekhyun you lil . also suho be like im too old for this .

THE REPRECUSSIONS

1. SM Stocks are rising.

2. EXO fans are returning tickets for Singing in the Rain.

3. Malicious comments from both fans and non-fans

4. Baekhyun's photocards being almost not touched while all the other member's have already disappeared. Photo below.

5. EXO's fancafe dropping from #3 to #9.

Comments from Fans

(Taken from Netizenbuzz mostly. Also some of them are from non-fans/netizens)

[+819, -17] Don't bother Chanyeol while he's working and go sit in her Benz outside

[+571, -85] I won't be watching because of Byun Baekhyun

[+484, -44] So what

[+157, -19] Kekeke People commenting about not watching it because of Byun Baekhyun? Who is he again? I'll be watching for Chanyeol

[+143, -16] Jongdae trained for as long as you did Baekhyun but he is able to articulate himself in interviews just fine so why are you staying quiet, Baekhyun? At least be like Taeyeon and apologie. When even your senior is apologizing, why can't you?

[+121, -12] How is he going to go film that when every second is a waste while not on a date with his girlfriend TTTT

These comments were taken from the article about Taeyone's apology on Twitter where she informed her fans that it was not her intention to make them feel like they were being laughed at on Instagram. (These aren't all the comments, I just selected a couple. If you want to see more, be sure to check out Netizenbuzz!)

[+11,375, -1,497] Don't mess with your fans

[+10,198, -895] She made everything so blantantly obvious and now she comes and apologizes Kekekekekeke

[+2635, -162] Wow, my friend saw the oreo picture on Taeyeon's Instagram and figured she must like them and decided to do a fan gift of oreos. Kekeke Talk about betrayal kekeke

[+4,147, -358] She's lost everything and is now trying to make up for it Keke How about you enjoy your oreos instead

[+3,049, -301] Why upload those pictures if you weren't making a joke out of your fans?

[+2,680, -697] It's like committing murder and saying your original intentions weren't to kill kekeke

[+377, -32] If they're going to date, then meet on your own and contact each other through your phones. Even knowing that fans hate public displays like that, putting up pictures constantly is make a joke out of them keke Taeyeon's asking for attention with the way she's putting up these posts, making fans look like they're getting angry just over the fact that they're dating keke This wouldn't have even gotten so bad if Taeyeon didn't make it so obvious on Instagram Keke Now she's cosplaying as the victim like fans don't get it.

[+310, -26] Don't be mistaken, you're not getting hate because you're Soshi's Taeyeon but because of your actions. The other members did not get as much hate as this. You look like a psycho right now. You act like you're so depressed on broadcast and make it so obvious that you're dating all over SNS and now come out and say those weren't your intentions?

[+1,686, -79] Can't believe people believed that he wouldn't date until 35 keke

[+1,716, -134] I feel that fans who supported them and gave them their money would feel betrayed. Celebrities uses SNS to communicate with their fans but Taeyeon was so busy making her relationship obvious, leaving fans to shield her only to dun dun dun, she even kissed him. Fans were worried about how hard it must be for him the day Kris left but he was out driving with Taeyeon. Ridiculous. EXO as a group seems to move at LTE speed. The speed at which they got popular, members left, and dating scandals. What's next?

So basically, you can see that they are both getting hate. It's not really the EXO fans hating on Taeyeon for dating Baekhyun or vice versa. In fact, it seems as if the EXO fans are hating on Baekhyun, feeling betrayed and all.

[EXO'S PHOTOCARDS]

MY OPTINION

This is what I think of the whole issue. I don't think that Baekyeon is not real; I'm 99% sure it is. But I do think that SM exploited them in order to diverge attention away from the Kris scandal (SM literally confirmed it like just a few hours after the news was released) but it kind of backfired on them. The car roof fiasco is simply too big to ignore. Taeyeon's been in this industry for 7 years now. I'm sure she knows how to properly secretly date and even if Baekhyun's only been in the industry for 2 years -- its common sense to even people like us, that if you don't want to be found out, you don't roll down the car roof. My conclusion is that they wanted to be found out. Whether it was SM that wanted Baekyeon to be revealed or if it was themselves, the fact that it seemed like they tried so hard to get "revealed" says something about their relationship as a whole. Simply from a psychologist perspective, it seems as if they rely on each other simply for the sake of attention. SM got what they wanted. The attention is off of Kris, its moved instead to Baekhyun and Taeyeon. Though as of right now, I'm not sure if that's a good thing.

As for Baekhyun, he used to be one of the most popular members within EXO, consistently ranking in the top 5; but now his image has been taken for the worse as fans view him as manipulative liar because of this scandal (also his underage drinking/smoking pictures does not help his case --> *ahem* chapter 14, I posted something about this and someone wrote that they didn't believe me and that Baekhyun wouldn't do something like that. Well, SM has confirmed it. Anyways~) 

As the picture above shows, his photocards were barely touched while all the other member's have disappeared long before. According to rumors, there is speculation that some fans might give Baekhyun the black ocean (which will actually not do since when you are preforming, the lights are so bright, you can't see anything else. the crowd is literally black, except for maybe the first few rows. but it might provide some psychological trauma for him later) and throw eggs (i think both are taking it too far though. no matter how much hurt you experienced from someone, does not give you the okay to hurt that person in any way. even though the black ocean wont do since the lights are so bright. unless its being held outside in daylight. then i suppose it will do . but then again, how will lightsticks even show up in the daylight?). But these are a couple of examples to show how much he's hated right now. He's the textbook example on how not to date when you're an idol (no offense to him or anything).

Managing a relationship as an idol is difficult -- a hundred times more difficult than a normal relationship -- because of busy schedules, rumors, scandals, scruntiny by others, by the very people that don't even know you. For Baekhyun to think that he would be okay with an idol career and a girlfriend, was a far grave mistake than he would've imagined. It takes two years to build a likable image and it only takes two seconds for it to come crashing down. 

[Feel free to leave a comment, private message me, etc if you want to converse with me about this matter :D]