EXO’s youthful confessions

Every year in the Korean music industry, a huge bunch of new groups will emerge, in order to break out of the circle of competitors they must stabilise their positions, aside from needing a powerful and generous “back up”helping out behind the scenes, it’s also very important for the members to have their own strengths and unique characteristics too. Popular korean boy group EXO have the support of the huge company SM and have already won an award, furthermore EXO is made up of EXO-K and EXO-M combined; one concentrating in Korea, one concentrating in the Chinese market, with the ability to become the elements of Asian pop music, no wonder despite only having debuted for almost a year, they’ve already become the popular group of the Hallyu wave’s new era. Just before returning to their music industry, EXO will firstly share with us their funny stories from their school life, also telling us their feelings about their one year anniversary since debut in the middle.

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Paying close attention even prior to debut

EXO are a boy group released by SM Entertainment company in 2012, the members include EXO-M’s Xiumin, Lu Han, Kris, Lay, Chen and Tao, the 6 members concentrate on activities in China, whereas EXO-K’s 6 members: Suho, Baekhyun, Chanyeol, D.O, Kai and Sehun concentrate on activities in Korea, in total the group has 12 members. Because of the number of members in EXO, their appearance and their style all have a few similarities to their seniors Super Junior, so even before they debuted they received a lot of attention, what’s more people even think that they are the successors of Super Junior. Last year, with the Korean version and the Mandarin version of “MAMA,” the two groups EXO-K and EXO-M debuted in Korea and China at the same time. After the song was released, EXO received a large amount of attention from fans. Although to this day, EXO have only debuted for just a year, but they have already participated in numerous large scale music awards worldwide as well as SMTOWN concerts and gained much popularity, becoming the new era’s boy group that girls support.

Sehun escaping from the casting agent.

Everyone knows that SM is Korea’s largest idol factory, creating a lot of popular groups, including TVXQ, Super Junior, SNSD, SHINee etc. SM have always known how to pick people well, yet even the process of uncovering EXO was particularly special!

Suho: “ever since I was young I’ve wanted to be a singer, in junior high when I participated in public activities, it just happened that a singing and dance competition was being held next door, when I was looking at the competition from the side, suddenly someone gave me a card and told me to audition, and that’s how I started my 7 years of training.”

Kai: “I am the only member who auditioned by myself, in year 2 I started learning jazz dance and ballet, even though I learnt two types of dance, but I never thought of becoming a singer. Until one time I saw singer seniors performing on television with a lot of charm, thus bringing about the idea of becoming a singer, after preparing for one and a half years I participated in a talent show.”

Sehun: “One day when I was in primary school year 6, I was eating ddeokbokki with my friends on the street, a representative noona gave me a card asking me if I wanted to audition, at the time I was very young and surprised, and my mum always told me that if I came across a weird person I should run away, so I didn’t think of it and left. That noona chased me for 30 minutes, after I understood what was going on, I went to audition.”

Even though it was very tiring for casting agent-noona to chase Sehun for 30 minutes, but if she didn’t run after him, would EXO have such a handsome member today!?

Not hard being a trainee

SM know how to select people, but know even better how to use strict training methods to train up their rookies. Many artists under SM have over 5 years of training experience. How did the young EXO members, live through that hellish training period?

Chanyeol: In those 4 years of being a trainee, I do not have any memories of it being hard, because I truly loved performing, so I did not find it hard or hate it, I just trained happily.

Suho: In those 7 years, with my passion for music, I trained smoothly and happily. Actually, during my trainee period, I injured both my legs, back then looking at the other trainees working hard dancing and not being able to join them, it was that moment that I felt the greatest pain. I wanted to quickly get better and continue dancing. The whole training period is long, but I never once thought of giving up.

Tao: Because I am Chinese, when I first went to Korea, I was not used to it, there were difficulties with the language, but because the other members were good, and taught me, my training period passed by happily.

