Suho and the active members don’t deserve all the hate they have been getting since last year.
It’s been 4 days since the small talk club video dropped and my god my timeline has been insane?
Cbxl/bbhls have been targetting Suho like he has committed some crime? Suho is not your punching bag.
The active members are not responsible for CBX’s contractual disputes.
They have their own careers, their own contracts, and their own lives. They are allowed to continue working as EXO without being subjected to all this harassment simply because CBX is involved in a legal dispute with SM.
You can still be a fan and acknowledge that CBX may have made mistakes.
You don’t have to love SM to acknowledge that CBX’s decisions have consequences.
SM is shit, we know that. But CBX did breach a contract. Under whatever circumstances everything happened, a contract is a contract — a legally binding document which was breached. There are consequences.
You don’t have to drag SUHO and the remaining active members into a dispute that he did not create and does not control.
I genuinely hope CBX can sort everything out. But loving CBX doesn’t mean putting every consequence of their decisions onto SUHO.
They are adults. They made their choices. As fans you can just hope things turn out for the best for them. But please leave SUHO out of it.
He has done nothing to deserve the level of hatred that has been thrown at him from this fandom especially by these so-called ot9 or none boycotters who call themselves EXOL.
Suho has continued showing up for EXO and EXO-L, he is not responsible for other people’s decisions just because he’s EXO’s leader.
Being a good leader does not mean hand-holding grown adults through every decision they make.
Sometimes the most respectful thing you can do for another adult is recognise that their choices belong to them and so do the consequences.
I genuinely don’t understand how people have managed to turn the CBX SM dispute into something that is somehow SUHO’s fault.
Let’s go back to what happened.
In 2023, CBX challenged their contracts with SM. The dispute was eventually settled, and the arrangement allowed them to continue their EXO activities under SM while their (cbx) individual and CBX group activities could be managed separately through an independent label, INB100.
In exchange, one of the agreed contractual conditions was that INB100 would pay SM 10% of revenue from their individual activities under inb100, including in connection with SM’s IP/name rights. And another stipulation, allegedly, was that INB100 had to stay standalone.
Then there was the separate issue of the 5.5% distribution fee.
CBX’s side said that SM’s then-CEO had verbally promised that INB100 would be able to secure a 5.5% distribution rate through Kakao, and they argued that this promise was part of the basis on which they accepted the settlement.
SM’s position was that the 5.5% figure was never included in the written agreement because SM did not control the distributor’s fee (true), and that it had only agreed to help INB100 negotiate a better rate with Kakao.
WHICH, SM maybe would have IF INB100 had stayed standalone. But they became a subsidiary of One Hundred. Now, logically speaking, why would SM help you get a lower distribution rate when you’ve joined hands with CGW and MC Mong and gone under a separate company? From a business standpoint, why would Kakao reduce this fee when they only offer this to their subsidiary, i.e. SM Entertainment?
Because the written agreement and the alleged verbal promise are two different things, the dispute became a legal argument over what exactly was promised, what was contractually binding, and whether one side’s alleged failure relieved the other side of its obligations.
Then, in May 2024, INB100 became a subsidiary of One Hundred, the company associated with Cha Ga-won and MC Mong.
And this is where I think people completely lose the plot.
SM’s position was essentially: the agreement still exists, you agreed to the 10% payment, and you have to honour it.
CBX’s position was essentially: SM didn’t honour its side of the distribution arrangement, so the agreement shouldn’t be enforced as originally understood.
Both sides took their arguments to court. SM sued over the unpaid 10% royalty/IP-related obligation, and CBX countersued over the financial settlement and the alleged failure to honour the distribution arrangement.
Now why would SM allow CBX to join in the group activities when there is an ongoing lawsuit between the company and the artists, even if the issue is for their individual contact and not group, an issue with the company is an issue. I’m not saying what SM is doing is right, but like they are a company running a business?!
You can ABSOLUTELY disagree with SM. You can believe CBX’s side about the verbal agreement. Yes, SM should have handled the whole situation differently.
But how did SUHO become the villain in all of this?
Suho did not breach his contract with SM. Nor did he make others breach their contract. Everyone has free will.
Suho was not the person negotiating the distribution rate.
SUHO was not the person who decided what CBX’s individual and group contract with inb and sm would look like.
And being EXO’s leader does not mean Suho has the authority to make three grown adult members accept a business agreement, dictate their individual careers, or prevent them from making decisions about their own companies.
People seem to have this strange expectation that because he’s the leader, he should somehow be able to control everyone else’s decisions.
He can’t.
And honestly, the anger directed at SUHO for the consequences of decisions he did not make is bizarre. Just because he said he wasn’t informed about the lawsuit? SHOULD HE LIE? WHEN HE WAS ACTUALLY NOT INFORMED ABOUT SAID LAWSUIT BY CBX?!
Be angry at SM. Support CBX. Yes, CBX were treated unfairly. Yes, SM sucks. Yes, CBX made mistakes.
But dragging SUHO into every single development and acting like he personally betrayed CBX is completely disconnected from what actually happened. And the same goes for the active EXO members.
They didn’t create this legal dispute. They didn’t negotiate the contracts. They didn’t decide the royalty structure. They didn’t decide the distribution arrangements.
The remaining 5/6 are just honouring their group contract.
They’re literally trying to continue working as EXO while a separate contractual/legal dispute between CBX and SM Ent plays out.
Your favourite artists can make a bad business decision.
You can love CBX and still acknowledge that they have handled parts of this badly. That’s not betrayal.
That’s being able to separate loving an artist from agreeing with every decision they make.
Being poached by mc mong and cwg was their doing, and everything happening now stemmed from the choices they’ve made. But of course bbhls and cbxl can’t admit that cbx goofed up.
And most importantly: none of this gives anyone a reason to make SUHO the punching bag.
He has done nothing. He is a good leader. Great even. He does his best for EXO AND EXO-L.
for anyone out of the loop
BAEKHYUN CHEN XIUMIN – CBX
SUHO CHANYEOL KYUNGSOO KAI SEHUN – current active members and LAY when he can join group activities
PS – there are a lot of legal things which are still ongoing which i haven’t added here. This is a gist of everything.
submitted by /u/bonbon_dessert
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