Back then, I went to Chinese schools for 14 years so I knew EXO was a massive thing among Chinese people, and my schoolmates would almost exclusively talk about Chinese members with the occasional mentions of Sehun (so much so that I thought he was EXO-M for the longest time). At the time I was a BIGBANG purist so I couldn’t really see the appeal of EXO at all 😂
My introduction to EXO was centred around the Chinese members, like I thought that they were the highlights/aces of the group. In 2017 I did REALLY like The War album though, and I feel like even post-EXO-M they did incredibly well for that period of time (like a second resurgence imo) and I watched a lot of their promotional content, the Knowing Bros episode was the funniest thing ever… but then this year I found out that Lay is still a part of EXO, and I’m like???? Wait, this wasn’t the lineup I heard of the last time I even touched the topic of EXO?
At this point in my life I thought I was pretty set in stone as a fully-fledged EXO-L. I was introduced to them when I was like, 12 years old and just heard their name here and there throughout the years, and at 23 years old I’m finally really getting the EXO hype (well, the hype train died ages ago but you get it). I even bias Do Kyungsoo. I’m binge watching Jeongwaja Kai. Then realizing Lay is still here, technically? Because the first time I got into their damn discography there was no sign of the Chinese members. I thought: “Ah well that era’s past, this is probably like a brand new EXO I’m looking at, and I like it”.
Note: You have to understand I grew up around majority Chinese populations as a non-Chinese so my brain links ‘Chinese EXO’ to my school years. The time EXO-M imploded on itself, my entire school also did, so I thought Chinese EXO simply just wasn’t a thing anymore.
I went down the Lay rabbit hole after finding out he’s still in EXO. Surprise, it wasn’t a deep hole at all, at least in comparison to the Korean members where it’s impossible to get a content drought out of. Worst part is? I actually REALLY like him for how little I’ve seen of him. And how do I say… I got hella FOMO and like emotional whiplash trying to find anything about Lay because now I’m watching the ancient EXO files where Crease Tao Luhan are also a part of.
It really does feel like I missed out on something huge considering how much I love EXO now. I keep thinking to myself, “maybe I should’ve bought an EXO galaxy backpack like the other xiaomeimeis at school”. At least back then, people were actually invested in EXO and could talk about them like a community. Now the fans or former fans are so fragmented, and there’s nobody around me IRL I could even talk to about them. Maybe the reason why I didn’t become EXO-L earlier is because I didn’t want to think about how I ‘missed out’ on their prime years which was also when my entire social ecosystem was dependent on liking EXO, and it feels safer now with the current lineup completely devoid of the Chinese members (except Lay ofc)
Man, even CBX is a tough topic for me to even listen to, but I heard that they won the court case so hopefully they’ll be back with the group. I REALLY want to see OT9 now that I’m actually invested in this group. Why is this group falling apart every other month? It’s like a nervous system that doesn’t know how to calm down.
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