Missing their school life

Talking about being trainees, the 12 members in order to fulfil their dreams of becoming singers, had to sacrifice their personal time to undergo strict training. With the little time they have it seems like they cannot have enjoyable school lives like their same-aged friends, but actually they too have unforgettable school lives.

Kai: When I was in high school, I would sleep in class every day. I remember once my form teacher told me that if I were to sleep in class one more time he would make me dance in front of the class. Who knew, one time when I really couldn’t help but sleep, the teacher called me forth without a second thought. Back then I didn’t know better, and confidently danced a part of a dance, then quietly went back to my seat, when I got back home and thought about it, I actually felt a little embarrassed.

The Kai on stage is full of charisma, maybe it’s because of this special ‘dance performance’ that he has had before. Other than this funny story of their student life, there are also moments where they are overcome with emotions, Sehun is the most upset about his school life.

Sehun: Even though I just graduated in February, I still cannot believe that I have already graduated from high school, because I have to train every day, I usually don’t have a lot of time to interact with my classmates, so I really do feel reluctant letting it go. Whenever I remember that I will not be able to return to school, I will miss my teachers, classmates, miss the days of eating ddeokbokki at the street side with my classmates after school.

Exposing the member’s OCD habits

In Korea, in order to deepen the relationship between the members, many groups are arranged to live together. This is not an exception for the 12 members of EXO, they who see each other day and night personally expose the interesting happenings of the members’ private lives!

Sehun: D.O. is a person who really focuses on cleanliness and tidiness. Every time I enter his room and open up his closet, I always find that all his clothes are organised very neatly and orderly, he organises his clothes according to the same colour and style. Seeing him being so neat, I have this urge to mess it up, and prank him, haha.

Thereafter, Lay also could not help but to expose the other members’ weird habits.

Lay: Luhan does not like it when other people go onto his bed, if someone goes onto his bed, he will immediately kick him off the bed. He’s like D.O., with a little bit of an OCD.

After being exposed by someone else, Luhan immediately pulled other members down with him.

Luhan: Kris always talks in his sleep, when he opens his mouth and sleep talks, he will talk in different languages, like English, Chinese, Korean, Cantonese etc. Sometimes I do not even know what he is talking about. The time I remember the best is when he used Cantonese to introduce himself for no rhyme or reason, it was really funny.

After this, the members all started being mischevious, but when talking about their daily household chores, it turns out they have an arrangement!

Baekhyun: Usually, we all have to be responsible for washing clothes, clearing the house and other things. We will pick someone to wash the dishes but most of the time we will wash our own dishes that we we have used. Recently, we have also used a game to determine a loser and that person would have to be responsible for washing and drying everything, it’s just like the TV programme 1 Night 2 Days.

Great thanks for their one year anniversary
Be it the language, the way they live, or their student life, each and every EXO member has had a different past, but because of one shared dream, it has allowed them to walk together, and even allow them to get along well with each other. Unknowingly, it has already been one year since their debut, regarding celebrating their one year anniversary together, EXO feels very excited.

Luhan: Unknowingly, it is soon our one year anniversary, it is thanks to the people who have been constantly supporting and loving us during this period of time. I have experienced so much and learnt so much, I will work harder, and present a better side of myself.

Kris: It’s one year already, firstly I want to thank all the EXO members, who have worked hard together up till this day, and I want, even more, to thank the fans who have supported us. Even though I have not been able to show the best side of me in this year, but I promise that in the future I will do even better, everyone must still continue to love us!

Chanyeol: For our first year anniversary I really hope to celebrate with each and every fan, it is only because of everyone’s encouragement and support, that we can have a first year anniversary, I hope that everyone can accompany us onto our 2nd, 3rd anniversaries… Everyone must promise not to leave us~ I love everybody.

EXO’s thankfulness towards their fans is not just lip service, but in order to show their appreciation to everyone. EXO came out with a calendar not too long ago, inside are many photos of the good looking EXO, everyone can now see EXO everyday! Also, from what we know, EXO is about to return to the music scene with a new work, fans must closely anticipate this youthful korean boy band.